the WU reborn

Random Ramblings

Yesterday I went over to Beckett's house for a game night. I had been too busy during the semester, so took the opportunity to check it out. I had a blast, and met some new peeps, as well as a guy I went to high school with. We played video games and board games mostly, and a bit of Magic. Also, we grilled out, which was cool. I got home relal late, around 3 a.m.

Today, the fam made popiah for Dad's birthday dinner. Tyan was over with Jay and Silas, who recently celebrated his 6th birthday. Afterwards, I went to The Day After Tomorrow with JMac and Billy. I thought it was pretty cool, although I doubt I would see it again. If you liked other disaster flicks from the past, you will probably like it. Yes, it has cliche roles: (someone warning that the shit is going to hit the fan, someone in power telling that other someone to get bent, etc.) but the special effects were great.

By the way, this is the first blog posting on the new laptop. Stay tuned this summer for lots of updates from different places when I'm on my trip.

I don't have a hell of a lot slated for Memorial Day yet, so if you wanna hang, drop me a line.

The Great Backpack Mixup

My Alienware laptop has arrived and is charging as we speak. (Click images for larger photos). I'm excited to get all my files over to it and get my PC ready to give to my mom.

This morning, the Fed-Ex guy game and said he had two packages for me. I signed for them, and noticed that one of them came in a big 19" CRT monitor box. That bastard was heavy. I figured it was just Alienware being uber-cautious about packing the notebook up. As it turns out, someone at the shipping plant mistook this 50 lb monitor for a 1 lb backpack. So, I called them up and made arrangements for them to ship the backpack, and get their monitor back. I had to give them my credit card number to secure that I wouldn't run off with their monitor.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I am burning all my CD's that I want to ditch to my hard drive, which will eventually be transferred to the notebook. After this project is done, I'll go pawn the CD's at Atomic most likely. It kills two birds with one stone: frees up a bit of cash, and gets rid of crap... less crap to move next year.

Also, I've been cleaning my room, going through all my belongings, and marking stuff for termination.

I'm waiting on the rest of my grades, but so far 3/5 are in: 2 A's and 1 A- so far. Who knows...might make Dean's list again.

Time to buy stock in Wrigley?

Courtesy of Jimmy (MacGyver) Burns, there may be some good news for Singaporeans?

Weekend

This weekend was the first one since school let out. I intended to be pretty hedonistic, but it ended up being quite tame. More photos are up in the May album.

Friday morning I went for a long walk and lifted some weights. After that I cleaned my room while selling virtual cards online. Around 1, I met Mark, Tosa Ted, and Dr. G at Genghis Khan for lunch. It's tough to mess with a $6 bowl of hot Mongolian beatings. After that, I went to go see Troy at the Ultrascreen in Waukesha. I was impressed with the movie, and found it a lot better than I had expected, given one of trailers that I had seen. I would recommend seeing this one in the theater as it is visually amazing.

In the evening, I went to see Tyan for dinner with Mom at Barossa. Escaping the cold rain, we sat at the bar and chatted with Tyan for a while before dinner arrived. They were pretty jam packed, but we didn't have to wait. It was great, as usual. Afterwards, we started watching a Korean subtitled flick at home, but I was tired, so passed out around 10.

Saturday, I went for a couple walks and cleaned my room up a bit. I headed to Sendik's to get groceries for Sunday's dinner, and also brunch for Mom's bookclub. That evening, I met up with Johnny, Bill, and Snoop to go see The Day After Tomorrow. Unfortunately the Marcus website was wrong, and I guess it's not opening for another week. I was a bit hacked off as there was nothing else worth seeing that I hadn't already seen. Oh well, I guess cocktails would have to start early. We tried heading down to a North Avenue block party, but the rain killed that idea. We ended up at the Dragon Lounge for one, then downtown to Kenadee's for one, then eventually back to Paddy's. Good times were had by all, and I got home pretty late. Highlights of the evening included the amazing Detroit story given to us by a panhandler, being refused entry at Tangerine, and a conversation about Vegas, where we'll be in July for Foy's bachelor party.

Sunday I woke up to make brunch for Mom's book club. Nothing too exotic, just a frittata, some fruit and toast. The rest of the morning was spent selling cards online. Dad got home around 4, right when I was starting dinner. I gave him a bottle of Hangar lime for his birthday, which he liked. He had Tyan fire up a few gimlets for us, which were tip top.

For dinner I cooked corn soup, Roasted Rack of Lamb Basted with Bermuda Honey Sun-dried Tomato Brioche Crust, risotto, and some green beans. Dessert was coconut dofu delight.

Everyone seemed to dig it, and Tyan got to munch on lamb bones. If you've ever seen her with bones, you know it's not unlike Gollum getting ready to get his grub on!

Sunday evening, I lifted a few more weights, and started doing some pushups and situps. I hate them, but I guess if I'm going to eat like this, I better get cracking.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Dad is up in Wausau fishing on his birthday. While it is a pity we won't get to celebrate with him on the day, it's cool he's doing what he seems to dig most: fishing. We will be celebrating his birthday on Sunday the 30th when everyone is home. Here's a photo of him with a steelhead. Click on it to get a full size photo.

I'm finally finished with all of those papers and school projects! Now to clean my room and get ready for my trip. Oh yeah, and I intend to catch up with folks I've not had a chance to lately. If this is you, get a hold of me and we'll hang. Word.

The Jetta's engine is all fucked up. While I'm unsure what the actual diagnosis is, I was pleased to receive a voicemail informing me that the repairs would be covered, save the $50 deductible. Meh.

I just picked up tickets for the Rush concert in Milwaukee. I'm pretty pumped for it. I am also gonna see them in Irvine with Bonn when I get out there. He's an old school fan too.

I'd like to take a moment to remember Curtis LeVeque. We lost Curtis last week, at the tender age of 28. If he wasn't saving someone from drowning, rushing someone to the hospital in an ambulance, chasing the bad guys, or putting out a fire, he was making me laugh until my stomach hurt, or macking an endless string of honeys. Curtis, if you are reading this...we miss you, and know you will keep all those punks in line up there.

Weapons of Mass Destruction

Courtesy of Joel, proof of the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Stick Figure Flash

A madly talented Asian guy has been putting out these flash files for a while and these are some of my favorites. So far there are two in this series, a must for any John Woo fans out there.

Part 1

Part 2

Other than that, I've been cranking out papers at an alarming rate, and meeting with friends to keep my mind from exploding. Last night, a bunch of us met up at the Hi-Hat. It was good times, and there are some photos posted in the new May album, which will be updated as more photos are taken.

Barossa

Friday, we went to Barossa for dinner. They are located where Dish used to be at 235 S. 2nd St. They have a wide variety of foods, and specialize in organic ingredients.

Tyan sat us down at the bar on a corner so we could all talk which was cool. For appetizers, we had a mushroom dish, and carpaccio; both were great. Adam had halibut, Rachel had shrimp, Johnny had steak, and I had lamb chops. Everyone enjoyed their entrees a lot.

There is also a club upstairs called B-Side. They have everything from hip-hop to house, depending on the night. I am pretty sure Saturdays are house.

Overall, it was a good dining experience, and I would recommend Barossa.

Laptop Research

As a study break from my current hell, I am currently researching laptops for several reasons including being able to weblog on the road once my trip starts. See how much I love you people!?

Thanks to AP, Johnny, GeekSlut, Jeremy, Ken M., and Dave A. for their input and help.

Food for Thought

Well, I've been hitting the books pretty hard lately reading and writing like a madman. Because of this my sleep and eating schedule is all messed up. I needed something that I could eat for the next few days that would be easy to heat up and provide me with a lot of energy. So, I drummed this up, and it ended up being pretty good, if I do say so myself. I'd like to mention that even with all the shit I have to do, I am still making time to keep you people entertained!

Curry Turkey Bean Tacos

Go buy or steal this stuff:

1 lb lean ground turkey
1 can of fat free refried beans
4 tablespoons of salsa
1 package of flour tortillas
1 package of grated cheddar or jack cheese
few pinches of salt
few pinches of cayenne pepper
few pinches of garlic pepper
1 T curry powder, dry roasted in a pan on low heat until it gets brown
1 T of butter

Brown turkey in pan on medium heat. Add spices, mix well and remove from pan. There shouldn't be much liquid in the pan, as it's pretty freaking lean.

Melt butter in pan. Add refried beans, and stir until mixed and soft. Put the turkey back in with the beans, add the salsa and stir until mixed well. That's it. Put mix on warm tortilla, add cheese, and you're good to go. I'm sure this would be bomb with shredded lettuce and/or diced tomatoes and/or fresh sliced avocado or well, you get the picture, any of that other shit that goes onto tacos.

You can warm your tortillas up in a pan or in the microwave. I use the pan the first time, but for leftovers, just take a cold tortilla, throw the mix in the middle, top with cheese and nuke for 60 seconds or so.