kapgar

Checking it off my list, unable to rewrite...

Yes, I do still have two Top lists to post and, including today, only two days before the New Year to post them. However, I really wanted to do another Snippet Wednesday. Plus, Katie and I are talking about seeing a movie (or two) on New Year's Eve and I'd like to give those movies a fair shake on the Top Films list. So that one will be on New Year's Day while the Top Shows will be tomorrow. Promise.

Banking
This bugs me. We are receiving bills for an urgent care visit for Katie from February and March of 2008. They’re claiming we never paid. Never mind the fact that it took them nearly two years to discover this supposed discrepancy, we did pay it. They say they’ll waive it if I can provide them with copies of the canceled checks. Due to that stupid federal law that passed some odd years ago, banks no longer have to send back canceled checks to us. So I checked our online account to find the digital images of the checks. I can only access back through August 2008. So I call my bank branch and they tell me they can look for it but it will take “research” as the information is “archived” and they may have to charge me for the research time. Isn’t that supposed to be the great thing about online banking is that your history is entirely digital and should be available at your fingertips 24 hours a day, seven days a week? Why would you archive digital information and make in inaccessible to the user? This makes no sense. Stupid banks.

Bear
I was reading Marty’s top albums of 2009 list and I really like this one thing he did which I might try next year… he included lists of albums that he considered a letdown or that he just didn’t get. It’s a pretty cool concept considering how much hype some albums receive. And I completely agree with him on his assessment of Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest in this regard. I’ve listened to that album a ton of times and I just don’t get it. Why is it so highly regarded? What makes it so great? Why was it one of the top selling independent albums of the year? And the real kicker for me is that usually when I see a band live, I wind up gaining an appreciation of the album by hearing the songs up close and in person. I saw Grizzly Bear at Pitchfork and the live experience helped not at all.

Bears
Can someone tell me where the hell the Jay Cutler that we saw on Monday night against the Vikings has been all season long? Damn. Even though the Bears defense really started to stink things up a bit in the fourth quarter giving up 17 unanswered points and letting the Vikes tie it up, it was a very exciting game! This is something we haven’t really seen all season… save for the stinking things up bit. That was pretty much par for the course for the Bears this year.

Book
I cannot, for the life of me, find my Moleskin notebook. I’m pretty sure I’ve exhausted the places where it could possibly be located. Dammitalltohell. Why is it that when you don't need something, it's always there, but when you do need it, it's nowhere to be found? I wanted to do some writing and, of course, it’s nowhere to be seen. 

Books
The reason I’d like to find my Moleskin is because I have an idea for a book I’d like to write and I want it along for the ride. Maybe I should just buy a new one that would be dedicated to this endeavor. Actually, that probably would be a better idea since I have some ideas for illustrations that would accompany the text and an oversize Moleskin would be better for this project. Yes, it’s a children’s book. Anyone have contacts in the children’s book publishing industry?

Bark
Dog collar beer bottle opener? Greatest. Invention. Ever. Me wanty. Hey, do you guys need a blog reviewer? Drop me a line. E-mail addy's in the top menu bar.

Time to head to work. Adios, peeps.

The gift you gave is gonna last forever...

I know that there are some of you who actually look forward to Snippet Wednesday. And I've kinda left you hangin' the last coupla weeks. Last week it was an unfinished Snippet Wednesday due to Katie's crash. Yesterday, I just plain ran out of time.

So I'm gonna make it up to you with a special edition Snippet Thursday: The Reckoning!

Still love me?

Katie
Tomorrow marks Katie's official final day of student teaching. However, she got her grade for student teaching as well as her portfolio yesterday. As on both! That means she is graduating with a 4.0! I'm ridiculously proud of her! Mah baybee gotz intelluhjints!

Taste
My IT Director at work was in my office for a meeting yesterday when he looked on my cubicle cabinet and saw a promo card for the release of The Flaming Lips new album. This led to a discussion about music. Turns out:

• My IT Director loves The Flaming Lips.
• My IT Director loves Pete Yorn.
• My IT Director loves Bob Mould and Hüsker Dü.
• My IT Director loves The Replacements.
• My IT Director loves Tom Petty.

Clearly, my IT Director rawks.

Digital
I went to Best Buy yesterday to look into how much copies of The Hangover and Inglourious Basterds were on DVD. I also was curious if they came with digital copies. Both do. But, thanks to Ren's recent warning, I began to read the small print. Expirys were not a concern, thankfully. But compatibility was. Basterds is fine, but Hangover is neither Macintosh nor iPod/iTunes/iPhone compatible. Why in the name of Christ would a distribution company not want their product to work on the top-selling digital player of all time? Sure, I can probably rip and convert it without a problem (I do have Handbrake and iSquint and all those other cool little apps), but just loading the digital copy is so much easier. 

Inglourious Basterds digital copy? WIN!

The Hangover digital copy? EPIC FAIL!

Oh, and I alerted some customers and employees to this fact as well. They were dumbfounded by the stupidity of it all.

Blu-Ray
I actually have a Blu-Ray disc. My very first Blu-Ray disc. I don't own a Blu-Ray player, but I have a disc for when that day does come. I don't know how many of you subscribe to e-newsletters from restaurants and whatnot. Well, I do. And I get all kinds of free birthday shit as a result. Usually they amount to free desserts or, if I'm lucky, free entrees.

I got über lucky this year thanks to Disney who offered me a free Blu-Ray disc for my birthday. Say whaaaa? Of course I could only choose from a list of five movies. But it's free. So who cares? I chose Enchanted. Hey, Katie and I enjoyed that movie. And it's got Amy Adams. Can't go wrong with Amy Adams. Both my wife and Sizzle know of my obsession with her very well.

Gift
I think I've finally figured out what I'm going to get for Katie for Christmas. I usually have her gift done by now. This, I believe, is the latest I've waited to buy something. I just want to do a little research first before I actually buy it. There's no way in the name of all that's holy that she'll be expecting this. Not one iota of a chance.

Fox
I had a plan last week to write up a big glowing review of a movie Katie and I went to see, Fantastic Mr. Fox. I had it all pre-written in my head and was sitting down to type when I decided, instead, to read through my subscriptions in Google Reader. This was when I noticed Avitable had done the same thing and pretty much had the exact same opinion of the movie as Katie and I. So, if you'd like to read about a fantastic film, sure to be one of my tops of the year, head over to Av's digs and read up. 

Medley
This is simply too cool.

Well, adios for now.

Back to that same old place...

I received an e-mail last Friday that the Capture My Chicago photo book had been shipped and, contained in the e-mail, was the list of photos and photographers that were featured in it.

The book came in on Saturday and I started going through it just to confirm that I had read the e-mail correctly.

Mine was not one of them.

I'm upset by this fact. I'll admit it. I really thought I had a pretty good shot.

Then I looked at the photos that did make it in the book and suddenly I feel like I am truly an amateur photographer by comparison. Jesus, these are some great pictures!

I'm still happy I participated and that I bought the book (I think my shots did make it in the included DVD - I think all submitted photos made the DVD) and I will participate again should CBS hold another contest, and I hope they do.

I just gotta work on my "skillz." Why? 'Cause I'm gonna be in that damn book next year, come hell or high water.

The damnable thing is that, hindsight being 20/20, I have a photo that I'm pretty convinced may have made the book... but I completely forgot to submit it.

s&*tf%^kd@#n!

There goes the Tourette's again. I really need to have that checked out.

Katie had to visit the Aurora Police Department on Friday to finish the police report on her collision. She had been in contact with me during the day regarding how to get there and whatnot and the following transpired via e-mail. For the record, she was convincing herself that she was going to be thrown in jail for causing an accident. Just setting the story a bit for you...

Me: Good luck at the APD.

Katie: I'll call you once I am done at APD... it will be my one phone call though... so you need to come and get me:)

Me: What if we don’t have enough money to cover your bail? Should I sell some of our belongings or just leave you in there?

Katie: You would leave me there? Sell the @#%$ing belongings! I feel the love!

I love my wife. She cracks me up.

It's all chemistry of a car crash...

I had a plan for Snippet Wednesday yesterday. I even had a post half written. But stuff happened. Stuff that took precedence over worrying about a blog post.

If you saw my notes on Twitter and Facebook yesterday afternoon, you know Katie was in a fender bender on our wonderfully snowy and slick Illinois roadway system. She called me at work and told me. Being as panicked as she was over the accident, there was no way to know how bad it was so I simply up and left immediately to be with her.

Thankfully it wasn't bad at all. She lost control on ice and was doing everything that they teach you in driving safety classes to regain control. No dice. She skidded very slowly into a CRV and left a streak mark along his passenger door. Something that pretty much just buffs out. No structural damage to the other car whatsoever. Katie has a minor dent above the wheel well on her front driver side. It's minimal at best, but since the fiberglass did buckle, I'm sure the entire quarter panel will need replacing. Not like the old days when it could just be hammered back in place.

The biggest thing for me is that Katie's not hurt. Neither is the other guy or his wife. Katie was just in a bit of shock over the whole thing. She was also really upset with herself even though she did everything she could have. Just sometimes Mother Nature and fate don't want to work our way.

I wish I could relate to how she feels about it. I've been in two car crashes in my time, but I wasn't the driver in one and I have episodic amnesia to this day about the other one.

The first was a football team trip to Great America in Gurnee, IL. I was in the backseat and we were in stop-and-go traffic. The driver looked away at his radio and missed that the car in front of us stopped. He hit his brakes but it was too late. We rearended the other car. The cool thing was that, you know how when there is a crash or a loud sound, you instinctively shut your eyes? I didn't. I saw the whole thing happen in a pseudo slow motion. The front end of his car rippled and then buckled and shredded apart. It was the most amazing thing to see. And I can still see it step by step in my mind's eye.

The second, for which I have episodic amnesia, apparently goes something like this (according to the police report)... I was driving down a road in bright daylight on a perfectly dry and warm day. I had balloons in my car for my then-girlfriend's birthday. The balloons probably blew into my face because my window was open. I swiped them away but my hand hooked the steering wheel and pulled me off the side of the road into a 15-odd foot ditch. The car was still moving, but I hit a mound where a drainage pipe cut into the ditch and my car flipped up on its front end and continued on to the back. It then finished its roll down the hill another 180 degrees so when I was found, the car was on all four wheels, but the roof was crushed in and the engine compartment was all kinds of FUBAR. At the scene of the accident, in the ambulanace, and at the hospital, I was supposedly conscious the entire time. Police took a report I don't remember giving, EMTs talked to me, doctors checked me out, friends and family visited. I got nothing until many hours later when I remember waking up. About this same time is when everyone said I stopped constantly repeating myself and seemed more like the normal "me."

Glad I don't remember that one.

I'll rush for forty yards and drink four forties later on...

Sure, the Bears won yesterday, but it was a bad win. Against a team that they should've decimated.

But some good things did come of it...

I got a new Bears jersey (Payton #34), a long-sleeve Bears T-shirt, and some other gameday gear from Katie as the rest of my birthday present. I LOVE 'EM!

I discovered both my camera and camera bag are kosher within the new NFL bags-in-stadiums policy.

I found out that the fact I had three Guinnesses (Guinni?) before 11 a.m. is absolutely fine when attendance at a football game is part the equation.

I used my first ever hand warming packet and loved it.

I learned it is possible to miss an entire quarter of football while waiting to pee.

I discovered that even a bad win is fun when the ticket is free.

I found that when you're a big guy walking around with two other big guys (north of 6'3"), you wind up with a lot of people asking if you're willing to take over on the offensive line for the Bears.

I learned that photography at football games is much more fun with a good lens.

Good times. Good times.

A big congratulations to my brother-in-law Scott and his new fiancee Becca. They got engaged on my birthday.

While I'm happy for them, my birthday's still way cooler.

Tonight there's gonna be a jailbreak...

...somewhere in this town. Tonight there's gonna be trouble, so don't you be around.

And that trouble is Snippet Wednesday!

Dodging
Tonight is the playoffs for this season of dodgeball and I think, afterwards, I'm officially quitting the sport. It's just not as much fun as it once was and the novelty certainly wore off quickly. Plus, having a bunch of adults slinging barbs and calling each other a bunch of effin' liars in a league that runs on the honor system just sucks. I'm done. God I hope my buddy starts a sand volleyball league again this summer. Been too long.

Funkalicious
Katie got me an early birthday present this year and I'm just as happy as can be about it. The funny thing is it's only a sweatshirt. But it's singularly the coolest sweatshirt in the known universe. It's called Funkalicious from Threadless. I saw this design for the first time at the Threadless booth at Pitchfork and fell in love. I was planning to go back later and get it but I got so stuck in the masses of people awaiting the Lips show that, if I left, I never would've gotten my place back. And Threadless only recently started reprinting this design on hoodies (I didn't want it on a t-shirt). But now my boom-boxin' astronaut is rockin' it on my chest!

Stats
For some reason, this morning I decided to look at my all-time stats just to see how things have changed. Right now, I'm lucky to break 100 hits a day. But there was actually a time when I had 943 views in a single day. So I drilled down to find the date... June 4, 2007... yeah, the day when Dave guest posted for me while I was in Las Vegas. And, in the comments is Kim stating how this is probably going to be my best statistical post ever. How right she was. I find stuff like that funny. But it was a brilliant post by Dave. No question. Slappin' the salami!

Flair
Remember the 80s when we owned jean jackets with buttons and patches all over them? Do you still do that at all? Decorate something with flair, that is? I think my camera bag is slowly becoming that flair canvas for me. I've got a few buttons and pins and a Rwandan beehive keychain (craft thing I got from Starbucks) and I want to sew on some patches that I dug up at home from a friend who was in the military (Airborne patch and unit insignia). It's not ridiculous looking and I'm sure I'll stop before it gets bad. But it's kinda fun. Takes me back. But in a controlled manner.

Mars
I've been watching the BBC version of Life on Mars, season 1, since they finally made it available and, like many of you told me, it is good. In some aspects better than the U.S. version I so dearly love. But, in other aspects, not as good. I'm not sure if it's simply because it's a DVD version, but the BBC version is far more risque. The stories are really cool and they don't delve as far into Sam's "visions" as the U.S. version (no lunar rovers yet; but that little girl and her clown doll are weirding me out). While I still really like Jason O'Mara in the U.S. version, Jon Simm is starting to grow on me. I'm kinda torn between the U.S. and U.K. when it comes to Annie, Gene, and Chris, in all honesty. But, the biggest difference to me is the character of Ray carling. The BBC Ray is just lacking a lot of the gusto and bravado brought to the role in the U.S. by Michael Imperioli. I think Imperioli and his 'stache rock that role like no other. I'm also hoping the story with Sam's mom and his younger self builds up a lot more like it did in the U.S. version. There's still time. Any other opinions? Bear in mind, I'm only six episodes into season one. There are two eps left and then I've got season two to watch.

I pulled into town in a police car...

Sometimes the need to flip someone off from your car or honk the horn just needs to be stifled... as painful as it may be to do so.

On the way to work, I was turning at a three-way intersection (I was turning from the road that dead ended into the T formed by the other road). Since no one else was coming from either direction, I was perfectly legal in my turn.

However, once I got through it, I noticed there was a cop car pulled over on the side about 20 feet up from the intersection. As I pulled through the turn and was righting myself to straighten out, he starts pulling off the shoulder... right into me.

I quickly pulled into the oncoming lane and hit my brakes before we collided. The cop stopped too and waved an apology. But I SOOOOOO wanted to flip him off. Anybody else and you can bet they'd be doing a sit and spin on the top of my fist.

ARGH!

But I guess all bad things can be made good, though.

How?

Pomegranate Tootsie Pops! FTW * !

Also available on Twitpic.

* That's For The Win, in case you didn't know.

I'm gonna be the one who gets it right...

I, along with many others, have discovered this cool little survey over at Avitable's digs. Thought I'd give it a shot here instead of in the comments. Hey, why give away a free post in a comment?

Survey Says
Just pick the first word that you think of when you associate yourself with that category. Don't overthink it.

If I was a/an _____, I'd be ______

TV show: Psych
Song: "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'" by Scissor Sisters
Movie: The Empire Strikes Back
Book: The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore
Fictional character: Karl "Helo" Agathon from Battlestar Galactica
City: San Francisco
Verb: capable
Color: blue
Animal: polar bear
Emotion: caring
Article of clothing: jeans
Flavor: spicy
Food: hot dog
Vice: gluttony (gonna agree with Adam on this one)
Plant: knockout roses
Mythological animal: phoenix
Letter: K
Inanimate object: iPod
School Activity: football
Positive attribute: brutal honesty
Negative attribute: brutal honesty

That was fun. More fun than I thought it would be. Go ahead and steal at will.

Yeah, so Black Friday didn't really go as planned.

We did wake up and go to Old Navy for the opening at 3 a.m. We got there at 2:45 and about the only way I can describe it would be to compare it to the opening of a Twilight film... all teen girls and either their reluctant boyfriends or trying-to-be-too-hip moms. Dads stayed home. Smart blokes.

The problem with Old Navy was that all the free games sold out before the store even opened. They had handed out all the tickets by 1 a.m. So I never got my copy of Rock Band: Lego or Rock Band 2 with the free guitar. Bummer. I did get a jacket, though, and an Atlanta Falcons T-shirt (don't hate on me, but one of my fellow NIU grads, Michael Turner, is a Falcons RB stud - gotta support the alma!)

We went home and went back to bed and I never bothered to go to OfficeMax to pick up the video camera and Katie picked up Psych, season 3, from Target on her way to work.

Yeah, so Black Friday? Not so great overall.

Any way the wind blows...

Happy Snippet Wednesday Before Turkey Thursday!

Bohemuppets
This video goes a long way to proving why I love the Muppets and how, despite being nearly 35 years old, I find them hilarious and oh-so brilliant.

Okay, it's not as new as it was this morning when I first began writing this up. Now it's everywhere. But I'm still posting it. I don't care.

Graduates
Yep, we graduated this past Sunday from the Citizen's Fire Academy. I don't know what I'm going to do with myself on Monday nights now. Anyway, here are photos from the final two days including auto extrication and the graduation itself. Enjoy! (Facebookers, click through)

Amazon
I'm thinking the greatest single thing to happen to my music loving has been the Amazon MP3 Store. Now they, like so many others, are getting in on the Black Friday specials. A little early, sure. But still. The sad thing is, I either already have much of what I want from this list of specials or it's been ordered by my local library by my request. I really have too much music. And too much influence over my library.

Moon
I know I've been having fun on Twitter at the expense of many New Moon and Twilight fans. I can't help myself. This is my revenge against all who heckled me when I got so geeked (and ultimately disappointed) about the release of the new Star Wars film back in 1999. Yes, Twilighters, I'm equating you to geeks. And you are. Admit it. But anyway, I do want to see the film New Moon despite this heckling. And I think Katie and I are going to see it pretty soon. We kinda have to. About half of Katie's class saw it opening night at midnight and they were in shock she hadn't seen it yet. Due to parent-teacher conferences this week, she's had a reprieve, but we need to see it before next Monday or she may pay with their scorn. Here's hoping tickets are available.

Eternal
I only wish I had video of the show that Katie and I gave the drivers next to us as we drove to the grocery store tonight. She was singing harmony as I took the role of Susanna Hoffs singing The Bangles' "Eternal Flame." I thought we sounded pretty damn good.

Teach them well...

On Saturday, I was hanging out in a Starbucks reading a book (Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, in case y'all are interested). At the table next to me was a teacher working on her laptop. Every so often, a teenager would wander in, say hi, and sit down to talk to her. Turns out this teacher runs her off-hours study sessions for tests at this Starbucks. Interesting. But I guess in this day and age of rampant garbage lawsuits for inappropriate behavior by teachers, it's good to be in a very publicly visible locale. Anyway...

With one student, the teacher started reviewing his flash cards when she saw one that piqued her interest.

Teacher: "This one is about 9/11?"

Student: "Yes."

Teacher: "But you say on it that Iraq is responsible."

Student: "Yes."

Teacher: "9/11 was perpetrated by Al Q'aida, not Iraq. A terrorist organization, not a country."

Student: "Whatever."

Teacher: "No! There is no 'whatever' here. There is a BIG difference!"

Student: "Okay."

As much as I wanted to go up to the teacher and shake her hand and slap the kid silly, I'm still pretty sure he is only going to take that lesson to heart insofar as answering the question correctly on a test. Otherwise, he's still going to be blissful in his ignorance regarding the truth.

Sometimes I truly worry about the future of our county after hearing things like that.

Katie and I had this conversation the other day during our morning commute.

Katie: "Ahhhh! That's not something I like to see crossing in front of me while I drive at this time of morning."

Me: "What was it?"

Katie: "A Hearse."

Me: "Hell, I don't like seeing one of those cross in front of me ever."

Katie: "But it's like it was looking at me saying 'Good morning!'"

Me: "Is that 'Good morning' or 'Good mourning'?"

Katie: "Oh ugh."

Me: "Yeah, that's me for ya."

Remember me saying that I love having a wife who is perversely twisted? Helps that I'm a good balance of it myself.

Danger on the tracks...

Happy Snippet Wednesday to you.
Happy Snippet Wednesday to you.
Happy Snippet Wednesday, dear reader.
Happy Snippet Wednesday to you.

How sad is it that when typing that, I accidentally keyed "dead reader" at first? That's truly not how I think of you all. Honestly!

Sales
Already I'm loving the holiday sales season even if I truly believe it's blasphemy to be thinking about the holiday season this early. I almost violated my own Christmas list by purchasing the complete series of Life on Mars (US) yesterday when I saw it for $17.49 at Best Buy. It's a $40 set. Same original price for season four of The Closer, which I actually did buy for Katie yesterday at Target for $12.99. How do you pass that shit up?

Santa
Speaking of holidays, I had flipped on some news broadcast last night and they were reporting that the Amalgamated Order of Real Bearded Santas is pushing that their employees be given higher priority on H1N1 vaccine shots. While I laughed at first, it does make perfect sense. They are exposed to a ridiculously high number of children on a daily basis, many of whom are probably sicker than dogs and still go to see Santa anyway because their parents won't deny them this childhood privilege even if they are hacking their lungs out all over the floor. And a lot of the guys playing Santa (the real-bearded ones, anyway) are older and some quite overweight. Yeah, give them the vaccine. Last thing we need is a class-action lawsuit against a Santa who infected a few hundred kids. But I do still laugh at the idea that Santas are unionized.

Trains
The reason I have no idea what channel this newscast was on is because it was whatever channel was left on the TV before switching over to my DVD player last night and watching one of the better thriller movies I've seen in a while, Transsiberian. In a nutshell, it's about a couple (Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer) who take a train trip across Siberia to Moscow after completing volunteer work in China. While on board, they meet up with another couple (Kate Mara and Eduardo Noriega) who may or may not be drug mules. Murder, intrigue, and police investigating ensue. It also stars Ben Kingsley as a Russian narcotics detective. Is there any nationality that dude doesn't play? Offhand, I've got German, Jewish, American, British, Indian, Russian... Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised considering its low-budget and low-distribution nature. Very enjoyable. Oh, and it was directed by Brad Anderson, the guy behind the disturbing The Machinist starring Christian Bale in what I consider one of his finest performances.

Mojo
Just when I think I can have all my snippets related, I throw in one that's not. Well, pretend it is. Let's just say I was reading this before watching Transsiberian, okay? I had forgotten how much I enjoyed Mojo magazine. It's basically another music mag with reviews and interviews and the like, much akin to Rolling Stone but without the political leanings. And, as a bonus, it comes packaged with a CD of music related to the theme of that month's issue. Sure this makes the mag cost $9.99 per issue, but I don't buy it often. This is actually the first issue in a few years and I had to do it because the CD is all electronic music including M83, LCD Soundsystem, Tangerine Dream, OMD, and an exclusive track from Kraftwerk, along with 10 more. Yes! I like electronic music, okay?

Ken
Must. Break. Addiction. To. KenKen. Puzzles. But. It's. Too. Much. Fun. Help.

Make it last all night...

Katie has one last field trip to go on as a student teacher. This one is kinda different in that it's a bit pricey. It's likely that, in this economy, not all the kids will be able to attend due to the cost.

However, instead of just leaving them in the cold, the teachers are trying to raise money to allow as many as possible, if not all, of the students to go along. So they've been asking teachers and parents to contribute a little extra if at all possible.

Kind of a cool gesture.

This morning, though, Katie told me about one parent who was digging around at home and discovered that she had gift certificates to the place where the field trip will be happening. They were a few years old, so she called the place up and asked if they were still good. The place said they had no problem honoring them. So she sent the certificates to school with instructions to use them to pay for her daughter and whatever was left to pay for other students.

There was enough money on these certificates to pay for admission for nearly five students!

Y'know, sometimes I just wonder when I'm gonna explode and go full-on batshit cynical on humanity. And then something like this happens and warms my cockles enough to make me think that there are some decent people around. Sure, it cost the parent nothing, but she didn't have to do it, right?

[...and kapgar's heart grew three sizes that day.]

I was talking to Katie on the ride to work this morning and she started laughing hysterically. So I asked her what's up.

Katie: "I have the radio on and they're giving away American Girl dolls and they have Tom Petty's 'American Girl' playing in the background and all I can think of is Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs. And now I'm imagining one of those dolls trapped in the pit."

Me: "She puts the lotion on the plastic or else she gets the hose, er, again."

And she kept laughing. Hysterically.

I love my wife. Perfect mix of adorably cute and perversely twisted.

We care a lot...

I need BlogFiber. Something that will make me more regular about posting here. And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who would benefit from taking this.

There was a time when, for 14 consecutive months, I posted every single day. Not that I ever want to go back to that again. That was hell. Not that I didn't enjoy the writing or struggle for something to say. I had ideas coming out the proverbial yin-yang. I only wish I'd held onto a few of them for these dry spells.

Oh well. Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20.

Now I'm lucky to post three or four times a week. For those of us who live and die by RSS feeds, that's not really all that big a deal. We simply wait until notification arrives in our aggregator letting us know that a new post is up.

But not everyone "gets" RSS. Sure it's free, but they don't understand how to use it or whatnot. And I can understand that. Not all of us are geeks and I'm not going to hold that against you. These people have blogs like mine bookmarked and just make return visits when they have time in hopes of finding something new to read. And here's little ol' me giving you jack shit for your loyalty.

So I'm going to try to be a little more fair to you and your faithfulness. To that end, I've implemented an e-mail notifier on this blog. Simply enter your e-mail address and you should receive an e-mail when I post something new. Bear in mind, I did try to implement one of these some time ago from a third-party source and it didn't work. Hence why I hadn't done it since. But Typepad's been rolling out a bunch of new features lately and they've all been pretty reliable in their functionality. With this one working in conjunction with FeedBurner, it should work quite nicely. Here's hoping!

All you need to do is visit that little box in the bottom of the right column and sign up. It looks like this...

[this is not the actual box;
you won't be able to type anything in it;
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See? I do care!

Lots of people have asked that age-old question "if you could meet any one person, alive or dead, who would it be?" on their blogs.

That question is boring. It always winds up being some great world leader or philosopher or thinker or the like. Plllbbbtttt! Yes, that's right, I just blew an e-raspberry at the great people of the world. BO-RING!

I want to ask something a bit different...

If you could sit in a bar and do shots with anybody, who would it be? And let's keep it to people who are alive, okay? And have some fun with it. None of the standard answers.

Me? I want to do shots with Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips and Chad Ochocinco (nee Johnson) of the Cincinnati Bengals. 

 

Why? I'm really not entirely sure. I just get this feeling that it would be a blast, they'd both have great stories to tell, and there would be some fantastic drunken Tweets (Chad does have his own account, too) and videos to post on this blog afterwards.

Plus, you'd need one helluva twisted mind to come up with the stunts that Chad does as well as this video from the Lips.

Ummm, I'm gonna make you link over to the video as it's severely NSFW (as in Not Safe For Work). Don't say I didn't warn you.

Take all the worry out of your mind...

For whatever reason, the night before last, I woke up around 3 a.m. and had trouble really falling back asleep. So, for the next two hours, I had a quick succession of what I refer to as rapid-fire paranoia dreams. These are quick dreams that happen back-to-back in short order and usually represent some sort of personal paranoia about something that is about to happen. For example, a few years ago when I was interviewing for my current job, I would have these dreams about not waking up on time, forgetting my resume, freezing up during the interview, etc.

The night before last, though, I was having my RFPs about that act of waking up. I slept through my alarm, my alarm never went off in the first place, we had no hot water in the shower, the toilet wouldn't flush, we ran out of soap, I had no clean underwear, the bathroom light burned out as I turned it on, etc.

I told Katie about these at some point yesterday. She gets a kick out of my brain's sleep patterns.

Anyway, last night we were getting ready to go to bed and I was putting dishes in the dishwasher when Katie called me upstairs. She pointed into the bathroom and, sure enough, one of the lights in the fixture above the sink burned out. When she turned on the light switch, the bulb popped and fizzled to black just like in my dream.

We both laughed.

Now if only I could dream about finding a million dollars in untraceable bills...

I promised you more fall photos.

I also have more photos from the Fire Academy last night.

We were playing with ladders and hoses.

And not in a kinky way so get your minds out of the gutter.

Here you go. Facebookers, click through.

Time for worky work.

We don't need no water...

I love not-so-subtle wordplay... I enjoy coming up with creative ways to say things... twisting words to create meanings or thoughts contrary to what was intended...

For example, last night I posted the following message on both Facebook and Twitter...

 

Sounds pretty twisted, doesn't it? Kinda kinky and sexual, wouldn't you say?

The truth, however, is anything but. See the photo slideshow below to see what I mean (Facebookers, click through).

It was Fire Academy. We were using air tanks to crawl through a lit-up smokehouse crawling around on all fours and attempting to crane our necks upwards to see the fire while also looking down to follow the hose through the building.

I was discussing this at length tonight with a friend. She got a bit of a kick out of it, but wasn't convinced. So I threw this one at her based on our situation at the time I was talking to her.

"Right now, I'm half naked with a woman who is not my wife climbing all over me."

And this statement was 100% true. She died laughing. Mostly at how dirty it sounded. Partially at the fact that I managed to say that with a straight face and so off the cuff.

Turns out I'd managed to turn a simple chiropractic appointment into a tawdry sexual affair.

Oh God, how I love words. I seriously need to be a political spin doctor.

I'm watching V right now. The remake, relaunch, reboot. Whatever you want to call it.

I'm not entirely sure what to make of it all.

It's got promise, I suppose. Note, I use "promise" very loosely. But it was all so rushed. So much crammed into a single hour. Half of what they revealed in this episode could've waited another episode or two.

[episode 1 spoiler below]

And, for me, the most shocking thing was the idea that Morris Chestnut is, effectively, the modern version's embodiment of Robert Englund's Willie from the original series.

   

I'll keep watching for now. But I may have to go rent the originals just to remember how cool it was.

When you wish...

Taking a cue from Marie's post yesterday, I'm going to write up my own I Wish... list.

I wish...

...Katie would graduate sooner than December, maintain her 4.0, and wind up with many job offers from which to choose her ideal teaching position.

...someone would just donate us two new cars.

...all my friends in need of a job could find one.

...the idiots who skimmed my credit card number would be caught and violated in a very uncomfortable place while wasting away in a foreign prison.

...we would get an inordinately high number of trick or treaters this year.

...I could take Katie on a trip anywhere in the world she wants to go.

...all financial issues would resolve themselves.

...I could cook anything without worrying about how it's going to turn out and without relying on cookbooks or recipes; make me Kapgar Batali!

...our house would clean itself.

...we'd have a grounds crew in our townhouse association that actually made our monthly assessment a worthwhile investment.

...that people could accept each other for who they are and stop fighting, name calling, and judging without getting to know someone first.

...that two tickets to XRT's Big Holiday Concert 2009 featuring The Flaming Lips, Phoenix, and Pete Yorn would just magically find their way into my hands.

...I had an ice cream cone right now. Double scoop. Chocolate Peanut Butter. Waffle cone.

Yum.

C'mon. This is me. Did you really expect them all to be serious? Oh and I guess that might count as a meme to some degree, right?

Well, they didn't "magically find their way into my hands," but I did score tickets to the Big Holiday Concert!

Sadly, Katie can't go. Bad timing with work and whatnot. But she wanted me to go anyway, even without her. It's me, my Lips-man Eric, and his wife Michelle.

So, even though it's six days after my birthday, we'll just pretend that the following are in town to help celebrate with me...

Pete Yorn

Phoenix

The Flaming Lips

So, um, yeah, that's two Flaming Lips shows in one year.

You could argue I'm hooked.

I'd argue that you're right.

Feel good...

It has now been two weeks since I had my head shaved in the name of charity.

I haven't heard a single bad comment from anyone regarding the new look. Overwhelmingly (like 100%), people are in favor of it. I'm sure there might be some people who just aren't saying anything. But, hey, if you don't speak up, how can your opinion count for anything, right? Oh well.

However, despite the ridiculous level of support, I can't say I'm used to it yet. When you change your appearance, public opinion weighs heavily in your own acceptance of it, right? If a bunch of people hate what you did and it's actually reversible, you may go ahead and undo what you did... or so I would think. The same goes when people like it. You keep it going.

Not that I'm planning on going back to being balding, but I still haven't completely mentally accepted this new me. I feel like the same old guy. Then I either reach up and touch my head for whatever reason or I catch a glimpse of myself in some reflective surface and suddenly am reminded of this new look and have a "wow" moment. Like it's all hitting me for the first time that I did this.

Does that ever stop? It's getting a bit annoying. I'd like my mind to just accept that it has happened and, unless razor blade prices get even more ridonkulous than they already are, it's going to stay this way.

Make my brain accept it!!

Please?

When, upon waking up, the first thing you do is roll over to your significant other and ask what day it is because your brain can't process anything, just don't do it.

Don't wake up.

Don't get out of bed.

Do call in sick.

It's probably not worth it.

Why the hell am I not back in bed?

Just open up your mouth and feed it...

The last Snippet Wednesday of October 2009. Where the hell has this year gone?

Teeth
Okay, this has been driving me nuts and considering the current popularity of the genre, I feel we need a decision and that right now! Where should vampires fangs be? Some TV shows and movies have them on the back two incisors like The Lost Boys and True Blood. I find this goofy looking because they just clash with the already pointy incisors, but it's very efficient for grab-and-go dining.

 

Then there are those shows/movies that have them where I feel they look best, on the canine teeth. These teeth are already pointy and it looks natural when the canines just grow out a bit to become fangs. But it's gotta be a bitch to have to bite back that far on a person so the canines can make contact. Fast food would be an impossibility. Seriously, try it. Stick your forearm in your mouth and see how far you have to shove it in (that's what she said) before you can get a good grip with your canines. Some examples of this can be found in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Bram Stoker's Dracula. 

 

Oh, and don't get me started on goofy little Nosferatu boy. I'm not even including his front incisor appearance as an option. Although he is certainly getting a handful in this shot, isn't he?

 

So what say you? Rear incisors or canine fangs?

Joy
The library got me Phish's new album, Joy! I'm not a huge Phish phan, but I've heard bits and pieces of this album and have liked what I've heard. Maybe I'll go back and pick up some older stuff later on.

BSG
I just finished watching Battlestar Galactica, season 2.5. Damn! Talk about a cliffhanger season ending! All I can say is that if I were watching this series live, I'd be pissed I'd have to wait however long to find out what happens in season three. Thank the Gods for DVD. And thank my library for having all these seasons available so I no longer have to wait for Netflix to do it for me. I had a friend offer to loan me the whole series, but I was afraid of how long it would take me to watch it. May not be a problem anymore.

Camera
Don't you hate how on the day you forget your camera, everything in the world happens for which you could possibly need it? On Monday, I was driving into work and saw a truck fire. Sure, I got a couple pictures, but not the quality I would have with my trusty Sony. These were Blackberry shots. And then, that night at Fire Academy, we were up in the bucket truck a good 85 feet above the city. You could see so damn far and the shots would've been spectacular. Oh well. Shit happens, eh?

Memes
Has anybody done any memes out there lately? I can't even remember the last time. Feels like years.

Oh well, time for work.

And if you can find them...

Consider me jazzed (Thanks Cinematical!)

This is the first official photo of the main four cast members from the upcoming The A-Team movie. 

 

[Click image for viagra-ized version]

From left: Bradley Cooper as Templeton "Faceman" Peck (originally played by Dirk Benedict), Quintin "Rampage" Jackson as B.A. Baracus (originally Mr. T), Sharlto Copley as "Howlin' Mad" Murdock (originally Dwight Schultz), and Liam Neeson as "Hannibal" Smith (originally the late, great George Peppard). 

Of course, any remake or "relaunch" of something from the past has cause for alarm. How badly will it deviate from the source material? How bad will the new cast be? There's just so much to worry about.

But I actually think, just based on this photo, that this movie could be fun in a purely popcorn-munching sort of way. No high expectations at all. Just walk into it expecting nothing but shit gettin' blow'd up. Hey, if Liam Neeson kicks even half as much ass as he did in Taken, it will all be worth it.

I do wonder if people will actually die in the movie unlike the TV show. Yeah, that's right, not a single person died in the show. That was one thing for which it was noted... no deaths. Lots of explosions and people flying haphazard like ragdolls through the air, but they all survived.

To be filed under "Things I Never Thought I'd Hear Katie Say."

This morning, she woke up and went into the bathroom to get ready for work. All of a sudden I hear, "OHMIGOD! The toilet seat is cold! If I had balls, they'd be shriveling." 

I love my wife more than she'll ever know.

It all started with a big bang...

This is Snippet Wednesday! This is Snippet Wednesday! Pumpkins scream in the dead of the night.

Smoked
I was warned about this when starting the Citizen's Fire Academy and clearly they were not full of it. We spent Monday night in the training tower watching how quickly a fire can fill the room with smoke and seeing how dark it gets and the stratification of heat... all that cool stuff. But they told us that one thing we'll notice is that our bodies will pick up on the scent of soot and smoke and that it will effectively ooze out of our pores for days afterward. Last night I came home and showered. I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed trying to get the smell out of me and it wouldn't get out. Turns out it did, according to Katie. But my nose couldn't tell. I still smell the smoke. It's ingrained in my sinuses. Yummy.

Wil
Did you all happen to catch Wil Wheaton as, well, Wil Wheaton the other night on Big Bang Theory? I knew it was just a matter of time before he finally showed up there. Wil raves about the show to no end. And his turn as the target of Sheldon's ire was pitch perfect. And Wil had some cool stuff to say about the experience on his own blog. It's kinda fun reading Wil's blog when he talks about his work on different shows. His Criminal Minds diary last year was a lot of fun to read.

Boo
You know it's true love when your wife helps you celebrate your favorite season by going out and buying you a box of Boo Berry cereal as a surprise. I love you, hon!

Discworld
Are any of you fans of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books? I'm interested but a little timid. There's just so damn many of them. Is it an actual series that needs to be read in order or can you pick and choose individual novels as you go? What are your recommendations? I'm asking because I picked up a book some time ago called The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents and am now getting around to reading it. I had no idea when I bought it that it was technically part of the Discworld saga, but it does seem to stand alone pretty well so far. But I thought this might have more to do with the fact that it's classified a young adult book as opposed to the scifi/fantasy that the remainder of them are. So, being a YA book and not an adult novel, I thought maybe he wrote this one intentionally to stand alone and not tie in to the rest so much. So what say you?

Capture
The Capture My Chicago photography contest is over both in terms of submissions and voting and there is no word so far on what is going on. There wasn't even an official announcement about it closing. I would seriously like to know what's going on. C'mon CBS! Give us some idea here! This is killing me. Not that I actually think any of my photos were chosen, but I'd at least like a little clue into what's happening. Updates?

I know just, just what you are...

My bank card is living a far more exotic life than I am, by far!

I was at Aldi attempting to purchase about $4.38 worth of Mexican food fixings and my bank card was denied.

I ran it again... denied.

I left the stuff behind and came home to check our account online... I couldn't log in.

I tried to change my password... no go.

So I called the bank and was told they needed to transfer me to the fraud division. Oh shit.

"Well, sir, we've had some questionable charges on your card. Have you been to Italy lately?"

I wish!

"I've got $45.42 at a gas station in [such-and-such town], Italy, and $938.47 at a photo studio in [another such-and-such town], Italy. We caught it when they tried to charge $1,403.27 at a place called Media World, which I think is probably similar to our Best Buy. Looks like they also did a $2 test charge at an Avis Rent-a-Car."

Holy craptards!

"We have completely shut down the use of your bank card and will track any continued attempted uses of the card."

So now I'm bank card less and we have no access to our online account at all since it's tied to my bank debit/credit card number. Katie's card is fine and all our identity information is supposedly secure as well. I'm also awaiting an affidavit in the mail so all this money can be credited back to us legally. And I need to stop by the bank and make sure everything is cool and that none of our checks will be given stop payments as a result. We've sent some in for bills lately and it would suck for them to not work.

This is some scary shit. I've heard of this happening and even know a person or two who has had it happen, but it never really hits home just how serious and freakish and mentally crippling it is until it happens to you.

Obviously someone spoofed my card from an in-person purchase as I never have nor ever plan to use my bank card for online purchases. I don't even link our real bank account to my PayPal account. I opened up a whole separate checking account at a different bank with a balance of a whopping $4 in it for Paypal. I want no online ties to our real bank account whatsoever. But apparently it's still not safe.

Right about now, I think the only fair thing is to give us all the stuff this douchebag bought as well as let us charge an Italian vacation to him. Sounds right, doesn't it?

Oh, and then I'd like to beat him to within an inch of his life. If he is actually a she, still fair game.

Actually this is more than just a bit related to the post above.

Jack Dorsey, one of the founders of Twitter, is creating a plug-in device and app that makes it possible to use your iPhone to scan credit cards.

Until my card was spoofed, I would likely have been okay with this sort of technology. But now, after the fact, I see it as making it even easier for someone to scan our information from our card to their phone when we're not looking. Sure they can do it now, but he's creating a device that makes the theft of this information that much simpler and more inexpensive considering the "Cube" costs him $0.40 to produce.

Sometimes technology ain't such a grand thing, is it?

[image courtesy of engadget.com and tuaw.com]

She broke your throne and she cut your hair...

I finished the St. Baldrick's video!

This is actually the quickest I've turned around a video since, well, ever. And I'm kinda proud of it.

No, the edits aren't perfect and there are several areas where I probably could've improved things. But for a guy who only recently started into the heavy editing of videos as opposed to the shoot-and-post mentality I previously held, this is decent if I do say so myself. We're not talking Scorsese-level quality or anything, but enough to keep me excited enough about video editing to keep playing with it. So enjoy! [Facebookers, click through]

The Damn Fool Network: St. Baldrick's Event from Kevin Apgar on Vimeo.

If you're having trouble getting it to play, click the play button and then pause it until the progress bar fills up most or all of the way. Might help. I hope. And the video quality is a bit low because it was shot using a little point-and-shoot digicam. I need to get a Web-ready, Mac friendly HD video recorder. *drools*

For the record, the music is by I Fight Dragons (@ifightdragons). And I gotta thank Brian from the band for being so gracious about letting me use their music (despite not knowing exactly what for).

This'll learn 'im! ;-)

While you're at it and I have you as a captive audience, I've got a couple new photo albums up on Flickr from those field trips I went on with Katie. Don't worry, for the most part I didn't include photos that would identify any of the kids. Not to the point where Avitable's photo waiver would be necessary anyway.

Thank you, Typepad!

Typepad just introduced social media sharing options that show up by default on our posts (look below).

Sure, I could've gone out and nabbed my own code for this and done it myself, but I'm lazy.

And I know you Wordpressers out there are going to say something akin to "well, we've had this for years! So you should switch over." It's not gonna happen. I tried Wordpress when I was redesigning this blog some months ago and hated the experience. Sure, you have all kinds of cool plug-in toys and whatnot. But what you don't have is customer support. You're open source, which, in some cases is great, but in the experience I had with WP, was terrible. I couldn't get my RSS feeds to work and, when I posted on the boards, no one replied at all. Likely still haven't to this day, but I'm not going to bother checking.

So I stick where I have great (and quick) support even if I do have to pay for the service.

The wind in my hair...

When I woke up this morning, one of the first things I did was to reach up and feel my head to make sure that what I thought I did last night I actually did.

Yep, I did.

I'm bald.

Here's some photographic proof (click through, Facebookers). Video is forthcoming. Needs some editing first.

Oh, and I did Bic it this morning for that completely clean-shaven look. Don't have a photo of that yet, though. Sorry.

Yes, I got my wax lion yesterday at Brookfield Zoo.

But he's not red (orange).

He's not deformed (although he is the exact same mold as the one from Wonderfalls).

And he does not talk to me (not yet, anyway; there's still time).

One day I say today we live as a lion...

Need a great gift for a loved one? Try a Snippet Wednesday! They are great for any occasion and are truly one size fits all.

Psych
I did have a few requests regarding where I found those variations of the theme song from Psych and I figured it might be easier to just post them here. Might even steal some traffic when people Google both those audio files, we shall see. But I'm posting them here in MP3 format. There are plenty of tips and tricks provided by myself and others as to how to convert them into ringtones in this post and its comments, so knock yourselves out. Let me know if you are able to make them work.

• Psych Theme Song (Hindi variation)
• Psych Theme Song (Boyz2Men variation)

Zombie
Must. Have. [Brains.] Now.

Zombie Mez-Itz???

God I love ThinkGeek.

Zoo
I'm going on yet another field trip with Katie's class. Today it's to Brookfield Zoo. I haven't been to the zoo in years and miss it immensely. Of course, my number one goal is to collect all the wax animals just like when I was a kid. 

Bonus points if they have a red wax lion.

More bonus points if it has a slightly smashed head.

Even more still if it talks and only I hear it.

"Find a penny..."

Speech
Katie saw this flyer posted at her school. We both found it quite hilarious.

Hair
Less than 12 hours and counting...

Yes, Katie will be there to chronicle (photograph) the shaving of my head and I'm sure to hold my hand as well.

Where's the deception...

It cracks me up sometimes just how we prioritize things in our lives.

The other night, after both Katie and I pretty much fell asleep while watching a show off our TiVo, we decided it was time to go to bed.

Did we go like we said we needed to or felt we should?

No. Of course not. Instead, Katie got it in her head that she wanted to find the Psych theme song as a ringtone for her iPhone, more specifically, the Boyz2Men rendition of it from a few weeks ago. Not being available as a purchasable ringtone on iTunes, we did some research and found what seemed to be viable instructions for making custom ringtones for an iPhone 3G. Then we had to find the song in MP3 format. And, perhaps, a few other Psych-related sounds like the Hindi version of the theme from a couple weeks prior to the Boyz2Men intro and Shawn chiming "Boom, boom, boom... muffins" to be used as a text message alert. Then convert them and then try to make them work.

All this in the name of going to sleep.

Of course it still didn't work. iTunes won't recognize the file as any sort of audio file for whatever reason. Stupid iTunes and their stupid ringtone policy.

They all work fine on my Blackberry. No special conversion necessary.

And Katie hates me for it.

Oh yeah, and after all was said and done, we were so wide awake that we watched three more shows off our TiVo. Go fig, eh?

I finally got to play Guitar Hero: World Tour yesterday with the BiL, Scott, for the first time in my life. Working drums, baby! The stupid display models at stores never seem to work. Always out of order.

Now, though, it was mine! Well, to play anyway. Otherwise it belongs to Scott and Becca.

I did okay. Anywhere from 68- 90% once I figured out the timing.

And one helluva calf workout. Holy crap!

Another TUA? Why, this could almost constitute a Snippet Monday! Nah, not really.

I just wanted to throw another reminder out there that Wednesday is almost here... the day when my hair becomes no more... and I'm only a little bit away from my fund raising goal

If you're able to help, please do so. Thank you all again!

A walk-on would be fine...

There is a fatal flaw in the logic of mousedom.

Sure, they're small. They can fit in places you wouldn't ever expect a mouse to be able to fit. They can take advantage of the tiniest of gaps. They're nocturnal and scamper about primarily at times when a majority of humanity is fast asleep. You rarely ever see them until it's too late. 

The flaw is that they shit more than a newborn double dosing Super Colon Blow (tm). They're compact little crap factories. If Hansel and Gretel wanted to find their way home, they should've brought mice along to leave a poop path as opposed to leaving breadcrumbs in their wake.

My mouse has been located due to his (or her) inability to control their rectal output. Yes, I found it behind my fridge through the hole in the wall where the waterline for the icemaker is located. There was a pile of shit on the floor under the hole, a trail leading from there to the side of our countertop, and another pile at the floor where they were scaling the counter. Yes, they were pooping the entire way up. If there was a second mouse in this hunter-gatherer pair, I'd sure hate to be him. "Dude! Will you quit shitting in my face!?!?"

The gaps are now stuffed with steel wool, the plate has been replaced and screwed into the wall, and caulk has been applied to the area between the plate and the recessed valve box.

I win this battle you little shit mongers!

Here's some multimedia for you to enjoy. (Yes, Facebookers, now is the time to click through.)

First, a video. And I have to thank Sizzle for guiding me to this absolutely fantastic visual gem by The Antlers called "Two." It blew my mind. Now I want both this album and a bubble-blowing guitar! How cool would that be?

Second, a series of photos I took while on a hike with my mom through the Springbrook Prairie Preserve in Naperville. Good times, good photo ops, and good exercise.

Whichever way the wind blows...

For this Snippet Wednesday I shall regale you all with snippets about what I've been doing with my week off work. No, I swear I'm not trying to rub in the fact that I'm off and you're not. Really.

Reading
Sadly, it hasn't been the reading of books, thus far. I think I'm going to try some more of that later on today. I did, however, finish the book I was "halfway through" last week. But I have been catching up on a huge backlog of magazines that have been piling up around here. I had four Sports Illustrateds and three Rolling Stones that I had either not started or only gotten partially through. Right now I have two SIs and one RS left! Yay me! And, thankfully, I no longer have to look at that freakish picture of Megan Fox on RS from a couple weeks back. That picture disturbs me. And, sorry if it makes me less of a man, but she does nothing for me. Not anymore anyway.

Cleaning
I've been cleaning our bathrooms and doing some straightening, dusting, and vacuuming (hey, I spelt that rite on my fürst tri!). Exotic, eh?

Moulding
As much as I wish I could say this referred to me listening obsessively to the music of Bob Mould or Sugar or Hüsker Dü, I can't. I'm talking about getting the crown moulding installed above the cabinet in our master bathroom. It's been partially installed for a couple years now and desperately needed to be finished or I think Katie might do something to me that I'd rather not think about while I sleep. It's now installed and the filler is drying so I can get around to painting it.

Containerizing
We discovered this morning, via an abundance of little black turds on the counter top, that we have another mouse. He must be new as of last night or early this morning because that was the only place I could find his crap, literally. So I cleaned and containerized all our food. The little bastard did manage to eat through the bag that contained a brand new batch of naan bread that I bought at Trader Joe's only yesterday. I never even got to enjoy any of it. Yes, traps are set to kill. (In deference to Marie) Eff you, you effin' effer!

Watching
I will admit to watching an exorbitant amount of TV on DVD. I finished season three (and, thus, the entire run) of Deadwood. I finished the first disc of Battlestar Galactica season 2.5 and disc two should be here from Netflix tomorrow. I rewatched disc two of Firefly (I love "Our Mrs. Reynolds," great episode). 

 

I also wiped our TiVo clean of Mad Men and The Amazing Race. Okay, not every hour can be productive.

Exercising
I did go jogging on Monday, but I skipped yesterday due to some crappy weather. It rained most of the day and then we had a pretty nasty wind storm into the evening despite the clouds completely clearing up. Strange, strange weather yesterday. Today, though, I am going in for yoga. I know that means driving in to where I work, but my yoga instructor has been out of town for the last couple weeks and my body can feel it. So I decided not to miss this week even if it means wasting some gas. But I have to be there for dodgeball tonight anyway, so why not? And I might try to work out between the two. Not sure what yet, but something.

Tweeting and Booking
I've also been doing my fair share of Tweeting and Facebooking. Not really a whole helluva lot, but enough to keep relatively up to date.

And how has your week been so far?

A fire in the sky...

I started my turn with the Citizens Fire Academy last night.

This is truly going to be a blast. Over the course of nine weeks, we are going to be trained with SCBA gear (Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus; yes, very similar to SCUBA, but without the "U"nderwater part), watch fires be lit and fill the room with smoke (a room that we're in as it happens), climb the ladders, carry hoses, bum rush a live fire, and much more.

Best part of it all? They told us that they fully expect no one to completely understand nor believe everything that we are doing so we are allowed to bring cameras and record it all.

YEAH BABY!!!

Oh, and we also all have totally legitimate Halloween costumes. Last night, I collected my turnout coat and pants and I should be getting boots, gloves, and helmet next week. We were told we can use them for Halloween so long as we promised not to get stuff on them.

Don't worry, I'll get pictures of me all decked out, too. Promise. I need pictures to believe it, too.

I'm about halfway to my fundraising goal for St. Baldrick's. With just slightly more than a week of existence remaining for my partial head of hair, some interesting discoveries have come from this effort that I wanted to discuss.

The first came from my chiropractor. I was telling her about me doing this and how I had wanted to do it for some time, but I could never convince myself to take the psychological leap into allowing myself to lose the rest of my hair. She told me that her fiancee was the same way. Suddenly he discovered that he was losing his hair and it receded quickly. Then, one day, he decided to just shave it all off. Instead of feeling full of regret, he was relieved. He had taken control of his own follicular destiny. I thought about this a little bit and it really makes sense. I guess it's a bit akin to those people who use hair growth formula or toupees, but with the whole defying Mother Nature bit. I'm just accelerating things according to my own terms. I like that.

Second, and most unexpected, is that this whole fundraising thing feels damn good. I'd never done it before for someone other than myself through old Boy Scout fundraisers for summer camp and whatnot. Now I'm raising money for someone other than myself. Someone I don't even know. Several someones, actually. Someones I may never meet. But it's the knowledge that I'm raising funds in an effort to help save their lives so that maybe, just maybe, we will, at the very least, have an expanded chance at meeting.

After all, isn't giving these kids the opportunity to have more of a life all that really matters?

Not to bug you more about this, but if you are able to help, please do so by clicking the button below and then click on my photo. To those of you who have already donated, THANK YOU! You know who you are.

And I was worried for my hair...

I finally did it. I finally signed up. I bit the bullet, mustered up my courage, and just did it.

What now, you might ask.

I signed up to participate in a St. Baldrick's fundraising event. 

For those of you who haven't heard of it, St. Baldrick's is an organization that raises funds for childhood cancer research by hosting shave-a-thons. During these events, people can volunteer to help organize, be barbers, or, like me, volunteer to raise funds by having their heads shaved.

You wouldn't think that it would be that big a deal for someone like me who already has a really receded hairline to go ahead and do this. But it kinda is. It's like saying goodbye. My last vestige of head covering save for a hat. 

But it's a long time coming. Why even bother anymore? I may as well take it all off (hair, not clothing) and do it for a good cause.

And while most of these St. Baldrick's events typically take place around St. Patrick's Day, I decided to sign up for this one instead. Smaller scale, off time, and I'm hoping to be able to help as research to fight childhood cancer is a year-round deal, so why not try to raise funds year-round? 

So, on October 14, the day after our eighth anniversary, my head will be clearcut. And Katie will be there to take pictures or video or both of poor, pathetic me crying it all away.

I'm hoping some of you might be willing to help. I hate asking for money. I really do. But it's for a great cause to help fight a disease that has affected me in a personal way, having lost a friend to cancer. If you can't donate money, believe you me, I understand. These aren't easy times, economically speaking. However, you can also help by finding an event in your area and volunteering to help organize or maybe be a shaver/shavee on your own.  

For anyone who is visiting my site, I'm leaving this post pinned to the top of my homepage until after the event to make it easier to find. 

Heart cooks brain...

I have become "The Ambassador of Din Din." More specifically, Katie's din din. Oh, and "din din" would be "dinner," not "loud, raucous noise" although I'm sure I could be quite capable of the latter given a chance.

I'm not very self-assured when it comes to cooking. I try it, but I always fear it sucks. And it has a lot to do with the fact that I have very little ability to combine flavors. I know what smells good (although I cannot identify it for the life of me) but I'm not sure if this good smell works with that good smell. 

I guess you have to think of it in terms of clothing. I can buy an individual article of clothing that looks pretty good. I have relatively decent taste in that regard. But ask me to make an outfit out of that piece of clothing with everything else that a guy needs to wear to keep from being arrested for indecent exposure and, well, that's where I need help.

Apply this principle to cooking. I feel I'm okay at making individual dishes. I help Katie pretty well on a course-by-course basis at Thanksgiving. But I need to rely on her for the overall planning. What food goes well with what food, that sort of thing. If left to my own devices, I might have hot dogs with lime-and-cilantro orzo, tater tots, and a side of fruit cup. Ick, right? Individually, nothing really wrong with any of them. Together, they're a gastrointestinal disaster in the making.

Somehow, though, I pulled it together last night. Not sure how, but I made it work. Katie had one of her infamous long days of work and I took it upon myself to cook as I've done a lot lately (good practice). So, intertwined with doing laundry, ironing shirts, and watching Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday, I threw together a meal of roasted pork tenderloin with an Italian glaze (thank you, Betty Crocker), green beans, and a long grain wild rice blend. Oh yeah, and throw some Vidal Blanc in the mix as well. It was really the rice I was worried about most, but Katie said it worked. She went back for seconds. That's good, right?

Did I mention that Katie made dessert? She poured a couple glasses of milk and grabbed a pair of Little Debbie football-shaped brownies. She actually hiked one to me like a professional center might. She bent over and pretended to give a snap count and, just as I was thinking there's no way she would actually do this, she fired it at me and nailed me in the thigh. So much for cat-like quarterback reflexes, eh? I was a lineman in high school. What do I care?

As I laughed at her "ball" hiking skills, she asked me, "you're blogging this, aren't you?"

Damn right.

If a reviewer were to compare a new show that you're looking forward to watching (in this case, NCIS: Los Angeles) to "little more than an updated version of 'The A-Team'," would you worry or take that as a compliment?

As a child of the 80s who loved The A-Team, I could see that as a good thing. But, then again, I've watched a few episodes of The A-Team in recent years and they don't really hold up so well anymore.

I'm torn.

I want to ride it where I like...

As I type this, Katie's asleep on the couch. We're supposed to go run some errands and get some stuff done, but we just got back about an hour ago from a 20-mile bike ride up and down the Fox River Trail. 

We had beautiful weather and it was a gorgeous ride, save for the point where you ride past the sewage treatment plant in Batavia. If you weren't feeling hunger pangs before...

But Katie's now completely wiped. I know she's getting tired on our rides when she starts to lean forward with her forearms on the handlebars instead of her hands. Never a good sign. Thankfully that didn't happen until about mile 18. 

She did take a few pictures. Sadly my PowerShot is in the shop with a busted zoom dial. But Katie took some (one of those times when Facebook readers should click through to view the photos)

Do I wake her up? I know we've got a lot to do, but I'm not suicidal.

I'm so stoked about this little gem I ordered. It's an official Invaded! coffee mug for Avitable's 2009 Halloween party. 

This thing is truly a work containing both fine craftsmanship from the folks at Zazzle.com and the artwork of Dave from Blogography. 

 

Unlike most coffee mugs, the design is not raised at all. It is so protected by ceramic glaze that there is no way to accidentally damage the logo without destroying the mug. And it's a heavy-duty mug at that. This is my favorite coffee mug second only to the kick-ass Jack Skellington mug that Katie bought me down at Disneyworld last year.

Kudos to Adam, Dave, and Zazzle on a fine product.

And no, I'm not receiving any sort of compensation from Adam, Dave, or Zazzle for this shameless plug other than warm, fuzzy feelings. I can't even go to the party. I'm just going to have to celebrate with my mug.

*sniffle*

He's the world's biggest...

Fasten your seat belt, if you can (more on that later), 'tis Snippet Wednesday!

Disclaimer
For any of you reading this or any of my posts in the Notes section of Facebook, you might have noticed how I talk about photo albums or videos that don't seem to be there. This is a quirk of the Notes application. It imports text with some degree of efficacy (minus some formatting) and the occasional embedded image. But photo galleries or videos? Nuh uh. I recommend you all just click on over here to www.kapgar.com to view these posts in all their gory glory.

Photos
Here are some pictures I took recently in and around Union Station in Chicago for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

Signature
The reason I was downtown and able to take those pictures last week was because I was going to that showing of Million Dollar Quartet where I was going to get my copy of The Last Starfighter signed by Johnny Cash/Lance Guest. Well, here's what my cover looked like prior to the signing...

Wanna know what it looks like now? Exactly the same. Turns out after going all gaga for the showing, Lance Guest wasn't in the cast that night. Actually, he's out of town for a few weeks and they expect him to rejoin, they just don't know when. 

Damn you, Alex Rogan! You owe me a signature!

Toner
I can honestly say, there are few things in life I hate buying more than replacement cartridges for our printer. I dread this deed simply because they cost so damn much and rarely last long at all. I'd go to those refill places, but the one or two times I've tried refilled cartridges, they didn't work well at all and did a number on my printer. This may have changed in recent years, though. Any experiences positive or negative?

Belted
As I was driving out to pick up the printer cartridges last night at OfficeMax, I discovered that the button on my seat belt buckle was coming loose. The seat belt still works, but it sometimes takes a little fiddling. Thank you to the guy at Advance Auto Parts, though, who told me about a local junkyard that has what effectively amounts to a freeform Saturday. I just drive in, find what I need, grab it, and pay about half price off the normal junkyard costs. He told me he redid the entire interior of an SUV for about $50. Guess where I'll be on Saturday?

Jackass
Am I the only person who applauds President Obama for calling Kanye West a jackass? Regardless of whether it was off record or not and whether it was appropriate or not, it needed to be said and by someone from whom the message would actually bear some weight. Hey, if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, and steals the spotlight from a VMA winner like a duck...

Well, time for work. Adieu.

The birds will still be singing...

I have a confession to make, after a few months trying to transform into a runner, I crashed. I crashed hard. No, not a literal accident. Just the figurative "wall" that runners tend to hit. But it still hurt bad.

There was a while there that I was doing pretty good. Constantly attempting to increase the distance that I was running. At one point, I actually hit five miles. For the first time since the summer after my freshman year of college, I ran five miles straight.

Since that day, I have not run more than a mile and a half again.

Physically, I'm not entirely sure why it happened, but it did. Any time I attempted to run, I got winded way too quickly or my body just couldn't move. That so-called "groove" I had during the monster run just would not come back. 

Mentally, I saw myself getting worse. I watched (or read) as people I knew were running longer and longer distances at shorter and shorter times. I kept thinking "Why not me? Seriously, why the fuck not me?"

As a result, I got frustrated and I ran less and less. I think I got stuck in the whole "you lost the race" mindset and gave up. I still worked out, but not nearly as much and running was a once or, maybe, twice-a-week thing I would do that did nothing more than bum me out even more.

Yesterday, though, my brain had a breakthrough. After giving away an hour and a half of my life to Guitar Hero III (yes, I still enjoy playing that one solely because of the mix of songs on it), I decided I just needed to go out and run. 

Screw how long I go. 

Screw how far I go. 

I just needed to go.

And I did.

I'm not sure how long. I'm not sure how far. I don't know how it compares to those of you who are runners... and I don't care. I just know that it was more than I've run in months. And it felt good. And I need to capitalize on this feeling. 

Screw medals.

Screw finish lines.

Screw mentally competing with all the people I know who are runners.

I need to do this for me.

I need to do this for my health.

I need to do this for Katie.

I need to do this for our future family (no, that's not a veiled announcement).

So, nothing personal against those of you who are competitively running. I'm happy for you and I wish you all the best. But I need to stop paying attention to what you say and write about. I need to stop gauging my success on how I compare to your efforts. That's the wrong way to live. 

I need to do this for me. My own rules. My own standards. 

And I need to just be happy that I'm doing something. Something that, hopefully, will result in a longer and happier and healthier life.

Life is just too damn short to worry about keeping up with everyone around me.

On a lighter note. I found this gem of a video via Google Reader. 

A musician named Jarbas Agnelli found a picture of birds perched on a series of five suspended cables as birds are wont to do. But instead of just disregarding the image, he and his musical mind decided to see if there was any compositional value to how the birds were sitting.

Check out what he discovered. It's pretty amazing, really.

Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

Originally posted at Superhero Journal. Well, that's where I found it, anyway. Via Google Reader.

Walk away and taste the pain...

But don't come again some other day or you'll miss Snippet Wednesday!

Office
The big ol' honkin' special edition "Beet Box" set of season five of The Office came out yesterday at Best Buy and I gotta say there's one thing that pisses me off... the whole reason I got it was the T-shirt that was included that says Schrute Farms Beets. Great shirt but it only came in large. That's too big for Katie and too small for me. Why oh why didn't NBC Universal just include a certificate with the set so you could go online and order one in the size you want? That would make so much more sense. Sure you'd have to pay shipping (if they want to be dicks like that) but you get what you want. At least my beet-shaped stress ball is in the right size.

Quartet
Tomorrow I'm heading into the city with my brother and SiL (Katie can't make it due to work) to see Million Dollar Quartet again. It will be cool to see it and hopefully we'll have most of the same cast members as the last time. The reason why is because there is a Q&A afterward with the cast. I'm hoping this means we can get some signatures because I just bought my 25th anniversary remastered The Last Starfighter and I would really like it signed by Alex Rogan/Johnny Cash/Lance Guest. Cross your fingers for me.

Habañeros
If any of you have been following my Tweets then you know that I've been daring myself to eat several of the peppers I've been growing. Whole. Untainted by being mixed with anything else. And yesterday a coworker and I both ate habañeros and I video'd it. I'm still playing with the video trying to figure out edits and captions and transitions and the like but it will be posted soon. I will beat this bitch known as video editing and hopefully get back to making video posts on a semi-regular basis. They are fun when they don't piss me off.

Music
Yesterday I looked and saw that nearly 20% of the music in my iTunes was loaded on my computer this year. Holy crap! That's nearly 20 GB of music just this year and it isn't even over! Oh I knew this Time Capsule was going to be both a blessing and a curse. Mostly a blessing though!

TV
The fall TV season is upon us. Are there any new shows that have piqued your interest? Sadly there are very few for us. We're going to give Accidentally on Purpose a shot since we're both fans of Jenna Elfman from her Dharma & Greg days. But we're not holding out much hope for it. And then there's Community. Hard to go wrong with Joel McHale and Chevy Chase. Or I hope it's hard to go wrong anyway. Finally there's NCIS: Los Angeles. We've watched NCIS on occasion in reruns and like it but have never committed to it. Just too much to catch up on. Hopefully starting this from the beginning will make up for it somewhat.

Commas
I can't believe I went a whole post without typing any commas. Not that I didn't need them. I just opted not to. Meh. Screw commas. Overrated little pieces of punctuation. Maybe next time I'll shoot for no periods or paragraph breaks and just turn my whole blog into a James Frey novel.

Time for workity work workin' workers.

Somebody else's body, someone else's head...

I swear I must be the only person in the history of the working world who doesn't pay attention to when federal holidays are happening.

This past Monday at work, everyone was discussing their plans for the upcoming long weekend.

How did I respond? "Long weekend? Huh?"

Hey dumbass, Labor Day is this coming Monday, we have a three-day weekend.

I'm really bad like this. It must be a disease. If people didn't tell me, I'd probably show up at work anyway. Labor Day, Memorial Day, Veterans' Day, and a few others, I'm sure. Heck I'd likely even show up on Thanksgiving despite the sweet smell of food cooking in our kitchen. That's how dense I am to these things.

Aren't we all supposed to be programmed to think of nothing but holidays? What's wrong with me?

I just got final word that I've been accepted into a local citizen's fire academy. No, I'm not becoming a firefighter despite my lifelong obsession with being one. I'm just going through an eight-week academy where residents get to learn about the stuff that firefighters do.

Oh, but we do go through variations of the actual training and situations that firefighters face and we get to wear the gear and go running into a live-fire drill. How sweet is that?

I'm hoping I can get some pictures if the circumstances allow (not while in the fire, obviously... Kapgar Flambé... bad form).