kapgar

Remember to never forget...

Welcome to the final Snippet Wednesday of 2010!

Monae
The worst thing about creating "Best Of" lists is when you forget something you didn't want to forget. A year or two ago (I don't remember when it came out), I left off The White Stripes' Icky Thump from my albums of the year list.

This year, I forgot Janelle Monae's brilliant The ArchAndroid. I freakin' loved that album, but forgot it because I didn't see it listed in the 2010 album release list on Wikipedia. And, yet, there it is under May 18. I don't know how I missed it. Suffice it to say, The ArchAndroid would've fared very well on my list. Easily top 5, maybe even as high as number 3. So if you are looking for something funky, check her out. Worth it. Trust me.

So drink your gin and tonica and smoke your marijuanica...

Welcome to another fine (albeit snowy) Snippet Wednesday. I'd also like to wish a Happy Hanukkah to all my Jewish friends out there! Shalom!

Celebrations
On the topic of holidays, I have to apologize to some of my family. My recent spate of non-posting led to me not wishing some happiness to my family members. Back on November 21 was my parents' 40th wedding anniversary. Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad! And Monday was my brother's 32 birthday. Happy birthday, old man. I love you all and am sorry.

Run
Yesterday morning, due to bad planning, I didn't get to work out. I was dragging all day long. I could've worked out in the afternoon, but I just didn't feel like it. Wow, I've become a total morning workout person. I need to do it to stay awake. Anyway, so I made up for it this morning by running. Took a completely new route through the neighborhood and kept at it despite the dusting of snow we received overnight and the biting cold outside. I ran 3.09 miles total and that final 1.09 felt incredible. If I'd had more time, I think I could've kept going another couple miles without a problem. Of course, when I actually do have the time, I never feel like keeping going. Know what I mean? Oh, and in case you're wondering why the oddball distance, that's when I happened to get back to my driveway and it also balances my total run distance in the Nike+ GPS app at 26 miles even. Yep! I've almost run a full marathon (never mind that it took 9 or 10 individual runs to get there; we won't mention that).

Tweets
I Tweeted something today about some topic or other, blah, blah, blah. But it seemingly resonated with a few people as I got replies back from a couple friends that, when viewed in the mentions column of Tweetdeck, looked like this...

Yeah. I totally am. ;-) (no ego there, eh?)

Egypt
In response to the retiring of both the Indiana Jones and Prince of Persia lines of LEGO sets, the company has released a whole new series called Pharaoh's Quest. Sure, they may not be 100% faithful to Egyptology, but they're pretty darn cool. You can never have too many mummies!

And for those of you who watch The Walking Dead, there is a figure in one of the sets that I think is a total brick doppelgänger for Shane. Uncanny, ain't it? Well, yanno, for being non-contoured and yellow and really small and all that.

Slider
Someone at work brought in some White Castle Sliders for their lunch. We had been talking about it before he got them and I mentioned that I haven't eaten a Slider since I was about five years old. Considering I turn 36 on Sunday, that's a helluva long time. He thought it necessary that I try one again.

Well, that box arrived and I took one whiff and realized exactly why it's been 31 years since I've had one. I call it Gag-Reflex-Inducing-Scent or Eau de Crap. My sense of smell is still struggling to recover.

Not just anybody...

As many of you know, my Hotmail account was hacked and spam was sent out to everyone in my address book. Thankfully that account hadn't been used regularly in years so a vast majority of you never received the message.

However, my Gmail account was also compromised the same day. Nothing has happened using it, but, nearly a week has passed and I still can't access it.

What this means is that I still don't have access to my full e-mail address list or my old Google Reader subscription list.

This is where you come in. While it's fairly easy for me to rebuild my Google Reader list from my blogroll, it has been a while since I've updated it. And I have no e-mail addresses at all. Can you all help me by leaving a comment on this post? No, you don't have to put your e-mail or URL in the body of the comment. You can leave that all in the registration fields for the comment. Your e-mail will not display, but your URL will show up as the link on your name in the posted comment. Thanks!

Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. I need help.

It's alright if you love me, it's alright if you don't...

You know what? I'm not going to call this a Snippet Thursday: The Reckoning. Nope, not this time. I'll just call it a Belated Snippet Wednesday. Does that work for you?

Takeover
There are groups of people out there who fear that the United States is being overrun with immigrants or people of different races, religions, creeds, whatnot. Obviously these people are all kinds of whack in the head. They are fearing the wrong thing entirely. You wanna know what I'm afraid is going to take over our fair country? THE DUGGARS! Damn, the kids are having kids now. Another pregnancy was announced this morning on the Today Show. The growth of the family is going to be exponential from this point forward. It's only a matter of time before EVERYBODY in the USA is a minority to the Duggar clan. I can see it now... The United States of Duggar... I pledge allegiance to the Duggars...

Help.

Uno
Yesterday, my Tweep kimt205 Tweeted about an e-mail she received that asked the following...

I agree, that's a good question. And it's one that can expand to more than just Twitter users. For those of you who are Facebook junkies or blog readers... what if you could only follow one person on those platforms as well? Who would it be?

No, I'm not fishing for you all to say, "You Kevin! Of course it's you!" I'm genuinely curious how all of you would answer. And, yet, it's a question I'm unable to repond to personally. I really don't know if I could do it. You?

Nooooooo
I love my wife. She's so cute. Take last night, for example. We went upstairs to see what recorded on the TiVo. Being Wednesday, she was expecting to find recordings of the latest Modern Family and Cougar Town. Imagine her dismay when there was nothing.

Me: Sorry hon. Nothing new.

Her: Noooooooooooooo!!!!

Me: Obviously they're on a break week.

Her: Noooooooooooooo!!!!

But you have to imagine her whining that word with a little kid's petulence and an oversize frown stretching across her face.

I do love her.

Ponzi
I've decided that the only way I'm going to survive in this economy and make my millions so I can retire by my desired age of 40 is to start my own Ponzi Scheme. Does anybody know how to initiate an effective Ponzi Scheme? Would you like in at the ground level? I'll share my profits. Just sign your name to all the associated start-up documents and we'll be rich in no time. Deal? Anybody?

Challenge
I'm thinking about starting up another Kapgar Photo Scavenger Hunt (No, this has nothing to do with my Ponzi Scheming). It's actually been a good six months now since the start of the last one and my initial plan was to do it every six. So much for that. But I can still get it close enough for government work.

My question to you, though, is should I run it in December or wait until the new year? On the one hand, we can get some pretty cool holiday photos. But on the flip side of that, you'll be contending with holidays and vacations and may have difficulty posting photos by the given deadlines. So, what say you? December Holiday Edition of the Kapgar Photo Scavenger Hunt or kick it off in 2011? Majority rules on this one.

Oh, and if it helps with the decision process, I plan to allow people to just post links to their photos on Flickr or other photo sharing sites instead of having to write it up as a blog post. So those of you with cameras in your phones can just post on the go, too. Does this affect your decision at all?

Snippets
Do you now see why I love Snippet posts? Absolutely no relation between the items I'm talking about whatsoever. Just completely random thoughts floating through my nogging now shared with the world via the wonder of the World Wide Web.

Sure, it's a train wreck of ideas, but I don't care. Do you?

Nothing stays the same...

I'm so relieved I survived the pseudo Storm of the Century.

I know it knocked down a lot of trees and temporarily knocked out power on a pretty small scale, but, otherwise, it was pretty weak.

A lot of huff and puff, but little true blow.

I actually think there is a greater potential for disaster on my drive to the gym in the morning.

On my way there, I have to traverse a subdivision where a lot of the residents like to run along the street in the early morning. And I swear that every freakin' one of them wears black with no reflective tape or patches or lights at all and it's pitch black when I'm driving. Add to that the fact that there are so many curves in the road in this neighborhood that my headlights are usually pointing away from them by the time I come upon them that there is no possible way in all that's holy that I'll ever see them.

I hate to wish ill on people, but one of them needs to be hit by someone so they and their neighbors will learn to either wear light, reflective clothing or USE THE DAMN SIDEWALK!! Nothing against runners, but this particular batch are morons and deserve what's coming to them if they're not going to be intelligent about how they exercise.

Yesterday was an interesting day in terms of Twitter. Their servers were overloaded, as per usual, and I was craving an avatar change.

So I pitched my standard avatar, which had already turned Pepto Pink (tm) in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and Twitter replaced it with their default egg avatar. Of course, the overload meant that nothing I was trying to upload was processing so the egg became a nice big joke amongst all my Tweeps.

Until, that is, the first of my uploads finally processed an hour or so later leaving me with a zombie I had created on the Sears Zombie Catalog site.

Then it became a new avatar another hour later when I created a variant of the default Twitter egg with my face hatching out of it.

Gotta be honest, I really dig the hatching egg -- as corny as it is -- and I'm gonna stick with it!

You will not go to Heaven...

I've been doing this blogging thing for a little more than five years now and if there's one thing I have not figured out, it's how to determine what's going to constitute a good post.

I come up with a post idea in my head and it sounds great. I type it up and I read through it and it comes off as the kind of extreme that I'm aiming to achieve be it highly humorous or rage inciting or emotionally edgy. Whatever.

Then I hit "submit" and zilch.

However, there are many posts that I consider to be not so great. Topics I want to write about and feel the need to post about, but, when I finally write it up, I hate how it sounds. And yet, it is so well received, you'd swear I was gunning for the webby equivalent of a Pulitzer.

This happened with my anniversary dedication to my wife. I really wanted to write something because, well, it was our ninth anniversary and I love my wife and I wanted to let the world know how I felt. But I just could not find the words to express it. In the end, I typed something right off the top of my head and I hated it. I really thought I could do better.

And everyone loved it. Commenters on the blog, commenters on Facebook... hell, my mother-in-law told me it made her cry.

So, um, what gives?

Has anyone figured out this crazy little thing called blogging?

When someone tells you that something is not one way, the assumption is that it's the other way, right?

For example, if someone says that something is not good and doesn't specify any further, then it's bad, isn't it?

I was listening to the radio on the way home from work tonight when a new song by the Old 97s called "Champaign, Illinois" came on. The chorus of the song is "You will not go to Heaven; you'll go to Champaign, Illinois."

In my mind, that means that so far as Rhett Miller is concerned, Champaign is the equivalent of Hell. It seems like a totally viable assumption to me.

So I guess I can add Champaign to a growing list of places I should stay away from in order to protect my mortal soul. This list also includes the entire state of Iowa if Kevin Costner's response to Ray Liotta in Field of Dreams follows the same logic.

Liotta: "Is this Heaven?"

Costner: "No, it's Iowa."

Think of it in mathematical terms if you must... Iowa does not equal Heaven, ergo Iowa equals Hell.

Hey, I'm just the messenger here.

Oh, and somehow I doubt this little TUA will wind up as one of my more well-received posts. Heh.

But that don't change the way I feel about you...

About five years ago, Katie and I finally made the jump to owning a TiVo. Well, two of them actually.

Now, we can't imagine our lives without them. I can't even remember what it was like to constantly set our VCRs for shows we wanted to watch and constantly swapping out tapes and trying to remember what was on each of them when we wanted to go back and watch them.

Life was so primitive.

But the best part of owning a TiVo, or any DVR for that matter? Fast forward!

Sure, we could fast forward through recorded shows on our VCR, but being able to do it during semi-live TV? Ohmigod. It's so fantastic! We will intentionally not watch a show when it airs live for about 15 minutes on a half hour or 30 minutes on an hour show. Why? So we have enough gap on the airing so that we can fast forward through all the commercials.

And during campaign season, it's an absolute sanity saver!

We have a couple of particularly heated battles going on right now in the State of Illinois for the Governor's mansion and one of our U.S. Senate seats. The two running main candidates for Governor are Pat Quinn (incumbent, somewhat) and Bill Brady while the two vying for the Senate seat are Alexi Giannoulias (sp?) and Mark Kirk.

These candidates are fighting tooth and nail and pulling out every stop in the book in their quest to make the other look like a complete assclown by dragging their name through the mud and slop and excrement and any other nasty substance you can think of. You remember how dirty the 2008 Presidential campaign was? Compared to these two races, that was a gentlemen's duel.

Guess what? It's working. I think all four of them are jackasses and I don't want any of the four of them in office.

Sadly I have little choice in the matter. The two-party system that exists in this country makes it impossible for any third-party candidate to be a viable option. Hell, in most cases, we never even hear of their names.

I wish just one of them would come out with a simple, generic ad in which they say, "Hi, my name is Bobby Dunleavey [not a real candidate... I think] and I'm not Bill Brady or Pat Quinn." Honestly, at this point, that might be enough to sway me. I seriously don't want any of the available candidates to take office.

Or maybe I'll just start a write-in campaign for Dave2.

At least I know what to expect from him...

[please don't hate/sue me for using your graphic, Dave]

Katie and I are signing up for our first ever fun run!

It's the TriCity Family Services Second Annual Snowflake Shuffle 5K Run & Walk on December 4, 2010.

Why are we doing it? There are several reasons...

1. It's scheduled for the day before my birthday.
   If I survive, I can really celebrate my birthday feeling like I've done something cool. If I die, I never have to turn 36 years old. Yay!
2. It's a mile from our house.
   I don't really have to worry much about travel or parking or lodging or anything. And it's so close, we can actually practice on the planned route.
3. The route map, oh the route map.
   Speaking of route, if this route map (PDF) doesn't sell you on the race, nothing will. C'mon, is it seriously that difficult to create a Google Map Mashup and make it publically available and link or embed it on the site?

 Wish us luck!

Who are you...

It's kinda funny how many people seem to agree with the idea that my dad and Rob Reiner are the same person.

Friends, family, the whole shebang.

But the ultimate confirmation came yesterday from my dad himself when I told him that I had put a picture of him next to one of Reiner on my blog. His response? "I saw it... those weren't both of me?"

Um, no. 

Heh.

I like Goodwill.

You can find some cool stuff at Goodwill.

Stuff that you might not even be looking for. 

For example, this past week I stopped in to look just for kicks and what did I find?

Low-priced porn!

Hey, at least Goodwill is acknowledging the sexual needs of the low income'd. Right nice of them, don'cha think?

Those were the days...

Since yesterday was our ninth anniversary, I couldn't quite make a Snippet Wednesday work properly. So, to make up for it, I'm bringing you a Snippet Thursday: The Reckoning!

Stool
Katie and I desperately need a new bar stool or two for the table in our kitchen. But, for some reason, we have not been able to find one we like to save our lives.

Huh?
Was that snippet just completely random? Yeah, I agree. It's actually a teaser I've been asked to place on my blog in anticipation of a future product review for a company called CSN. I put the word "bar stool" with that link on there and then they will send me a product of my choosing to review. I just felt the need to try to work "bar stool" into some semblance of context. And we would really like some barstools. But that's not what I'm planning to review. The good thing is that, soon after I do my review, I will be giving away a gift certificate to their online store to some lucky reader. Don't worry, this sort of thing won't become commonplace by any stretch. I just wanted to try doing another product review as it's been quite a while. We'll see how it goes. Plus, I have a pretty cool idea for the product I want to review and how I'm going to do it. But it's kinda time sensitive, so here's hoping I get it in time.

Brittany
But if there is one thing you may see a lot of around here, it's me avowing my love of Brittany on Glee. I did it a couple weeks ago and, after this week's episode, I'm going to do it again. The girl kills me and her scene with the meatball in Breadsticks a la Lady and the Tramp was absolutely adorable and heartbreaking all at the same time.

Museum
Speaking of cool girls, there's one named Kate McGroarty who recently won a Month at the Museum contest through the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Basically this means that she will be living in an exhibit and blog, video, and Tweet her interactions and experiences. How cool is that? She's going to eat there, sleep there, do some other stuff there. I'm hoping she gets a little privacy for the bathroom. Oh yeah, and did I mention she gets $10,000 for the month? Would you do it?

Reiner
For as long as I've been cognizant, my dad has had a full beard on his face. Until this last half year or so, that is. Lately, he's become a little more experimental. First, he shaved it down to a goatee and now it's just a moustache. Yes, of course we've been giving him crap about his "porn star" 'stache - we just couldn't help ourselves. However, this past week, Katie and I were watching 30 Rock with guest star Rob Reiner when she chimed in with, "that's what I miss... having Rob Reiner as my father-in-law." And it finally clicked... ohmigod, Rob Reiner is my dad! My dad is Rob Reiner! Finkel is Einhorn!

 

Well, yanno, minus the directing and acting credits, of course. And the huge bank accounts. And the Hollywood contacts. And... *sigh*

Baby, we were born to run...

Yesterday, Katie and I were part of the 2010 Chicago Marathon! Yep, we dressed in our workout best, headed into the city, and raced around from point to point along the 26.2 mile course laid out throughout the city.

Of course, we did this to cheer for our friends and take a bunch of pictures and, later, go out together for dinner. Run it? Are you nuts? We left that to Eric, Michelle, and Kim. We're not masochists.

We started the day by racing to the 13-mile marker around 200 S. Wacker in hopes of seeing all the people we were hoping to cheer for. We did manage to find Eric just as he was passing, but could not find Kim or Michelle.

Then we headed to just south of the corner of Jackson and Halsted near the 17-mile mark. There we found Eric again, but Katie also saw the infamous Kimbot! She was just passing us as Katie yelled "Kim!" and Kim turned and moaned "Apgars!" then came over and practically collapsed in our arms for a giant, sweaty hug during which she said "it's so horrible out here." We tried to stifle a little giggle as it really wasn't the time despite the humorous way in which she declared it. Then someone took our picture together and she was off.

[photo courtesy of Kim; not that I asked, but I think she's okay with it]

Still didn't find Michelle, though. Where was she hiding?

Our final stop was on the bridge before the final turn right under the 300m To Go sign. There we saw Eric and Kim as well as a coworker of mine and her boyfriend.

And, yet, still no Michelle.

I think she was avoiding us. *sniffle*

If anything, I'd say my one complaint was the lack of a well-planned out way to get from the bridge to the finish line area. Everything was blocked off and guarded. To traverse the 300m from where we stood to the finish line would've been nearly a mile of walking.

We said fuhgeddaboudit and headed to the River North area and dined at a place called Dos Diablos. Quite tasty Mexican food, if we do say so ourselves.

But we did have a lot of fun at the Marathon and watching everyone run was quite inspiring. People of all ages and sizes were racing. Enough of a variety that I'm convinced I could actually run it with the proper training. Doesn't mean I will, just that I believe I could. I do think Katie is interested in training if not for a full marathon, then definitely for a half.

Sometimes, I think the best part of the race is reading all the stories that surface after the fact. Like the barefoot runner or marathon cheaters or the blindfolded runner or bib swappers. The fun truly never ends.

Maybe I'll become a race-day journalist! That can be my contribution.

Well, maybe not. Enjoy the photos all the same.

If you can't see the Flash slideshow above, click through to the Flickr album.

I've discovered something, baths suck.

After getting home from the Marathon, Katie and I decided to clean up. She opted for a shower while I took my first bath in probably five years.

No, don't misread, this was not my first time bathing, just my first bath. I much prefer showers. And I have several reasons why...

1. Baths are dirty. How do you clean yourself when what you just washed off of one part of you is now floating in the water you are still using to clean another part? This gets me thinking about public swimming pools and hot tubs. Those things have gotta be festering with flith. In many cases, they're exposed to the elements so who knows what happens then. Plus you get a ton of different people using them without water being changed. Sure, they "chlorinate" them clean, but you're only allowed to use so much chlorine before it becomes harmful for a human to use the pool. So if the chlorination isn't strong enough to be harmful to humans, can it truly be powerful enough to kill off our filth? Just sayin'.
2. You get cold quickly. Not all of you gets covered at all times. Especially when you're my size. Always something exposed. And the whole water displacement thing gets me every time. Overfilling is a constant worry.
3. It's boring. I can't sit there and use my iPhone because I'd probably drop it in. We don't have a TV in the bathroom. I don't want to read a book as it will find a way to get wet no matter how "dry" I might be. And, not being a kid, I can't exactly drop a bunch of Star Wars figures in the tub to play with anymore. Well, I guess I could, but I'd be locked up and the key thrown away rather quickly.

Showers rock. 'nuff said.

Hit me baby one more time...

Welcome to Snippet Wednesday. Just barely making the cut (again), but I'm here!

ALDI
Katie was out trying to use our bank card to buy something today when it was declined. We theorized that it was just a communication error with the scanner, but then it happened at a second place. She called the bank and found out that both of our bank cards had been canceled and new ones issued due to a data compromise on the part of a vendor. While at work, Katie had two customers come in paying by check because their bank cards had also been canceled by their respective banks. They told Katie it was due to ALDI Grocery Stores.

We had seen something on a news teaser last week, but never saw the actual story, so I Googled it and wound up with a bunch of stories about a debit card/PIN number swiping scam that had been occuring at several Chicagoland ALDIs (ours in St. Charles included) as well as some in Indianapolis. Oh yay! As a preventative measure, most banks canceled the cards of customers that had been used at potentially effected stores. Nothing had happened to our account, but it did make us wonder if this was how my bank card got spoofed last year. Hmmm...

So a tip to all you ALDI shoppers, USE CASH!

Brittany
Recently, Katie and I started watching Glee. We're pretty much all caught up on season 1 (missed a couple episodes, unfortunately) and we're up to date on season 2. It's an interesting show. Very well done and the actors are pretty good (even though I want to bitchslap Rachel Barry nearly every episode). I can understand why people are Gleeks over it.

But if there's any one aspect of the show that Katie and I love more than anything, it's Brittany. For those of you who haven't watched, she's one of the Cheerios (the school's cheerleaders) that is actually part of the New Directions (the glee club) and she is to this show what Ralphie Wiggum is to The Simpsons. Both are minor characters that usually meld into the background save for an occasional one liner that is typically more memorable than anything else in the show. She's got some true gems like...

"Sometimes I forget my middle name."

"I was pretty sure Dr. Pepper was a dentist."

"Does he mean like a burglar alarm?" (when told to use protection during sex)

"This room looks like that room on that spaceship when I got probed."

"It's a male duck." (when asked what a ballad is)

This week's episode, though, was Brittany's time to shine as it was all about Britney Spears. When all done up in terms of costume, hair, and makeup, I often couldn't tell the difference between Brittany and Britney. Eerily uncanny. But, dayamn! Brittany was rockin' the episode. The actress who plays her, Heather Morris, is a former dancer for Beyonce and it shows. She's got serious moves. I've seen her dance in previous episodes, but this was an entirely different ball of wax. All Brittany, all the time. I liked it.

Kevin
I got an e-mail the other day from a guy who shares my last name. I opened and read it and he detailed for me a family vacation they had taken, how his family was doing, that his dog had died and how he was feeling as a result.

Then he wished me a happy 62nd birthday.

Woah. Hold the phone. My birthday's not until December. And, while I know I'm getting up there in age, I'm certainly no 62.

Turns out he was trying to contact a different Kevin Apgar. One whose name I've seen many times when I've Googled myself and he even used to return higher results than me. Not anymore. I've kinda become cooler than him.

I explained this all in a reply e-mail to my mystery sender.

And I offered condolences on the loss of Gus. Sounded like a good dog.

WWF
Now that Katie and I both have iPhones, we've taken to playing a few games here and there. Our latest addiction is Words With Friends, which is basically a spin on Scrabble. Just a little looser in terms of useable words.

If you're a WWF fiend, look us up and challenge us. I'm "kapgar" and Katie is "ktkat216."

Okay, I'm outta here. Talk to you soon. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

Do you know your enemy...

Yesterday, Katie and I did a massively thorough cleaning of the house. Thorough to the point where I was up on a ladder cleaning the Golden Gate picture frames and the high windows and soffet in our living room as well as the arced window and chandelier lamp in our entryway. I was taking care of dust and grime that hadn't been touched in a while.

That's about the only thing I can think of that we did that might have caused this deep-chest cough that I now have. It's a cough that I was able to control relatively decently during the day with liquids. It seemed entirely manageable when we went to see Easy A with my brother and SiL. I think I may have only coughed once or twice during the entire movie.

That evening was a different matter altogether. Katie and I were watching football and reading books in bed and my cough came back full force. So I took some allergy meds, a swig of Delsym (a cough suppressant), and located a blister pack of Chloraseptic. Again, I seemed to get it under control.

Then came 3 a.m., and one of my worst coughing fits ever. It wasn't even coughing that woke me up. I'd had another one of my ridiculously vivid dreams. It was very cool and one whose storyline continued in my head even as I lay in bed awake. I had to get this thing written down, I had absolutely no desire to forget it whatsoever. So I made the damn-fool mistake of getting up and heading to the bathroom where I could sit and jot down what I remembered from my dream without waking Katie.

Smooth move, Ex-Lax.

The shift from prone to upright position clearly knocked everything loose in my lungs and throat and the coughing began again in full force.

Now, not only was I unable to get back to sleep because of my coughing (and the fact that my brain was continuing to mentally write the dream I had), but it was also keeping Katie awake.

And thus the story of why I'm in the living room posting to my blog at 4 a.m.

This should make for a fine day of work, don'cha think?

There is no question in my mind that the Chicago Bears lost the season opener to the Detroit Lions. It may be marked down as a Bears' win in the record books, but it just wasn't. Calvin Johnson's last-second reception in the endzone, I don't care what the rulebook says, was a touchdown. That rule is bunk and I can't believe the refs enforced it in good conscience.

However, this week, the Bears beat the Dallas Cowboys fair and square and it felt sooooo good. (Sorry Ren!)

I don't much like the Cowboys. And, although I can say the feeling of "hate" that I once felt for them has abated to the point where I believe I can actually respect them as a team and I do like several individual players, it still feels nice to have that one team that I can think of as "the enemy." Someone to point at and snarl as though I were the evil monkey in Chris' closet in The Family Guy.

Why the animosity? I don't really know why. It's not like they did something to me personally. I cannot nail it down to a certain event. Not like when Duke's Christian Laettner dropped in that buzzer beater against my Kentucky Wildcats in the 1992 NCAA Tournament (I won't even get into his stepping habits).

Perhaps it's less an event and more of an attitude that disgusted me about the Cowboys. I just didn't like the triumvirate of evil that was Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, and, especially, Michael Irvin. I couldn't stand the arrogance of that team. Yes, they won. They were a great team. They were, supposedly, "America's Team" (clearly not my America), but I hated them all the same.

I have my "evil" teams in most sports leagues. Obviously the Duke Blue Devils in NCAA Basketball. The Iowa Hawkeyes in NCAA Football. The Atlanta Braves in the MLB. The Detroit Pistons in the NBA. The Philadelphia Flyers in the NHL. Some with reason, some without.

But there is no team I hated more during their heyday than the Cowboys.

So yesterday's win felt good. Very good.

Again... sorry, Ren.

Running into the sun, but I'm running behind...

I have a very vivid dreamstate when I sleep.

There's sometimes a ridiculous level of detail to my dreams and I also have a series of recurrent themes and settings. An example of the latter is that I've dreamed many times of a place that is clearly the campus of my alma mater, but, it's also not. There are all these changes... new buildings, a couple new roads, that sort of thing. And these changes remain so consistent amongst my dreams that involve this campus as a setting that I could practically draw up a map.

This altered-state campus played a part in my dream last night.

Apparently, I was running a marathon through the campus and surrounding town. And it was a messed-up marathon, too. There were guides there to help you know which way to go, but even they weren't sure what was the official route. So they just kept pointing people in a variety of directions and clusters of runners were crossing paths and colliding.

That's not even the weirdest part. About five miles into this "marathon," my clothes disappeared. I looked down and I was running stark naked.

But wait, it gets stranger... I didn't stop. I just kept running. Around real parts of campus. Through imagined portions, too. In buildings. Through classrooms. Along streets. To quote Forrest Gump, "I was run-nayng."

And I finished the marathon, all 26.2 miles of it. The last 21+ naked. Oh, and after the marathon, I became one of the most searched topics on Google and a trending topic on Twitter.

In my dream, I was so proud.

In real life, I'm at a loss.

I pray there's no possible interpretation of this dream.

On the way home last night from a signing with Chicago Blackhawks Center Dave Bolland, I decided to stop at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (known as "Fermilab" around these parts). It's not like I have business there. In fact, my grasp of science is so bad that it would likely be in the lab's best interests to keep me far, far away.

However, they have a buffalo ranch on their grounds! For years, I've wanted to drop by and take photos of them. I've never really seen a buffalo before, other than in a zoo. And, for some reason, I never stopped by. It's on my way home, for God's sake.

Last night, on a whim, I decided to give it a shot.

Have you ever seen a buffalo up close? They're amazing creatures. Stunningly majestic. They saw me coming and stopped what they were doing to walk up to the fence and check me out, too. I snapped dozens of shots of them. Sorry, I have yet to offload the photos from my camera, but I do have one from my iPhone to share.

Eventually, like most other living creatures, they got bored with me and moved on. And they displayed their disgust over me quite explicitly. Several peed a giant yellow stream akin to what a garden hose might output. Another reared up his hind leg to fully expose his ass and then wrenched his head around to lick himself in my general direction. Have you ever seen a buffalo's butthole? I can now say I have.

But, the fact that something that big was also that flexible was kinda mind blowing. Remember back when George Bush used "Shock and Awe" in a public speech? He wasn't talking about the war in the Middle East, he was talking about buffalo perfect circles. Wow.

I became awake from a very dark place...

Would you like a Snippet Wednesday recap of my morning from hell? No? Then you might want to stop reading now.

Still here?

You asked for it.

Heel
As I was walking around this morning getting ready for the gym and work, I discovered a pain in my left heel. It's pretty normal. I have this chronic crack problem (heh heh) with my heel. It tends to get a lot of dead skin in the form of a callous and then it cracks. I do take care of it and use a Ped Egg to get rid of it pretty regularly and douse it in lotion. But, no matter how much work I do to it, the crack always comes back in the same spot. It doesn't matter what I do, it never permanently goes away. And it can be pretty painful every so often. So I put some Neutrogena Cracked Heel cream on it and decided I was going to ride a bike at the gym instead of run to give it a break. Strike 1.

Book
When I ride a bike at the gym, I'm actually able to read while I work out. Obviously not while running or using an elliptical machine... so much bouncing around that I'd get a headache. So I thought, "Great! I really want to keep reading my book, Gods Behaving Badly," only to discover I'd left the book at work the night before. Strike 2.

Clothes
So I pack my stuff and head to the gym. I get a locker and go to unload my stuff only to discover that, of all things, I forgot to bring my pants for work. Seriously, WTF? Of course, this means I had to shower at home and reduce my workout time. Yay. On the way home for my shower, I realized it's probably a good thing I'm heading home because I also forgot to pack a set of clothes for yoga at lunchtime. Strike 3.

And I'm outta here like the Cubs pennant chances.

If you want to ensure just how "outta here" I truly am, here's one more for ya...

Music
Speaking of leaving stuff at work, I downloaded some music to my computer this morning that I was really looking forward to listening to today on my iPod. Of course, I left my iPod at work. No new music for the Kevvy Kev today. Strike 4. That's like a Super Out, isn't it?

I know I don't usually do a TUA in concert with a Snippet Wednesday since a TUA really is just a Snippet. But since the Snippets are on a theme and this is totally unrelated to that theme, I thought why not.

If there is one good thing to come from today, it was my first experience with Yoga Nidra.

It is, by definition, "yoga sleep" and comes from meditation. Our yoga instructor decided to try this with us today per a suggestion I gave her. And I'm so glad I did. I feel so ridiculously relaxed right now. I have to pick up an audio version so that I can introduce this to Katie.

Wow! Just... wow!

Tastes so good, make a grown man cry...

So how was your extended weekend (well, that question is aimed more at my U.S. readership)? Katie and I spent some time with our families on Saturday and Sunday. However, Monday was for her and I. And we celebrated Labor Day by laboring in the kitchen, over a large pan of Chicken a la King and a homemade pie.

I would like to take a moment to focus on the word "homemade." Why? Because this was Katie's first attempt at making a whole pie from scratch. She's made pies before, but she used to buy a finished crust or the premade, rolled-out dough. This time, it was all by hand. And it was sooooo good.

Would you like to see?

Pouring the fruit filling into the pie. For the record, that's a mixture of peaches, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries... all purchased fresh and whole at Trader Joe's.

The finished pie after baking. It burst through a little bit. Oh well. And that's a cinnamon and sugar dusting on top.

Sliced and a la moded!

Oh yes, we labored hard. And enjoyed the fruits of said labors very much!

Don't forget to wipe the drool off your keyboards. ;-)

Cocked your head to the side and said I'm angry...

It's been a week and a half since I last blogged.

Wow. I'm pretty sure that's the longest I've been neglectful around these parts.

You know it's bad when both your wife and your mom have taken notice of the fact that you haven't blogged in a long time and are actually a little mournful about it.

I know it's a very off-day, but I hope you don't mind some snippets. Given I've missed the last two Snippet Wednesdays -- and even the last two potential Snippet Thursday: The Reckonings -- I don't see it being a big deal that I do it now, right?

Rest
And on the 14th day, they rested.

This past Sunday marked 13 consecutive days of exercise for Katie and me. As you know, we've been working out weekday mornings for quite some time. Well, a couple weekends ago, we started exercising on weekends as well. Two really long walks in a row now that the heat has calmed down a bit and a 20-mile bike ride this past Saturday. That one caused us to be a bit sore, so we took Sunday off. And we're back at it again this week. All five weekdays so far. Not sure what will happen this weekend. We'll have to wait and see.

Camera
I guess it was a good thing I distracted myself with exercise this past weekend. I was feeling a bit naked without my trusty Sony D-SLR. My friend Eric was shooting a wedding and asked if he could borrow it. This is the first time my Sony has not been with me or at least somewhere I knew he should be. I felt a bit "off," if you get my meaning. Nothing was quite right until Monday when I got my camera back -- in perfect working order -- from Eric. Gah!

Beans
But not having my Sony around gave me time to play a bit more with the camera in my new iPhone 4. It's a nice camera. Not perfect by any stretch, but nice... and far more portable. And what's really nice is the automatic geotagging I get in my iPhone photos when they're uploaded to Flickr.

Of course, even this isn't perfect as the geotag of this Jelly Bean photo would indicate. Apparently, I found myself some jelly beans to photograph in "a mysterious place with no name" in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean near the western coast of Africa.

Guess it's a good thing my passport finally came in the mail, eh?

Bloody
Katie and I are tearing through True Blood seasons 1 and 2 on DVD right now. We got free video-on-demand of all episodes of season 1 from Amazon and season 2 came in from the library but is due back soon. Funny thing was a conversation between Katie and I as Bill and Sookie were having sex and he bit her, drawing blood down her neck...

Katie: [jokingly] "Edward would never do that to Bella!"

Me: "That's because Edward is not a real vampire. He has no fangs. He couldn't if he tried."

Heh.

Chiro
Speaking of conversations, this happened at the chiropractor's office the other day. We finally discovered how old he was.

Me: "You're not even in your thirties!?!?"

Him: "You were born in the Seventies!?!?"

I get it, I'm old.

Lamb
The other day, a coworker and I were coming in to work together and she told me about a book she just started reading. She wasn't sure if I'd ever heard of it because it was, to her, a pretty unknown author. Turns out it was Christopher Moore's Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. Only like my favorite book of all time. It took some work to not hug her right on the spot.

Hunger
Speaking of books, on the very strong recommendation of @DownWithPants and @Amanda234, I began reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. It's the first in a three-book series and, so far, it reminds me a lot of Takami's Battle Royale (loved the book, hated the movie) and Bachman/King's The Running Man (loved the movie, haven't read the story). And I don't have to wait between books as the final book in the series (Mockingjay) came out this week. I hate waiting. I'm not a patient person at all.

Okay, I'm outta here. Have a great weekend!

Walk like an Egyptian...

Katie and I have been noticing some weird little things regarding nature lately.

For one, there has been a marked increase in the number of dragonflies this year. Evinrude is everywhere! Usually you see a few once in a while around these parts. But, lately, it's hundreds per day. And they're sex starved! You know what I mean. You've seen the "double dragonfly" in flight, haven't you? Horny little buggers. [thanks to the Governor of Maryland for the shot at right]

Crickets have also proven very numerous this summer. Katie says she sees them in some odd places, too. Hopping all over the inside of where she works and the like. She's been working at her current job for eight years and she's never seen it like this. Sure, they can just come in the door when a customer does, but they don't usually do it. Now? Oh yeah, brazen as all get out.

And, finally, there's frogs. I've seen a frog in our front walkway probably one out of every five times I go out there in the last few months. And I don't even use our front walkway that often. So imagine what it might be if I paid regular attention. The other night, Katie and I went for a 45-minute walk and, as we were walking, seven different frogs hopped out of our path. After a while, since the sun was setting, Katie and I were placing bets as to whether or not particular lumps on the ground in front of us would turn out to be frogs.

Something about this feels like it should be the onset of the apocalypse. Dunno why. Just does.

Oh, and I came across a locust carcass yesterday. Coincidence? I think not.

I took a lot of photos this weekend.

Way too many, in fact.

On Saturday, I went with my mom and her group of photographers to the Egyptian Theatre and an old train depot in my former college town of DeKalb. It was a lot of fun, despite being hotter than Hades. And I did manage to nab some shots. Some? More like 250 of them. I have pared it down a bit, but not by much. Here you go...

And, yesterday, Katie and I went with some of my coworkers to the Kane County Cougars (Class A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics) game against the Peoria Chiefs. Sure, the home team Cougars lost 8-4, but it was fun and offered up a few photo ops. Again, here you go...

Off to the gym. Adios.

Burnin' down the house...

Pray for us.

Katie and I signed up for two months of Bikram Yoga (read: the hot, sweaty stuff that Sting loves to do; aside from sex with Trudy, of course).

Katie has been wanting to try yoga for quite some time since I've been loving it for two years now. But it can be expensive (mine is a very cost-effective class through my workplace, but she's not eligible to participate) or limiting in terms of class times available especially with Katie's constantly changing work schedule.

However, the other day, a friend updated their Facebook profile with information about a yoga studio in Naperville near where I work that was offering two months of unlimited classes for under $50 via Groupon. How can you say no to that? The price is amazing. So we both signed up.

And I'm dreading its start.

Immensely.

Me + heat no makey a happy Kapgar.

We're becoming fitness nuts. We're hoping to do Bikram at least a couple times per week plus our five mornings per week of working out at the gym. And I still do my regular yoga one day per week.

We'd damn well better lose a ton of weight!

I ran into a friend the other day and as we're all wont to do, I asked him how he was doing.

His reply? "I'm alright. The rest of the world is all wrong."

I LIKE THAT!

I must start using that immediately.

All in all, we're just brilliant thieves...

WANTED:
One person willing to write some book reviews for me on my Goodreads.com account. I have fallen a bit behind and really need to get off my lazy ass, but, well...

Titles that need reviews include:

• Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (book 2) by Bryan Lee O'Malley
• Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness (book 3) by Bryan Lee O'Malley
• LEGO: A Love Story by Jonathan Bender
• Practical Demonkeeping by Christopher Moore

PREREQUISITES:

• The ability to write a fantastically compelling book review.
• It must have emotion and charm and wit.
• It must sound like it was written by me, which is what I'm going to say it was anyway.
• It must speak to my true inner feelings about the time I spent reading these books. Since I have no time to detail how I felt about them, you must figure this out on your own.
• It must conform to AP Style Guide standards. Not really.
• It must be good, duh.

COMPENSATION:
The internal knowledge that you have written a fantastic review that will make others either rush out to buy and read it immediately or avoid it like the plague. I emphasize "internal" because once these reviews are written, they become the property of Kapgar, Inc. and you will receive no public credit for the writing you have done. I will disavow any knowledge that you participated in this endeavor.

Oh, and no money will exchange hands. Warm fuzzies only.

TIMELINE:
Now. I need them as soon as possible. The books have already been read and my Goodreads page is making me look like a slacker since I haven't updated it with a review in a couple months. Hell, I never even notified people on my page that I was reading any of those four books. How crappy am I? So the sooner, the better. Get crackin'.

SUBMISSIONS:
Please offer up writing samples and/or completed reviews in the comments. If I like them, I'll make sure to copy them into my Goodreads account and delete the comment from this blog to erase any evidence that you wrote it before Google has a chance to index it into its eternal memory.

Good luck!

(For the record, I am not really soliciting reviews. I'm just hoping this will give me the proper motivation to get off my butt and write them myself.)

A friend of mine just gave me two tickets to see the Kane County Cougars this Sunday. Cool!

Katie and I live a mere five miles from the stadium, and yet we hardly go. I think it's been six or seven years since we've been to a Cougars game.

For the record, the Cougars are a Class A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics. And they're playing the Peoria Chiefs, the Class A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs.

Looking forward to some photos!

Truckin', got my chips cashed in...

Welcome to a special Blogher edition of Snippet Wednesday. Am I at Blogher? No. I just thought it might get the attention of all the people there and actually drive a few readers here. Am I evil for doing this? Yeah, probably. Will it work? I dunno, I'll tell you in a couple days when I check my stats.

40
I don't really know why, but I TiVo'd 40 Days and 40 Nights and just finished watching it now. It really was a pretty bad movie, but, for some reason, I enjoyed watching it. Me and my bad movies.

Plants
This year, Katie and I pared back all the veggies that we planted. Last year, we just tried growing too much stuff and it got a little out of control. Some of it worked while some of it did not. So, this year, we're growing serrano peppers, tomatoes, squash, and zucchini. The peppers? Great! I've picked six so far and have at least 30 more sprouting. Squash and zucchini? Well, not much in terms of fruit yet, but damn if the plants are huge. Tomatoes? As a result of the squash and zucchini, the tomatoes aren't doing so hot. They're being crowded out. And it's the tomatoes that I really want. Check out the stuff that is growing...

 

Keychains
As I told you the other day, while in Chicago, I picked up a couple of those LEGO keychains. One was the alien from Toy Story and the other was a recreation of the original spaceman minifig that debuted in 1978. I was asked for some pictures, so here they are...

My only problem with the spaceman keychain is that he's not an exacting recreation of the original. The difference is minor, but enough to mean something to a purist like me. It's all in the helmet. Check it out...

The original helmet (right) is flush from the forehead down through the chin guard. The revised helmet (left) has a chin guard that sticks out further than the forehead of the helmet. This was done to provide a way for a visor to stop when pulled down over the face and appear flush with the helmet itself. Plus it looks more realistic.

Fine, I'm picky.

Truck
Speaking of LEGO, when Katie and I were at my parents' house, my dad gave me back an old set I had built years ago and that has been sitting on his desk all this time. It is the 5580 Highway Rig and it's apparently somewhat valuable on eBay. It's also gotten a bit grungy from grime, but I plan to disassemble, wash, and rebuild it. Should be fun. It's a pretty intense set. And I got a chance to try out photographing it with a nice background display.

Photos
I've been bad about this whole Photo365 challenge. The other day, I looked at the set and realized I was a month behind in tagging pictures. Well, I'm all caught up. Through today, even! It took a while to find them all, but I'm good again. And I've passed the 200 day mark. This has been anything but easy. I really can't wait for it to end, but I know I'll miss it. Is that weird?

It's time for bed. Yeah, it's only 9:15. I'm pathetic. I admit it.

Just travelin' along, singin' a song, side by side...

This past Saturday, I hopped aboard a Metra line to downtown Chicago to meet up with Dave2! Just kind of a spur of the moment meet-up where we did nothing but really walk around the city, talk, and generally geek out. I think a photo-laden Snippet recap of the affair works quite nicely despite it not being Wednesday (or Thursday, for that matter), so enjoy!

Weather
Chicago and the suburbs have been sweltering for the last couple months so arriving downtown and seeing a thermometer in the Ogilvie Transportation Center read that it was 67 degrees out was refreshing to say the least! And it was already past noon, to boot. But, then, it always feels nicer in the city for some reason. Lucky bastards. However, by 4 p.m., it was back up in the mid-80s. Not terrible, but not nearly as nice as it was earlier. And Chicago is the greatest city on Earth by far, so when you mix it with nice weather and a good friend, how can you go wrong?

Dave
As any of you who have met Dave can attest, he's always a great person to meet up with and one heckuva gracious guest. So getting together with him never winds up in an awkward moment or with a lack of things to talk about or do. That's why it's always so much fun to meet up with him. I think this visit marks about a half dozen times now. Three Davecagos, one Depeche Mode concert, and a couple random visits. And, so long as he is always willing, I will be too.

Dogs
The first thing we decided to do was get some lunch. Neither of us had eaten yet so we were a bit famished. Dave knew of a place nearby called America's Dog. I figured, heck, why not? I love hot dogs. In fact, I've been darn near addicted to them lately. I can't explain it, but anytime I find myself having dinner at home when Katie's working late, I wind up eating a hot dog. Well, for this special occasion, I had my first-ever full-on Chicago-style hot dog. I've come close in the past having eaten one that only lacked pickles, but I went the whole nine yards this time. Actually, I ordered two of them. I really liked them... a lot. That scares me. Dave had the same, but with a veggie dog, which intrigued me. I've never had a tofu-based hot dog before but if it will cut back on the fat and calories and still taste pretty good, I'll give it a shot. Maybe next time.

(This is Dave's photo, BTW)

3
On our way out to Michigan Avenue, we happened across the set of Transformers 3. While it's not a movie that either of us really want to see, it was still cool to see them out there shooting and we each took some photos. One thing that I noticed in a photo of mine is that the guy situated on top of the pile of rubble is none other than Patrick Dempsey. Cool. Sorry, ladies, I didn't get much closer than this.

LEGO
Being the LEGO geeks we are, you bet your sweet bippy we beelined it for the LEGO store on Michigan Avenue next! Some time was spent drooling over the new sets, but, shockingly, neither of us bought anything. Yet. Oh, and speaking of LEGO, yes, Norman was with us.

Apple
And what kind of Apple Whores (tm) would we be if we didn't hit the flagship Apple Store on Michigan Avenue? Bad ones, duh. We played a bit with the Magic Trackpad, which just blew my mind. I love using the trackpad on Katie's MacBook so knowing that a similar device is now available for desktop Macs is way beyond cool.

Disney
We also visited what we believe to be a relatively new Disney Store just a little bit away from the Apple Store. Pretty nice inside and they had a huge selection of crap. Cool crap, mind you.

LEGO
Yes, we made a return trip to the LEGO Store after Dave told me that they did, in fact, have a key chain of the little green alien from Toy Story. I missed it entirely. Sho 'nuff, they had it and I bought it for Katie along with an anniversary edition key chain of the very first white LEGO astronaut. Hadda be done.

Millennium
And what trip to Chicago is complete without a requisite visit to Millennium Park? We went there, snapped some shots and then took the skywalk over to the Modern Art wing of the Art Institute. We didn't really go inside the wing. It was just a means of getting across the street. Oh well. It worked for us.

Gay
While walking around, we happened across a guy on State Street petitioning on behalf of the Human Rights Campaign specifically for gay rights. We stopped to let him explain to us what he was doing. At one point in his speech, he said something along the lines of "these rights we're fighting for would protect all gay people" and there was just something about the way he said it that made us both think he was referring to us. Dave must've caught on to it too because he then said, "ummm, we're not gay." The guy stopped, taken a bit aback, and replied, "oh... really???" I mean, sure, Dave and I make a cute couple, but c'mon, we're totally not each other's type. Psshhh.

More photos are available in a Flickr album.

You gotta take if off, baby, for me...

I actually wasn't going to do any snippets this week. I had nothing yesterday. And I was pretty sure I'd come up with zilch today. However, Katie, in an attempt to make her brother feel like he actually has something worthwhile to live for during his day, helped me come up with enough crap to populate a Snippet Thursday entry. Day late, but not a dollar short!

Pitchfork
Yes, tomorrow is my live music day to end all days! The Pitchfork Music Festival is here and I will be there all day long boiling in what is predicted to be high 80s/low 90s temperatures with about 80% humidity. Oh joy. I love music, but that's brutal. The final day of Pitchfork last year found me wearing jeans, and doing so quite comfortably. Help. Me.

But for anyone interested, I will take some photos and upload them over the weekend to my Flickr account and I'm sure I'll be Tweeting throughout the event so long as there is a reliable AT&T connection at Union Park. It was, at best, spotty last year.

Strippers
My brother-in-law and future sister-in-law are going to a sports card show this weekend at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Chicago. Pretty much the same one I went to with them earlier this year. However, this one got pretty interesting in that the Stephens Center will also be hosting an adult entertainment show called Exxxtacy 2010. So, basically what we're talking about here is a bunch of strippers in their red-light best walking around amongst families with children. And I thought Hooters was family friendly.

I'm trying to talk Scott (the BiL) into writing a guest post about this experience complete with photos from Becca (the FSiL). Anybody else want to see him do it? Votes?

Steinbrenner
No, I'm not wearing a black armband in memory of George Steinbrenner. Sure I was a huge Yankees fan back in the day. I worshipped them during the 80s and early 90s, an era that his iron hand ruled over unquestioningly. And he was responsible for bringing in my favorite baseball player of all time, Don Mattingly. And I do respect the hell out of him for many reasons. And, well, considering all that, maybe I should've been wearing a black armband. R.I.P. George.

TV
This has been a great week for TV. Psych is back. White Collar is back. The new Covert Affairs debuted. The Closer is back. Rizzoli & Isles premiered. Geez. Who needs the regular television season when you've got quality fare like this?

Geneva

Katie and I bummed around our hometown of Geneva this past weekend. It was great just doing our own thing the entire day and we discovered a few new things that made it even more fun. Like Steak Sliders at Wildwood. Yummy! And a bike race that is new to our town but, hopefully, will be back next year when I have my good camera on me (I didn't want to carry it that day only to discover this race was going on after it was too late to do anything about it). So I got a couple photos with my Blackberry. Oh well.

I think I'm going to skip the final snippet we came up with. This should be more than enough for you all, right?

Time to head to Predators!

Oh-oh, wait a minute, Mister Postman...

Can someone please explain something to me?

How did Hooters become a family restaurant?

I know this isn't a new discovery. It's been this way for several years now, but I never quite understood how it happened.

I remember being back in high school and a bunch of us from the football team would drive out to Downers Grove with the intent of scarfing down wings and doing a little "bird watching" (yeah, that's what we'll call it) at the only Hooters restaurant outside of Chicago we could easily drive to.

We felt like miscreants and pervs, knowing we were there primarily to see women in tight-fitting, scoop-necked shirts and very tight and showy orange shorts. But isn't that why everyone was there? Businessmen, college guys, married men... but all men.

Nothing about the place has really changed. Same food, same atmosphere, same outfits.

But certainly not the same clientele.

Katie and I went there with my dad the other day.

Yes, Katie and I. A guy and his wife in a place with scantily clad women.

Walking in ahead of us was a guy and his wife and a baby in a babyseat.

There was a table full of high school aged girls there.

Guys had their women with them.

The walls were adorned with women's wear and kids gear including onesies, bibs (which, back in the day, probably should've been marketed to male customers), booties (get your mind out of the gutter), and more.

There was a time, just a decade ago, when the fiancee of a friend of mine completely nixed the idea of him having a bachelor party at Hooters. Nuh-uh! No way! I think she would've been more agreeable to a stripper than she was to Hooters.

Are we, as a society, actually becoming more accepting of the semi-naked female body? If so, what's next? Family night at the local peep show? Family discounts on lap dances?

This e-mail came in to me today. I was so touched!

Hello, (miracle2dd@att.net)
My name is miracle, i saw your profile today (www.mikebentley.com)and became interested in you,i will also like to know you more,and if you can send an email to my email address,i will give you my pictures here is my email address (miracle2dd@att.net) I believe we can move from here! Awaiting for your mail to my email address here.
miracle.

This is when it's painful to be a proofreader.

I guess it would be a miracle if I ever actually received spam with proper grammar and spelling, wouldn't it?

Lightning crashes...

I was *this* close!

[imagine me holding out my thumb and index finger reallllyyyy close together]

Yes, that's how close I'm pretty sure I came to seeing a funnel cloud last night.

But did I?

No. Of course not. 23 years living in Tornado Alley and nary a funnel cloud have I seen.

But if ever there was a storm during which I should have seen one, last night's was it.

It was nasty.

By 4:30 p.m., it looked like 10 p.m. Dark clouds came rolling in and snuffed out the sun and all clear skies entirely.

By 5:30, I could hear the rain sheeting down on the flat roof of the Target where I was shopping.

By 5:45, tornado sirens were sounding and Target security was ushering people to the back. I, like the moron I am, went outside to check it all out. Swirling clouds, thunder, lightning, you name it.

By 6:00, I had received a call from my mom asking if I'd gotten home alright. I wasn't there yet, but I said I was on my way. She told me that she and my dad had seen about two or three funnel clouds. They were only about 10 miles from where I had been. That blows.

By 6:45, I was home and watching the skies erupt a bit more.

By 8:00, it had cleared up and an orange-hued, post-apocalyptic-looking sky replaced the darkness.

Mother Nature astounds me sometimes. Check them out...

A storm of sorts is bearing down upon Chicago hockey.

Now that the season is done, trades and releases and reassignments are happening.

The first came thundering down last night with the reported trade of Dustin Byfuglien, Ben Eager, and Brent Sopel along with a prospect I've never heard of to the Atlanta Thrashers for Jeremy Morin, Marty Reasoner, a first-round draft pick, and a second-round draft pick.

I love all three of those guys and don't want to see them go. Yes, I understand that it frees up $5.3M from our salary cap and gives us four draft picks in the first two rounds of the draft. And I have heard great things about both Morin and Reasoner. But it still sucks. I like Big Buff (and I cannot lie - ha!).

It's a sad day for Blackhawks fans. *sniffle*

’Cause I’m under construction everyone...

I continue to enjoy drooling over LEGO creations. This time at Brickworld 2010 in Wheeling yesterday.

But I think I'll leave the true construction to the big spenders. Definitely not me.

Some of this stuff is truly amazing, isn't it?

Commando, involved again...

I would just like to tell you that there is little that compares to the exhilaration of starting your day with no underwear.

After my workout at the gym, I went to shower and get ready for work. I took my clean clothes from my gym bag and realization set in like Quikrete… dammit, I have no underwear.

What could I do save for starting my day commando?

Yes, I did shower.

Yes, I did dress.

Yes, I had no protection.

And, for you women reading out there, you will never see a man proceed more cautiously than he does when he is zipping his pants while wearing no underwear.

Oh, yes, I did manage to find a 24-hour Wal-Mart and I stopped to pick up emergency drawers on the way to work. There are times when going commando is okay. Wearing slacks that are dry-clean only is not one of those times.

As much as I hate to do it, let it be said on high that when I had an undies emergency, my unlikely hero was *gulp* Wal-Mart!

Despite my clean underwear, I feel so dirty.

I want.

I want.

I want.

Did I mention, I want?

Commencing countdown, engines on...

Welcome to yet another late-in-the-day Snippet Wednesday.

Cubs
I’m actually going to a Cubs game tomorrow with Katie. Been a while since either of us has been, but we were given tickets by a really fantastic person and you bet your sweet bippie we’re gonna go. Oh, and it’s in Milwaukee which has become about the only place we can go to see Cubs games since games at Wrigley Field are too packed and too expensive and too difficult to get to and, in my opinion, just not worth the headache. Go Miller Park!

Blackhawks
Tonight is game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals (actually, we just wrapped the first period) and I’m really not gonna say much more about it other than that. I really don’t want to jinx anything. But I will let my new Twitter friend @niemisays say it all for me. He's got plenty to say.

NASA
I was completely confused and intrigued by a series of window stickers I saw on the back of a vehicle in front of me this morning. I’m guessing that was the point of them, make you wonder and actually pay attention and I certainly did. Check it out…

Of course, I saw another sticker on his bumper that made me realize what it is. Not that my complete and utter misunderstanding of their use of NASA helped.

I did like it better when I thought it was some cool puzzle.

Books
I’ve been on a bit of tear in recent months on books that I’ve been reading. It’s about time, too! Now I’m finally going back and finishing up a handful of partial reads that were left behind in the last year or two. They were books I enjoyed, but since my zeal for reading was dead, they kinda went by the wayside. Time to play catch up.

Gotta get back to the game. GO BLACKHAWKS!

We’ve been through this before…

As a photographer, one of the things I hate most is seeing or envisioning a great shot and not having my gear around.

This happened to me yesterday. I was taking full advantage of a traffic-avoidance back road when I saw this cool broken skateboard on the curb along the side of our local Best Buy. It was the back quarter of a deck with the truck and wheels still attached and it was just sitting there completely useless and immobile.

Not my photo, but you get the point of how the broken 1/4 deck looked.

I hit my brakes and reached over to my passenger seat to grab my camera. And it wasn't there.

I forgot that I had moved my gear over to Katie's car when I took my truck in for an oil change a half hour prior. And it was still sitting in Katie's car while the shredded board was sitting there hoping that I could provide it at least a modicum of usefulness by setting it up for a photograph. Alas, I could not.

I made a point of leaving home a little earlier than normal for the gym this morning so I could drive back to the Best Buy with my camera and take a picture. It was actually raining out this morning, adding to the potential despair inherent in the situation. Again, I could not. Some damn person actually cleaned up and either ditched the board in the dumpster or took it home so they could have an extra truck and wheels.

Grrrr.

Have you ever listened to a song named for a person and wondered what it would be like to be in a situation where you could actually use that song on them? For example, back in my undergrad years, one of my classmates was named Cecilia. Of course I serenaded her in class with the horror that is my singing voice belting out some Simon and Garfunkel.

And she threatened to kill me if I ever did it again.

I believed her.

Sweet girl.

There are other songs as well. I always wanted to date a Beth so I could sing her some KISS during those rough patches in our relationship.

This morning, I was reminded of yet another song along those lines. One that I haven't heard in almost 20 years and nearly went into shock when I heard again. It was Europe's "Carrie." Yes, the band that sang "The Final Countdown" actually did have a few other minor hits, arguably. This was one of them.

Talk about a fantastic break-up song. And I never dated a Carrie that I could use this on. Sad.

Roads go ever ever on...

Happy Snippet Wednesday, y'all!

Rain
Or maybe I should call it Wicked Morning Weather Wednesday. Man, we got some storms last night into this morning. It was pretty wicked. Usually an indication of pretty heavy rain is when your driveway and sidewalk are covered with earthworms. What the hell's it a sign of when you have frogs? Little guy was sitting in my driveway right in the way of the path of my truck tires. I had to shoo him out of the way or risk frog gut skidmarks. Oh, and go figure that we get all this rain immediately after I go on a lawn-watering binge. Just like a car wash, isn't it?

Hobbit
Kudos to Director Guillermo del Toro for bowing out of directing The Hobbit. For quite some time now, del Toro, who directed Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth, was tied to this prequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Considering how much I loved Pan's Labyrinth (if you haven't seen it, get it, now), I was really kinda stoked about him directing The Hobbit. I always kinda preferred the story of Bilbo Baggins to the group exploits of Frodo, et al, anyway. But the studio started to put pressure on him to film it in 3D. He said no. And he stuck to his guns. Good. 3D needs to stop.

Recalls
One of the cars we've been looking at possibly buying was the Toyota Prius... and then the Toyota recalls happen. This trip to Florida, we rented and fell for our Ford Fusion... and now it's succumbing to an investigation for the same acceleration problems as the Prius. Should I mention the other two cars we're interested in or not press our luck?

Hunt
I really enjoyed setting up the Kapgar Photo Scavenger Hunt last month. It was a blast to do and to see what everyone came up with. However, you may have noticed one little catch... I never posted pictures for the final week for myself. Yep, despite my extended week, I still didn't take any pictures. Whoops. Not for lack of trying. I knew exactly what I was going to take pictures of, I just never got off my ass and did it. Hell, I barely took enough pictures to fulfill my Photo365 commitment. Yeah, I was not photomotivated last week.

Hawks
But I did submit my jersey/beard photo to ChicagoNow for a Chicago Blackhawks fan gallery and they used it. Go me! And Go Hawks!

Time to go root on my hockey team!

So never judge a book by it's cover...

I had heard stories about Danny.

He lived a couple houses away from Katie's family.

And, when he grew up, he was finally given the opportunity to discover who he truly believed himself to be.

The other night, I got to meet him... or "her," to be more precise.

I didn't get to meet her for long as she was prepping for a show that night. She was going to sing a Kelly Clarkson song I wasn't familiar with to a crowd in a nearby suburb. She has also performed as Cher and Amy Winehouse, among others.

But, despite her rush, Danny was more than willing to strike a pose for Katie, her parents, and me. Danny welcomed it, in fact, as you'll see in these photos Katie and I took.

There's a first time for everything, eh?

The boys get lonely after you leave...

I've got my jersey and my playoff beard ready to go. Sure, the beard has been trimmed a couple times during the playoff run, but it's still there.

Norman's got his support showing.

I've got the support of fellow bloggers and Tweeters from all different areas such as Dave from Washington State, Sybil Law from Cincinnati, @hellohahanarf from Pittsburgh, and LeSombre from Ottawa, among many others. Chicagoist blogged that the Lincoln Park Zoo has weighed in. Dave even drew up a DaveToon showing support.

Yeah, I'm ready for those Stanley Cup Finals to begin tonight with my Chicago Blackhawks squaring off against the Philadelphia Flyers.

GO 'HAWKS!

But I want to admit that while I've been a Blackhawks fan since moving to Chicago in 1987, something feels weird about it.

Throughout middle school and high school, I wore my fandom on my sleeve, literally, by wearing an old Blackhawks jersey to school every so often. I lived and loved Blackhawks hockey.

But I stopped following it for a while. Don't get me wrong, I never stopped liking the 'Hawks and being proud that they were my home team, but from the mid-90s until 2007, it was very difficult to be an active Blackhawks fan... a true and ardent supporter.

What a lot of you may not realize is that former Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz jacked up ticket prices and blacked out home games in the Chicago area. We couldn't watch our Hawks without dishing out a veritable fortune. And, considering they were playing like crap with some horrible personnel decisions being made, nobody was willing to dish out that small fortune.

I did go to a few games here and there, but they weren't nearly enough to whet my hockey whistle, as it were. And I wound up attending more games of our local AHL franchise, the Chicago Wolves, who, let's face it, were not only a much cheaper ticket, but a much more exciting and winning team.

I still longed for my Blackhawks to return to relevance or at least return to a place where I could watch them again on TV.

This moment came in 2007 when Bill Wirtz died and ownership of the team was taken over by his son, Rocky. The Rock experimented with a few home games being broadcast during the 2007-2008 season and he then went full bore having pretty much every home game broadcast on Comcast SportsNet or WGN or Versus. Combine this with some very intelligent personnel decisions and a very high degree of marketing and we finally saw real NHL-level hockey in Chicago again.

And my fandom returned to full-frenzy status.

Of course, that first full year of televised coverage saw the 'Hawks make it to the Western Conference Finals where they lost to the Detroit Red Wings (thank you, Pittsburgh, for beating up on them in the Stanley Cup for me). And, to me, I almost felt dirty because I once again began to be a fan during a season where they did really well. I felt almost like a bandwagoner, a fair-weather fan.

Is this feeling legit? Should I worry about this? It's not my fault I couldn't be a hardcore fan, right? I fully blame Bill Wirtz for taking that from me and yet I still feel like I should've been a better fan during those lean years. But how could I? I was either in college, or grad school, or newly married, or a recent homebuyer. I just couldn't afford to regularly attend 'Hawks games and I certainly couldn't watch them. I did attend a game every season or two. But the only other coverage I had was minimal at best in newspapers or on the evening news, and we all know how scant the reporting is on a team that plays like crap.

I'm not really fair-weather, am I? I'm simply a victim of circumstance, right? Please say no to the first and yes to the second. 

Well, whatever.

GO 'HAWKS!!

This morning, after Katie left for work, I fell back in bed and watched The Empire Strikes Back. It's the first time in far too many years since I've seen the film. The first time I've watched it on an HDTV.

No, it's not the official DVD version that Lucas released with all the new footage added to it.

An old friend of mine took the THX-remastered laser discs and committed them to DVD several years ago and gave me copies of the entire original trilogy. I treasure these DVDs as they never have been and likely never will be available to the public. They're not perfect, sure, but I was pretty damned surprised at how good they looked on an HDTV, all things considered.

I love The Empire Strikes Back.

Even as I left Florida...

I think I shall tackle the post about our recent vacation to Florida all Clint Eastwood style!

The Good

• We got to see Nano for several days
• All three of our flights arrived ahead of schedule (anywhere from 15 minutes to a half hour)
• We rented a really nice 2010 Ford Fusion and I was quite comfortable driving it
• We had free Sirius/XM satellite radio in the rental car and I fell in love with the Lithium channel (24)
• We spent several days poolside and got tans but did not burn
• I took a boatload of photos and managed to complete my weekly photo challenge with Disney photos
• We did not overspend on anything really
• We hit up two parks in the Disney compound - Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom
• We pretty much bought nothing at Disney other than food
• We learned how to play the system at Disney for free ice water
• We hit up most of the major rides at the two parks and even rode several of them twice with time to spare
• I watched as someone was viewing porn on their laptop computer at the airport
• We started and finished season four of Monk on our portable DVD player
• We rarely used our cellphones and didn't even carry them on some days
• We left our laptop at home - you cannot imagine how freeing this felt

The Bad

• We waited a little too long and our airfare jumped up a bit from when we originally priced it
• We pretty much bought nothing at Disney other than food (food is expensive and we were hoping to get at least a little Christmas shopping done)
• We had to deal with huge crowds at the park - the worst was Animal Kingdom where we were sardines in a sweat lodge
• We saw parental neglect at its worst as parents sat talking or browsing the web on their phones as their kids ran around wrecking havoc (it's hard to blame the kids when the parents are paying zero attention)
• Our Illinois iPass still isn't compatible with Florida's tollway autopay system (works in 14 other states, though)
• Dinoland USA just does not fit in with the rest of Animal Kingdom at all; it upends what is otherwise a nicely themed park
• Strollers are evil - people should be given size limitations for strollers in crowded public areas like amusement parks as well as on public transportation
  Clarification (before parents tear me a new one) - I have no problem with strollers on general principle, but the Cadillacs these parents were pushing around taking up literally 6-10 square feet of space were just ridiculous. We saw one parent fold over a tandem stroller and shove it into a tram then, with baby in hand, climb over the top of it and slide down into the last available seat to get to the parking lot. He not only held up the tram for five minutes extra (with the conductor instructing him to wait for a new one where he would have plenty of room) but packed in all the other people to a point of discomfort and endangered his kid while scaling Mount Stroller.

The Ugly

• The heat - it was ridiculously hot and it was only May. We were sweating horribly both days at Disney and our energy levels got sapped very quickly

The Photos

'nuff said.

As I arrived home tonight after work, I noticed a little bird fluttering around near our front door. I walked up there and, in a flight of fear, just started flapping everywhere and wound up running into walls and doors and everything you can imagine.

For his own good, I tried to shoo him away from the entryway and into the wide open outdoors. Instead he flew into my garage and would not (or could not) leave. He kept flying into the walls or into the side of my truck or flapping like mad against the bottom edge of our garage door. At one point, he clung to the door and hung upside down like a bat.

I finally got him outside, but couldn't help but wonder if he was blind or if it was just severe fear and confusion. I wasn't sure what to make of it.

Here he is...

I hope he's okay.

Here he comes, here comes Speed Racer...

Sorry this is going out so late in the day. I know I've "ruined" my brother-in-law's day by not having it posted in a manner that allows him to read it from work. Oh well. Snippet Wednesday and I are officially failures!

NCIS
I was so ticked off this morning when I logged on to Twitter and saw that somebody had ruined the "shocker" ending to last night's NCIS: Los Angeles. Didn't even put "Spoiler Alert" on the Tweet. Just all right there for the world to see. ARGH!

Sir
The other day, I was walking around during my lunch break with my camera snapping a few photos when I saw a couple of high school guys doing the same thing. We kinda did the whole "fellow photographer" nod in passing. But, later, we actually crossed paths and spoke. I said "hey" to them and they said "hello, sir" to me. SIR? Me? Christ, am I so old that a couple guys in ragged camouflage and Jonas Brothers haircuts are calling me "sir"? Damn.

Running
Okay, week one of morning workouts yielded 7.5 miles of running. Week two yielded 7.25 (I had trouble on Thursday and we didn't run at all on Friday; just weight lifting). But so far this week, I've already run 6.5 miles and Katie's at 7 miles. Woo hoo! Katie actually hit 3 miles yesterday. That's awesome and I'm so proud of her. And we've still got two days of workouts left.

Speed
I was putting some stuff in the attic yesterday when I decided to dig out some of my old office toys that I had stashed away. On occasion, I had purchased a Lego set or two and some of them were stored away when I got tired of looking at them. Well, I decided I wanted to find my Speed Racer Lego sets from a couple years ago for use in a Stormin' Norman idea I had. I looked everywhere in the attic and couldn't find them at all. I looked in a few other non-attic places and zilch. I have no clue where they could be. How do Lego sets up an disappear? Madness I tell you!

Potato
I love when classic toys make comebacks. And one such toy has been the good ol' Mr. Potato Head. He saw a resurgence thanks, I believe, to the Toy Story franchise of movies. And then they started doing specialized tie-ins to other movies and whatnot such as Star Wars (Darth Tater, Spudtrooper, and Artoo-Potatoo), Indiana Jones (Idaho Jones and the Taters of the Lost Ark), and Transformers (Optimash Prime and Bumble Spud). Well, I discovered last week, when checking out Jon Favreau's Twitter account, that they have a Tony Starch Potato Head for Iron Man 2. Way cool. My office mate picked one up for her desk which has prompted me to dig out my Darth Tater. Yeah, another reason I was up in the attic.

Challenge
I think I might have to pick some slightly easier lyrics for next week's Kapgar Photo Scavenger Hunt. I'm having trouble coming up with photos and I'm the freakin' guy who picked the clues. Sheesh!

Time for bed. *yawn*

Communication breakdown, it's always the same...

The other day, Katie was examining the beard that I still am growing (hey, the Blackhawks have advanced to the second round of the playoffs; my loyalty remains) when the following conversation occurred.

Katie: Ahhhh! You've got grey hairs!

Kevin: Yes I do. I'm getting old.

Katie: No! You can't grow old!

Kevin: I don't think I have a choice in the matter.

Katie: Don't worry, we'll just die [this was how I heard it].

Kevin: What?!?!

Katie: Yeah, we'll just have Amy [her hairdresser] dye it.

Kevin: Oh! "Dye"! I thought you said "die."

Katie: Why would I say that?

Kevin: I dunno. I thought you were on a Who kick. You know, like "hope I die before I get old."

Glad we cleared that one up. Phew!

I went to lunch with Katie earlier today.

On the way home, I was greeted with this outside our house. There was actually a fourth squad car out of frame. I still would like to know what happened.

We live in such a ghetto.

Old yellow bricks...

I don't care if it makes me seem childlike... or immature... or too-clingy-to-my-past... or whatever the heck else you may want to call it.

I LOVE LEGOS.

And, this past weekend, I had that love reinforced while meeting with a bunch of people my age and even older who clearly love them far even more than I do.

The guys I met up with were from the Northern Illinois Lego Train Club and they had a really cool display of stuff at the Geneva History Center. While the focus was supposed to be trains, the true amazement came in seeing what they built to surround these trains. The settings were gorgeous ranging from a facade of city buildings from the mid-1900s to space Legos and Star Wars and Starcraft and Indiana Jones and Harry Potter and medieval structures... you name it. I was in awe.

I've always loved trains dating back to the Lionel trains my dad used to set up around the Christmas tree. And Lego trains were always something I liked, but could never justify the cost. So I sate myself by geeking out with what everyone else does.

Oh, and I take pictures. Copious amounts of pictures. Here are some of the pictures I took.

I know Katie gets a little weirded out by my love of Legos even though it truly is small scale by comparison to these guys. So I asked a couple of them how their wives handle their obsession. Turns out one of the wives was actually there and she answered that her therapist told her it could instead be an obsession with fixing or collecting expensive cars. She agreed and her husband's collection took off.

I told Katie what this woman told me. She agreed as well. Not that I'm going to start buying a boatload of Legos, but at least I don't think the eye-rolling will be as bad.

BTW, yes, I am totally going to Brick World 2010. Anyone want to go with me?

It's amazing the difference a week can make.

Last Friday marked the end of my first week of early morning workouts and I gotta say that they're going pretty well so far. In fact, the goal I set for myself of being able to run two miles straight through by our Florida trip I hit on Friday. I know I should have set that goal a bit higher, but considering how poor my running had been going up to that point, I preferred to aim lower and then have to set a new one instead of aim too high and get disappointed.

This morning was a bit more of a test, in my mind. Running two miles after warming yourself up to it the four previous days is one thing, but keeping it up after a couple days off on the weekend is something else altogether.

I did hit the two miles again this morning, but it was a bit painful. As a result, Katie and I have decided that we do need to make sure we do at least some kind of exercise on the weekend. It doesn't have to be the monster workout we do during the week, just something to keep us going so Mondays don't strike back with such blunt force.

Just keep running, running, running...