So check this out, I know y'all gonna love it!  The Windy City got Thunderstorm of Torrential Proportions last night.  It was rough, but don't worry about me, I slept right through it.  The important part.. well, I work in this super fancy pants, fortress/prison looking type building, brand new, right?  Well, last night, said Thunderstorm came a-rumblin' through town, and took out the power to said brand new building.. now this is where the story gets hazy, 'cause I'm a Regulatory/Legal Type Guy... but I get myself to work and I'm told at the gate, there's no work today!  They said that the storm took out some transformer to or in the building.  Now I don't know what a robot that changes into a truck has to do with me having to review art files, but dangit, we had no work today!  So... I went home, slept some, got lunch, saw Pirates of the Caribbean again.. came home.. slept some more.. Truly a great day!

PS.. if you haven't seen Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's Chest yet.. please do, aye, it be thee best movie o' the summer matey! arrrrr!

 

So I haven't blogged in a long time. This is probably way overdue. Its like that Star Wars Episode 2. You waited for 10 years for it and it was terrible. So don't get too excited.

I think that most of you know that I went to Munich for a global meeting for work at the end of May. As Canada is the 51st state, this would be my first time out of the country. Germany was nice, I loved it and I want to live there, but only for like a year or two. The sauerkraut and pork caused some weird stuff to happen in my belly. Anyway, another person in my group and I had planned to leave the weekend before and sightsee in Paris. Well, we're busy at work, so that got canceled and we flew out Tuesday night. The Lufthansa plane was full, so who do we get to Fly? Dear OLD United. And the flight there wasn't bad, I mean the plane was probably only about ten years older than me. But the flight home? All of us left at the same time. Another person and I get into the United Check in line and everyone else to the Lufthansa. Well, we get up to the gates and the planes are leaving within 15 minutes of each other and they're at gates next to each. Lufthansa = Huge White Shiny Airbus. I can only imagine what the inside looks like. Our plane? And old ass dirty gray and yellow stained on the inside United 767. I didn't even know that planes flew this old. It did get us back to the US, so I shouldn't complain, but here's an example. The guy next to me had problems with the seat in front of him. You know that pouch that holds 15 magazines full of shit you can get for a tenth of the price on the BIG BIG O? Well, his was broken. The pouch, not the O. It had a metal wire jabbing his leg. He asks that flight attendant for help and of course there is nothing she can do. Well, about 2 hours into the flight, she shows up, drops a roll of duct tape off and walks away. That's right.. the seats of United Jets, while not quite golden thrones are indeed chrome.. Kentucky Chrome.

So sadly, today marked the end of a tradition.. longer lasting (and still running) for Tony than me, but sadly the end.  What's this tradition?  It's me, standing in the wings of UD Arena, section 409, row A, seats 13 or maybe 14, screaming and cussing my fool head off next to Keg as the Flyers roll on to another win over the Mooseketeers of Eggsavior.  Well, because of a Nascar race, the vacation that I was going to spend on the midweek trip to Ohio had to be moved... so I didn't go to the game... but I had 6 friends use my tickets and represent!  Thanks for going out of your way to go guys!  Now.. back to the game, since thankfully, ESPN2 was kind enough to broadcast it in Chicago.  It was fun to watch.. I was crouching (most of you know what that means), yelling and cheering.  A good time.. then I realized something.  Xavier and Dayton are at the exact same level.  They're both very young.. I think X starts several Frosh and Sophs, just like Dayton.. and they each won on their home court by 5.  Seems pretty equal to me.  Thanks X guys and Dayton guys even more for my entertainment tonight.. it was much needed.. Next year Tony, the tradition resumes...

... which brings me to my trip to Toronto.. or specifically, Guelph, Ontario.  I've learned a lesson.  Don't EVER make jokes about coming home in a dogsled.. because I was close.  A place that hasn't seen but 6 inches of snow all year.. got 8 in one night.. then a freak lightning, thunder and freezing rain storm.  Did I mention that I didn't get a rental car.  Fun times to be on foot.  I have a new respect for Canadians.  Ugh...

Aight, back to the homework.. lata gatas!

 

So I'm leaving tonight for a business trip.  I'm going to Toronto, well sorta.. I'm actually going to a place 1.5 hours outside of Toronto.  In the middle of February.  With a winter storm quickly bearing down on O'Hare.  Then to top it off.. we have this service that gives travel information and alerts when you're going somewhere.. apparently all of the Canadians involved in Public Service, ie snow removal, are preparing to stike.  Since when did we give Little Bro up North permission to think for themselves, let alone strike? 

Note to self.. when you're boss is a crazed, single Italian Canadian who maintains her citizenship and votes by proxy, don't get into heated discussions with her in winter.. she knows the exact place to send you to get you back...

Wish me luck, I may return by dogsled!

So I work on an island... I think most of you know that.. it's really close to the fun stuff (including my gym) on North Avenue.  But to get to North Avenue, you've gotta cross a 'Pedestrian Bridge.'  Now.. what comes to mind when you think Pedestrian Bridge?  For most of you current or old school homies from Huber, you probably think of the nice bridge they built across the river, down by Rip Rap.. well, that's not the Chicago definition of 'Pedestrian Bridge.'  The bridge I cross is an old train bridge.. that's been fire damaged and still has trains on it... fun huh?  It's also a wooden bridge, with a Beaver living underneath it.  I've seen him 3 times and named him Beavis... it's rather entertaining, instead of spending money to rehab the bridge a bit, the city has spent money to plant all these baby trees and landscaping around the bridge... yes, in the winter.. with a Beaver nearby.. needless to say, all these 'trees' are now 4 inch stumps.  I think it's funny.. you probably don't.

In important news (at least to me, probably not you) Dawn's back from Brazil/Connecticut, so the bachelor life has been temporarily suspended.  Guess I'll have to go back to scooping the litter box and putting the toilet seat down.. geez!

Oh yeah, thanks for hosting the party this weekend Jerry.. even though the Flyers are terrible, they put up a fight and it was fun.  I promise to work on my kicking game!

Peace.

So I haven't blogged in awhile, but really, there's been not much of anything exciting to blog about.  Until yesterday...

I'm not sure how many of you are gym members, but given the arctic tundra of Chicago that I live in, there aren't many options for getting a good cardio workout in the winter.. and truthfully, maybe not even the summer.. though if you can dodge traffic, you can dodge a ball... so anyway, my gym here, like every other has rows of treadmills lined up one behind the other.  Well, I get to the gym, yeah on a Friday, and there's not many people there, but dangit, there's this 300 lb byotch in the treadmill right in front of the only TV with sportscenter on.. so I start jogging on the treadmill behind her.. listening to my ipod and reading the close captioned updates on the teams left in the playoffs.. not 5 minutes into my run, this scent enters my nose... and it's not one of those stopping to smell the roses type of scents.. it's more like I've just made a sweaty salsa in my pants type scent... I almost puked... the fat woman had farted.  At least that's what I hoped.. because I'd hate to think of the other possibilities..  So my question is this.. isn't there some sort of etiquette about farting in the gym?  Isn't this a law? 

In other, less vile news, Dawn and I have managed to blow 3 separate circuit breakers in our apartment today.  That ties our record..

Have a good weekend!

So our neighborhood in Chicago was originally a Ukrainian, Polish, Russian type place.  It shows.  And when we moved in, we learned that within a 1 square mile radius of our hood, there are 18 churches.  We thought that was pretty neat.  Well, being of Eastern European decent, these churches are all Orthodox.  And the thing about the Orthodox people.. they don't follow the calendar followed by normal people.  Nope, not at all, they have Christmas on January 7th!  So imagine my surprise, when we got home from the grocery, and there was no place to park!  There's always parking in our neighborhood, except during church hours on Sundays.  Well, yesterday was even worse!  Christmas Mass and you get all those people who only come for Christmas.  There were cars on the sidewalks, parked in alleys, everywhere!  It was crazy.  I parked about a mile away...

So today is the playoff game against the Steelers.  WHO-DEY!!!!!!  We're having our first party in Chicago.  So I recommend all of you to drive up here to join us!

Lata!

That's what the last couple days have been worth. Actually yesterday was fun!! Go BUCKS! For you guys that know me.. I used to hate OSU... sleeping in the same bed with a Buckeye changes that. Anyway, the party was fun... I ate probably 20 of those little chocolately buckeye things. Today was interesting at work. My whole team is attending a meeting this summer in Munich. Well three of us are going early to check out Paris. Today, the other two decided that since the early part checking out Paris is on our money, we're all three going to pitch in on a suite because it's cheaper.. which is a little freaky to begin with, being that I've only worked there 4 months and the other two are women. But then they wanted to know what sort of clothes I sleep in... very strange.. would anyone else feel awkward in that situation? That's about it today.. oh yeah, going back to the gym.. I ran 3.1 miles today according to the treadmill. Peace Y'all!

So I just accidentally deleted my first blog post.  As that blog said, I suck at this stuff and now I've proven it.  I can't even remember most of what I said.  Oh yeah.. Bengals lost.. backups played, no biggie, ate a chicken sandwich and beat Dawn at Stratego.  That about sums up today.  Exciting?!