Dispatches from across the pond.

Hey guys.

I thought I'd give you all some updates from my first-ever trip to Europe. I'm in Nice now, and I absolutely love it, but there will be more on that later. For the moment, let's chat about London.

Backstory: Since I needed to be down in SC for next week's Fowler Family Radio Hour (see previous post!) shows, I drove down to Sumter on Saturday and flew out of Charlotte on Sunday. I had to teach Saturday, so I didn't get to Sumter until almost 6am. No biggie. I wanted to be tired on the plane so I could sleep.

Sunday I ate Chinese food with my family, and Sam and Mom took me to the airport. The flight from Charlotte to Gatwick was uneventful. I didn't get to sleep much, but that's because I was flying coach and had about an inch and a half of space between the window and the Halliburton contractor sitting next to me. (Might not have been Halliburton, but he was a DoD contractor headed to Dubai and then Afghanistan, so you do the math.) The two hours I got on the plane plus the 4 hours I got in Sumter mean that between Saturday morning (around 6am) and my arrival in London on Monday (around 8:15, London time), I had banked a total of six hours of sleep. That explains why I nearly passed out in the TATE Britain and took a 300 year old portrait with me... but that's a narrowly avoided international incident for another day.

I had an 11 hour layover in London, so I headed into town. Why not?

The first picture I took before doing so? I picture from the restroom, because I think international signs are hilarious.

.. ahem...

Anyway, the time on the town was great. I took the train into Victoria Station, and had neither a map, nor a gameplan, nor a particularly clear consciousness due to the sleep delerium I had on the back burner.

I wandered some. I stopped off and had a cup of tea. Darjeeling. It was good. I figured it was a must in London, plus it help put me in the mood for some sightseeing.

I caught Westminster Abbey. Beautiful. I didn't go inside, but it was pretty amazing just to be around it.

... and another portion of it....

Here's one of one of the other churches on the Abbey grounds (St. Michael's?) with Big Ben in the background...

This also began my comedy of errors of trying to take a picture of myself.

Could be worse.

Next I strolled over to Parliament where I took this gem.

What a tool.

I took some shots of the Thames next, and you can see the London Eye in the background.

I also made my way to Buckingham Palace and took these classics.

What a moron.

There were red phone booths....

and tiny cars that looked like red phone booths....

(That's a Prius behind it... that's how small this thing was....)

and men dressed in red with hats like phone booths....

and red buses. I didn't take a picture of those....

I also ate Fish and Chips and had a pint of Old Speckled Hen at the Bag O' Nails Pub.

Is all of this cliche? Sure, but give me a break. It was a few hours in London.

More to come.

Fowler Family Radio Hour @ Spoleto!

Hey there cats and kittens.

My blog has lain fallow for long enough. I've been swamped with all sorts of work and play, but it's time to get back on the pony.

How better to do that then through shameless self promotion?!?!?!

A show that I, along with five other native-Southern Chicago transplants, wrote and perform is coming to the Piccolo Spoleto Fringe Festival next week! The show is May 26-29 at Theatre 99 (280 Meeting Street, 2nd level.) Tickets are 15 bucks, and can be purchased through Ticketmaster (though we all know how much TM loves their fees...) or by going to the Piccolo Spoleto Box office at the Gailliard Auditorium. More details on that here.

The show is a good time. We've performed it at several theatres in Chicago, and it has always been well received.

Find us online at www.myspace.com/fowlerfamilyradiohour.

Also, if you aren't sure what I'm getting you into, there's a preview on youtube. Find that here.

From now until the show, I'll be in France for work, but feel free to email me or leave comments here if you have questions.

I hope to see you there!

-Tim

Back to it.

In case you didn't notice... and I am sure you did, but were too polite to mention it.... I had a long lapse in posting, and just played catch-up to get posts about the trip home up and running.

After the trip, I was pretty much toast.

Too much food. Too much beer. Too many nice people. Too much nice weather.

It was a great break. So great that it was tough to face the absolute madness that I encountered upon my return. Deadlines. Class wrap-ups. Show openings. General insanity.

I'll post on all of that later. For now, I need to prepare for more daily grind nonsense.

The Wedding.

Bruce's Wedding was some of this:

A bit of this:

And a lot of this:

Food.

When you've been away from the south and you come back to visit, you are barraged with an incredible bounty of delicious food. Food you can't find in Chicago.

Before the wedding, we were going to hit up Mac's Drive Thru, a Clemson institution. Gorgeous greasy heart-stoppers. Delicious.

It was packed. Therefore, we went here:

What are the odds?

Good food. Not Chicago-style.

Which is fine. For the record.

Bachelor Party

In lieu of the standard ridiculous bachelor party debauchery, Bruce, Ray, Jason, and I went up to the mountains and had a few days of giant steaks, good beer, stogies, xbox, chicken wings, table shuffleboard, and good old fashioned Boone relaxation.

It was pretty fun.

Easter Egg Hunt

Cuter than a basket full of kittens and puppies floating in a magical pool filled with lollipops, candy canes, and baby mermaids.

Spongebob Addiction

My niece Bailey is 19 months old and precocious. (I guess. What do I know about early childhood development? She seems a lot less lame than most sub-2 kids. )

She likes to eat ice. She presses her forehead against stuff. She really likes being thrown in the air and jumping off of stuff. She can differentiate between drinks, and will often ask for water, milk, juice, and tea all in the same sitting. If you give her the wrong drink, she doesn't pout, but she does look disappointed. She quotes Spongebob Squarepants incessantly.

If you've ever seen "Wonderpets", "Doodlebops", or any other program targeted at toddlers and preschoolers, you'd know that a Spongebob obsession is a wonderful thing for a child to have. Those other shows? Terrible. Spongebob? Hilarious.

Still, it's somehow troublesome to see a tiny kid toddling around yelling "Go Gary Go!" or "I'm ready! I'm ready! etc..." or any other common Spongebobism. Does a show about a sponge who lives in a Pineapple who works for a crab and has adventures with his best friend (a starfish) warp a kid's worldview?

I guess no more than a show about a magical street inhabited by a giant flightless bird, a trash monster, and a hairy elephant.

Or, for that matter, a dude who plays with puppets and can't walk in the door without changing his shoes and outerwear...

I miss those shows.

Trip Home

So, I'm down in South Carolina for a bit. I left around 8 on Thursday night and drove through the night. Maybe that sounds like crazy-talk, but here's what it 13 hrs in a car got me:

Chicago:

Sumter, SC:

Not a bad trade.

Strange.

I wish I lived in this house. I'd wear a threadbare smoking jacket all the time.

I saw this on the Reagan Expressway.

Makes sense, I guess. How else would you carry a turn-of-the-century 'high wheel' bicycle on the back of your sensible late-model Honda?

Hockey.

So the Blackhawks are really doing badly this season. Bad news for them. Good news for me. I really like going to hockey games. Watching them on TV isn't the same, and isn't something I really enjoy, but being there is a blast.

So why are bad Blackhawks good news? Because Chicago is pretty apathetic towards them right now, and in order to fill the house, tickets are available for 75 cents.

Seriously. I went with my friend Shelby, and I bought two tickets in advance on ticketmaster, and including all taxes, charges, and fees, it was $6.12 for two tickets. Way cheaper than a movie, plus there's beer and fighting. I'm in.

Blackhawks 3. Columbus 1. We're good luck charms.

Cowlick Musical

We open April 20th. Get excited.

MacGyver

Things I have:

A bottle of wine.
The desire to drink a bottle of wine.
A never-used doorstop with a nice coarsely-threaded head.

Things I don't have:

A corkscrew.


Genius.

Teaching

I've been teaching a lot lately. While some of those classes have been in a traditional classroom in high school, a lot of those have been in a sort of conference room setting. That's a strange sort of dynamic. Ah well. Free coffee.

Weekend

My weekend.
Friday- Straight from working at the bank to working box office at The Playground. From there to home, where I worked on some writing and editing stuff until lateish.
Saturday- Up around 5 to do some more of the editing stuff that I couldn't finish the night before. In Naperville by 8:30. Taught a class from 9-1:30 and another one from2-5. Back to Chicago. Quick trip to the grocery store, at The Playground by 7:15 for a Cowlick show. After that, beers and Balderdash at BJs place. Home by 1.
Sunday- Up by 8. In Naperville around 9:45. Class till 1. Back in Chicago for Hogwash rehearsal at 2. Departed from Hogwash at 4 to head home to do more stuff for the magazine. Involuntary nap... (Not a lot of sleep this weekend), and a late arrival to a Fowler meeting at Shelby's. Back home by 9. Work on writing/editing stuff until 3. Awake around 7 to finish up. Phone interview at 9.

And now? The relaxation of the 'work week.'

Stupid quasibohemian, non-9-to-5, maintain multiple job lifestyle. It's pretty great... most of the time. Still, weekends like this make me long for the relaxation of a cubicle, benefits, and a single w2.

Good day, Sunshine

Record high temperature today. 73 Degrees. March 13. Not bad, Chicago. Not bad at all.

Hooray!

Improvised Shakespeare at i.O. What a blast. One of the funniest shows I have seen in a very long time. It's been a while since I've gotten really excited about an improv show, but this one did it for me. Hilarious.

Citius, Altius, Fortius

Chicago's courtship of the US Olympic committee is in full swing. They really want the games here in 2016, and I think that's a great idea. The only other US contender is LA, and they had the games in 1984 and 1932. Give someone else a chance, LA. Plus, the plans for the games here are really cool. You can see them at www.chicago2016.org. Most of the games would take place on the South Side, and the area could use the attention.

I'm sure I won't be around Chicago in 2016, but I think it would be cool to bring my kids and show them around my old neighborhood, have crazy Chicago pizza and hot dogs (and my future kids will likely take off the pickle and eat it seperately, like their old man), and take in the city's revitalization.

So yeah. Members of the olympic committee who regularly read my blog: How about hook that up?

Fun night.

I've been staying pretty close to home as I got over this stomach bug, so tonight was a good time. I had a show with Cowlick at the Playground, where I snapped this lovely suprise photo of MB. The show was a lot of fun, and the crowd was small, but seemed to have a good time.


Afterwards, I went over to Zoran's to do a read-through of a radio play. That was a lot of fun, too. Nothing like a little funny to help out after a few days of wrecked insides.

Ouch

Stomach flu.

I'll spare you the pictures.

Fever. Fun stomach sickness stuff.

I'm going back to sleep.

Big ol' bum

Man, I am a big ol' bum. It's been about a week since my last post, and I feel like I haven't done much in that week.

I have. I readied content for publication for the magazine. That's one thing.

I got fairly drunk both weekend nights. That's something. Something I don't do much these days. I still go out and have a good time with the best of 'em, but rarely on consecutive nights.

I guess this is how I used to feel all the time in my cubicle job. Like a worker bee. Like I haven't really accomplished much, except to work all day and drink all night.

Not to trash cubicle jobs. Mine did a lot of good things for me. I just don't really want to go back.

So yeah. I'm a bum. A generally gleeful bum.

And by the way, non Chicagoans. When it's been hovering around 10 degrees for a month, 46 and sunny feels like nirvana.

Buried.

I just took these through my bedroom window. The drifting in front of my apartment isn't as bad as it is down the block where my car is parked. Not that it matters. A foot and a half drift or a three foot drift. Either way, your car is stuck. I hope classes are cancelled tomorrow.

Like 5000 words.

I'm not feeling wordy, so here are some pictures from this week.

My street during the snow:


This is what it did to the roads. It was so cold that road salt wasn't really working. Yikes.


It was a lot nicer today. This is over by DePaul.


They're doing work on the el over there. This one is a pretty cool shot.

And finally, I liked this one. Just wintry.

We lost.

Better luck next year.

Yeesh

The bitter cold is starting to set in. I think we crested 14 today, but that's as high as the temperature is going to get until Tuesday or so. This kind of prolonged frigidity has been rare since I've been in Chicago. It's not the worst thing in the world.

My car is freshly antifreezed (Antifrozen?) and has plenty of gas in the tank, but just taking it around the block was sluggish and awkward. It was like getting a piggy-back ride from an arthritic, complaining old dude... with leather seats.

Still, the car's out front and ready to roll, because I have to be in Naperville at 8:30am. Gross.

Cool picture, though, huh? That was snapped from the Michigan Ave bridge earlier today.

I've got a fevah.

And the only cure is to prattle on about some random stuff.

*I've been taking the train more, as I've been working more downtown. It's nice, in a way. More relaxing than driving, and since my work hours are flexible, I don't worry about delays as much as I used to. I generally travel during off-times, so there are usually plenty of seats. I have to take the Red Line, though, for most of the trip, and it always smells like... various types of human effluence. I prefer the Brown Line, which I take from my house to the Red Line. It's the Cadillac of public transportation.

*This weekend is going to be pretty tame and filled with work. At first, anyway. Sunday night will be Super Bowl havoc, no doubt. Last weekend was better. 

* I had a hankering for Chinese food tonight and the place by me was closed. I got in my car and drove several blocks (lay off, it's cold outside) in crappy traffic, lost my parking space in front of my building and had to walk back in the chilly weather. It was then that I saw a "China Hut" that I had never seen before half a block from my house. I'd walked by the space in the last few days or weeks, and saw that they were working on something in the empty storefront space, but the windows were covered and I didn't care that much. It's my fault for not paying attention.

* I got a new part time job writing press releases. That should be fun.

* Last weekend I also saw Pan's Labyrinth. It's fantastic. Frightening. Pretty. Worth seeing.

And now? Sleep. I've got a big day of mindless work in the frigid cold. Viva Chicago.

Monday, Monday

You know, Monday gets a bad rap. New Years Day is all about hope and resolutions and turning over a new leaf and all that stupid stuff. "It's the beginning of a new year! Hooray! Let's get blasted on champagne, kiss strangers, and order a Bowflex!"

Mondays start a new week 52 times a year.

Well, I guess Sundays technically do that, but stay with me here.

What does Monday get in return? Grief.

Today wasn't so bad. It's terribly cold. My hands have hurt all day. Also, I was downtown and told some people to give me a call if we were going to be meeting for work. Unfortunately, T-Mobile's downtown network went down today, so I missed the calls. That's pretty great. Thanks, guys. Oh well.

Tomorrow is a teaching day. That's always fun.

Funny Story.

So. Speaking of the Bears.

There was this one time when I attended a regular season game between the Bears and the Panthers. We were cheering for the Panthers, which was no huge deal until the guys behind us went from drunk to wasted and the Panthers really started to lose. Soldier Field is not the place you want to be while cheering for a losing visiting team.

While I hate confrontation, sometimes when I have angry drunks hurling insults at the back of my head, my mouth just starts going. No real destination in mind. Just going.

The game ended as things really started to escalate. The guys threw some punches, though none of them really connected. Security escorted us all out of the section, and the guys told us they'd be waiting for us in the parking lot. They weren't. Or maybe they got lost. It's a big parking lot.

Anyway, I was telling this story at a bar in Old Town one night, complete with details and physical reenactments when I look up and see the very same guys. It was amazing. What are the odds? This was at least a week later and in a totally different part of town.

They didn't see me, and none of the people I was with seemed to believe that it was actually the same guys. But there they were. Strange.


SO I BUSTED A BOTTLE OVER ONE GUY'S HEAD!

Or. You know. I would have.

Bears and such.

Look what I found on my doorstep this morning.

Ok, so that's a lie. I just found this guy on google images. There's no WAY anyone in this town would part with a spindly and clearly frightened dog wearing a Bears sweater on a day like today! The Bears are headed to the Super Bowl!

Now I'll be honest. I'm not that excited. I like the Bears, but they aren't my 'team'. They are my number two team, and who wants to be number two? It would be disingenuous to play the fairweather fan now. Don't get me wrong. That's not stopping EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN CHICAGO, but I opt to not go that route.

There's a real sense of guardedness among many of the Bears fans. I'd say that's especially true for the fans who really seem to follow football and are fans of the game, and not just the team. They all say we're going to win, but it doesn't feel like most of them believe it.

Still, if they pull it off, look out. It's never too cold to riot.

I actually left before Sunday's game was over. It was a thrashing, and I'm no gaper. I went to the movie theater around the corner and caught Children of Men. It was a real stunner. The acting was pretty excellent, the cinematography was gritty and realistic, and the dystopia presented in the movie seemed alarmingly possible. Go see it.

Cagematch

So last night I performed twice. I had an 8 o'clock show with Cowlick at the Playground and had an absolute blast. I love those guys. It's really a group that makes you feel comfortable doing just about anything. On top of that, we had a great crowd with lots of evergy that helped fuel the performers. The other groups had good shows too. Always a good time.

After that, I had a midnight show at the iO Cagematch. Our group, Hell Hath No Fury, is composed of people who have all been cut, dropped, passed over, or otherwise disrespected by iO. What a fun group. Seriously. We've performed together twice, but never really rehearsed. The shows have still been north of solid. I hope we can stay in the race. The cagematch has a bracket system based on audience votes. We've advanced to the elite 8. Fun times.

Lake Shore Drive

Know what song I like? Lake Shore Drive by Aliotta, Haynes, and Jeremiah.

There are certain songs that really make me miss certain places I have lived. These aren't necessarily songs I've loved forever, though I tend to like them a whole lot. They also aren't songs that I was incredibly keen on the entire time I lived in the place. In some cases, I don't even discover the song until I have lived in a place a while, or even moved away. Some tunes that jump to mind are Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show, which makes me yearn for the mountains of North Carolina, and Carolina in my Mind by James Taylor, which remind me of my childhood in the swampy midlands of South Carolina.

Lake Shore Drive is turning into that song for me for Chicago. Until now, the closest I had come was Sweet Home Chicago, which is fun, but not quite 'it'.

The song feels like something out of "A Mighty Wind" in spots, has the sort of cutesy drug references you might expect from a lot of folk songs, and sings the praises of a road on the shores of Lake Michigan at a time when the winds off the lake make it pretty inhospitable and the city seems bound and determined to ensure I never drive again. Still, I dig the tune.

Anyway, if you don't know the song, here are the lyrics:

There’s a road I’d like to tell you about,
lives in my home town.
Lake Shore Drive the road is called
and it’ll take you up or down.
From rags on up to riches
fifteen minutes you can fly.
Pretty blue lights along the way,
help you right on by.
And the blue lights shining with a heavenly grace,
help you right on by

(Chorus) And there ain’t no road just like it
Anywhere I found
Running south on Lake Shore Drive
heading into town
Just slippin’ on by on LSD,
Friday night trouble bound

And it starts up north from Hollywood,
water on the driving side
Concrete mountains rearing up,
throwing shadows just about five
Sometimes you can smell the green
if your mind is feeling fine
There ain’t no finer place to be,
than running Lake Shore Drive
And there’s no peace of mind, or place you see,
than riding on Lake Shore Drive

(Chorus)

And it’s Friday night and you’re looking clean
To early to start the rounds
A ten minute ride from the Gold Coast back
make sure you’re pleasure bound
And it’s four o’clock in the morning
and all of the people have gone away
Just you and your mind and Lake Shore Drive,
tomorrow is another day
And the sunshine’s fine in the morning time,
tomorrow is another day.

(Chorus)

Grumble Grumble

Well, we're two weeks into 2007 and I have fallen off the blog wagon. I'll see if I can rectify that. I just haven't been in the mood and sometimes I feel like I'm just spurting boring crap into the ether.

Anyway, here's a few random highlights and lowlights:

-The City of Chicago is close to losing a resident. I love this town most of the time, and am its fiercest supporter. Still, in the last week, I have been taken for close to a grand by the make-the-gestapo-proud tactics of the Department of Streets and Sanitation and the Department of Revenue. I pay your stupid inflated taxes. I buy your stupid city stickers. Give me a damn break every now and then, Chicago. And by the way, even a mild Chicago winter could be a little nicer. Don't do me any favors.

-I got a new part-time job. Document management for a bank. Is it super-compelling? No. However, I do get to work a TOTALLY FLEXIBLE 15-20 hrs a week for a decent hourly wage. While I am there, I never have to answer a phone or talk to anyone. I get to scan and organize documents while listening to music and daydreaming. Not bad for a part-time gig.

-I had a blast a sketchfest. Both shows were a smashing success, and it was a fun environment.


Anyway. Times are a tiny bit tough. Lean, but never bad.

Sketchfest

Every year, some comedy types here in Chicago host SketchFest. Folks from all over come to perform. Most of the groups are from the US and Canada, and I’d bet that the largest chunk of those are actually from right here in Chicago.

For the first time, I’m taking part in the festival. Twice, actually. Fowler Family Radio Hour performed opening night to a very warm response, and Cowlick performs tonight.

One thing that gets a little old about the improv/sketch scene here is that it gets a little insular. You end up getting the same folks through the door for event after event. The audience gets jaded. Things stagnate.

Sketchfest brings in a lot of fresh blood. I hardly recognized anyone in the crowd, and they seemed to really enjoy the show. That was fun.

Long Break

Well, I had a great Christmas break. It was a week and a half of warm weather, fried nonsense, bonfires, presents, and jokes. These days, going home almost has a sort of summer camp feel to it. During the holidays, there are more bodies than beds, so cots, air mattresses, and couch-sleeping is all pretty much par for the course.

As you can see, Mom made a visit to the App State bookstore before Christmas. I nabbed Bailey a Cubs outfit, too. We're doing our best to indoctrinate her nice and early.

It was warm. One day I washed my car in a bathing suit and a t-shirt. Another couple of days we drove around with the top down. We ate like kings, spent lots of time with friends and family, and even drove through Boone on the way back.

One night we even had this little redneck extravaganza:

The smoke in the foreground is from a bonfire. In the rear (in front of the barn and under the tarp) you can see a silver pot on a burner attached to a propane tank. That contains a frying turkey. The pickup truck contains several wooden pallets that fueled that bonfire.

yum.

Anyway, the trip was awesome. It 's good to be back in Chicago, but things are pretty hectic right now. 0-60.

Hap hap happy days.

I'm in SC visiting my family for Christmas. Expect updates after the Christmas Crazy winds down.

For the record, it's like 70 degrees out.

Hmmm.

So I was pretty jazzed about my trip to Chattanooga and the ASU/UMass game. (in case you hadn't noticed).

Now I'm back in town, I've got my mind on Christmas, and I'm temping for the day to earn a little extra holiday cash. (That's what you do when you work from home and don't have much else to do on a particular day.)

I'm sitting at the desk of a UMass grad.

Hold on. Mild irony is on line two.

2 in the bag.

I just got back from Chattanooga, and boy, oh boy what a game! It was an awesome experience. On top of great football and AMAZING weather, I saw tons of old friends that I never get to see anymore. We tailgated for about 6 hours, which seems about right to me. You should have seen the stadium parking lot. UMass fans were scarce. It was like a home game. And we weren't the only fans to make the journey. Chattanooga seems pretty close to Boone, but in reality, it's about a 5 hour trek. Fans coming from places like Raleigh had about an 8 hour drive on their hands. There were lots of fans there, though, that I am sure traveled at least as far as we did to see this game.

We nailed it. The Mountaineers started out shaky, but corrected with the sort of precision and ease that makes ASU such an awesome team. That only underscores by faith in the talent of the team and the insight and skill of the coaching staff. UMass put up a solid fight. They are a good team with a lot of talent. The game was no walk in the park, but we just out-fought, outran, and out-played these guys.

Lets do the numbers, sports fans:

Miles from Chicago to Chattanooga to Chicago: 607 + 607= 1214
Hours in the car, round-trip: 9.5+9.5= 19
Motels stayed in: 2 (though since one of them was a Motel 6, maybe 7?)
Chick-fil-a or Bojangles restaurants in Chicago: 0
Percent chance that I would visit the south without eating at both of those joints: 0
Degrees outside: 68
Clouds in the sky: 1 (Maybe. All day.)
Approximate percentage of Finley Stadium's seats filled by ASU fans: 80-85
Total number of fans in the stands: 22,808
Number of DI-AA National Championships to have that many fans in attendance since the championship moved to Chattanooga in 1997: 0
Years Armanti Edwards has been alive: 18
Other 18-year-olds I know who can run or pass like he can: 0
Kevin Richardson's 2007 Rushing Yards: 1,676
Number of years Richardson has left at App: 1
Number of years Edwards has at App: 3
Times in the next 3 years I think we can rock this thing again, at minimum: 3
Points scored by Appalachian State: 28
Points scored by UMass: 17
How right Adam Witten was in guessing the score, by percent: 100
Riots started by UMass students in Amherst (story): 1
Riots started in Chattanooga or Boone by ASU fans: 0
National Championships won by App State in the past two years: 2
Rough percentage that amounts to: 100

How awesome this weekend has been for me, for the school, for the team, and for football, on a scale of 1-10: 11.

Go App. And then go again. Because that's what you do.

Chattanooga-bound.

App State is headed to the Division 1-AA National Championship in Chattanooga, TN.

I am heading down to see the game. 600 miles. 9 and a half hours. Who cares?

My friend Shelby, a fellow Chicagoan and ASU alum got the tickets first thing Monday morning, which is fortunate. The initial ASU allotment of 7500 tickets sold out in the first part of the first day. The additional allotment of 950 tickets sold out in a little over 3 hours. Anyone who still wants tickets can jump on ebay and pay a hundred bucks a pop for them. Yikes.

I can't even tell you how pumped I am. Armanti Edwards? Kevin Richardson? Marques Murrell? Yes, please. These guys are playing some of the best ball out there.

I'll let you know how awesome it was when I return. My pick?

App State: Eleventy billion, six hundred million, four hundred thousand and four.
UMass: 6, scored during halftime while ASU was relaxing in the locker room listening to James Brown while Chancellor Peacock showed off his juggling accumen.

BSOD

The 'blue screen of death', they call it. It's a lovely little device that lets you know your computer is a goner.

Why mention it? Because I was greeted by one when I turned on my computer Saturday.
I was on my way out of town, so I didn't think all that much of it. I figured that when I had time I could sit down and figure out what went wrong and how to fix it.

I get back Sunday night, go do my Fowler show (which was awesome this week, by the by), grab some beers with the cast, come home, and see that the BSOD remains. No time to worry about that. I get some rest.

I wake up Monday. Time to temp all day. I assemble furniture fresh out of the box from the Chinese factories for a furniture company sample show. Then I run some errands, have a Cowlick show, and head home.

Screen: Still blue and deathy.

No worries. I'm sleepy from a long day. Snore. Snore.

From 7:30 this morning until sometime after noon I try to figure out what's wrong and how to fix it. I get the standard Dell runaround and they pretty much tell me that I have to buy a new hard drive and start from scratch.

I say, how much will that cost? They say at least $150. I ask what the dimensions of the hard drive are so I can shop around. They won't tell me. The guy refuses.

Me: "You won't tell me what size hard drive my laptop requires?"
Him: "I told you, 40 gigabyte, 60 giga..."
Me: "No. I mean the dimensions. Inches."
Him: "I won't tell you that."

The guy then tries to tell me that only Dell hard drives will work in my laptop. Horsecrap. Dell doesn't even make hard drives, to my knowledge. They use Hitachi or Samsung or whatever parts like anyone else.

I tell him I want to speak to a supervisor.

He hangs up on me.

Eventually I get a guy who helps me partition, format, and reset my existing drive. Worked like a charm, but it wiped out all of my notes from Dallas, all of my old work emails, and anything else I forgot to back up on my existing hard drive.

Great. Square one. Still, at least it's a square.

So long, Dallas

Pleased to meetcha.

Yee-haw

In the lobby of my hotel, there is a giant statue of a cowboy getting thrown from his horse.

Super.

Last night I wandered around downtown Dallas for no less than an hour, and not even convenience stores were open. I ended up eating chicken wings and drinking Budweiser at the bar of a Hooters.

It seems like everyone who works downtown, or at least in the vague vicinity of where I'm staying (though I walked around a lot. I must have covered a couple of miles, albeit in sort of a circular fashion) pretty much lives somewhere else.

There are also some abandoned buildings, like the Dallas Grand Hotel. That place is right frightening, but I didn't have my camera when I passed it.

There's a few examples of that kind of juxtaposition between the modern, shiny Dallas and the decrepit, aging Dallas. Right across from our hotel, which is deluxe and modern, is the boarded-up Dallas High School. No apparent attempt to redo or tear down the place. Just a boarded-up ghost of a building.

Timmy does Dallas.

I'm in Dallas for a telecom conference. Oh joy of all joys.

It's not a bad conference, as these sorts of things go. I just don't really like traveling for work. I barely know the coworker that I'm here with and the meetings are usually less than exciting. I don't really feel comfortable in the room where I'm staying, and most of the people at the conference are... well... not really my kind of people. They're generally either several decades older than me or super-slick sales types.

The part of Dallas we are in is so boring that listening to lectures on telecommunications is blisteringly attractive compared to tottering around the maze of homogenized office buildings and bar-grills. If I can find a grocery store or something of the sort, I'm going to buy a bag of cheetos and a sixer and hole up until my flight leaves on Thursday. I'd normally be more adventurous in a new city, but I am exhausted after spending all day talking and listening and standing and wearing uncomfortable shoes, and have a day full of the same crap tomorrow.

Some people live for this stuff. I just kinda want to go home.

Door County

It was rough, but I braved the snow, got free of Chicago, and am up in Door County for Cowlick's annual Christmas trip. Martin's parents have a place overlooking the bay, and there are hot tubs and saunas and all that good stuff. Tough life, I know.

On the way up, Scotty and I saw dozens of cars that had spun off of the road and were hanging out in ditches. There were a few close calls, but we made it.

Quick shout out to the world's drivers: If the roads suck, you're driving way too fast and cutting people off, and you haven't had an accident yet, it isn't because you're a great driver. It's because you are lucky. Slow down, moron.

Ahem. Sorry.

We had our secret santa last night. I got a nice flask, prefilled and everything. My gift? The biggest bottle of Maker's Mark I could find to the biggest Maker's Mark fan I know. Sense a trend? That's one of the things that Door County is always good for.

We played some games and went swimming. It's our third trip up, and the first since Sarah left for Boston. The first time we had an odd number. Weird.

That picture of Jason is from last year. I don't have my camera cable.

Crap.