the deuze almost walked out

It's been ages and ages since I've sat down to write one of these things; I blame the weather. Yep. So to rectify the situation I've come offering the gift of story. Once there was a man. I won't say a hero, cause what's a hero? But he was a man who celebrated life through his love of all terrible movies.

Wake Up, Maggie May

Greetings once again from Oklahoma. The Sooner State, whatever that means. I'm one week into a two week stint here. Despite having to battle severe boredom, things have been going very well here: the weather's been sunny and unseasonably warm, my hotel is much nicer than previous ones (new, clean, microwave, fridge, high speed, continental breakfast, etc), and in my humble opinion the site has been going extremely well.

As I mentioned, except for last Sunday's afternoon in OKC this week has been outrageously boring. Last night, however, I had the chance to get out of this town and do a bit more exploring. Dinner and $1 draughts of Amberbock at Rock Island Grill made for a lovely start to the evening. From there it was back to Bricktown to a place called Tap Werks to enjoy some nice beers on tap. It was a pretty cool place, and a band played a set or two that were fairly enjoyable.


Today I spent the early afternoon hours driving around downtown OKC and visiting the Musem of Art, which was pretty enjoyable. Just recently I suffered through an embarassing ND men's basketball game against DePaul. As I'm pretty sure someone once said at some point, boo on DePaul. Well said, someone.

Now I await the announcement of the Heisman Trophy winner. Before I go, here's one amusing tidbit from last night: there was a guy at the bar who looked exactly like Rod Stewart. The resemblance was incredible. I almost asked for his autograph, just to see what he would do. I mean, if I looked exactly like Rod Stewart, I know I'd give autographs every chance I'd get, singing Maggie May while doing it.

What would you do?

Bowling WAO!

Well, it's been a little too long since my last post. Let me try to give you some of the updates:

* Fort Frances continued to be a good site, and I had some good follow-up contact with the owners of the paper this past week.

* Thanksgiving was great, though the weekend was scarred by a virus that ran rampant through my family. I doubt I'll ever be able to convince my folks to visit me in November again (it wasn't the first time this sort of thing happened).

* My pumpkin ale was quite good; there are only a few minor adjustments I would make the next time around. All in all, success.

* This past week I really hit my stride at work. It was my first chance to really do everything for a site, hence it was the first opportunity for me to test myself. I feel I did pretty well, and I think I'll settle in nicely to the position.

* Friday post-work was an interesting evening of hanging out with coworkers (and some important ones at that) over beer and bowling. Let me translate. Interesting = fun but kinda weird, as hanging out with coworkers must almost always be. The highlight of the evening by far was watching one of the higher ups in the company singing karaoke, poorly, at the bowling alley. Haha. So shady. If only I had brought my camera.

* Today I arrived at my next site: Oklahoma City. We (Kelly, a coworker, and I) got in around 11:00 so to kill some time before checking in we visited the Oklahoma City Memorial and then had a late lunch/beer at a brew pub in Bricktown. I had their irish dry stout; Sneaks brews a better one. The Memorial was nice, though. Despite the fact that it's been nearly 10 years since the bombing, walking around the site is very surreal. For every life lost that day, a chair can be found in a nine-row set (one for each floor of the building) adjacent to the outdoor memorial. I'm not exactly sure why chairs were used, but it's a pretty staggering site. I'm thankful I got to witness it.

That's pretty much it for now. Oh, I did get to fly first class on the way out here (only my second time to experience that joy) which was fantastic. Hopefully I'll have some fun stories later this week. For now it's time for a little Steely Dan. Is there anyone who doesn't not dislike Steely Dan? I don't think so.