I Feel Dirty

I went to Chick-fil-A for dinner again.

It sure was tasty.

I need to go take a shower.

I can stop anytime, I just don't want to right now.

Another Fantasy Sports Update

Fantasy Football Update:

I crushed jerkface (the name of my opponent) in football. I had four guys going on Monday night and they mostly played well (all but Lee Evans who did not catch a pass). Marshawn Lynch had a great game and he was the work horse for me that got me over the hump and the big win. My record in football is now 8-2. Both of the losses were complete flukes though. I should be undefeated!

Fantasy NBA Update:

I crushed my opponent last week. I can not believe that I actually won again. Remember that my team sucks. It really does. I am winning with some of the lowest scored of any winning team, I am just playing bad teams (even worse than mine) right now. This week I play the number one team in the league and currently as behind him by about 80 points. Hopefully I can keep up and pull out a fluke win. We will see. I am excited to see what happens.

My Favorite Song Right Now

As of late the song that has been going through my head is "La Ciegena Just Smiled" by my good friend Ryan Adams. This song is off Adam's "Gold" CD that was released in 2001. Here are the lyrics (and they are good), but the music is what really takes this song over the top. It is all excellent.

"Ah the night...here it comes again"
It's on with the jeans, the jacket and the shirt
How'd I end up feeling so bad
For such a little girl
And I hold you close in the back of my mind
Feels so good but damn it makes me hurt
And I'm too scared to know to how I feel about you now
La Cienega just smiles..."see ya around"
And I hold you close in the back of my mind
And raise my glass 'cause either way I'm dead
Neither of you really help me to sleep anymore
One breaks my body and the other breaks my soul
La Cienega just smiles as it waves goodbye"
Ah the night...here it comes again"
It's off with the jeans, the jacket and the shirt
How'd I end up feeling so bad
For such a little girl
And I hold you close in the back of my mind
Feels so good but damn it makes me hurt
And I'm too scared to know how I feel about you now
How I feel about you now
La Cienega just smiles and says, "I'll see you around"

Here is the lyrics and music together from YouTube (with Ryan Adams in the background being a punk):

So I Married An Axe Murderer

After I posted a scene from So I Married An Axe Murderer (SIMAAM) LD let me know how much she disliked the movie. I could not believe it, I don't know anyone that does not love this movie, and if you don't like it you are suspect. Here are some of the best scenes from SIMAAM.

This montage reminds me of many nights at home as a kid.

This poem sucks.

I had a conversation with a Delta pilot that sounded eerily like this once.

Some people say I am insensitive, but this is absurd!

I Heart Chick-fil-A

There is a new Chick-fil-A open in my neighborhood. Well, not really my neighborhood, but close by. Well, not really close by, but within a 20 minute drive from the house. 20 minutes is close enough for me. I am eerily drawn to the Chick-fil-A. I love it. I love all things from the Chick-fil-A.

I wish there were more Chick-fil-A's near me. There used to be one in the mall (Valley Fair) close to my house and every trip to Fashion Place Mall included a trip to the Chick-fil-A. The Chick-fil-A in Valley Fair closed a long time ago, and the Fashion Place location moved to the food court (they used to have their own location actually in the mall).

A couple years ago an actual store opened up on 106th South and State street. Everytime I went by I had to stop to get some of their chicken. Last year another new location opened up, this one on 114th South and Bangerter Highway, about 15 minutes closer to my house. This week another new location just opened on 72nd South and Bangerter Highway, another 15 minutes closer to my house.

I am addicted to this chicken!



My theory is that after The Colonel died the Pentaverat allowed S. Truett Cathy into their secret society. They also gave the formula of the addictive chicken to Chick-fil-A. This new location has been open for a week and I have already been there twice. Get me some more of that chicken!

Fantasy Sports Update

I am sure you all missed my weekly fantasy football update. I am sorry for not getting it posted sooner. This week has been pretty hectic. I have had many personal as well as business items to worry about and deal with this week. Not to say that this week has not been a good one, just busy. Now I am feeling a little sick and just want to stay in bed and hang out with the wife (which is exactly what we are doing as I type this).

I lost my fantasy match up this week. I was very sad. I should have won. I lost by 11 points and I had two guys that did not play (due to injury) and another guy that played for the first quarter and then was out the rest of the game. I also played Aaron Rodgers and he was horrible in a Green Bay loss. I could not believe it. I needed this win. I now reside in second place in my league with a record of 7-2.

I play the number three team this week whom I have already beaten once and plan on beating again. Hopefully all of my team members play well. A couple of my guys play some bad teams, so I am very encouraged.

Switching gears to the NBA and fantasy basketball: I won last week. I can barely believe it. I am also leading by a large margin so far this week with only tonight and tomorrow until the end of the match up. Maybe this year in the NBA won't be so bad, of course, I am playing some of the worst teams (if it is possible to have a worse team than mine) in the league right now. I will keep you updated.

Reading Level Update

Hello and welcome to Junior High.

Ever since I received a link from Lesley that led me to find out that my blog had the reading level of "Elementary School" I have been trying to improve my blog so I could move up a level. I have not been very happy about my low reading level. I have been trying to improve my writing and the quality of the blog. I hope you have all noticed, I now write in complete sentences (sometimes).

Tonight, I checked the link (http://www.criticsrant.com/bb/reading_level.aspx) to find out my new reading level. My blog is now certified as Junior High.

Way to go me! Just so you all know, Diana believes that one sentence paragraphs (like the one that leads this story) is the reason my blog was so lowly related before. I guess we will see if this posts reduces my reading level.

At The Costco

I was at Costco last night to get some milk, chocolate milk, pizza, and a churro (and you thought it was impossible to get out of Costco for under $200 - all of this only came to $199, just kidding, only $20). I was waiting near the food court with about 20 other people. There was quite a rush on pizzas and the lady behind the counter was flustered. The other lady there (that was at the register) came over to help and the pizza cutter lady went ballistic on her. Screaming that. "I have those tickets in a certain order," and, "you are going to mess me up!" and more. It must have been humiliating for the register lady. She walked back to her register as someone from the back called up to ask what was going on. The mean lady started yelling again that register lady was messing her up. Register lady now starts to say that she was just trying to help and very quickly mean lady yells at her to "Be quiet, there are customers that can hear you!"

When I view people like this it makes me feel better about the friends and family that I have. I do not think anyone that I freely associate with would do something like this. Let me hear some stories you have about confrontations you have seen or been in that are like this.

Work Week

All this week we have had the Burton Group analyst planning meetings in Salt Lake. It has been a great week. Being a distributed company (Burton Group has almost 150 employees and only 50 work in Midvale), I do not see my peers and colleagues very often. Being able to hang with them and see them in their element (discussing their topic subjects) was very fun. I am quite the geek, but these guys I work with are really geeks. They dig deep inside of technologies and learn all the ins and outs, I learn just enough to be dangerous.

We started the week (Monday) with a level set of what to expect for the week and that was excellent. Seeing what and where our research is going lets me truly see the genius and work that goes into the company by our high-level executives. Monday night the entire team went to Biaggi's, a local Italian eatery. It was OK, not great, but good. I had never been there before and I will probably take Diana there someday (soon).

On Tuesday there was team planning meetings, but I had to go into the office to do my day job. I am sad that I missed the unconference sessions that took place on Tuesday. I got a lot of work done in the office on Tuesday.

Wednesday I had meetings in the office in the morning but I went up to the hotel in the afternoon to see how things were going. It was really great to see the way the teams work together. Each team is very different, but the ways they communicate are awesome. Some teams have a discussion, some teams just talk, and others get in to more of a "heated" discussion. These guys are passionate about their topics! Wednesday night I went out with the DCS and NTS teams to Cafe Molise in downtown SLC. It was OK, not the best Italian I have ever had, but good.

Today (Thursday) I went downtown all day. It was another great day as the teams discussed cross-cutting topics. It was very informative and I like seeing the life of the analyst. As much fun as the sessions were, I really liked having time to talk with the analysts and get to know them better.

Can't wait for next years planning meetings!

Wii Games

We got the new Costco ad in the mail today. Diana and I were looking through the ads of 56 rolls of toliet paper for 75 cents and 7 60" LCD TVs for $9. There was an ad for $5 off select Wii games. We have a Wii, this could be good for christmas. I quietly look over at Diana and say, "Wii games." All of a sudden Jordan runs in from the other room and yells "Wii games! Let me see!" This kid can't hear me from five feet away, but can hear "Wii games" from a room away. Weird.

Later that night we were in the car and Jordan was saying "What?" to everything we said so I decided that we, as a family, needed to add "Wii Games" to the start of every sentence we say to him. The rest of the way home the whole family would say, "Wii games, Jordan, we are going to get Frostys," and stuff like that. The whole family was laughing and having a good time.

It was fun.

To Be A Kid

While we are babysitting I think about all the ways life changes as you grow. When you are a kid you can say whatever you want and people think it is cute or funny. When you grow up it just us not as cute. Here are some things that I heard tonight from the young kids we watched tonight:

"I know you guys love each other."
"Be careful with me, my mom loves me."
"I'm not a rhinocerous."
"I cut off your fat tummy."
"I'm fast too."
"I like myself."
"Diana's angry!"

Let me just say that this kid we watched is one of the cutest kids I have ever seen (removing my own two kids, who are the cutest kids I have ever seen).

Babysitting

Diana and I are watching some friends kids tonight (Chloe is out babysitting). The five-year-old told me the song he made up:

"I am the ice cream man
Running over fat kids
In my big white van
They want ice cream
I will just give them
Some broken bones"

He made this up on his own - I swear! He is in the living room while I am in the kitchen singing it over and over again. Diana loves it and is wiping the tears of laughter off her cheeks.

The President-Elect

I have been an Obama supporter for a while and I think he really can bring the country together as well make positive changes for all citizens of this country. His accpetance speech really blew me away last night. Here it is:

Links

I have not done a list of links for a while. Here we go:

You women are dirty, and this study proves it. I like the line, "Should a man worry about holding hands with a girl?" and the person responds, "I guess it depends on which girl." This stuff is hilarious, a comedian could not write it better.

I like to shop online. I have been buying more and more online through the last year. Last christmas was my first real HUGE online shopping experience. I bought our Wii, games, controllers, chargers, and even other gifts all online. I would say about 80% of all our gifts were purchased online last year. I don't know if I will be able to purchase that much this year, but I will try. Here is an article about online shopping and the popularity of it.

Blogs are changing the world. They change the ways companies do everything these day. I think it is very important that a company or a person control the message they are trying to spread. I also think a blog is a great way to take that control. The weird part is that five years ago you never heard of a blog and now blog posts are picked up by news organizations as fact.

The Blackberry Bold is just about out. Here is a good review of it. I am waiting for the touch screen Storm to come out (it also still has to be released on TMobile) and then I will get it. This reviewer really does not like the size of the Bold, but let me tell you, size matters and a big beautiful screen with a great keyboard will make up for any discomfort.

A real iPhone killer? I doubt it. Samsung does not have the "cool" factor that Apple does these days.

I love Skype. It is an awesome technology. VoIP is where it is at, but the world does not agree. Diana does not like it. I do not think she realizes that we have digital phone at home and it is ran through our internet connection. Out phone is just like VoIP!

Halloween was last week, but you can still view this slide show of "geek-o-lanterns" from Wired. There are some pretty cool pumpkins. I am not a very good pumpkin carver, but I try. I do not think I could make any of these.

The Next President of the United States

Flu Shot

I got a flu shot today. The guy still gave me one even though I marked that I have been sick in the past week. The guy that was giving out the shots just did not care. The shot seemed to go fine and I had no problems.

My arm is starting to ache a little now.

I am sure most of you just say "wuss."

Fantasy Football Update

I win again! Another blowout as well. I did not even have that good of a week.

I am the man. The best news is that the team that was ahead of me (and undefeated) lost this week as well. I rubbed it in a little by posting some smack to the (old) number one team.

This morning I woke up with a first place team in my football league. No matter what happens today, it is a good day. Now I need to keep this going. I play the number five team this week and I am heavily favored (again). I plan on crushing this weeks opponent and prepare to play the number three team next week.

Wish me luck!

Prague Photos

Swan faucet from the Imperial Hotel restaurant. This is how they do it in the CZ. No simple water falling on your hands, it has to come from a swan.

I love this sign, it is all over the CZ. I think it says, "Kids, feel free to play in the streets even though there are cars everywhere!"

This is a good shot of the narrow streets of Prague. Narrow streets half-filled with restaurant stands and then people crowding the rest of the free area.

Statue right at the start of the Charles Bridge. There are statues about every 20 feet on both sides of the bridge.

The Powder Tower, which was the first official "site" that I saw on my trip to Prague.

Old Town square has old buildings in it. That is probably why they call it "Old Town."

This is the "In Case of Fire" instruction sheets for the Prague Hilton. Hilarious!

This is the astronomical clock in Prague. If you are into astrology this is probably really cool. For me, it does not do much.

Church that is right off Old Town square.

This is from the cathedral at the palace. This was really beautiful.

View from the Charles bridge.

View from the other side of the Charles Bridge.

Alex getting in some part time work selling snuggies.

More pictures to come as I continue to get them all uploaded. If you want to see them all, go to my Facebook page. I have 3 photo albums full of photos with more to come.

They Tried To Make Her Go To Rehab...

My mom dislocated her shoulder yesterday. She spent the day at the hospital. She does not know how she did it, she just woke up with her shoulder hurting. She did say she got some pretty good drugs for the pain though, so that it is a plus.

I called her today just to check up on her and she told me all about her day. It is good that she hurt her left arm - or she wouldn't be able to play solitaire or send me all those cheesy emails that she does. I guess that is good for her, not for me.

As I talked to her on the phone Chloe came in and heard just some of the conversation. When I got off the phone she asked, "Grandma has to go to rehab? She doesn't do drugs!" I told her she did not know her Grandma very well. Then Chloe asked what she needed to go to rehab for. I told Chloe, "She watches too much Law and Order."

Diana finally made me tell her the whole story - which by the way - is not as good as the story I could make up myself.

The Pumpkin Patch

The family went to the pumpkin patch the other day. We ended up with three big pumpkins and a bag of pinenuts for Diana.

Here are the pictures from our adventure:

Gifts from the CZ

While in Prague I got the kids a couple items (of course, I am the best Dad ever!). The kids got Czech Republic national team soccer shirts and Czech Republic olympic team sweatshirts. I also got some postcards of "Praha" for them - but I do not have pictures of the postcards. Here are pictures of the kids (in direct sunlight) wearing their stuff:

Fantasy Football Wrapup

Another win!

I now sit at 6-1. My lone loss being the fluke Reggie Bush 2 punt retuns for touchdowns game. I was once again the highest scoring team in the league. The lone bad point is that I did not pass 300 this week (I scored 270.5).

Looking ahead to this week: I am playing one of the worst teams in the league and I am heavily favored to win. I was looking forward at my schedule and I am slated to play the number one team on the last week of the season. Hopefully, I will still have one loss and he will be undefeated - and I crush him. That would be the best payback I could think of.

I still have a couple weeks of no Tony Romo. I have been going with Jeff Garcia as my 2nd QB to get through my bye weeks, he has been doing OK, but not great. I might not use him this week, but Green Bay (Rodgers) plays against a good defense this week so I might not use Rodgers.

Basketball also started last night. I have the worst team in my league, so you might not hear much about my NBA team this year (I am sure Diana is happy about that).

Around Town

Prague has about 1.2 million people within the city. Kind of like Salt Lake. I do not generally run into co-workers or people I know while out on the town at home. In Prague that is a different story. I ran into many, many people I knew while out touring for about 4 hours. The list of people I ran into yesterday:

Mike N.
Mike N's current woman
Bob
Lori
Big Philly Style
Trent
Eric
Homan
Karl
Stephani
Tom
Choward
Collin
Doug
Kelly
Chris R

Well, I guess today is the day I head home and stop runing into people randomly. Prague has been fun, we had a great conference. I am excited to come back to Prague next year now that I have a good feel for the area. I am even more excited to get home. Here comes the 21 hour trip to get me home and into my own bed at night.

Well, I gotta get in the shower and get ready and then go check out. I have a taxi leaving in an hour.

Hello? Part 8

I guess this is the last day.

I am a little ashamed to say, I liked that.

It's like the Rosetta Stone for cereal.

You are the king of rock, there is none higher.

I am going to call this file Chet bet.

I'm getting myself a marionette.

I could feel Chet stirring.

Well, this just isn't fair.

I don't think my pallette agrees with estrogen.

Go back to your room and make out.

If she's up for so am I.

I guess that's the end.

The best Catalyst Europe ever.

Imagine seeing you here.

Thanks.

Wednesday

Today was Wednesday. Wednesday is almost over for me. Wednesday was also day two of general sessions for Catalyst Conference Europe 2008 in Prague. It was another great day. I am really having a good time here in the CZ. I really need to get home though. It is tough to be gone so long with the 8 hour time difference.

This morning I helped get the room coordinators off for the day. I even had time for breakfast before sessions started. I then took the time to work! Actual work. I was copying SharePoint lists like a madman. I copied 6 different lists that have a lot of items in them - one of them had over 80. This took all day (I am sure being in Europe caused some latency). I am doing this to complete my automated production workflows. Today was a very big part of what needed to get done. All I have left to do is apply the created workflows to the correct lists now and I am golden. Golden in this case means that I am done. I do not know if I will have the time to get this done tomorrow. Tomorrow is the last day of general sessions, and it is a half-day. I also like to spend the time after the break taking things down and letting the people start packing. Packing is hard in Europe, it all needs to be taken care of very carefully because of Customs. KBeard is getting very good at it. We will see if I get any SharePoint time in. Nevertheless, I plan on finishing early next week.

Other things that happened today was talking with some of the analysts, watching a couple sessions, averting one disaster (with mic's; our AV team, once again, did not get us enough mic's), and fixing another disaster. Let me go through these items one at a time.

Watching a couple sessions. I do not think I sat through one complete session, but I do enjoy watching parts of sessions. It is very informative. I sit for 10 or 15 minutes and then move on to the next room. I do this for many reasons, one is because I like to check on the room coordinators. Another is to see different presenting styles, and sometimes, I just want to hear the content.

I did not really divert a disaster today, I just spoke with AV about our mic situation and then we decided how the mics should be handed out to each person that was on stage. At the end of the day today we had a 7 and 6 person roundtable. We used every mic in both rooms to pull these off.

There was another disaster that I had to fix. I do not think it will be a big deal. Hopefully. I spoke to my boss and he is cool with it. If you want more information send me an email or a shout out and I will let you know. This is something that I should not blog about.

I also spoke with a bunch of analysts today as the day went on. It was fun. The pressure is leaving and people are starting to have a good time. It will be sad to leave, and there is not another Catalyst until late next July, but there is plenty of work to be done by then.

For dinner I went with a group to a tourist trap in the town square and had a great tasting Pfeffersteak. I have no idea what it is, but it was good. I am now back in the office printing agendas and announcements and then I am going to bed.

Catch you tomorrow!