Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Car-azy

Here're a couple of pictures Chester took this weekend. Every year he likes to go to the Back to the 50s car show, and I decided early on in our relationship that car shows with Chester are not in my list of favorite things to do. Don't get me wrong--I can hold my own when it comes to knowledge of cars, and I genuinely enjoy them (and car shows, for that matter)...just not car shows with Chester. But I was looking through his pics for fish ones (a couple of the ones I posted yesterday--the up-closes of Loki, Bartleby and Phil--Chester took) and came across some other cool ones he took. Definitely click on them to get the details.

Chester and his friend John almost got rained out of the fairgrounds, but Chester took advantage of the rain for artistic purposes.



I was delighted by this lovely Jag.



Normally I strongly dislike flames on cars, but I did a double take when I saw this one. Flash-y!



And the car they're on? Gorgeous.

Monday, June 26, 2006

Another Weekend, Another Dollar (Spent, That Is)

We added to our hopefully-done-growing pet collection this weekend. Chester recently acquired a reasonably-priced fish tank, which we eagerly waited to fill with fish. After surprisingly little deliberation, we decided on a couple of oscars. Before we could add said fish to the tank, obviously it needed to be filled with water. Chester began the arduous process...



...and David was more than happy to help.



We did discover some contaminants that needed to be removed before the fish arrived. No word on how they got in there.



The next logical step was to purchase the fish and their accoutrements, of which I had no idea fish had so many. We selected these two oscars: Loki (the orange one) and Bartleby (the tiger one). I took the task of selecting their names very seriously--Loki and Bartleby are the angels in the movie Dogma.



We also need a plecostomus for cleaning purposes. I named him Philthy Phil Plecostomus after NOFX's song "Philthy Phil Philanthropist". It seemed fitting...I am of the opinion that cleaning up after the oscars is a philanthropic activity.



Jack is quite taken with his new pets and their setup (which, as an afterthought, includes goldfish that will no doubt end up as an oscar snack).

Friday, June 23, 2006

...and the Mohawk-Induced Excitement Continues

You see, the "...and" is an homage to Rancid's (aka the subject of this post) album "...and Out Come the Wolves"...and I didn't even mean for it to be! In any case, one of my most favorite bands in the world is going to be in the Cities 9/13. I actually first discovered this from a flyer handed out at Warped Tour, but was skeptical and only today had the information confirmed by Ticketmaster.

In fact, my excitement is such that I've already invested $0.20 on text messaging so that Ticketmaster will remind me one hour before the tickets go on sale. You see, I am working on the assumption that everyone is as excited as I am--not entirely an unfounded assumption. When I saw NOFX in Winnipeg in '02, they were doing a show in the Cities, and the day after, a show in Winnipeg. Well, both shows were sold out but Ticketmaster suggested checking back in case they opened a sale of more tickets, or even more unlikely, a new date. Well, I did check back and as luck would have it, they DID open another date in Winnipeg and I happened to check a hour before tickets went on sale. It was meant to be.

I could probably be more excited about this, but not by much. I have already seen my favorite bands (NOFX, Reel Big Fish, Goldfinger, AFI etc.) multiple times, but have only caught the tail end of Rancid at the 2001 Warped Tour. Rancid! In the Cities! Yee-haw!

Thursday, June 22, 2006

The Ectomy of My Wisdoms

Census is, getting your wisdom teeth removed stinks. Not just figuratively either; you actually have some serious halitosis (as your loved ones will fondly inform you). Aside from the olfactory side effects, it hurts and your face swells up to epic proportions, stealing any dignity you may have had. Getting the stitches removed (if you were lucky enough to have impacted teeth, that is) is also no fun. I'm glad I don't even have the option of doing it again.

Luckily, there were plenty of positives this weekend to make up for the negative. My dad came to the Cities on Friday to look at and ultimately purchase a bike (as in sweet motorcycle), which you can view in his blog. Chester's cousin Mikey and his girlfriend were also down for Warped Tour on Sunday, as was my friend Barry.

We rode the light rail to the Metrodome for Warped Tour, which was fun even though we were only there for about half of it (due to my painful phantom teeth). We got to see Anti-Flag (see pictures below, we got to meet them, too!), Saves the Day (acoustic as well as non-), I Voted for Kodos, which was a ska band I'd never heard of and only went to because they boasted pink unicorn t-shirts at their merch booth, Zox and Against Me. I wanted to see NOFX, but they weren't playing until two hours after we left, and I've already seen them four times. All in all, the day was a success.

Chris #2, Anti-Flag's bassist who so graciously signed my Warped ticket, even though you can see how too-cool-for-school-with-his-fancy-mohawk he is. Anti-Flag has an exceptional bass sound--I give him credit.



This is Justin Sane (so clever), the lead singer, with Mikey. I couldn't believe how tiny he was. I always wish I was brave enough to get my picture with the band members, but I'm usually too star struck.



Here is a picture of Mikey and Sheena, a bit sun-scalded, on the light rail after the show.



Me and Barry. I look chubby here, but it's actually my swollen chipmunk face.



And that's all.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Running, Running!

So I continued my 5k training today (for the 5k I plan to run in precisely 10 days). After the first 3 uphill minutes of huffing and puffing, I felt wonderful. There's nothing like trucking along in your severely mismatched outfit with a loud-breathing dog as your companion for 2.5 miles.

I always like seeing familiar locations on foot--it gives you a whole new perspective on your surroundings--makes you actually take a look at them, for one.

Monday, June 12, 2006

Some Pitchers

Running an unprecedented 2.25 miles straight in 24 minutes + seeing Cars with good people + meeting Drystan, the French student staying with my mom and little brother for a month + playing some wicked tennis (wicked meaning us rusty tennis players did a lot of running after the errant ball and standing around while we waited for someone to retreive the ball) + seeing Les Claypool in concert = a more exciting weekend than average.

Here are some pictures as well, though not necessarily of this weekend. More like, it was this weekend that I remembered the pictures of Chester were on the camera, and it was for this weekend that I cleaned the bathroom.

This one is of Chester playing DDR as David. When David plays, he tends to hunch a bit (though, admittedly, Chester is exaggerating) and positions his hands as though he is holding a controller. We find this utterly charming (some of us enough to imitate it), and it never affects David's gameplay, as he is second only to me.



Perhaps not Chester at his loveliest, but still...



Next: one of my favorite hobbies is decorating, especially when I've just moved and have a blank canvas to work with. One of my proudest rooms is actually my bathroom, even though it's probably nothing too special. Sometimes I'm a bit lax in cleaning it (keep your judgments to yourself)...so since it was clean and I bought a new curtain liner, I thought, what better time to show the blogging public my loverly bathroom?

I bought the blue outer curtain when I moved into my first no-roommate apartment. Then, when I moved to the Cities and was in need of a new liner, my mom gave me a green vinyl one. I didn't have faith in how the two would look together, but beggars can't be choosers--and I was more than pleasantly surprised.



I found that cool blue oil lamp at Goodwill, and was going to put some flowers in it, but was having trouble finding just the right thing...until I found the peacock feathers, that is.



And my Shelf of Serenity. Heh.



And now for a completely unrelated picture in which I showcase my jewelry making skills when I'm feeling particularly fidgety.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Melvin's Relocation

I have been feeling guilty, of late, about my role as a pet owner. My dog and cat are fine, albeit Jack’s itchy ears (yet another trip to the vet this weekend, it’s looking like). However, when I got my rat Melvin, I mistakenly thought the spare room would be a great place for him to go. The problem was that we almost never use that room, so he spent a lot of the time alone. I have been meaning for a couple of weeks at least, to move Melvin down to the living room so he can be a part of the goings on, and finally did so tonight.

Here we are, chilling and watching some Scrubs.



Someone’s feeling left out and taking a short respite from his pestiness.



Here, Jack is trying to get in on the love and excitement of Melvin being out and about, but I’m not having it!



Getting along great.



We’re all friends!



I know what some of you are probably thinking about pet rats, but he’s a cool little fellow and I’ve grown quite fond of him.

Fun fact: Melvin is named after Eric Melvin, the guitarist and sometimes singer of NOFX.

In other news, I sent in my registration today for the Back in Shape 5k June 24th!

Monday, June 05, 2006

My Poor Calves

I woke up yesterday morning to aching calves that have continued to ache and impede my walking until this very moment. I could not, for the life of me, figure out why they were hurting. Yes, I did a grueling 25-minute run on Friday, followed by 40 minutes of equally grueling DDR, but these are not unusual workouts for me. It was not until last night that I remembered that we climbed the Nicollet Tower. Apparently DDR was not enough to prepare my poor calves for climbing several sets of stairs.



In other news, I have been thinking about running a 10k this fall, and found two that I am thinking of doing. One is the Bolder Dash 10k in Minneapolis, and the other is the Big Woods Run in Faribault on what looks like a gorgeous trail. It will be fun to train for these and see if I can get up to the daunting 6.2 mile distance.

Sunday, June 04, 2006

Spectrum Ends

I started my day out in rural eastern South Dakota, enjoying the scenery of tree greenery and lake bluery. It was a nice drive home, even though Chester's car doesn't have air conditioning or a radio (and mine's in the shop). Next on our agenda was vegging out in front of "The Family Stone", which I did not necessarily enjoy on account of the ratio of jerks to non-jerks as far as the characters were concerned.

We rounded out the evening at Ichiban for Alexis' birthday. Expensive, but worth every penny (of Chester's). Not only was the food decadent, but the waiters put on a good show. I won't even bother trying to explain how cool it was, so you'll either have to take my word or take yourself there.

Ah yes...the reason I was in rural South Dakota, you ask? One of my best friends from high school got married this weekend. I would have liked to take more pictures, but when I remembered that I did indeed bring my camera, I couldn’t remember where it was. I took not one picture with my own camera, but I’m hoping the bride will e-mail me some for posting purposes.

It was interesting to be back on my old stomping grounds, and surprising how I remembered things as mundane as precisely which bump on the road by my house conceals a steep hill.

A good and varied weekend, all in all.