Its been a busy, packed few days. Its been a long time since I went this long without updating. I’ve not updated for such a long time that I bet you all thought I got drafted to play in the NBA. No such luck though. I guess I should start with the big news, the roof.

Last Wednesday was THE day! They were going to be here at 7 in the am. Which is when I got a phone call stating that it was raining and they would be waiting at least another day. Fair enough, after all, not only was it rainy and gloomy but the forecast was for rain all day long. Flash forward to 24 hours later when I get another phone call. Although it was not raining out, Tony (the guy who is fixing the roof, although I would bet you probably figured that out by now) said that it was supposed to be too hot and humid out and also it was still supposed to rain later in the day. As it turned out, later in the day meant 5 in the afternoon, which means they could have pretty much got it almost all done before if they had actually worked. Friday was looking good though, the forecast called for a chance of rain. This time I got no phone call. And when I got up at 7:30 there was nobody on my roof or even in front of my  house. Now I was a tad bit pissed as you might imagine. I called and left a, well not a pissed off message but a stern message that hopefully sent the message “what’s goin on, where the hell are you?”. He left me a voice mail about 2:20 saying “well, its all sun and blue skies right now, but it wasn’t that way earlier. Hopefully we will be able to get out there on Monday even if it is drizzling out.” Oh and on Friday, we didn’t have rain until the evening. Oh, shit, I almost forgot last week he called and asked if I could pay in cash. No, I don’t mean where I just don’t get a loan, but actual cash instead of a check. Because I’m only sometimes a moron and not a complete and utter moron, I am not paying cash and will give him a check. Finally this morning shortly before 7, I heard noise on my lawn. It was them, they were starting working. By the time I got home from work they not only had replaced the damaged plywood and shingles, but they are damn near done with the whole thing, except for some vents and other shit that they need to add.

This roof is a long time coming. See, my mom got an addition on this house some 14 years ago and the fuckers that built the addition really gave my mom the royal fucking. There were numerous problems and shit that they did wrong. Now I’m the first one to say that my mom should have taken care of all of this years before she died. They did such a poor job she should have sued the fuck out of them. But she didn’t. The biggest problem was the roof. They did not properly marry the old part of the house with the new part. The result was rainwater, snow and ice getting under the shingles and warping and destroying the plywood. In all honesty, we have been having leaking since shortly after the addition was completed. And what would turn out to be the biggest and most expensive lesson of my life, I never paid much attention to it or even looked into getting it fixed until a couple of years ago. Now 6 of those years were the responsibility of my mother, but she has been gone for 8 1/2 years now and I should have done something about this a long time ago. Of course, I’ve also had curling shingles on the front of the house that I had replaced about 4 years ago and a garage that was in severe disarray (so much that I got ticketed from the village last year) which took priority that I had replaced last year. But if I had to do it all over again, I probably should have gotten the roof fixed before I bought my big screen tv. All I can say is that for those of you that own homes, you probably already know the lesson I have learned. Get shit taken care of as soon as possible instead of waiting and putting things off. This is how things snowball into thousands of dollars worth of repairs. If only my mom had taken better care of the garage I could have saved myself money. And the same with the roof.

So today was a big day, with all the bullshit I have been through to get this damn thing taken care of its a proud and happy day for me. Except for…………..with all the pounding on the roof it partially collapsed my drop down ceiling. This is something that has happened before but not from pounding on the roof, instead it was from the shoddy workmanship of the fuckers that built this addition. I swear, I wish I could sue them. Or murder them. No, suing would be better. No need to go to jail on account of those fucking deadbeats. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the name of the contractor. Ok, I remember the guy”s name, his name was John LaFlame and I believe he was from Berwyn, IL, however I don’t remember the name of his company. And yes, I have done searches for him but to no avail. That being said, after 14 years there is not much I can do. But, I digress. John and I spent a couple of hours this evening putting most of the ceiling back together. We still have more to do…………ok, John has more to do, after all he did do most of it. But, we have it set to a point where its not in danger of fully coming down.

Friday night I watched The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford. It took a good portion of the night to just say the title of the movie. And it wasn’t only the title that was long but also the movie itself, clocking in at a lengthy 2 hours and 39 minutes. It was a pretty damn good movie though, I really liked it. And what I found interesting is that there was another James brother that I did not know about. Sure, everybody knows about Jesse James, his brother Frank and some even know about his other brother Robert, but he had another lesser known brother, LeBron. I don’ t think he was a train robber though.

Saturday was Mark and Amy’s annual summer bbq. Sunday was the Cubs-Sox party at Scooty’s. I wish I had time to write more about each of them, but I’ve got to go.

Well this is it. Tomorrow could be my last day at work. Once again, I have declared myself eligible for the NBA draft. In spite of the early rumors that the Bulls were trying to chose between Derrick Rose, Michael Beasley and myself, I’ve accepted that I’m not going to go with the first pick. I can even live with not being a lottery pick. Hell, I would be fine even if I don’t go in the first round. But I’ll be dammed if I’m gonna put up with going much lower than the first 10 picks of the 2nd round. And just a message to the Los Angeles Clippers, don’t even bother. I will not play for them. I flat out refuse. I would rather spend the rest of my life doing odd jobs such as disposing of soiled mattresses than playing for the Clippers. Shit, I’d even play for my most hated team in the NBA, the Detroit Pistons than play for the Clippers. But I digress. Wish me luck tomorrow, I’ve got my fingers crossed. Now I realize I probably can’t make it on my play alone. So I took some pictures to help entice teams, you know kinda like how an aspiring actor takes head shots to get work.

Very contemplative, this one says “Coach, that is an interesting idea, I’m open to it.” It shows that I’m coachable.

This one is a lot like the previous one, but instead even more contemplative. It says that I’m a safe player, I always want to make the right choice.

This here is my sexy pose. Just look at the great thigh and fine ass. Oh, oh, and the face, my, my, the face. If that face doesn’t scream out for a Marry Mike Fanclub than I don’t know what does.

This last one is the “Oh, look at me, I’m painfully adorable” pic. You know, every high school cheerleader has this pose. It means that I’m a team player and will always be rooting the team on. I mean, just look at those legs crossed!

After a rare home loss last night, the Cubs bounced right back with a
win tonight. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, they are
playing at a level I have never seen them play at in my 23 years of
watching this team. They are certainly not your typical Cubs team.
After winning 14 straight at home, losing yesterday was a shock. I
don’t want to say I’ve taken the wins for granted because a Cub fan
should never take anything for granted. But, I’ve come to expect them
to win, especially at home. And when they lose at home, I’m kinda
bummed and stunned. Its almost like it was with the Bulls back in the
glory days. Right as soon as the game ends, you kind of stare
despondently  at the tv and say to yourself “What the hell was that?
That’s not supposed to happen.” I’ve waited my entire life for the Cubs
to be the class of baseball and right now, they are, at least record
wise, the best team in baseball. Its not often that we have been able
to say that over the years. And when I mean not often, I mean 100
years, as they have not had the best record in baseball this late in
the season since 1908. So needless to say, I’m pretty damn excited,
even though there is still a long way to go and finishing with the best
record in baseball (should they be so fortunate) does not guarantee
even making it to the World Series.

First of all check out this site

http://www.hrcactioncenter.org/campaign/millionformarriageac

This group is trying to obtain one million signatures in support of gay marriage. Here is the exciting part. As of the writing of this very sentence, they have amassed 994,333 signatures which means that if you go there now, you potentially could become the one millionth signature. No, this won’t get you a free Big Mac or any money. Hell it won’t even get you a free blow job (or the female version of a blow job. There isn’t a noun that is used to describe eating out pussy, so just make due with whatever you want) but it will get you my respect and your own personal gratification. Ok, so I would have your respect anyway, but the point is being number one million would kick all sorts of ass. Now granted I know that one million signatures is not a lot compared to the number of people who oppose gay marriage, but its a start.

I was very surprised this morning to learn of the passing of a legend, George Carlin. To be honest, I was never a big fan. In fact, I’m not a fan of stand up comedy in the least as it very rarely makes me laugh. But, I have always liked Carlin and I do respect and recognize him as probably one of the top five comedians of all time. I loved him in Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and other movies. And with regards to politics and religion he and I share the same views. He has been a frequent guest of Bill Maher’s over the years and I have always loved hearing what he had to say. When I first heard of his passing, the 2 people that instantly came to mind were Lance and Dave. I had never cared much for Carlin until Lance turned him on to me when we were in high school. He was always a HUGE Carlin fan so I know he had to be bummed by the news this morning, which was not a good birthday gift for Lance, who turned 32 today. As for Dave, he too loved Carlin. He even bought me a Carlin book, When Will Jesus Bring The Pork Chops, a couple of years ago for Christmas. The world of comedy will sorely miss him and amateur comedians such as myself and professional comedians owe him a debt of gratitude.

By the way, they are now up to 994,371 signatures in the time it took for me to write that last paragraph.

I was talking with my friends the other day about cargo shorts and jean shorts. They could not understand why guys should no longer wear jean shorts. I tried in vain to explain how they just aren’t in anymore so if anybody has any ideas as to why they are no longer in, please do share. My theory though goes something like this. See, in this day and age, men have lots of shit to carry. Cargo or khaki shorts as they are often called, are the male version of a purse. See, 20 years ago you didn’t have all this shit to carry. Back then it was basically a wallet and keys. Ok, and maybe a comb. Nowadays, you have all sorts of crap. Let’s just take a look at all the things that a man now carries: (now up to 994,381 just because I know you wanted to know)

• The aforementioned keys. Let’s face it, even if you don’t have a car you at least have house keys. Or a key to your neighbor’s house so you can fuck his wife while he is away.
• The aforementioned wallet. This is essential. You need somewhere to put your money because you have to carry so much of it to pay for gas. Also you probably need a place to store your identification just in case you are arrested for the ol’ pump and dash.
• Condoms. I know back in the day dudes carried condoms in their wallets. Well, with ATM cards, credit cards, pictures, a drivers license, money and business cards, there is no room for condoms. So you stuff them in your pocket, that way if the bitch steals your wallet, you will at least have a condom left to try to score.
• Cell phone. Who doesn’t have a cell phone now? And why would you attach it to your belt when you can just as soon put it in your pocket and not have to worry about it falling. Also, the vibration of the cell phone feels good in your happy place.
• Cell phone accessories. This includes a blue tooth, so you can look like a complete whack job who looks like he/she is talking to himself in the store. This mostly annoys people and strangers end up hating you. I should come clean though. I have a blue tooth too. Sometimes it makes my pocket glow, you know, like I have a radioactive glowing penis. Yes, that’s it, be amazed by the glowing cock. You know you want it.
• Cigarettes and lighter. This ain’t 1954 anymore, you can’t exactly roll up the damn pack in your sleeves.
• Mints/gum. One must always have fresh smelling breath, especially if you smoke. After all, its the fresh breath that helps you get to use the condom.
• Stack of fake business cards. You never know when you might want to impress somebody or just feel like giving out a fake phone number to the clingy dude from high school that you ran into on the street. Also helpful should you want to avoid giving out your real contact info after a car accident with some bitter ass Republican.
• Pocket knife. You never know who might want to come after you so its always best to be prepared. Just a word of warning, make sure to hide it on the guy behind you if you need to get on a plane because hey, better him than you.
• Bong. Just in case you are walking down the street and the nun in front of you drops her secret stash.

So see, you can tell right away that there are a number of things that us guys have to keep in our pockets. If this doesn’t convince you that cargo shorts are essential in this day and age and pretty much a man purse, or murse. Its sure as hell beats those old fanny packs that some nerd ass guys wore in the 1990s. I mean, given the choice between the fanny pack and the cargo shorts its really a no brainer isn’t it? I mean, cargo shorts at least look cool, whereas fanny packs just make you look like you secretly want to be pregnant. I think this is a good start as to why jean shorts are no longer in, but please feel free to clue me in a little bit more.

Oh, and we are up to 994,395.

With the Cubs playing the Sox at home yesterday, this meant that the Sox fans come to our house to watch the game. Among John and I, Dave and Kelli, Don, and Keith and Heather, the only 2 Sox fans were Keith and Heather. What did suck was the early start time of noon. I was up early (at least for a Saturday) at about 9:30ish so that I could get some shit done before the game. Keith and Heather were pretty much here by game time. Dave and Kelli, who I had not talked to and didn’t know were coming, showed up shortly after 1 in the pm. Mason arrived about an hour later. And the Cubs offense showed the fuck up in the 4th inning scoring 9 runs including 2 home runs in that one inning for Jim Edmonds. The Cubs pretty much cruised to an 11-7 win. Unfortunately, Kelli and the kids had to leave to go to a pool party, so that gave me custody of Dave for the rest of what would turn out to be very long day and evening. Wait. That made it sound bad. It was a great time, just a late night.

During the game we ordered deep dish pizza from a place here in town called Fat Ricky’s.I’ve always loved that name, it sounds like a mafia name. After the game we were hanging outside when I decided that since we had pizza, we had to have ice cream as well. So this resulted in a brief trip to Dairy Queen for Dave, Don and I. This particular DQ doesn’t have a way for you to go inside, you pretty much either order through the drive thru or outside the front of the building. Dave ordered his ice cream and then walked next door to the 7-Eleven to get a pack of smokes, leaving behind his ice cream on a ledge where you order. Don and I felt it was our duty to perform ice cream maintenance eating some of it while he was gone. Serves him right though, I mean why would he leave the 2 of us alone with ice cream.

When we got back home we hung out playing beanbags and playing a little bit of basketball. Dave always likes to play basketbrawl instead of basketball. This often amounts in him pushing, kicking and in one instance, ramming his shoulder into my back, sending me flying into the house. It was all in good fun, however my back was sore for a while.

For most of the afternoon, as Dave often does when he comes over, he kept trying to get us to play cards. After everybody else but John had left, Dave and I played a game of Texas Hold-em. It was a rather quick game. About 15 minutes into it, there were trip fours after the turn. The whole hand I was betting big and decided to try to bluff Dave. I even went as far as to go all in, thinking he would fold as I was playing as if I had the only remaining 4. Normally he would have folded…………………except, he had the 4 giving him 4 of a kind. And that was why our game ended so quickly.

Last night our friend Dae was playing an acoustic set at a bar in Lisle called Mullen’s. Allow me to give you some background on him. 11 years ago on the night before Labor Day,  Dave, John and I went to play volleyball at a bar in Downers Grove called North Beach. While there we saw this very fun guy, Dae playing guitar and singing for what seemed like forever. Now Dave and I were both unemployed at the time, so we soon started going up there every Sunday to play volleyball and listen to him. Soon we stopped playing volleyball and went up there just to see him. Once Jt hit blackjack (meaning, when he turned 21) he joined us. Oh, by the time we were employed though and he was playing other places in addition to North Beach and other days of the week in addition to Sundays. Still, it was a great time he would sit up there and take requests and ALWAYS attempt to play whatever anybody wanted to hear. Some of the best times I had with Jt and Dave were going to these shows. On occasion, Kelli would come with us. Some other times more people would come too. Dae’s girlfriend (and now wife) Jean was his manger and sound person and was at every show. Dae also played in a band called Forgotten Toys and Jt, Dave and I became their roadies, working for beer and food.

Well, Dae and Jean eventually got married and had a couple of adorable kids. Needless to say, he does not play bar shows anymore, or at the very least, he does it on very rare occasions. So yesterday morning when I got an email saying he was playing, I just had to get people together to go. As it turned out, he was playing a show with a guy he had never met before. The other guy plays electric guitar and had a singer who quit earlier in the week and was looking for another guy to play and sing with him. They had not played together at all before last night and in fact had only spoken on the phone a few times over the course of this week.

The show was supposed to start at 9 in the pm. They were playing in an outdoor beer garden which was perfect as that meant that Dave could smoke without having to miss anything. And although it had poured out earlier in the morning, it actually turned out to be a very nice night. Oh, I think I forgot to mention this, but it was just John, Dave and I. Although I drove there, John decided not to drink so I gave him my keys and had a chance to drink. Dave and I got a pitcher of Dos Equis (spelling please) which was the first time I ever had it. Not bad, but then again I’m not a huge beer drinker and they all don’t taste all that good to me.

Soon into the show it was just like old times with a couple of notable exceptions: Jt and Kelli weren’t there. Dave had tried calling and texting Jt but of course he never heard back from him. Even though he and I aren’t really friends anymore, It would have been awesome had he had the courtesy to actually return a phone call and actually show up. Still, we had a great time. There were lots of Cub fans at this place and Dave, John and I occasionally broke into “Go Cubs Go ” every now and then getting about 10 other people to go along with us. Although they didn’t know the song, both Dae and the other dude at least attempted to play it based on our lousy singing.

One thing about Dae is that he would always play for hours without taking a break. I was always amazed at how he could drink and drink and drink without ever stopping to pee. After the shows were over though he almost always made a bee line straight to the bathroom before coming back to talk with us. Last night once again they played straight through, all the way until shortly past one.

Shit, this post seems to be going on forever. It is taking a long time for me to write it. I think its because I’m hung over. I should try to find ways to shorten it. After the show we went to grab something to eat at Omega. This is where things got a little……………..er…………………..odd. This other dude that Dae played with whom none of us had ever met before last night,  decided to show us pictures of his ex girlfriend that he had on his phone. And yes, I do mean “PICTURES”. And they weren’t even only pictures of her. Some of them included pictures of him if you know what I mean. So here we were at a restaurant at 3:30 in the morning looking at amateur porn on a cell phone. Later on after he left, John, Dave, Dae and I stood in the parking lot discussing what would posses him to show us those pics. I probably could have and should have told this story better, but hey, I’m hungover, I got to bed at 5am and was up at 10am, so I’m just not up to it right now. You make your own jokes.

Damn, it has been a rough year for the state of Illinois. Earlier this year we had the shootings at that Lane Bryant store in Tinley Park killing 7 people. Then there were the 5 people killed and 18 injured in the shootings at NIU. We also had a weekend in Chicago a few months ago in which there were something like over 20 people were shot. Now this month we have had some severe flooding that some are saying is almost as bad as Katrina, except the cities that our flooding has occurred are much smaller. Then again, one of our senators is the Democratic nominee for president, so I guess we have that going for us. Still, I certainly hope the rest of the year is much better than what we have had so far.

With the Boston Celtics winning the NBA Finals last night, one of my all time favorite players finally has won a championship, Kevin Garnett. I know some people don’t like him because he went straight from high school to the NBA and also signed a rather immense contract years ago. But, I’ve always been a big fan. He is a classy guy who always plays hard and has always played with youthful exuberance. Most of you aren’t NBA fans, so you might not know that he played his first 12 years with the Minnesota Timberwolves before being traded to Boston last summer. He also went to high school in Chicago and grew up in South Carolina. Yet in the first interview on the court after winning the championship, an emotional Garnett thanked the people in Minnesota, Chicago and South Carolina for their support. And when they started to pass the trophy around he could be heard excitedly saying “I touched it!”. And shortly after the game he embraced former Celtic legend Bill Russell saying “I hope we made you proud”. In all my years of watching sports I have never seen a player as happy as he was to finally win it all. He was already a very likable player and after last night he is practically impossible not to like……………assuming you aren’t a Laker fan!

I’ve always been fascinated with American presidents………….well, all except one (can you guess which one it is? Ooooooo, I’ll give you a hint: he is unfortunately currently in office. If you don’t know if by now than I can’t help you) and usually take every opportunity I can to watch something on them. In other words, anytime the History Channel has something on about a president. Ok, so there was that HBO mini series on John Adams. And I watched a PBS program (you should always refer to things on PBS as programs. I think its the law) on Andrew Jackson. And another one on PBS about George H.W. Bush. All right, so perhaps its more than the History Channel that has specials on the presidents. But the point is, I like to learn about the presidents. Tonight on the History Channel I was watching a special about Franklin Roosevelt. It was from a 2005 show they aired however I did catch some of it then I never did catch all 4 hours. As of now I have only seen 2 of the 4 hours. But nevertheless, I have once again found myself watching more things about presidents. Its time now for some interesting facts about FDR.

• FDR actually stood for Frappuccino Delight Roosevelt. He changed his name one he decided to run for president.
• His wife, Eleanor, had sex sex more chicks than he did. Ok, that one is a low blow. I love Eleanor, she was a truly a tremendous and amazing lady and I should not have gone there.
• Roosevelt almost lost the 1932 election to John McCain.
• FDR believed in Santa Claus until 1937
• Of course everybody knows that Eleanor was his distant cousin but did you also know that his mother once had a threesome with John Adams and John Quincy Adams?
• Roosevelt was the first president to fly to the moon.

So there you have it, some fascinating completely untrue facts about Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Although I think its totally reasonable to say that he was probably the best president of the 20th century, he was an intriguing person. A lot of people know that he had polio and spent his entire presidency in a wheelchair. Yet, I would be willing to bet that there are still a lot of people today that do not know that. In fact, I would be willing to bet that at least 50% of Americans did not know that. The fact that he was able to overcome that and become president is amazing in itself. Then when you consider that he also managed to keep it hidden until  decades after his death was even more amazing. Also consider that not only was he president but people can make a strong argument that he was one of the top 3 or 4 presidents ever. And for the Obama critics who say he doesn’t have enough experience, FDR had only been governor of New York since 1928 when he won his first presidential election in 1932. If Obama wins, he would of had as much time as a senator as FDR had as governor.

Now comes the biggest stain on FDR’s presidency. As great as he was with many aspects of being a president, he failed in one way that is unforgivable. He pretty much ignored and did nothing to fight racial injustices during his time as president. He often just pretended that racial segregation and lynching of blacks did not happen. The reason: political gain. If he made a stand against those things, he would lose too much support among southern Democrats. That is a travesty the fact that he would put his own political career ahead of equality and justice for all. There is much shame and selfishness in such a political maneuver.

And yes, we have had other presidents in the past who have had very poor racial records, after all Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson both had slaves. Yet, that was a different time then. Slavery was acceptable back then and although it does not make it right, it also didn’t make them any different than many other people. Still its those racial beliefs and records that severely taint these otherwise great men. There is no argument the effect each one of them had for our country. They impacted American in a profound and prodigious way, yet they failed to overcome something as simple and easy as civil rights.

I was thinking about my own views on race the other day and how I came to believe what I believe. I’ve always found racism to be deplorable. The “N”" word is the one word that disgusts me and offends me like no other. I’m very passionate about race relations and like to learn about it. Yet, judging from my background, I have to wonder how I became the colorblind thinker that I am today. I’m full Italian and honestly, let’s face it, Italians are a racist bunch, especially when it comes to blacks. My extended family is filled with racists on both sides. On my dad’s side, although I can not speak for my dad, most of my cousins and uncles are or were racist. My mom always said that if any of us ever dated a black person she would disown us. Yet, when my mother’s brother’s granddaughter married a black man, my mom not only was accepting, she even babysat her kid once he was born. While her own grandfather and two of her uncles had disowned her because she married a black man, my mother surprised me by being ok with it. Being born in 1934, my mom was from that older generation who referred to blacks as “colored people”, yet I never heard her use the “N” word or any other racist terms. That might be the reason why none of my mother’s kids turned out to be racist. We are all open minded and accepting of others. And although I’d like to think I’m the most open minded and accepting of all of us, the reality is that both my oldest sister Carmen and my other brother John are every bit as accepting as I am. Perhaps it was their influence that turned me into the colorblind person I am today. Maybe it was because being gay, I can relate to other minorities. Any way you slice it though, I’m grateful and glad that I believe the way I believe and that I am not a bigot.

Yesterday I had a graduation party for Don and Dayna’s daughter Karine. I have known them for the better part of 15 years so it totally blows me away that Karine has graduated from high school. The party started at 2, but I didn’t leave my house until after the Cubs game ended about 2:45ish. I got there right around three in the pm and there were not a whole heck of a lot of people there yet. I gave Karine her card which contained the unusual amount of  43 dollars American. Why $43 and not $40 or $50 or $25? Because I’ve always been a just a little bit odd and $43 is odd. Also, everybody else always gives a normal amount and you all know me, I’ve always got to be different.

Dayna’s brother Daniel was there with his son who will be 3 in September. I had never met his son, but shortly after meeting him it was obvious to see that the kid has some developmental difficulties. For starters, he doesn’t walk yet. He also doesn’t talk. He also always has his hand in his mouth. He is adorable though and at one point he and Daniel were standing next to me when out of the blue the boy let go of his dad’s hand and took mine, even though I didn’t make any sort of move to try to get him to come to me. Its sad to see and know the struggles the boy is going to have in his life, however I think that the parents did some things during the pregnancy that had an effect on him.

Later on in the evening we wound up playing Rock Band. This was the first time I had ever played it and since I’ve got no musical talents whatsoever when it comes to playing an instrument, I chose to do most of the singing. I’ve always thought I had a decent voice, not very good but not overly horrendous either. And even though I knew some of the songs very well, like REM’s “Orange Crush” it was not as easy to sing as I thought it would be as I didn’t know all the words and they come up on the screen kinda quick. Another song I sang was “Gimme Shelter” by the Rolling Stones which might not have been as easy to sing, but it was definitely more fun. I was able to scream into the mic at the high parts of the song and also had a chance to strut around like Mick Jagger at some points as well much to the amusement of those in the room with us.

Later on we played Wii sports and I was introduced to another version of Wii bowling in which you progressively have to keep on knocking down more and more pins until you get up to a lane filled with something like 91 pins. Although it sounds hard, its not as bad as it seems. Somehow I wound up with the highest score of the night and the 2nd highest on their game.

The party ended shortly before midnight and I headed home.

I’ve made up my mind, I’m going to take a road trip in August. Its been years since I’ve had an extended road trip and I’m sick of waiting around to try to find somebody to go with. There is so much of the country and world to see that given the choice between staying home or going by myself, I’ve decided to go by myself. As I mentioned before, 60 years ago this summer my dad and 2 of his friends took a road trip down to Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee among other places and I want to try to recreate that trip. If I can find somebody to go with great, if not well that’s ok too. Although I’m a little scared of driving that type of distance by myself there is also a sense of adventure and Into the Wild excitement (although not nearly as extreme) to the whole idea of taking a long extended road trip by yourself. I’ve got one friend who tells me that she loves to take road trips by herself and that she thinks I’m going to love it. Although that remains to be seen, going by myself sure as hell beats not traveling. I’ve got a very strong desire and passion to see the world and will do it even if I have to go by myself. I know I want to go to Dallas to see where Kennedy was killed. Dave has always been somewhat obsessed with the Kennedy assassination  and has often said that he would drive 18 hours to the grassy knoll, stay for 10 minutes and then come home. And while I’m every bit as crazy as Dave to do something like that, I think I will probably spend more than 10 minutes in Dallas, maybe even take in a Rangers game in nearby Arlington. I also know that on the way home I want to swing by and stop off in the gambling mecca of the south, Tunica, MS. And also I hear there are some kick ass resorts in Hot Springs, AR that would be cool to check out. Outside of those things, I’m open to anything else.

Dave and I went to the casino tonight. Since they have an all you can eat seafood buffet on Friday night’s, we decided to hit the buffet before gambling. It has been a long time since we did a buffet-casino double play, in fact its been several years. Actually, probably more then just several years, however since several is not an actual number but instead just an estimate or a guesstimate as some people like to say, we will go with several because it sounds better. Or not. I dunno, you decide.

Anywho, I picked Dave up at about 7:45 in the pm. What always cracks me up is when I pick Dave up for us to go gambling, he tells his 2 year old daughter that he is going to work. Nevertheless, we were on our way shortly thereafter. Dave had racked up enough points gambling that his buffet was actually comped. I wasn’t so lucky, which is to say that I wasn’t so unlucky as I had not gambled  enough money to get enough points for a free buffet. Within minutes of us getting inside the restaurant I saw this girl I work with. She is the same girl I saw at the OTB place Dave and I went to last month. I said to here “why do I see you every time I go gambling?” which of course wasn’t true as I have been gambling at least twice since the last time I saw her. As for the food, it was pretty good. I’ve never been much for crab legs but that was more because of the work it takes to eat crab legs than the taste itself. Still, tonight was an exception, I have a lot of them and they were pretty damn good. My thinking was that it was always too much work and too messy to eat crab legs, but upon further review, its worth it.

After eating we went into the casino and after playing my mom’s favorite slot machine (the Blazing 7′s, I hope its not blazing where she is now……………then again, as an Atheist I don’t believe in hell) I headed for roulette. After quite a few hands I had not won once, not even on a split. I decided to try something different in an attempt to change my luck. Normally when I win, I tip the dealer a couple of dollars. This time I did a preemptive tip, tipping him before I had won anything. And lo and be hold, my number hit. Throughout the night I did that a couple of other times and wound up winning.

After a little while the girl I work with came up to me and asked me how I was doing and how to play. Call me crazy, (and its not because she asked me how to play) but I think she might like me. I’d say there was a sexual tension between us, but well…………………you know. Still, I asked her what her birthday was and played her birthday. Yeah, that didn’t work. I then played 23 for Michael Jordan and the guy next to me and I both won. He then said “what about #33 for Scottie Pippen?” I responded that I never liked Pippen and wouldn’t play his number. Well, maybe I should start liking him because the number hit. A few minutes later the same guy next to me played #5, which was John Paxon’s number (he played for the Bulls back in the day and is currently their GM) and won. I decided to play #24 for former Bull Bill Cartwright. Nothing. Damnit!

As is the case most of the time with gambling, although it took some time, eventually I lost. That’s why casinos make so much damn money though, because eventually they usually win.

Ok now this sucks. Earlier today I had several ideas about what I could do a post about and have totally forgotten them. I swear, sometimes I’ve got the worst memory. When it comes to certain things, I’ve got the best memory. I’d blame heavy pot usage but unfortunately that’s not even close to being true so I can’t use that as an excuse. And its not like I’ve recently had a major head injury or something like that, I’ve always been this way. I guess one thing I will clarify from yesterday’s post is that I do have somebody to fix the roof. I’ve got the money which includes some money I got from my homeowners insurance because I filed a claim for the roof. Last week we submitted the paperwork that is required with the town I live in to replace shingles. Now its just a waiting game to get approval, however I will say that if the guy I’ve hired to fix it has an opening I will have him replaces the shingles and the roof even without approval from my town, I’m in that much of a dire need for a new roof now.

In the history of sports there have been legions and legions of just wastefully stupid athletes. If I had more time I’m quite certain I could get a pretty healthy list of them right now. But instead I’m going to focus on the latest one: former Bears running back Cedric Benson. Now he has done stupid things in the past but none nearly as stupid as the past month and a half. In early May he got arrested for drinking and boating. And I’ve got no doubt of his guilt. Just look at his mug shot.

If that doesn’t say “I’m hungover, take the God damn picture already” than I don’t know what does. Ok, so operating a boat while drunk is bad enough. In fact, its pretty damn fucking stupid. Its not quite as stupid as drinking and driving though. I really thought that was enough but apparently there is no quota on stupid. So what does he do this weekend? He decides to drink and drive and you guessed it, gets a DUI. Here is that mug shot.

Is it just me or does he look like he prettied himself up for this pic? I mean, honestly, its more like a high school yearbook picture than a mug shot. Is he high as well, because that would explain it. Maybe he had a threesome and was very happy. Maybe this whole arrest thing is old hat for him and missed being in jail. Or maybe he is happy because he just got the 2nd leg of the Operating a Vehicle While Intoxicated Triple Crown. Now if only he could get arrested for flying a plane while drunk he would be set. Needless to say on Monday he became a former Chicago Bear. What a dope.

Sunday night was an interesting night. I went to bed at 12:30am late Sunday night early Monday morning. I had not even fallen asleep yet when shortly before 1 in the am I heard the smoke detector start to go off. At first I didn’t get up thinking for some reason that it wasn’t real. The laying there really only lasted for about 3 seconds though before I thought to myself “HOLY MOTHERFUCKING SHIT, I probably should at least get up” and with that I raced out of bed. As soon as I opened my bedroom door John opened his and got up as well. I knew there was nothing burning and couldn’t figure out why it was going off. Ohhhh, maybe a drunk Cedric Benson could race over in a fire truck to put out a potential fire. Then again, maybe not. Anywho, I digress. Our other smoke detector in the back part of the house was going off as well. We were in the middle of some pretty heavy storms and thought that maybe lightening had struck the roof. John looked up and could see that the roof was leaking right next to the smoke detector. You probably have put 1 and 1 together by now and realized that the rain water from the leak was going into the smoke detector. Since both detectors are connected in some way, if one goes off the other one goes off. That’s good to know. What is not good to know is that the smoke detectors are connected to the electricity. As we know from Sunday’s post, I’m allergic to being electrocuted. Now I should mention that in the part of the house where the leak is at we have a drop down ceiling. So there we were at 1 in the fucking morning fighting to get the damn ceiling tiles removed and trying to dry things up a little bit. What made it hard was that there is a hole in the tile where the smoke detector comes out. Removing it and the tile without getting more water into the detector was a bit tricky but we managed. It wasn’t until almost 1:30 when we finally got back to bed. And since I’ve always had problems sleeping, this certainly wasn’t helping what with the fear of a fire or being electrocuted with me.