Saturday was the first day in awhile that Tracy and I were going to be able to go on a date, sans children. My plan: go get something nice for dinner (not all out, but better than Applebee’s) then go see a comedian at Milwaukee’s Comedy Cafe.

Here’s how our awesome date really went:

4:00p - Made reservations for two for the 8pm show at Comedy Cafe.

5:30p - Picked up Tracy at her house.

6:30p - Arrived at P.F. Chang’s. It was so packed that we couldn’t see past the front door. A woman walking back in (presumably from her car) said, “it’s a really long wait.” We didn’t have time. Tracy suggested BW3’s.

6:40p - Arrived at BW3’s and we were immediately seated. The waitress didn’t get to our table right away, but we placed our order as soon as she did.

7:25p - Still waiting for Tracy’s nachos and my popcorn shrimp. I called Comedy Cafe and cancelled our reservations.

7:30p - Yes, 50 minutes later our food finally arrived. The food wasn’t terrible… but the service sucked. Had we known we were going to miss the comedian for dinner, we would have braved the crowd at P.F. Chang’s.

7:50p - Having enough of BW3’s, and now having no time to get to the east side of Milwaukee, we decided we would see what movies were playing at Mayfair’s AMC.

7:55p - Arrived at AMC. There were no photo representations of the movies that were playing like they have outside at Marcus cinemas, so we had to ask the pimply-brace-faced (seriously jacked up grill, yo) teen-aged girl behind the counter about the movies. It came down to Jack Black’s, “Be Kind, Rewind,” or Will Ferrell’s, “Semi-Pro.” We reluctantly went with “Semi-Pro.”

8:00p - We order some Junior Mints from the concessions counter.

8:05p - I’ve never had crunch Junior Mints before… but about one in every ten of the candies were crunchy. Ick!

8:45p-ish - I nodded off… it was that boring/dumb of a movie.

9:30p - We were leaving and some douchebag girl who was driving and cackling at something blew through her place to stop and nearly wrecked us. Beotch!

11:00p-ish - We got home and promptly fell asleep.

Seriously, I’m glad that Tracy and I both have good senses of humor. It was funny in that everything that could go wrong basically did. We got to a certain point in the night that had something actually gone right, it would have ruined the date.

I just bought a humidifier from Wal*Mart, and when I opened up the box, the humidifier was wet and the filter was utterly disgusting. Seriously… what a pain in the butt. I’m not a cappy little hamper right now.

It’s been awhile since I’ve done any community service. So, I’m kind of excited that Tracy and I are joining the Red Cross FAST program (First Aid Service Team). She’ll be a helluva lot better at it than I will (she’s almost an RN for goodness sake) but I’m sure that she’ll be able to teach me a lot, too.  And first-aid knowledge is never a bad thing to have.

Oh, and I’m not doing it just to be able to ride on the first-aid golf cart at the State Fair and Summerfest! Haha!

Every Tuesday I carpool to UWM with a woman named Aimee. She’s nine months pregnant. Her due date is today, actually, and it also happens to be my day to drive. I have been hounding on her to have her baby before today so that she doesn’t mess up my car!

As a joke (but not really) I gathered up some towels, plastic bags, and puppy pads to cover my seats today. I mean, Hampton Avenue is extremely bumpy, and I’d feel bad driving my car if she would have to have my car detailed.

Well… she just sent me a txt message to tell me that she and her husband are on their way to the hospital to have the baby delivered. Darnitall! She also told me that she was planning on pulling the same seat-protection joke on me. DOH!

Good luck, Aimee & Ty!

The woman that I love was a teenage mother. She never let herself be typecast in this life, though. And although it seems that certain people try to knock her down at nearly every turn, she’s going to be a registered nurse, soon.

She’s vocal when she knows she’s right. If you don’t believe me, try proving her wrong. I dare you.

She’s a woman who stands up and says what she needs to say.

She’s an excellent mother who cares about her son’s future more than her own. She knows that getting through school will provide her monkey with a great example of how to overcome adversity and beat the odds.

She’s a thinker - and trust me, it’s nice to be around somebody who “thinks too much,” like me.

She’s stylish, classy, and intelligent - it’s a very sexy combination.

She’s my best friend.

I’m extremely proud of you, Tracy. Happy Valentine’s Day.

I know that the Bible says that I should not covet my neighbor’s wife… but Lisa just snowblowed my driveway. Haha! Thanks, Lisa. Oh, and Phil, you can keep her… I hear she snores. j/k.

If it weren’t for Phil and Lisa, I’d have gone insane in this craptastic town.

Last year, I gave up meat for Lent. Since then, I’ve had meat only five times. I thought for sure that it would be super tough, but it wasn’t at all. I’ve written much about it, so I won’t dwell.

The Lenten season starts this Wednesday. My decision is that I will give up alcohol for Lent this year. I do like beer and wine, so it should be a nice little challenge. Initially I was going to give up energy drinks as well, but the other day I received an e-mail from a company offering to send me a case of energy drinks for my review. So, there’s that.

Wish me luck, though I won’t really need it.

The first Superbowl that I ever watched was the Giants vs. Broncos back in 1987 (’86 season). I was eight years old at the time and I fell in love with Phil Simms and the game of football in general. It could have had something to do with me being allowed to stay up past my bedtime to finish watching the game, too. After the game, I was a Packers fan and a Giants fan. The Pack always came first even though they sucked eggs during the 80’s.

For some reason, right before this past season started, I purchased a New York Giants t-shirt. Clairvoyant? No… but it was a pretty cool coincidence. Last night was probably one of the most exciting Superbowls that I have watched since the Packers beat New England in ‘97. I was cheering on the Giants… and I felt like a kid again. Manning’s touchdown pass with 35 seconds left was too, too sweet!

Thanks to my buddy Sean for loaning me a spot in his living room to watch his sweet HD. Also, congrats to reader/contributer OOS and his wife for being “with child.”

Recently, I switched banks. My old bank was nice and had lots of locations throughout Southeastern Wisconsin, but my new, smaller bank has a much better interest rate on their checking accounts (and really hot tellers ).

Last night, I had to pay a buddy of mine for $360 worth of car repairs (thanks Aaron!). I went to an ATM and punched in $400. I looked down at my dash for a second and then when I looked back there was nothing on the ATM screen. So, I ran it again. This time, a notice came back that read, “Max daily limit exceeded.”  My old bank had a $500 daily limit, so I  figured this account had a $400 limit or something like that (I had taken $20 out earlier in the day). So, I ran it again but at $300. This time it read, “Unauthorized usage.”

At this point, I figured that the ATM at the location I was at had some sort of fraud protection that kept you from trying the same card multiple times. I called Tracy, the hot teller/my girlfriend, and she told me that my card has a $300 daily limit. She also suggested that I call the number on the back of the card to make sure that they didn’t lock it out or anything.

So, I called the number listed on the back of the card. It said that they were closed and that if I needed 24-hour assistance with my debit card, I should call an alternate 800 number. Immediately, I dialed the 800 number that they gave me. The so-called 24-hour assistance was also closed, “please call back during normal business hours.” WTF?

Now I’m kinda getting a little frustrated since I have to pay Aaron for the parts and his work.  I drove down the road to another ATM and punched in $200. Surely this will allow me to get some cash, and then I can pull some more out of my old checking account that I still haven’t closed.

The effing machine ate my card. “Unauthorized usage. Card detained,” was the error that the ATM gave me.

Luckily, I had some starter checks from my new account, and Aaron was understanding.

This morning, I called my bank hoping that they could “help” me. The nice operator transferred me to customer service … where I waited…. and waited…. and then waited some more. Then, a voice came on the phone telling me that all of the operators were busy. The part that annoyed the piss out of me was that the voice then asked me to “press four to remain in the queue” or “press five to leave a message.” I pressed four. Then, the voice started coming on every twenty to thirty seconds asking me the same question. I had to keep pressing four just to wait on hold.  Finally, after ten minutes, I left a message. A sternly worded message.

I’m not very pleased with my new bank right now. They weren’t there to help last night, and they weren’t here to help this morning. So much for “each and every way.”

Phack.

Dear 35-year-old woman at Pick ‘n Save in the 10-items-or-less lane with a shopping cart full of produce and Kessler’s whiskey… when you see a guy behind you with an arm full of frozen veggies, a gallon of milk, and a bottle of merlot, please either let him go first - OR GO TO A LANE THAT ACCEPTS MORE THAN 10 ITEMS!

Thanks for being a bitch.

I seriously feel better now.

This afternoon, I applied for graduation from UWM! I thought the day would never come! I can’t wait for May to get here!!!

Two weeks from tomorrow, I start my final semester as an undergrad! I’m pretty excited to get this isht done ! As you can tell, I’ve been kinda laying low here in my off time. Lately, I’ve been working on my photography portfolio basically any moment that I am not at the radio station or on location. I’m trying to supplement my income with extra income from my photography portfolio. It’s not going too badly, but it could definitely be better. You get back what you put in, for the most part.

I hope that you all had a safe and happy New Year! Tracy, her monkey, and I just chilled out on Monday night. Then, yesterday, I had to work a little bit before coming back over to Tracy’s house. I’ve never watched One Tree Hill before, but thanks to the marathon, I think I know everything about Brooke and the Clean Teens? (WTF is wrong with me? )

I am going to put together my list of New Year’s resolutions soon. It will be captivating, I’m sure. 

When I was a kid, anytime the grass was covered with snow, you could bet your ass that my friends and I were out sledding down hills and running back up them. That wasn’t all that long ago. Now that I’m older, I live in a town with a huge park that has a lot of really steep hills! They’re perfect for sledding! This morning, I took my daughter to the park to go sledding. There was not one set of tracks ANYWHERE! I thought, “okay, the snow fell yesterday, I’m sure by the end of the day there will be more tracks.” Nope. I went past the park and the only set of tracks were the ones we made this morning. I was disgusted! I mean, we had video games when I was a kid. I played video games all the time. But I also played outside so much that my mom would have to yell for me to come in. Get outside and go friggin’ play.

On a side note, I heard a guy on the radio today saying that frostbite is less common in the United States these days due to “better winter clothing,” and “increased awareness about the dangers of cold weather.” How about, “because kids won’t get off their lazy asses and go play outside.”

Disturbing.

My little girl and I built a snow fort! I haven’t done that since 5th grade! What a bunch of fun!!!!

What a great batch of snow we got, too. Not too heavy… not too powdery. Ha!

My grades are in from UWM. This semester I got one A and three B+’s. That equates to a 3.498… but perfectionist me doesn’t like that so much. Of course, the semester before I received a 3.333 (1 A, 2 B+’s, and a B-)… so this is better than that, right?

One more semester to go for my BBA and then I’ll start working on my MBA.  Wish me luck! Ack… screw it… wish me patience.

Christmas morning. My daughter slept till 7:15 (a blissful anomaly), she woke up, we opened presents, we got ready, packed up the presents, and left for my sister’s house. Along Highway 33 there was a beautiful, perfect frost on the trees. In the horizon, the Doppler radar was gorgeously lit with the frosty trees below.

And I forgot my camera.

Doh!

I’ve been toying around with becoming an iStock illustrator to compliment my photography portfolio. Over the last few weeks I have been practicing with the pen tool, and I finally think that I am getting the hang of it. On Sunday night, I finally submitted my illustrator application. Wish me luck.

And now… a tracing of my beautiful mug.

Original:

In Process:

Finished Product:

This is my last week of school. I can’t wait to be done. I promise I won’t neglect you all after Wednesday. Until then, things may be a tad sporadic around here. Talk amongst yourself.

I have my second of four finals today. I scored a 96% on the first one that I took last Wednesday. That was my easiest class, though. The next three should be a tad tougher. International Financial Management will be the death of me. It is sad that I have scored a 72% and a 68% on my two respective tests in that class, and my score was well above the class average!!! Somebody needs to learn some people and teaching skills. I’m not going to point any fingers, but it rhymes with “my professor.”