Easter weekend in Arkansas

Last weekend Nicole and I decided to take one last road trip before the baby comes. Having exhausted most options within a 5 hour drive from Lawrence, we decided to try Eureka Springs. Crazy little town in Arkansas with no straight roads or level ground. Also it rained as much as, if not more, than the entire time we were in Ireland for our honeymoon. It dumped and poured and on and on. So we spent alot of time in the shops.... and if you know me, that's not my top activity. But we were at the local Indian buffet/hamburger joint (yes in one restaurant) and a group by the name of Big Bad Gina started playing music.

Some things of note about BBG and the crowd at the BBG show:

1. They had a roadie.
2. They played in Tulsa the night before. They mentioned this many times.
3. They classified their genre of music as "Sexy."
4. The number of people watching = no greater than 15
5. The number of women with hair as short as mine in that crowd of 15 = greater than 7.
6. This is a picture of BBG:

6a. I just found out that when you Google Image search Big Bad Gina you also get alot of pictures of big women wrestling little men. I don't know exactly what's going on there, but I'm sure that most of the women in the audience of the BBG show would be into it (and some of the band members).
7. We left after about 5 songs. I wasn't a lesbian or wearing a woman's Ed Hardy shirt so I'm pretty sure I was going to get kicked out in a few minutes anyway.
ARKANSAS!

Don't call it a comeback

Okay, so after an almost 2 1/2 year absense, let's get this thing going again.

Updates since December 2008:

1. I got an internship

2. I got married

3. I graduated

4. I got a full time job


5. We bought a house

5. Nicole and I will be having a baby in 2 months.


6. I've become very skilled at putting together pre-fab furniture.


7. At least once a week I will do something to the house that I've never done before, but have looked up how-to videos on the internet. Home ownership is kind of a crap shoot sometimes.





Some other stuff happened along the way, which I maybe should have documented in blog form (blorm, florg??), but didn't find the time. Also the other various social medias have kept me busy, but nothing is quite the same as Amused Confused.





"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
Ferris Bueller.





So right now we are in the final stages of getting things ready for the baby. Right now her room is in the process of being painted. If you want to see what color, come on over and bring a brush and/or roller. You may not like the color, but just keep that to yourself. Its too late to make any changes at this point.


We are slowly driving the 80s out of our new house, one brass fixture at a time.

Deb: Here's a taste of what you missed at Thanksgiving

Which do you like best?

Which (if any) would you hang on your wall? I'm just trying to decide which one to frame.

Spring Break '09

I'll be heading to France. Clermont-Ferrand to be exact. Cool, right?

Its through the School of Business so I will be taking a class while I'm there, but its still France. One regret I had about my undergrad days was never studying abroad so I made a point to make it happen this time around. (Thank god for the school's study abroad scholarships...)

Inspiring? Sad?

A little bit of both. I ran across this several months ago.

Matt Logelin

Which way? Segway.

Sited on campus, 11/4/08. Segway with a seat.

The colors are set

In case anyone was dying to know....

Ashton Grant has arrived

Already sporting the beads that his cousin made for him (I assume anyway...Deb is this right?)


For those who don't know... My nephew Ashton arrived Tuesday morning. Check out pauletishen.blogspot.com for another pic. (My mom went down to Houston to see him and had Paul with her still from her Alaskan vacation).

Esquire

All of that studying paid off (shown here on the DC Metro.....studying.....on the 4th of July....). She passed the bar!

PASSED

THE 

BAR

Congrats. 

I now expect champagne and caviar for every meal. 

I'm not buying what they are selling

Thanks to Zach for finding this.  The sad part is that so many Americans will fall for it....again. 

The week off begins

I don't really have anything exciting to report. It is nice having the week of, that's for sure. I bet I'm doing better that these people:


This is the view from my window Saturday afternoon. For some reasons unknown to me, this woman dumped all of this stuff in the parking lot in the pouring rain. She tried to talk to him, but he just kept his head down while picking everything up. She apparently gave up, backed out of the parking spot, then sped down the alley while running over some of the possessions. Entertaining stuff.

PSA

This is how Nicole's family handles babies.....What have I done?

Yes, let's encourage that behavior

This is pretty cool when you first read it...but you wonder why these guys aren't working on stuff like....oh...I don't know...cancer research. At least we have our priorities straight.

In case everyone forgot

KU won the NCAA National Championship this year.

Here's a reminder of the Miracle Man:

Packer sent packing

Finally...
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=3485871&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines


At least Clark Kellogg makes it seem like he watches college basketball for more than 2 months out of the year. The same could not be said for Billy Packer. He was always concerned with comparing the current game/situation with something that happened 25 years ago. Every year he always talked about Keith Smart winning the title for Indiana, Danny Manning (good to hear as a KU fan, but c'mon...) and/or Jimmy V. Its like he ignored the last 15 years of college basketball.

Washington DC pictures

The night tour


On the metro on July 4th.


Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (warm!), Natural History Museum, madness around the Hope Diamond.


Deb vogueing (sp?) on the National Mall, the girls sharing a soda, Nicole studying for the bar on the Metro, and the best damn looking guy in the world.

Well, I had a good run (Nicole hates this title)

Not Washington DC pics, but so much more exciting. Guess who got engaged?


(Hint: Me)

So do I need to dumb it down?

Virginia/DC was enjoyable. Funny how going there makes KC (and Lawrence) seem so small.

Being back at my desk today has been a pretty big drag. Only 1 month and 1 day until I'm done, though.

Pics coming from the D.C. trip sometime tonight...

Okay baseball nerds

And for those who like odd stuff:

http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/

Go on the left and you can look at the details of all players of all teams in major league baseball. For example: Troy Glaus has a perk in his contract that give him a
1. suite on road
2.$0.25M annually for personal business expenses (wife's equestrian training)

HAHA. A $250,000 horse-riding trainer. I paid ZERO and know how to ride a horse.

Arod? He gets a $30M marketing agreement based on home run milestones ($6M each for reaching 660, 714, 755 and tying and breaking major league HR record)

Not bad, not bad at all.

Daisuke Matsuzaka (Japanese pitcher for the Red Stockings)
perks: physical therapist, massage therapist, interpreter, 8 first-class round-trip airline tickets per year between Boston & Japan, spring training housing allowance of up to $25,000, Boston housing allowance of up to $75,000, one-time moving allowance of up to $35,000, use of Lincoln Town Car or similar car, Red Sox player ticket package, including 2 field box seats, team employee to assist Japanese media, uniform No. 18


I'm at work right now so I can't delve fully into all of the details. Let me know what other oddities you find.