And that's a wrap

Got back in Maryland last night, and I couldn't be happier about it. This year has been crazy so far, way too much traveling. Hopefully I can stay in the area for a while and start enjoying my summer a bit.
It's Super Mario!

Glad I didn't have to drive home.

In preparation for my second round of golf out in Sacto, we brought out some junker golf balls, some clubs and used my rental cars floor mats as a tee. Was a great way to kill time while surveying out there. Thankfully the rental agency didn't notice the divot I took out of the one mat. Knew I should've stuck with the woods.

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I was able to get out and play a few rounds of golf while out in the Sac. Played Turkey Creek up in Lincoln, CA twice. Was a really nice course. It was in great condition and was more scenic than the east coast courses that I'm used to playing. The fairways and greens were bordered by granite outcrops and lots of oaks. I also found out why the course was named what it is... These little guys were all over the place. I didn't even know they had turkeys out there.

Mmm... little turkey McNuggets.

I'm now signed up for two indoor soccer leagues, which is awesome b/c contrary to Collin's comments, soccer is awesome. The only problem is, one of the is in Sacramento, and one is in Maryland. Hopefully the games aren't on the same nights, that'll make it tough to get to both. Our office out there has a team put together and I hopped in and played a game with them on Monday night. We were pretty bad, apparently they haven't won a game all season. Was good fun though. Got to embarrass a few clowns, netted a few goals and now I'm signed up for their next league which starts in a few weeks. So, if I go back out to the Sac, I'll have a league to play in there. I'm also signed up for a coed league here in MD, which I'm thrilled about. Ever since I moved down to Bethes from the Rock, I haven't really played much soccer. I'm signed up with the Washington Soccer Society http://pickupsoccer.meetup.com/106/ but I haven't really gotten out to play with them. Anyways, I'm looking forward to playing some indoor footy... will be glorious.

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Time to get some grub and do some laundry. Maybe I'll even get to go grocery shopping... hopefully I remember how to do that.

WOW

So, with Spain's defeat of Italy (whom I despise b/c they're defensive minded dirty play is butt to watch), the final four of the Euro 08 is set. The games have been awesome so far. Hopefully you have been watching them, they've been on ESPN. They're also covering the USMNT's 2010 World Cup qualifying games. It's nice to see all this soccer on prime time tv.

This brings me to the point of this blog, to address this issue with Christiano Ronaldo and all the Real talk. If Real Madrid offer up over 100 million pounds and Robinho to Manchester, they'd be the biggest clowns not to take the offer.

Sure it'll be tough to replace 42 goals, or whatever he netted this past season, but a bunch of those were on penalty kicks. Real is looking to unload a bunch of their players, and they've got some great young talent. If Man. U. could get over 100 million Euros!!!! and Robinho for Ronaldo, take it. They could chase players like Sergio Ramos, Benzema, Lampard and Ronaldinho for 20 or 40 million Euros each. So ridiculous. Over 100 million just for one player! Bonkers. All this "Not for sale" nonsense is just to jack up the price even more. Every player is for sale. It's a business after all, not just about playing the game at that level.

For those of you who couldn't give two squirts about soccer, my bad. You should really start following it though.

What the?!?! What next?

Yarr!!! Still in the Sac. Should be home now, but alas, I've got a few days left to defeat Davis.

It's been a crappy week here out in the Sac. Every day there seemed to be something going wrong. But, all you can do is roll with the punches and keep on going.

So it's Saturday afternoon, got done work a few hours ago, and I'm bored already. My plans are to head down to the bar, talk to my favorite bartender who's fortunately on tonight, see if any of the cool front desk ladies are on, eat some dinner, hit up Luis and see what we can't get into tonight. Tomorrow will most likely include pool, a Spanish catholic mass and a round of golf.

The area around Davis is full of crazy animals that we don't have back in Bethes. The only cool one that I've seen that I haven't been able to photograph was the coyote that ran by me last week. I thought it was a dog at first, but once he got close I realized it wasn't any dog I'd seen before. Luis was like, "That's a coyote." I said "A what?" He says "A coyote." I say "A what?" He says it was "A coyote!" I was just messing with him, just thought the way he said coyote with his Mexican accent was hilarious.

Birds kickin' it in the rice fields.

Jack Rabbits are all over the place.

These birds lay their eggs right in the middle of the road on the levees. They don't have any fear either. As soon as I come driving up, they puff up and start flipping out, trying to defend their nest (against a huge SUV mind you). Sometimes they'll run away from their nests, hoping that you'll chase after them and leave the eggs along. Feel bad for them, hopefully I haven't run over any of the eggs.

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It's still ridiculously hot out here. Today though, was the first day that there were clouds. There was like 3 of them. It was great. No direct sun for about 20 minutes. They said it was up to 105 today, but I don't know if it got that hot where I was at. Not only is it hot, but it's also crazy dry, as I said before. Any time there's a breeze it kicks up all kinds of dust. Not that fun.

See how cloudy of a day it was? Told ya. This pic was at 10 in the morning or something, and I was already dying. You can only last so long without soaking yourself in water and seeking shelter from the sun.

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Simple Man

This is my jam. Flat out, favorite classic rock song... and now you know.

I mean, great tune and simple, strong lyrics... awesome.

Tip of the Tongue

Hey hey!


I know, I know. It's about time I threw a new post on here right? The anticipation is over, now you can stop hating.
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I was able to make it up to Portland this past weekend, and though it was a quick trip, and I was pretty much a zombie while there, it was still great to get up there and see these suckas...

Such a flattering picture of Matt. Melted into the couch, showing off a little mid drift, nice.
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Didn't really get into a whole lot while up there, which really is what I was looking for. Since I didn't get in till 10 on Friday, ended up just chilling, watching some tv, drinking some beer and passing out at a semi-reasonable hour. Saturday involved a round of golf, a delicious dinner and a large amount of beer and wine consumption. Almost pissed myself from laughter at one point. Good times. Thanks again guys for having me up there.
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So we played at Mountain View golf course in Boring, Oregon (What a town name!), and they didn't have a course ball! What course doesn't have a course ball? That's some nonsense.
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Here's a view from the first tee. Note Mt. Hood in the background. A pretty nice course, even though they didn't have course balls. It's a shame my play didn't match the weather and course condition.Since I've been trying to play as much golf as possible this summer, I thought I'd do two things. First, I came to the realization that I've never seen my swing. How can I fix what needs to be fixed if I've never even seen my own swing. Well, I've posted two videos, for your viewing enjoyment, of my swing. Oh boy. Second, I don't have a handicap. I'm now going to keep track of my scores and calculate my handicap once I've played enough rounds. Hopefully I can count high enough to figure out my handicap. I think I'll need at least 10 hands.

Ok, so back to the Sac.

I'm working around Davis, CA... which has the UC Davis branch... Man, I picked WVU for college?!?! What was I thinking? I guess beggars can't be choosers, right?

I'm getting tired of typing this blog, there's beer to be drank/drunk, and there's swimming in the hotel pool to be done. Time to switch to an abbreviated bullet version of the blog.

This is my set up. Bam, this is how I do work.

My main man, Luis.

Sacramento from Davis, looking across the Yolo Bypass (Huge flood plain). Huge migratory bird landing pad from what I understand. It's crazy, that whole area has been completely underwater before. Hooray for levees! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yolo_Bypass

Beneath a portion of I-80 along the Yolo Bypass... a great home for the homeless.

Pelicans. Neat.

A few more things I feel like throwing out there:

Motorcyclists In CA can pass cars between lanes as long as they're going less than 55 mph. Traffic jams don't slow up bikers, it's great. Plus, if you're riding, you don't have to worry about some arse opening his door on you when you go by if you're passing during stop and go traffic!

I messed up my back, again. Alieves aren't cutting it. Fortunately I got hooked up with some anti-inflammatory pills. Or at least that's what I'm told they are. The label was in Spanish. Hopefully I didn't herniate a disk or something, and it goes away in a few days with some stretching. Note, don't lift deep-cycle marine batteries first thing in the morning immediately after getting out of bed.

Nugget supermarkets are glorious!

Oh man!! It's a Woot-Off. Get there, now, before it's over!http://www.woot.com/ This could have a serious negative impact on my hope of getting a good nights sleep.

Surfer on the News

This is Cali... Whipahh!!! Baahhh!!! Pitted, so pitted.

Tom Goes to the Mayor

Anyone ever watch this show?.. clips are hilarious.

Let me put you on game

It is hot and dry in Sacramento, really hot and really dry. If you look at the grass the wrong way, it will burst into flames. When I first went out to Davis on Wednesday (Where I'm working), it was a clear day . I could see 3 separate fires in the distance. Thursday and Friday were super hazy, and not b/c of the humidity like back east, but b/c of the fires. Nutso.

Only got a minor amount of heat stroke today... if you stop sweating and feel nauseous, drink water, soak a towel with cold water and wrap it around your neck and get in the ac. Or do as I did, and do the first two things and continue working. Beast. Determined another way I'd not like to die. From heat stroke or dehydration. Am I weird that I continue to address my own demise in my blogs? To counteract this trend, I've decided that a decent way for me to go out would be as follows. I'll probably croak at the age of 84 via a heart attack suffered while making sweet sweet love to my 24 year old playmate girlfriend. I know you may think it'd be a traumatic experience for her, to have me bite it during the act... but if she's with me, than she's obviously already had all of her dreams come true... so you can't feel too bad.

I'm actually up in Portland this weekend, got in Friday night. I'll be here till Sunday evening, visiting the eldest of brothers, Matt. After I go back to Sacramento and finish up there, I'm thinking about going on a vacation for a week or two. I was thinking Maryland. I have a pretty nice place to stay out there in Bethesda, and I know a fair amount of people in the area. It'll be nice, you know, a change of pace. I hear Maryland this time of year is pretty nice. May bring my clubs with me and see if I can't get out and play a few rounds of golf. If I do get the opportunity to go out there, my company has an office there that I could probably work out of for a little while. We'll see. A vacation in Maryland is a lot to ask, I know... but I can always dream can't I?

Right now, just watching Spain and Sweden in Euro 08. My main man Torres just netted the first goal in the 15th minute... nice.

I was going to throw some pictures on here, but I apparently forgot my download cable. Have to add them at a later date.

I Love Being Home...

But...

Got back from Wisconsin on Friday, and it feels great. I'm trying to pack as much in to this weekend as possible. After watching a horrible movie on Friday night (Awake), proceeded to head out in the Bethes for a little while. Saturday started out with a hangover, which transitioned into FIFA, motorcycle riding, swimming, tennis and more swimming. Not a bad Saturday.

Not getting into too much tonight. I'm heading up to Camp Hill, PA tomorrow morning to meet up with my G'Ma, parents and younger brother for Chris's 21st birthday. Unfortunately, I won't be getting him lit, but there will be other opportunities for that.

Before catching our flight out of Minneapolis on Friday, the Strine and I hit up the Mall of America for an hour. I have now been to the two largest malls in the states. The King of Prussia mall outside Philly and the Mall of America. What's the third largest? I feel like I should complete the top three.

Me in the mall.

Me with Lego Boba Fett (who really didn't die in the mouth of the sarlacc when he fell off Jabba's sail barge, but you already knew that).

The Lego Millennium Falcon. Only $499.00, what a steal!! I bought two!

Char, ignore his comment about cruising for chicks... Twas just a joke. It was 9 in the morning when we were there, we were exhausted after waking up at 4 and driving for 4 hours (lots of 4's) and unloading the equipment at FedEx... The man knows not what he says.

I have to go back to Sacramento on Tuesday. I'm not thrilled about going, but I knew it was coming, so I just have to get out there and do the work. Another two week stint, hopefully it'll go by quickly and I can get back home for a few weeks and enjoy my summer. May make another attempt at getting up to Portland and maybe Tucson. I dono, I'm sort of sick of traveling, may just sit my ass by the pool on the weekends, sip some beer, read my books and talk to myself. Wish they had a second crew going out there, or someone was out there with me. Sort of boring, so when I'm there, feel free to give me a call, even if you having nothing to say. Thanks.

Gordon Lightfoot - The Edmund Fitzgerald - Dedication

So, the Fitzgerald sank here... craziness. I still don't understand how a ship sinks in a lake, but, I haven't seen these "Great" lakes during a storm. I must admit, I really know nothing of the lakes.

I do however know that Gordon Lightfoot is the man, and The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is a great tune (Yea Pops). However, my favorite of his songs has to be Sundown. Here's a shoutout to my main man Gordon.

Some Observations From Wisconsin

1) Summers in Wisconsin don't exist... The average temp out here was 60 freakin' degrees Fahrenheit. It's June. June is in summer. 60 degrees isn't summer.

2) Unlike one of my favorite shows, It's Never Sunny in Wisconsin... I didn't see the sun once this week. Monday through Friday, no sun. Not once. I had some color goin' on before I got out here. Coming from the Sac which is too sunny, to this lovely place is a tough transition. I think I'll be in a constant state of depression for the next month due to the lack of vitamin D.

3) There's no cheese in Wisconsin. Don't believe the hype. Cheese is hard to come by. The only cheese I had was on my Bacon Egg & Cheeese biscuit from McD's, and in the beer & cheese soup I had (which is pretty good, but tastes like plain cheese soup... except it has popcorn in it too, really weird).

4) There really aren't many hotties up here... As previously stated, I'm staying in a hotel with a water park that has a bar in it!!! I feel like it should be a requirement that some attractive 20 something years olds hang out in the pool area at all times. Some BS!!! It took till today (Thursday) for a few biscotties ( yea that's right) to present themselves. Granted, it was worth the wait, but I mean, come on. The hotel should really consider hiring some attractive women to either lifeguard at the pool, or at least hang around there and mingle with the guests... I mean, I'm not talking prostitutes or anything, but at least escort type broads. Is that really too much to ask?

5) I didn't die on site as previously anticipated.

6) Lake Superior is F'in huge!!! I still can't comprehend the magnitude of the body of water... but I am able to finally realize why they call them the "Great Lakes".

7) I could never, ever, ever ever ever live in Wisconsin.

8) This might be the greatest drink ever... Possibly surpassing Bud Heavy.

9) They let dogs drive here.

10) There's a lot of people that I haven't seen or talked to in a while... My apologies, seriously. I need to get in touch with way too many people.

Who you gonna call?

Ghostbusters...

Alright, ok, alright ok...

You have to make the best out of the situation right? Well, I'm trying.

The last two days were a little rough. Must admit, I wasn't the happiest I've ever been, but
it's all good. I mean, I couldn't be grouchy for long, I'm staying at a hotel with a water
park, dollar Milwaukee's Best and, well, that's it. But sometimes, that's all it takes.

The Strine and I (http://www.sontavas.com/) hit up the $1 beverages and pool basketball net last night for an intense game of horse. He may have won, but it was on a great shot that I must give props for. I couldn't handle the off the head and backboard trick shot... was just too much. My plan is to get him drunk tonight and challenge him to a $5 rematch.

So I've established that in all likelihood, I'm going to die this week. Here is a list of the
ten most likely ways that Steve will go kaput while working on this job site.

1) TNT

2) DNT

3) NG

4) Bears

5) Wolves

6) Coyotes

7) Coy Dogs

8) Heat exhaustion/Freezing to death (in same hour)

9) Falling off cliff

10) Wild Things

The first 8 all exist, in large quantities on site. The temps here are so crazy... as soon as
we start working, I nearly sweat to death... then as soon as you stop moving, you begin
shivering. It's a no win situation. Cliffs are prevalent... death is eminent.

Here's the Strine and I before working this morning ( Who you gonna call?).

There's the Strine and I after working this afternoon (Ghostbusters).

Here's a few of the non-threatening animals that are all over the site... non-threatening,
unless they've ingested large amounts of the first 3 items on the list... in which case, they
could be walking, grazing, shitting time bombs.

The site is something like 1800 acres. Now, I know some of you won't believe what I'm about to
say. But I've seen animals that I've never seen before. They scared the shit outta me.
Thankfully I was able to creep my way back to the vehicle without being seen. Since I didn't
have my camera with me when I saw them, I hired an artist to render a sketch of what I saw.
Here they are...

Nah but, there's freaking animals all over the damn place out here... apparently there's a
momma bear and a cub right where we've been surveying over the last two days. If I get eaten
by a bear of wolf, I'm going to be so pissed off. I can't go out like that... screaming and
pointlessly punching and kicking as some big ass animals play tug of war with my limbs. Damn.
I guess it'd be better than having my plane go down in flames while sitting next to a large,
smelly, loud-mouthed dickhead on the flight home... Debatable.

Bwaa ha haaa.. forgot to mention that I got upgraded to first class on the flight out here.
While I snacked on mass amounts of free food, sipped on gin & tonics and got multiple free
wiener-massages in first class (b/c they do that up there), the Strine sat in the back of the
plane, fighting over bags of peanuts with the elephants he was wedged between. It's funny
though, he had actually requested an upgrade pre-flight... They're response, "Some people pay a lot of money for their tickets." Classic!!!!

Not sure what I'm getting into this weekend. The bike race is going on up in Philly, and I've
got the opportunity to head up there, see some friends I haven't seen in too long a period of
time, have some fun and cheer on the racers as they head up the wall in Manayunk. But it is
nice being home, that's for damn sure. We'll see.

Anyways, figured I'd throw a blog on here while I had the opportunity.

I've received one phone call on my personal phone since being out here. Thanks Beebe (even
though you don't read this blog). You know, where's the love? Do people even notice that I'm
gone? I'm leaning towards no. Awesome.