Kenny Rogers; you're dead to me

Well maybe not the real Kenny Rogers, but the arbitrator that made the decision to let the seller of my house claim incompetence as a reason why you can re-roof a house with idiot co-workers, then sell it when there's a foot of snow covering it; but claim it's a NEW ROOF in '98 despite the fact it leaks. Does it make me feel better to point out the arbitrator looks exactly like a washed up singer or that the seller is a self-serving doofus and a schmuck? Yes, yes it does. But the real question is; 'Was it worth paying an $800 administration fee to start the binding arbitration process, and make the seller and his realtor hire attorneys and sweat over this for the last 6+ months?' I think so.

I'm Memorial Day full

Thanks for stopping by for some BBQ to those that attended. The rain kind of ended the party, but it also brought lower temperatures. The new high was set today; 94 degrees.

Is this heaven? No it Missouri.

Ah, the results of a fish eye lense. Teeners sent me a link to a webpage dedicated to the ever-changing skies of Missouri. They have some crazy photography.

The end is near

Whew; rounds 1, 2, 3, and now 4 finished. Sanded, primed, painted, and with new lights the ceilings are almost complete. I have some reservations with putting the crown molding up myself, but I can taste the end of this project.

I want to ride my bicycle!

Freddy Mercury said it. I'm in the market to buy a new bike. Before I break down and buy something new, I thought I'd try my hand at the Minneapolis Police bike auction later today. Before I head out there I've been trying to read up on brands and more importantly used bike prices. Ebay was a great place to start. But I've expanded my search and ended up at the website of one Sheldon "For Sale" Brown. The picture above is from his site and I think you'll want to take a look around his homepage at the others. Wowza! You may want to download the mp3 of his son George's trombone concert to set the mood.

Rain

That about sums it up. Flight out of Minneapolis; delayed for rain. Sox game; rained out. Waiting for Conan; rainy and cold. Driving from Chicago to Milwaukee then Milwaukee to Minneapolis with The Lord of the Barnyard; more rain (thanks for the lift and good convo poo flinger). Skipped out of the La Crosse portion of the trip, but had a nice Mother's Day brunch to rap up the weekend. The photo above is the meal we had before we stood in line for 2-3 hours to see Conan on Friday afternoon. If you like beef, you'll love Portillo's.

Bad record companies, bad.

I bought the new Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Paul Simon albums in the past 2 weeks. Only the Pearl jam album can A) be read and played by my imac and B) get put on my ipod. Ridiculous. This article basically sums it up when it says, "These copy protected disks carry the warning : 'Will not play on PC/Mac', and are an attempt by the record labels to curtail piracy by preventing you from copying your CDs, even for your own legitimate use under Fair Use doctrines. "

Getting ready for a mini-Midwest road trip

Let's hope this all works out. I'm flying to Chicago tomorrow morning. Once I land at O'Hare Int'l I'll hop on the L and meet up with my buddy Heppe. Thursday night we're going to see the White Sox play the Angels thanks to my other buddy Matt (who works for the world champs).

Sometime before 3:15 on Friday my friend Pat and I need to get in line to see Late Night with Conan O'Brien. The show tapes from 4:30 to 5:30 PM and it's the last night of his 4 night stint at the Chicago Theatre. Of all my friends that requested tickets I'm the only one I know of that actually got them. Making this that much better is the musical guest for Friday's show; WILCO! A great band I've seen a few times now, but I imagine it will be a wonderful performance because they are a Chicago area band. After the show tapes Pat and I are heading up to Milwaukee to catch the Heavyheads show.

Early Saturday morning I'll be in the car with my parents headed for La Crosse for the graduation ceremony of my little brother's girlfriend Lindsey. By Saturday night I should be back at my house in Minneapolis for eight hours of sleep before enjoying brunch on Sunday in honor of Mother's Day. Holy cow!

May Day Parade = Freak Show

Here is what the city says about the May Day Parade: On May Day (actually, the first Sunday in May) from 1 p.m., Minneapolis celebrates May Day at Powderhorn Park. Starting with a colorful parade filled with living puppets from The Heart of the Beast Puppet Theater, the parade and parade watchers wend their way down Bloomington Avenue, in South Minneapolis, until they reach Powderhorn Park. The Heart of the Beast living-puppet cast then performs along the banks of Powderhorn Lake in front of crowds gathered on the hillsides.

Yeah basically that’s what happened, but add a lot of weirdoes and freaks. Let’s start with the large bike gang. Not large, number of members; but large, these bikes are huge. Called tall bikes, it’s the equivalent of walking stilts on wheels. I see them around town, but this is the only time of year they all come together it seems. After some research I turned up the name of the group, Minneapolis Black Rebel Bike Club. A movie was made called B.I.K.E. But if you want to see a movie now check out this demonstration how tall bicycle riders easily stop and dismount. A very liberal crowd. Gay marriage, immigrant rights, nudists, and religous freedom all had a place, but May Day is more about the Earth and celebrating the beautiful season ahead.

All in all it's kind of like the scene before/after a Phish concert, but with a lot of paper mache and people on stilts.

Hoops

I challenge anyone to a game of HORSE or a little around the world on my new hoop. You may win, but I’ll still have a good time because I love basketball. Some of my favorites are Jimmy Chitwood, Scott “Teen Wolf” Howard, and Hoops McCann. But why all the talk about basketball? NBA playoffs!

Ah, the Milwaukee Journal. On the eve of possibly the end of the Milwaukee Bucks season the Journal Sentinel has an article with the title “Defiant Bucks vow to keep on fighting.” But then the article starts “It was business as usual for the Milwaukee Bucks at their training center Tuesday.” Shouldn’t there be a heightened sense of urgency? Maybe some eager anticipation to get on the floor and kick some butt? I plan to watch the whole game on TNT tonight. But first, I’m going to fire up NBA Live and play the game myself. Why? To see if I simulate the Bucks actually passing the ball to their big men, running the floor, and playing all 48 minutes with intensity; will they win??

I concede they’re playing a great team, a team with FOUR All-Stars. The national media doesn’t give the Bucks much respect either. Notice only one “expert” picked the series with Detroit to be more than 4 games. Ouch. I’m not surprised however. As my buddy Jon has pointed out there were high expectations at the start of the year, but I’m skeptical at best that this team can win in the Motor City with their season on the line.

* In honor of the NBA playoffs the LINK OF THE MONTH for May was going to be the world's best hoops history site. This is the only place in the world you can learn all of the following facts . . . Damon Stoudamire's middle name is Lamon . . . Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Boris Diaw and Luol Deng each celebrated a birthday on Sunday . . . and the highest career assist ratio (percentage of possessions that end in an assist) belongs to Muggsy Bogues. However, for the rest of May enjoy 82games.com. Some of the stats this site tracks are amazing. Tracking a team's performance after a coach calls a timeout; who comes up with this stuff?