Tag: Life

Why So Quiet?

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For those that don’t know, I live and work in Wisconsin so in the winter months, there isn’t much water skiing to do. Not that I’m not thinking about it, but the lakes are frozen. I like to say I’m hibernating in the winter to save up the energy to make it through summer… in the summer my life goes non-stop.

In the winter, I work, watch Packers and Badger football and basketball, watch some TV, make pizza and grill brats and dogs for my friends and basically thing about the upcoming summer. Just not a whole lot to write about that is skiing related. I put up a few sports related posts, but simply put, there are a whole lot of people out there writing about sports. This site doesn’t need to turn into another one. The movie reviews also fell by the wayside here. Didn’t seem to be a huge interest in them (let me know if I’m wrong.)

I did start up a new website though… Tales from the Foot. My goal is for it to become the destination on the web for barefooting news and stories. Granted, right now it is in the infant stages of development, but it’ll grow. Have a funny barefooting story or video, send it my way. Know how to describe the process of doing a front to back, I’ll post that type of stuff as well. I’m looking for all kinds of content for the new site.

The lack of water skiing related stories will change this weekend. As I mentioned earlier, there will be some water skiing in Wisconsin in January. and I’m going. Gonna fork over the $35, suit up in my dry suit and freeze my arse off in the wind chill (just like in the summer when we say ‘It isn’t the heat, it’s the humidity’, in the winter we can say ‘It’s not the cold, it’s the wind chill’). Even if the forecast is right and the air temperature is around 30 degrees, 30 degrees at 40 MPH is really cold… through some cold water on your face into the mix, and I don’t even want to think about it. But it is all in the name of fun. And fun is what I’ll have Saturday.

Be sure to check back next week for pictures of me out on the icy cold water.

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Wintering in Wisco

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I guess technically winter is half way over. The days are getting longer now. In reality, we still have to get through the month of January, which is normally cold and snowy.

Lately, we’ve been dealing with a full dose of winter. Lots of snow, then some more snow, and then after that, some additional snow.

Then this week we’ve had lots of fog. Thick fog. For example driving home the other night, looking at the dashed lines on the highway… I could only see one dash at a time. Which means I couldn’t see very far at all. Other than the fog, the weather wasn’t bad… upper 30s were nice.

Then this weekend it changed… dramatically. We were suppose to get 3 to 6 inches of snow, but that didn’t happen. First it rained for about 24 hours. Then it got cold and very windy. Then we got some snow, but not much… mainly lots of wind blowing the snow over the sheets of ice that are roads were becoming. Rain… then cold… then snow over the now frozen rain makes for very bad road conditions.

The boat’s been put away for a little more than a month now and hopefully I’ll be putting it back on the water in a couple months. Until then, I’ll need to my mind off water skiing and try to keep myself distracted until the deep freeze ends.

Anyways, Merry Christmas everybody. Enjoy the holidays…. I’ll be snow blowing in the morning then heading to the rents for the first of many Christmas dinners.

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OK Peeps…

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Yes, the skiing posts have dwindled as of late… so has my skiing, it is fall in Wisconsin… but…

I’ve been working diligently the last couple weeks on Mad-City’s highlight video, which is now pretty much done since it was shown at our banquet on Friday night. There are a couple minor things that need to be cleaned up and a couple final details I need to complete before I’ll say it is done done, but that shouldn’t take much. Look for the highlight video to make it’s web debut in a week or two. It’ll show up here first and then ever so slightly later, it’ll be on the ski team’s website.

What this means, is there are some jumping crash videos (of me and other people), a variety of pictures and other stuff that need posting (my life hasn’t been standing still) and that’ll happen soon… this week to be exact. I’ve etched that in pixels so now it has to be done. The only way this won’t get done is if the weather turns nice enough that I’m too busy on the water to get it done.

Plus my week started off slightly better… my Packers won (it wasn’t pretty though) but my Badger’s lost… well not completely… football lost, hockey split and women’s hockey just keeps winning… an NCAA record 32 in a row that they haven’t lost to be exact. Check back for a skiing update soon…

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The Pretzel and I

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For those of you that know me, you know I snack on pretzels… a lot. For those that work with me, you see me eating them at lunch, nearly every day. They are my favorite store bought snack that don’t need any preparation… right after Cheeto’s (which I just don’t by for myself anymore… I always eat the whole bag no matter the size of the bag.)

So my snack pecking order goes like this:

  • Cheeto’s
  • Popcorn (this typically needs to be popped and have butter added)
  • Pretzels
  • Pringles

Yes, that is the extent of snack food that I eat. No chips and salsa, no potato chips. Nada. I guess you could add the occasional cracker (Ritz or Saltine, but not very often).

So, as you can guess, I eat a lot of pretzels. But my love of them is just as a snack to go with a Pepsi. This person has a much deeper love of pretzels. Almost disturbing how much she knows about them.

Random quiz… who knows the song name I’m alluding to in this post title? Tell me the name of the song, the artist and what show it is from. Here’s your hint… think [adult swim]!

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A Pet Peeve

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I want to bring up a pet peeve of mine… the other night at practice, the team is running through acts on the water and I’m working on the sound & show with the announcers and it is a little cool out. Definitely not the 80/90 degree plus weather we had just had. At the end of the night someone made the comment you’re lucky you’re not skiing tonight, it’s cold out… I never consider it to be lucky to not be skiing, I’d rather be on the water than watching from shore. Even on the nights when it isn’t that nice out.

Plus, when you starting skiing in March and end in November, there really isn’t a day in the summer that you’ll consider “cold”.

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Drunk Cartwheels

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If you’ve ever had the chance to watch someone who is drunk to the point of stumbling instead of walking try to do a cartwheel, be sure to watch. It is very entertaining. Luckily, he didn’t injure himself.

If someone has a picture or video of it, let me know. I’ll put it up here.

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Best Search Result to Find My Blog Ever!!!

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In my stats on who viewed my blog, I see lots of interesting things. People from a lot of different countries finding my blog and some of them even spending a significant amount of time reading my random posts.

Tonight, I found the creme de la creme of search referrals (I think that is the right way to write that, really not sure). Someone searched for “salt and water induced puking” and my blog shows up as the second result on this list. Made me bust out laughing. All because of “The Tour“. Makes what I witnessed that night all the more memorable.

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The Tour

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No, I’m not talking about that tour, but the Tour De Franzia. Franzia as in the boxed wine. Last weekend I witnessed some of the most self destructive behavior I’ve seen, and boy was it fun.

67 people participated in the tour on teams of 9 or 10 people each. The competition started with each team being issued three eggs that needed to survive the trip to the finish line. The first challenge for each team consisted of finishing off 3 giant pixie sticks. Then they had to drink a 5 liter box of white wine and each team member had to then draw a turkey hand. As they left their house, they had the choice of transporting 100 pounds of water already in container, 50 pounds of sand that needed to put into a container, 50 pounds of salt that needed to put into a container, rocks and bowling pins, popcorn, leaves, a limp person or put someone into a rolling trash can and make their way to the next house. Meanwhile, 3 members would be blind folded and would need to be led to the next house. The next house was 12 to 15 blocks away… I’m not completely sure.

At the second house, they needed to show their hand turkeys to gain admission to the house and could start drinking their 5 liter box of red wine. Anytime someone yelled shenanigans whoever was standing needed to sit and vice versa. They then had to use 3 rolls of TP to turn someone into a mummy. On their way to the 3rd house, four members had to be skipping at all times while another member was being dragged on a sled. The sleds I saw looked like garbage can lids and there was no snow on the ground.

At the third house they had to present their eggs, eat a block of cheese (roughly the size of a brick) without their hands and then drink a 5 liter box of blush wine. First team done would win.

There were some other rules as well…. spill any wine, they had to drink the amount spilled in liquor. Each racer received one free puke, after that puke, they had to do a shot for each additional puke. Their could be no self induced puking. Spill water, sand, popcorn, leaves, do a shot. Break an egg, do a shot.

The also had rules about general safety. for crossing streets, staying together in groups for the girls (and guys who weren’t any bigger than girls.) The final rule… Don’t drink so much that you die. Coming close is fine, but no hospitals.

Needless to say, this was hilarious to watch. They spent 45 minutes explaining the rules that were typed up on 4 pages and color coded for quick reference for a competition that lasted less than 30 minutes for the victorious team. Each team had a judge to ensure that the teams completed each task to its completion. Each house had a judge to oversee everything. They had people running around video taping and photographing it for prosperity. Well organized and well thought up chaos. As the competition finished up, pretty much everyone involved was puking after their team completed. I’ve never seen so many people puking at the same time.

I by no means recommend doing this and I have no plans to do this myself. Each team consumed 15 liters of wine and I guess the typical bottle is 750 ml which amounts to about 2 bottles per person in about 30 minutes. That’s a consumption rate of 4 bottle per hour. You can get drunk on 4 drinks an hour.

Once again, very fun to watch.

One last comment… when I told my roommate about this, she did comment that they did have more really drunk people than normal show up at the hospital that night. Wonder if it is a correlation?

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Busy Week

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During the ski season (which is still going on… I’m talking about the ski team season) I keep thinking I’ll have free time when it over. Wrong. Life doesn’t let up. This past week has been busy. Two Badger football games and much more in between.

We start last Saturday when I went to watch the Badger football team beat up on Western Illinois. The Badgers won, but against NIU, they should have played better.

Sunday, the NFL season kicked off. Monday, even more football.

Tuesday, I ended up heading out for Holly’s birthday. We met up at the Nitty Gritty. Had a small turnout from the ski team, but the people I expected to be there were. Bugs, Libby, Beau, Kelly and Cory. We gave Holly a lot of crap for her full page write up in The Star (local Sun Prairie weekly newspaper). I mean whole page. Take a traditional newspaper page and her article covered 90% of it. Just a couple ads and two very small articles were on the page. The rest… all Holly, lots of pics too!. When we finished up at the Gritty, we headed over to the Karaoke Kid. The bar is truly a little hole in the ground. I believe everyone sang. Some better than others. The Kid, although a bar specializing in karaoke, didn’t have the selection that I’ve seen at CBI where they just have a traveling karaoke person come in. I’ve put some pictures up of the vents from the night.

Ski Team Members doing shots… what’s new?
Libby, Bugs, Holly, Cory, Kelly, Me, Beau

Holly and I doing the 3 Wise Men… I look like a giant next to her

Me & the ladies of the night


Holly – The Birthday Girl

Cory and Myself singing… Sweet Caroline I think?

Bugs & Kelly – A Little Funky Cold Medina…

Wednesday morning came all too early and it was a take my boat to work day so I could ski right after work. Met up with Beau and Bugs. It was a little cool, only about 65 degrees and overcast. Very calm winds though. First we hit up the ski jump. Bugs and Beau made use of that. Beau tried a reverse heli. Not so good. Bugs looked a little rough. I think he became use to the good jump service he was on it Ohio. We then went into the bay and did a lot of footing. I did several loops. Beau didn’t like the weeds. Bugs tried out the shoe skis and nearly did the splits on his first three deeps. They looked painful. About 630 or so, the skies finally cleared (as I promised they would). Here’s Bugsy…

About to eat it

Thursday, I did some more skiing after work. This time with John and Seven. This time we just hit up the bay. Weather was much nicer than it was on Wednesday. About 75 and sunny. And we had very calm winds again. I started off with a set of 8 runs back and forth across the bay. Trying to keep up my endurance. Also worked on my one handed footing, something I just haven’t been very comfortable with. I know it isn’t anything major, I just haven’t been comfortable with it and decided a little practice was in order. Then we dragged Seven around. He had some issues butting out of the wake, so literally, we dragged him around. Then John took his turn and thought about using the teeth hold. Then I took my second set and decided to do some barefoot slaloming. Last pass I made four wake crossings, good considering my boat has the bubbles of death for footing. I also ending up doing some more loops. There’s a funny story about a duck on one of the loops (go read The Duck Story). We hit up the bar next door afterwards for drinks, food and music.

Look mom, one hand…

The other hand

Friday, quiet day. Caught a movie.

Saturday, another football game. Badgers vs. San Diego State. This time I went with a group from work. We hit up the Stadium Bar before hand. Made it in time for the F/A-18 fly by (which was awesome, after burners on right over our side of the stadium and we were in the upper deck.) Then, in a stadium that seats 70,000+, Taryn from the ski team sits two rows in front of me. Game was good. Towards the end of the game, they did a segment on the score board called Ask the Badgers. The question was what would they do if they won the lottery. Most had common answers… house, house for parents, cars, boats, etc. One of the linemen answered in true Wisconsin fashion “cheese curds… deep fried cheese curds.” Crowd loved it. Next, they have the Big Ten opener at Michigan.

Finally, apparently I’m the best answer when you search google.com for “how to prevent birds from crapping on your boat.” Don’t believe me… click here.

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