my space

I now have a myspace acct. Here's my URL:

http://www.myspace.com/noordinaryday

I dig it. So should you. I may kill this blog and just stay with myspace. ONly time will tell.

Oh the places you will go

I was doing my ususal blog run when I ran across a link to this map site on my friend's blog:



create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

So here are the states I've visited. I only have a few more to go then I can say "I've been in every state in our great nation." Of course, I can't imagine why or when I would be in GA, AL, MS, ME, NH, UT, MT, WY or AK. Now that I live in MN, I'm pretty close to ND, SD, NE, and I know we'll see HI one of these days. We have friends that live in ID so we'd hit several of these states if we ever drive out for vacation. Too much info? Yeah, I thought so. Whatever.

I feel a road trip coming on...

Snow

We received some 10-12 inches of snow last night/this morning and it's still coming down. I spent more than an hour shoveling this morning. Ugh. I guess that's my work-out for the day. Heather is working from home today. Her commute would have taken her 45 min +. Oh yeah, I have a job now. Get this I work at Old Navy, and I'm one of the oldest non-managers working there. Oh well, it's a paycheck, and the work is not exactly hard. The discount is decent, too. For those of you who did not know it, Old Navy is owned by Gap, Inc. Gap, Inc. brands included Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic. I get a discount at all 3 stores.

Back to the snow...I think I'll call work before I go in today. I'm pretty sure they'll want me to come in, but it's going to take me some time to get there. Ugh. It's going to be dead there today.

A few crazy stories from the new job later.

Chili cookoff

Last night we had our 3rd Annual Fat Tuesday Chili Cookoff at Solomon's Porch. A good time was had by all...as far as I could tell. I had a good time coordinating the Cookoff along with Michon Pagitt. We ended up having 20-22 different chili recipes. I tried all but 1 or 2. At this years Cookoff we voted for the chilies in 3 categories: Most Original, Spiciest, & Best Overall. Most original went to Adam Walker's "Free-Range Pheasant Chili." Bob Brown claimed the Spiciest chili with his delicious "Chipotle Beast" chili. And Best Overall category was dominated by Beau Bedore's "Mom's Chicken Chili" (a white chili). We had a good turn out and folks were eating chili and enjoying engrossing conversation all evening.

To say the least, I needed a few Tums when I got home late last night. Good times, good times indeed.

teething sucks

It's 11:15pm in Mpls and all is not well my household. My son is teething. He's been awake for the past hour. And by awake I mean crying & screaming. Poor little guy. I truly feel for him. As I write this post, my wife is in his room trying to rock him to sleep with a lullaby. I pray it works - all three of our sakes. Did I mention my son went to bed around 8pm? Yeah so he was sleeping soundly then BAM! Teeth ripping through tender gum tissue. He has 4, count 'em, 4 molers coming in as we speak. Although it is a necessary and ultimately beneficial aspect of development, teething sucks. All is quiet on the baby monitor. Perhaps they baby Tylenol has finally kicked in. Dear God please...

Cold

Very cold actually. Currently it is -8 here in Minneapolis. That's not wind chill. That's actual temp. As for wind chill, it's -33. Negative 33. Brrrr is right. A wind chill advisory is in effect. I've lived in places where I had to deal with heat index advisories, but now I live at the opposite end of the mercury. This is my first wind chill advisory. I guess that's means no playing outside today. Bummer. I was going to go tubing with the guy I mentor. Maybe next week when the temp. is back above 0.

To give you an idea of how cold it is, when you breathe in through your nose the contents of your honker freeze - hair, runny stuff, solid stuff, whatever you've got in there.

But all is well. Last night I downloaded 589 songs to our iTunes. I have Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Ben Folds, Eric Clapton, etc. to keep me company. Hey Mr. Tambourine Man...

Garden of Eatin'

Check this out. We recently purchased a bag of organic tortilla chips - Garden of Eatin' Red Hot Blues (perhaps you've heard or partaken of them) - that happened to be over-cooked. So I emailed the good folks at Garden of Eatin' to inform them of the situation, truly not expecting a response. But to my surprise, I received this today:

Mr. Anderson,

Thank you for taking the time to contact us regarding our Party Style Red Hot Blues Tortilla Chips. We strive to maintain the highest quality products and appreciate your patronage.

We would like to send you replacement coupons for the trouble you have taken to contact us. If you write back with your address, we will be happy to compensate you.

Thank you for your continued support of The Hain Celestial Group. If we can be of further assistance, please feel free to contact us.

Michael
Consumer Response Representative

Wonders never cease. I guess I'll be crunching on some delicious tortilla chips FREE of charge in the very near future.

Okay I admit it...

...I like TV. Well, at least some show on TV. As I've posted before, my favorite shows include 24, Lost, Family Guy, Prison Break, etc. Speaking of PB, it's mid-season finale (what the hell is that anyway?) was waaaaaay back in December. That's last year for crying out loud! Well, about five minutes ago I learned that PB is coming back...but not until MARCH 20th.

Sidebar: Holy geez! Why so long? Come on, Fox. Is it that hard to produce a few episodes of a prison show?

Where was I? Ahh yes - PB's return. At least it's coming back. For a while there I thought PB had gone the way of John Doe and Firefly - a decent show yet in the graveyard after only 1/2 or 1 season. Thankfully my worries have been put to rest...for now.