Witty Title Later

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:37:40 GMT

I started my masters program this past weekend. We had a residency, which is basically an orientation that lasted all day Friday and Saturday. We got to meet the professor for our first two classes and everyone else who will be in the cohort program. I am doing an online program, so I feel like putting a face/personality with a name is going to make this experience a little more personal than it would have been, so I am glad that they have that set up in the beginning of the program.

Our first class chat is next Thursday night and I have homework for the first time in 5 years! Crazy feeling, but I know I am doing something that is going to be very rewarding and help me out down the road.

On to the procrastinating...

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 01:59:17 GMT

My sister in law was at a wedding recently and this is how they came down the aisle

She is the brunette on the left side of the aisle taking all the pictures, her best friend is the redhead bridesmaid, and her brother is the groom.

Really cool story to go along with this video: A couple years ago, the bridesmaid/groom's brother died through complications by taking prescription drugs and combining them with over the counter drugs while he was fighting the flu. They are a very tight knit family and suffice to say, it hit them all very hard. It has been a tough couple years for them, and this was the first big family get together since their brothers funeral and they wanted to do something different and happy to try and make the occasion a little more special. I think they did a great job of it. They are one of those crazy/funny families so it is great to see them getting back to that after such a tragedy.

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 23:07:56 GMT

Just got a notice from the place that I rented my car in D.C. last month that I got a speeding ticket from some camera. Apparently I was going 52 in a 40. I looked at the picture online and I am on in interstate, in the middle lane with a decent number of cars around me. WTF? What interstate had a 40 MPH speed limit?! And I was just following the car in front of me and staying in the middle lane since I wasn't familiar with those roads!

It's not like I can go and contest it either and plead ignorance being 1,000 miles away and all.

What a waste of $50 (plus potentially $10 from alamo car rental for a processing fee)

I hated driving in D.C. enough already for the traffic, add this and I will be taking the train from D.C. to Baltimore if I ever decide to do that trip again.

Gahh!!!!!

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:35:50 GMT

My sister's water just broke!! Going to be an uncle within the next 24 hours!! (Or so I'm told with how long these things work)

Craziness!!!!

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 20:34:08 GMT

Boston is great, but the weather could be cooperating a little better. Windy and rainy makes walking around the city a little more challenging.

This free wireless in the hotel is helping save a little time wandering around in the rain and mapping out our next move.

Going out to dinner with a friend tonight and probably walking around Harvard tonight or tomorrow morning.

I love vacation!!

Thu, 14 May 2009 14:17:16 GMT

So I obviously haven't really updated in a while, I have slowly drifted away from posting my own updates here and pretty much use facebook to update what's been going on in my oh so exciting life.

I figured a little rundown of the past year would be in order in case anyone still checks in on this and doesn't have me as a friend on facebook.

- Europe was amazing. Everything I hoped it would be. Saw pretty much everything we hoped to see, the weather in Paris was pretty bad while we were there, so we didn't get to stay out and see some things as late as we would have hoped to. It was rainy, windy and cold (in the low 40's), so after long days of being outside checking things out, and being on our feet for 12 hours a warm hotel room, a crepe from the place by our hotel and french tv before bed was usually the best option.

- Went on our annual family trip to Disney World in December where my sister told us all she was pregnant. So happy for her, she and her husband have been trying for a long time and she has wanted to be a mom for as long as I can remember (She gave me homework and reading assignments when I was 3). She knows it will be a girl and her name will be Juliette Grace. I'm pretty excited to be an uncle and my wife is pretty excited to be an aunt. Due date is July 17th, so it should be an exciting summer.

- Going out east this summer. Another trip I have always wanted to take. We are flying into Boston, staying 3 nights there, renting a car and driving down the coast to Washington, D.C., staying there for 3 more nights and then driving to Baltimore for one night before flying home from there. So much fun stuff I am looking forward to seeing.

- Married life is going great. Maybe it is just because I am getting older and the whole bar scene just doesn't appeal to me as much as it used to, but I am growing to appreciate the night in more. A night in with my wife or friends watching movies, having some drinks, playing games, rock band, american idol karaoke (i apologize neighborhood dogs), or just talking is more entertaining to me than trying to shout in a bar just to converse.

- My best guy friend (best man in my wedding) has a girlfriend who lives in L.A. (Mission Viejo to be exact) and has been spending a lot of time out there since being laid off. Since he is splitting his job search efforts between here and there, it makes more sense for him to stay out there since they have done the long distance thing for over a year. So I am balancing feelings of missing my friend with happiness that he gets to be with her more than he normally would, also with feelings that I've probably lost him to staying out there for good. He also has a brother, sister in law and new niece who live in Valencia, so things are adding up to look like he, pending finding a job, will be out there for the foreseeable future. He has said that he always wanted to end up back here, so we will see. If not, he said I will always have a guest room where he stays, I might be making some frequent trips to L.A.

- The job is going fine. I can't complain in this market right now, right? I am going to be starting a masters program in organizational management in the fall, so I am excited about what lies ahead with that. I like my job, but I am ready to move up.

This had ended up being longer than I had anticipated writing, so who knows, maybe I will get the lj bug back and update a little more frequently.

Until next time...

Thu, 22 May 2008 22:24:54 GMT

Booked our tickets to Europe last week! Flying into London on October 17th and back home from Paris on the 31st.

The main focus will be London, then Rome, then Paris, but we are looking at some other fun places along the way. Suggestions welcome!

I have waited so long to finally go, I'm soooooooo excited!!

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 04:44:47 GMT

Another year, another update...

I'm still around every so often checking in on what my huge friends list is up to.

What have I been up to? Married (I'll throw up some pictures if anyone is interested), homeowner (well a townhouse, but it's still better than renting). I am feeling really old. Just had my 25th birthday a few weeks ago and decided that this is the point when most people start dreading their birthdays instead of embracing them. It's amazing to think how much has changed from year to year, and that even though it's just over good old 'el jay' how I've been reading some people for so many years now, and see how much everyone else changes too and it's comforting to see those little familiarities with the handful of people I've had on my friends list. I truly wish you all well.

Hope everyone is doing great, Happy Holidays!

Take care,

Brent

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 04:25:47 GMT

I got engaged this weekend! :)

Mon, 16 Oct 2006 16:44:23 GMT

Wow, has it really been a year since I've updated? Crazy.

Well, where should I start. The rest of that trip to California was fun. Went to Florida in December, my sister got engaged while we were there. She's getting married on Nov. 17th, so that's right around the corner.

I started a job at my mom's office in January, I took over the office assistant job that my sister had, and she got promoted to director of training. That was alright until August when my sister didn't like that job anymore and wanted to come back to her old one, which pretty much left me out of a job. So I spent September and up til now being unemployed, but I just got a new job last week at a bank working in operations and I start that on Monday the 23rd, so I'm pretty happy about that.

Moved into an apartment with two friends in the middle of April and have been here since. It's been a lot of fun. Very nice place, right off the Mississippi River. A couple of our friends have even moved in here, so my girlfriend like to call it the dorm since there's a bunch of us in the same building.

Went to Vegas the first weekend of September. My cousin from Santa Clara turned 21 and she came with some of her friends and my sister and I came out with some other family people to celebrate.

Some potentially big things coming up in the future. Europe next spring, and I've also been engagement ring shopping.

Where does the time go...

Anybody even reading this?

Wed, 05 Oct 2005 02:28:59 GMT

It's been raining for about 4 hours straight now, and is supposed to keep raining through the night. I'm not talking a drizzle here, it just comes down in sheets. So my plans for the night have been scrapped due to the flash flood warnings.

Little recap of my trip to California last week: I went with two of my best guy friends, and it was exciting because for as many trips as I've been on in my life, I've never got to go with just friends, so it was pretty fun. I'll try to chop it up so it doesn't get too boring to read.

Friday-
Got in at about 10:00 a.m., and was picked up by my friend's brother, the marine. We drove from LAX down to Camp Pendleton and he showed us around. I was amazed at how huge the place was. I didn't really know what to expect when we were going to stay on a marine base, but the place is ginormous. I would have figured a decent sized area, but he said that it would take almost an hour to drive around the whole base. There's a mall, lots of fast food places, movie theater, golf course; basically a small suburb. He said that when full, it holds about 30,000 people, but about 15,000 of those are deployed in Iraq right now. Played golf on the base there and crashed early since the three of us woke up at 4:30 Minnesota time.

Saturday-
Woke up and drove to Miramar, a naval base about 20 minutes from Pendleton. (If it sounds familiar, it's because that's where the Top Gun people go, so throughout my time there I was humming the Top Gun theme and singing "Highway To The Danger Zone" Played a round of golf there and went back to Pendleton to pack up since we would be staying overnight at his friends house in Valencia. Drove the 2 hours up to Valencia, which is pretty good in LA traffic I hear, and hung around the house with his friends, had some wine and cheese and the four of us decided to head down to Hollywood for the night. I loved it, I wished I could have stayed longer, I am the biggest night owl of the group so I knew whenever we would have left would be too soon.

We started out parking at Hollywood and Highland and going around the shops and restaurants there and ended up eating at Johnny Rocket's. That whole complex was nice, the 4th floor balcony was fun to hang out on and get a nice view of Hollywood Blvd. We then walked down Hollywood just people watching, looking at the stars on the sidewalk and checking things out. You could easily spot the tourists from the regulars, just by where they pointed their head when they walked. We got an invitation for a free tour of a museum, it looked nice, and my friends and I took a card from the lady and said we might swing by on our way back. I looked at the card and see L Ron Hubbard and start to laugh. Apparently my friends didn't make the connection, but when I told them that he was the founder of Scientology they wanted to go back and get the tour. But by then we were too far down and it probably wouldn't have been as entertaining as they thought.

We ended up at Hollywood & Vine and went into the appropriately named "Hollywood and Vine Bar" We got a couple drinks and wandered around and came upon the vip room. There was nobody guarding it so we decided to go in. Nobody was in there, but it was fun to hang out in for a while. Very nicely decorated and the plastic bed sheets were the perfect touch of class. After I laid on it for a picture, I got to thinking I hope they hose that thing down every night, I probably just laid on some pretty nasty...... just ick. We walked back up Hollywood and drove back to Valencia and crashed.

Sunday-Tuesday to be continued...

Wed, 28 Sep 2005 06:29:25 GMT

California was awesome, better update and maybe some pictures to come.

Time to catch up on some sleep and get back on Minnesota time.

Fri, 23 Sep 2005 06:05:57 GMT

Off to California!

Have a great weekend everyone!

California here we come...

Thu, 15 Sep 2005 01:38:36 GMT

Just bought the tickets today. Friday the 23rd til Tuesday the 27th. We're flying into LAX and my friends brother is picking us up and we're headed down to San Diego. He found some way that we can stay at Camp Pendleton for free, so that is huge. The flight only cost $190 too. Anything special to see in San Diego from those in the know? We'll be golfing a few times, and will probably make it back up to LA for a day too. I'm really looking forward to this, perfect time for a vacation for me.

You stay classy...

Tue, 02 Aug 2005 03:28:39 GMT

Not a whole lot new going on. I've been applying for and getting rejected from jobs left and right. I know it's hard for a recent college graduate to get a job that they like and in the area they hoped on coming right out of school, but it's been a lot harder than I expected. I thought graduating a semester early would help me get something sooner, as it stands, it has just made the fact that I am still without a full time job feel like even longer.

I have a couple part time jobs that at least give me some money, one is being and usher for the local minor league baseball team, probably the easiest and most fun job I've had.

At least it's summer and I'm not going back to school. The weather this summer has been really hot, and I love it, I've got to golf and be outside a lot which is exactly why I love this time of year so much.

I'm planning a trip to visit my best friends brother in San Diego with a couple other friends in September. We might try and find a cheap flight up to San Fransisco so I can visit my cousins who were just out here a few weeks ago for my cousins wedding. (First wedding I was ever in, the one day I could have done without the 100 degree weather, I was steaming in the tux)

Hopefully my next update is bragging about my new perfect job. Until then, enjoy the summer months everyone.

Tue, 28 Jun 2005 00:11:54 GMT

So I'm stuck inside by the second tornado warning this week. We've lost power twice this week too. It's pretty eerie when it goes from a normal sunny day, to dark as night in 5 minutes, not to mention the air raid sirens going off. I went outside to check it out and I could see a couple funnel clouds forming. Neat.

I think I'm going to watch The Day After Tomorrow to pass the time.

Wed, 08 Jun 2005 23:45:48 GMT

It's my 1/2 birthday today, I got myself a present. Well it was last week, but close enough.

I bought my first brand spankin' new car!

Here is it, same color, feautures, everything. I love it.

Sat, 04 Jun 2005 21:26:14 GMT

Possibly the funniest Onion article I've ever read. Maybe a little biased because I know what all of the little places in the mall mentioned look like, but still hilarious.

Pentagon to close Camp Snoopy

Mon, 23 May 2005 19:54:25 GMT

Not a whole lot new going on.

Still looking for a job, there are a few possibilities and maybe's, but that's been the story since January, so until I get a check it's hard to get excited. Something will happen soon, its got to, I'm so bored.

I would have left for Europe today. tear.

I need something exciting to happen, everything has been boring and predictable lately.

I wish I had some more exciting news to update with. Hopefully the next one is about how I will spend my six figure salary and how busy I am.

Just gotta keep, you know, keep truckin'

Okay, good stuff.

Thu, 28 Apr 2005 18:51:27 GMT

Europe trip cancelled........check

House nearly burning down.........check

Not even making the top 10 of the job I thought I was perfect for.........check

April, you are now the shittiest month ever.

Sun, 10 Apr 2005 18:59:41 GMT

So you know that question that gets asked, "What would you grab out of your house if it was about to catch fire?"

I lived that yesterday.

We live at the top of a 100 yard hill which has railroad tracks at the bottom, pretty rare in the middle of the city, but apparently a train was dragging something that caused a spark and it has been very windy, dry and warm lately and those are not a good combination for sparks flying off a track. At first I smelled smoke from my bedroom window. "Someone must be grilling" Then two minutes later I see smoke coming up the hill. "Whoa, there must be a little fire at the bottom, hopefully it burns out (like has happened a few times in the past)" 2 minutes later I see flames 30 feet in the air, about 50 feet from our house, wind whipping toward our house and I am on the phone with 911. The firetrucks came screaming in as I'm rifling through my room trying to decide what to grab, and flames about 10 feet from the back of our house. Firemen stop the fire, another two or three minutes and our house was going up, no doubt about it.

The firemen were awesome, I kept running in the house and getting them water while they were finishing putting out the hot spots as they all looked like they were close to heat exhaustion. Also, one of the fire trucks got stuck in our yard after they were finished because the water they used was leaking a little and so it took another 15 minutes of pushing and rocking the truck to get it out. Our yard looks like a war zone.

So it was on of the scarier days of my life, but I'm very happy/thankful/grateful today.

Thu, 31 Mar 2005 20:15:55 GMT

So I went to pick up my cap and gown and honors medal (shameless self promotion, but damn it, I earned it)

It's crazy, it feels like I was just doing all this for high school yesterday. But it also feels like it was a looong time ago in some ways too. College was much more fun than I thought it would be. As much as I hate school, tests and papers and all, I wish I could stay around. I'm too much of a big kid to be ready for this real world stuff.

I just realized that this entry sounds like the little paragraph you get in your yearbooks for memories.

I'll stop now, and think about how much fun Europe will be in 6 weeks!

Fri, 18 Mar 2005 21:34:17 GMT

Planning my trip to Europe in May is making this snowstorm right now not bother me as much.

The tentative list, in no particular order, a couple places might be left off due to time:

Paris, France
Avignon, France
Monaco
Alicante, Spain
London, England
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Rome, Italy
Dublin, Ireland

2 months!!!!

Tue, 08 Mar 2005 20:06:12 GMT

Whoops, might want to hang on to that.

Sat, 26 Feb 2005 22:17:31 GMT

Inspried by crombieblondie and to try and help broaden my musical horizons. If any these songs are unfamiliar to you (let me know which ones), I will claim a moral victory since I feel like have little to no expertise in non-mainstream music.

I challenge everyone to post 26 songs, one with a band for every letter of the alphabet! Try to pick bands and songs that you like best or are a current obsession. This will give all your friends on your list a chance to hear your taste in music and learn a little bit more about you.

A Aerosmith - Dream On

B Beastie Boys - Sabotage

C Cauterize - Shooting Stars

D Dire Straits - Romeo & Juliet

E Eric Clapton - Layla (Regular, not unplugged version)

F Foghat - Slow Ride

G Green Day - Boulevard Of Broken Dreams (But getting a little overplayed)

H Honey Dogs - I Miss You

I I can't think of one...

J Jimi Hendrix - All Along The Watchtower

K Korn - Word Up (Cover)

L Lustra - Scotty Doesn't Know

M Maroon 5 - Harder To Breathe

N Norman Greenbaum - Spirit In The Sky

O Outkast - Rosa Parks

P Panoramic Blue - Let It Go

Q Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

R REM - Man On The Moon

S SR-71 - Let It Whip

T Tom Petty - American Girl

U U2 - Where The Streets Have No Name

V Van Morrison - Into The Mystic

W The Who - Baba O'Reily

X I got nothing.

Y Young Rascals - Good Lovin'

Z Led Zepplin - Stairway To Heaven