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I have this patch of dirt in my front yard that doesn’t have any grass.  I think this is because this piece never sees any sunlight.  So, I trimmed back this bush/tree that keeps it in the shade.  Now, it gets sunlight.  So, I decided to plant some grass seed there.  Sure enough I did, and now there is grass growing there.  I’m still working on getting it all filled in.  This is a hard time of year to grow new grass.  You have to water at least twice a day.  But, it’s still growing.  There are a couple other areas of my yard I might try putting some new grass in, too.

Thursday night we got together to play poker.  The best men (Darren, Nick, Brian, and me).  We grilled at my house and then played poker.  Darren went out first after buying in twice.  Then I went out, then Nick, leaving Brian as the winner.

Friday night I didn’t do a whole lot.

Saturday was the belated Father’s day celebration.  In the morning, we went to Alex’s Tball game.  It was really fun.  He had some of the best hits.  After that we went to Steph and Joel’s to play some Wii and eat some brats.  We then went to the Botanical gardens.  Besides for a small quick shower, it was good over there.  I haven’t been there in a long time.  After that we went to Hodack’s for dinner.  Great food, good value.

That night, I went to Amy’s.  She a friend of mine who is more a friend of Darren and Lisa.  She had a pool party type thing.  I got there late, but it was fun.  Met some new people.

Sunday I didn’t do anything all day.  Just watched TV and movies.  Fast times at Ridgemont High, ok.  I am starting Star Trek Enterprise.   I had never seen even a single episode before.  It’s been probably at least 10 years since I’ve seen an episode of a Star Trek series I’ve never seen before.  Kind of weird.  I see potential.  It might take me a little while to get into it.

Last night, I watched Legends of the Fall.  I had never seen it and really didn’t know anything about it.  It was one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time.

Well, the last week hasn’t been very eventful.  And, it hasn’t been weird like that my last post.

More of the same, really.  Work, running, work, house stuff, Netflix, TV.  I did decide to downgrade my Netflix plan to the 2 at a time plan.  Now, with the more cable and with running and yardwork and stuff, my Netflix DVDs pile up more.  I always feel a pressure to get my money’s worth. So, I decided to downgrade it to allow myself more time for other things.

I did watch National Treasure 2, it was ok.  I watched the Other Boleyn Girl.  It was pretty good.  It wouldn’t have been as good, but I tend to like most things with Natalie Portman.  I think I may be in love with Natalie Portman.

Saturday there was a party type thing at Dawn’s house for the band stuff.  It was alright.  I always feel a little out of place there.  The next youngest person besides me is like 40.

Sunday, we had Father’s Day plans, but my Dad’s back got all jacked up, so we just ended up hanging out and grilling at my parent’s house.

The last 24 hours have been extremely odd for me.  Kind of confusing.  It’s kind of like when you eat something and it leaves a weird taste in your mouth.  It’s like that–but in your brain.

Yesterday, I got home from work and was going to mow the lawn.  About half an hour into it, my mower stopped running.  Less than a year old new mower.  Weird.

I decided then to go to Wild Country.  That part was pretty normal.  On the way back, I was on 255 South coming up to the 64 exit.  There is a spot there that never has any cops and I always think it would be a good place for a cop.  So there was.  I get pulled over.  I haven’t gotten pulled over in like 5 years.  I was clocked going 74 in a 65.  Pretty tame.  He only gave me a warning–pretty awesome.  The odd part is that I normally am going at least 80 there.  Sometimes a lot more.  Sometimes I have not been entirely sober there.  The time that I get pulled over is the time that I least deserve to get a ticket.  Weird.

Then I come home and go to bed.  About halfway through the night, I start dreaming about this girl from Degrassi the Next Generation.  Her name is Shenae Grimes in real life–Darcy on the show.  Sure I think she’s pretty, but there are other girls I think about a lot more.  Ones from real life.  That wouldn’t be so weird on its own.  Guys dream about girls all the time.  The weird part is that I start waking up like every half an hour.  Every time that I fall asleep, I keep dreaming about her.  In a continuous story line type manner.  It was a continuous dream with waking up inserted.  I’ve never in my life kept dreaming about the same thing over and over again after waking up.  Stranger yet, today as I think back and try to remember the dreams they seem like a fuzzy memory.  Not like a dream.  I would put how I classify these dreams in the same category as how I remember a random event from preschool.  Very foggy–but very real.  I remember it in a very linear fashion.  Like they were experiences.  Weird.

So of course, tonight I decided to watch another DVD of Degrassi the Next Generation.  Weird.

This is the wrap up of the last couple weeks.  It appears that I haven’t had an entry in ~10 days.

Memorial Day weekend was pretty standard.  Hung out on Friday.  Saturday went to Darren’s, then to Toby’s.  Both were fun.  Sunday all the family went to Dennis and Trudy’s in New Minden for a fish fry.  Monday I pretty much sat around all day.

As the week went on, I got ready for two things that were going on this past weekend.

1. The Shriner’s Parade
2. My first yard sale

The Shriner’s parade is one that we always do with club.  This year was a little different, however, because there was a competition.  We opted for the patriotic theme.  We did a flag them for the float and played a sweet rock cover of America the Beautiful (arranged by yours truly).  We ended up getting 2nd. Not as good as first, but I’m not really all that surprised because the float itself wasn’t all that great.  We only do well because of our energy and the fact we have a whole band on a trailer.   There was a bit of concern with the weather that night.  It held out, but only until the way back to Fischers when it started raining and hailing pretty bad.  We pulled into a band overhang, and then drove back to get our cars.  It worked out fine.  Parades are a lot of work but they are so much fun.  Playing to so many people is great.

Saturday morning was my first yard sale.  I had some of my stuff and my parents had a bunch of stuff, too.  My dad sold his rider mower.  We sold most everything.  Some stuff didn’t sell.  I’ll probably just donate it to the Zion yard sale in a couple of weeks.

Barb was off the last couple of days at work, so we’ve been pulling extra duty to cover.  Yesterday wasn’t so bad, but today was really busy and tomorrow will be pretty busy, too.

For some reason, a lot of the TV shows I like tend to be teenage dramas.  I don’t really know why, but I do.  There are really 3 shows that I like in the genre. Dawson’s Creek, Everwood, and Degrassi The Next Generation.

You’ve probably heard of Dawson’s Creek.  You probably haven’t heard of Everwood.  It was only on for 4 seasons.  Degrassi TNG I’m pretty sure you haven’t heard of.  It’s a Canadian show.  I started catching bits and pieces of it in the morning before work.  I kind of started getting into it.  Now I watch it on DVD from Netflix. It’s still on the air.  I think they’re just wrapping up the 6th season.  I’m just starting season 5 on DVD.

It’s kind of weird watching Canadian TV.  They are pretty much like Americans.  The main difference is the way they talk.  Movies and stuff really exaggerate how they talk.  Oot and Aboot.  The way they say sorry.  It’s different, sure, but they just ham it up to make fun of them.  It’s a really sweet show.  One of the things I like most about is that the teenagers actually look like teenagers.  You don’t have 30 year olds in high school.

Tonight was the American Idol finale for season 7.  It was a fairly typical Idol finale.  They had the top 12 back, famous bands, you know.

There were two Davids in the finale–David Cook and David Archuletta.  Turns out that David Cook got 56% of the votes and David Archuletta got 44% of the votes.  They said there were 97 million votes.  That smashed the old Idol record by 23 MILLION votes.

I’ll tell you the truth.  I didn’t like David Cook much at first.  But as the season went on, he started to grow on me.  He’s much more sincere and genuine than I first thought.  As the season went on, he and the other David distinguished themselves as the best.  Cook has a real talent for picking good songs with a good arrangement.

So, David Cook of Blue Springs, MO is your 2008 Season 7 American Idol. Congrats.

My whole life I had expanded basic cable.  Growing up, high school, college, and then in my apartment.  I decided to cancel it because it would save me like $35 a month.  That was almost two years ago.

Now, I find out that I can upgrade back to expanded for $5 more per month and upgrade to the faster internet for $5 more per month.  I’m moving pretty fast.

It was pretty weird, because the day they upgraded my service, the little black box (my homemade computer TV DVR) stopped working. It would no longer play sound, and it had been acting up for awhile.

So luckily I had enough spare parts around the basement to build another one.  I had a few small hickups to get it working, but now it’s good to go and faster than it was before.  So I’m back.  I really forgot how much I missed it.

On Saturday we were in the Mayfest Parade in Ofallon.  We did pretty well.  The Schmidt’s were about half an hour late getting the trailer to the starting point so were a little pressed for time.  Once everything was going, it went pretty well.  I really love playing parades.

I like to think that if there was a contest and prizes, we would have won.

We have the Shriner’s parade next weekend.  The float is a patriotic theme.  They do have prizes and awards at that parade–hopefully we’ll win.  We’re doing my rock arrangement of America the Beautiful.

Not until I had a yard of my own did I realize how much dandelions suck. They are ugly and they grow curiously fast. I decided I had to get rid of them.

I got this weed killer from this place called No More Dandelions. I guess you could say it is farmer grade. It’s what they spray on crops to keep weeds from growing around them. So you pretty much just spray it on the grass. I had to spray twice, and then they don’t grow back. It’s pretty sweet. It’s also amazing how little it takes. You mix literally like half of a teaspoon in with some water to do your whole yard.

It turns out that Zapatas in Collinsville is a pretty bumpin place.  It might replace Big Daddy’s as a summer weekend hangout.

They have karaoke and cheaper beer.

We’ll see.