Okay, Two Weeks Off Was Nice, But Enough Is Enough
My last day of work at Valleyfair was August 22, two weeks ago Monday.  After that, I took a few days off to celebrate my birthday and regroup before going back to college.  Immediately upon my return to Madison, I got a job at AmericInn, but so far have only worked one afternoon, and all that consisted of was walking from room to room with the health inspector.  With just three classes, that leaves a wealth of free time, especially with the three-day weekend.  I spent most of that time in front of Jon Mueller’s hi-def big screen and playing on my new Tablet PC I was forced to rent for the semester.  So the two weeks off from work was great, but I have begun to feel extremely lazy.  I will be able to start work on dicks-garage.com this week though, and barring any unforeseen developments, I will be training Wednesday and Friday at the hotel.

Weekend Viewings
God bless TVLand’s Michael Landon marathon.  I watched a lot of Little House on the Prairie this weekend.  I am such a fan of that sixth season when Laura and Almonzo fall in love.  Besides TV, I watched several movies, including a couple Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan films on TNT.  I saw Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail, and was entertained by both.  That Tom Hanks sure can act.  Of course, Forrest Gump was playing around the clock too, and I saw that in its entirety at least once.  Saturday night, I sat down and watched Open Waters, the 2003 movie based on the true life stories of a couple stranded in the middle of the ocean when their scuba instructors forget about them.  It was a great movie, I thought.  Very depressing though.  I also saw Shawshank Redemption for the first time Sunday night and was blown away.  Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman were at their best in the 1995 Best Picture nominee.  That was quite the year for movies.  Also up for the award besides Shawshank were Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction.

Top Ten List | Today’s Topic: US Cities I’d Most Like to Live in For a Year After Graduation
This list was pretty interesting to come up with.  I got the idea after visiting this website where you go through a detailed survey and then it tells you which city is most suitable for you to live in.  My #1 city, according to the poll, was Tucson, a place I visited on spring break in 2003, and where Brandon Hanson is most likely to live once he becomes a masseuse.  The other top cities on my survey were Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Phoenix, and Toledo, Ohio.  Anyway, here is how I would have rated my choices before I did the survey.

1. Seattle
2. San Diego
3. Las Vegas
4. San Francisco
5. Phoenix
6. Portland, ME
7. Portland, OR
8. Denver
9. Tucson, AZ
10. Cincinnati

News and Notes
Rick Mueller visited the house this weekend to do some repairs.  He and Joleen Pick will be married exactly a week before Chris and Carol… I was asked to come in for training at AmericInn last Friday, but then told not to come until Wednesday.  So far, I have worked a total of 2.5 hours there.  I need more hours… I found that as expensive as Jubilee is, they have good deals on Swanson TV dinners at $1.50 apiece.  I loaded up on them, despite their lack of filling me up well… I found a brand new HP Laser Jet toner still in the box and plan to sell it on eBay…

Twins Report
Scott Ullger had better be looking for a job soon.  To have so many players underachieve offensively in one season is more than coincidence.  The blame needs to be placed on the hitting coach.  I think they should fire him immediately to shake things up for one last playoff run, as unlikely as that appears.  Francisco Liriano at least made his debut Monday afternoon and looked okay.  He gave up the longest home run I’ve ever seen at the Metrodome to Gary Matthews, but otherwise threw well.

I’ll go do something productive now… okay, within the next 72 hours I will.