The years almost over...only about a month left! Where'd the year go?

Thanksgiving has come and gone. Typical family dinner thing Thursday and relaxing/partying the rest of the weekend. The Lions predictably lost.

Wednesday we got out a bit early and I went with my boss to Aces & Ales for the Stone beer event. Oaked Bastard, Double Bastard, RIS, Jolly Pumpkin collaboration, and others. Friday and Saturday was a double dose of goth clubbing and all you can drink nights (Skizofrenia and Ghostmachine). Toss in some Double Down and Crown & Anchor and I guess it was a pretty eventful weekend with friends.

With the extra days off I caught up on quite a bit of my Netflix instant queue. I did do a little freelance stuff too. I also went through my beer kit and kind of figured out what I wanted to do with my first home brew. I was too lazy to go through the process of sanitizing all the stuff and start up the first batch. Sometime this week though...

I'm another year older. Had some fun partying with friends over the weekend to celebrate. Tried out Burger Bar (unimpressed), minus5 Lodge, and then Frankie's Tiki Lounge. There was some early morning breakfast too. My birthday itself was pretty good too, with a last minute invite to Craftsteak, the Wings winning, and finally trying Allagash White and Johnnie Walker Blue.

Its been so long since I've posted on here. The last time I posted the Wings were still in the playoffs actually. I blame Twitter mostly, since everything is micro blogged. But I figured I'd return and try to post more often.

There's too much to try and remember and post about, but there were some biggies. The Wings eventually lost to the fucking Penguins. Ginn and I watched the last game here and were at a loss for words.

I finally moved out of that shit hole Crystal Creek. Wasn't worth paying so much more for a run down place, especially without a roommate for the 2nd bed room. Ended up finding a really good deal here at a new apartment overlooking the Legacy golf course.

I ended up golfing quite a bit, despite the summer heat. Tried a few new places like Legacy, Rhodes Ranch, and Rio Secco. But Boulder muni has been our go to place. I finally broke 100 even this last Friday! God, we are terrible...but its so much fun.

Being summer, there was the normal celebrating of birthdays for Chris and Aaron. I got invited to a really cool Summer Tasting menu event at MGM Grand. Made a few new friends since last posting. Somehow won bottle service one night at Blue Martini. Tried Texas de Brazil (amazing). Halloween this year was a success. People seemed to dig the Billy Mays idea.

Finally made it out to this year's Lee's Beer Experience. I think that was the start of my recent beer kick. Dragged Ken and Aaron out to another beer event at Monte Lago Village in September. There's also a new craft beer rocker bar called Aces & Ales that I've been going to frequently for all these beer releases and events.

With fall kicking in I've been in hockey mode since football has been a disappointment. Already been to a couple Wrangler games this season.

I think that's about it.

I'm probably going to be going to Aces for a Stone Brewing beer event Tuesday and then Tenaya Creek for their 10 year anniversary on Saturday. Looking forward to golfing a few more times before it gets too cold. I also need to figure out when to use all this credit for Texas de Brazil. ;)

Until next time...

New post coming soon. Lots to talk about, but been pre-occupied with moving...

Man I am beat.

Friday started off pretty rough. There was some sort of water damage in my second bedroom and I couldn't get any explanation or time frame for it getting fixed. In the meantime they shut off my water heater and it was a game of never ending phone tag. I'm so glad to be moving out of this place in a few weeks. But the day turned around for the better later on. I picked up some free hockey tickets to Monday's game. Detroit won game 1 against Anaheim. Then I had some fun before heading over to the club to party it up.

Saturday I woke up early expecting the complex to be over to change my water heater and take care of the carpet in my other bedroom, but they never showed up. I ran a few errands and then hit up my eye doctor appointment. The last time I spent money on glasses was like 3 years ago at 39dollarglasses.com. But I thought my insurance would cover more than it did, and I ended up spending like $400 on new glasses and a pair of prescription sunglasses for golfing.

When I finished up I decided to head over to Barleys for this small beer festival thing I found out about last minute. They had more tents setup than I thought, and I tried probably 45 beers or so. No one really seemed interested in going, but my boss ended up heading over towards the end. There were a few pretty good ones and now I'm really excited about the Lee's Beer Experience at the end of the month.

After chilling at home for a bit I met up with Aaron at Vector.

So it was another late night and I wanted to wake up early enough to watch Detroit's game 2. Sadly they lost in 3 OT and I didn't even see the end of the game (I watched it just now on DVR). I was out on the golf course when the 2 OT started. Tim and I decided to play out at Desert Willow. Golf was a blast but I'm still a bit bummed the game went so long and I couldn't catch the end of it live.

But with the lack of sleep, the late nights, running around outside at the beer fest, and then golfing today I am completely beat. I'll probably try to take it easy next weekend and save a few bucks. Need to sort through some more things for the move. I haven't mentioned it previously, but I did pick the new place. I'm moving into a smaller one bedroom to save money, but the place is much nicer than this place and it overlooks the Legacy Gof Course. Still not looking forward to the actual moving process, but I don't think it will be too bad.

Now that I think about it, I'm not going to be resting at all. Between hockey playoffs, sorting and packing shit this next weekend, Mother's Day, a planned golf trip to Primm the week after, signing my new lease on the 23rd and moving the following few days, and then the beer experience on the 30th...I'm going to need to sleep all of June.

I should try the sleep thing now actually.

Holy shit, I didn't update all of March and now most of April? Whoops! I'm not going to try and recap every little detail at this point, but its probably time to at least make a post.

I love this time of year, mainly because the NHL playoffs have started and its not 100+ degrees out yet. The weather has been great for our golf league and a couple other outtings. When we went to Boulder City last weekend I actually played 36 holes straight! I just can't get enough golf or hockey right now. I'm pumped that Detroit is beating down Columbus so far and San Jose has choked on a fat one. Hopefully I'll still be able to write about Detroit's progress next month!

Other than the golf and hockey, things have been pretty normal for the most part. Been out to the usual spots for dinner and fun. I say for the most part though because of 2 bigger developments...

First, I had a little mishap with the Saturn and it is no more. I lucked out with the insurance deal and am very glad I switched from Esurance to Progressive last year. I'm thrilled with my new car too. I'm zipping around in a 2009 Mazda3 Hatchback now.

Second, I'll be moving at the end of May. I wanted to move out of this complex last year but I was too lazy. My lease is up at the end of May so I decided to put in my notice to motivate me a bit. I'm not looking forward to the actual moving part, but I'll be happy to get the fuck out of here! I've got it narrowed down to about 3 places right now and I'll be making my final decision this week and getting all the paper work in place.

This should be a busy week so I'm going to try and not wait another 2 months before posting again.

Work has been such a grind lately. So many requests and projects to work on and we aren't staffed as much as we used to be. Seeing all our competitors release their terrible 4th quarter numbers is a bit unsettling too. I'm really curious to see what ours look like when they come out.

Thankfully this week is almost done.

About the only good thing this week was learning we were getting a discount on the golf league. I can't wait for that to start next Wednesday. Going out last weekend to Primm and Black Mountain was a blast. The weather has been warming up a bit and has felt great. Just getting out and doing something different from the club or the usual hanging out felt good.

Anyways, like I said I went and golfed twice this last weekend.

Having not golfed in a while I expected to be terrible. Surprisingly though I had one of my better rounds at Primm. It did take me the front 9 to warm up a bit, but the back 9 was great. Primm has some great local deals right now, with $25 and $35 rates over the weekend. The downside to that being its next to impossible to get a tee time. Since only Ken and I could go Saturday we ended up getting paired with 2 douchebags who thought they were hot shit hitting from the black tees. They hit a few strong drives, but I out-putted both of them...and I also didn't break 3 clubs out of anger. They weren't very good at all. Dumbasses.

To cap off a great afternoon of golf, Ken and I hit up Johnny Mac's for beer, pizza, and wings. The wings were hands down the best I've ever had. We easily ate 25+ wings each and almost a full pizza.

I was worried about how I'd feel Sunday. Having not golfed in a while I wasn't sure how bad I'd be hurting for the next round. But I felt good. Having the 4 of us out there was a bit more fun and relaxing. We aren't the best, so getting paired up with other people makes it a bit weird. Black Mountain wasn't nearly in as good a shape as Primm was. The winter weather took its toll a bit which made for some interesting bounces.

I'm pretty sure I'll go across the street sometime this weekend to practice some different things. I really want to improve. I have a goal in mind for what I want to be shooting by summer. Kyle is busy with a big bowling tournament/convention until July so he doesn't have time to play. I don't expect to get to his level by July, but I want to make it at least a little competive.

The rest of the weekend is up in the air.

2-for-1 drinks at Skizo tomorrow sounds good after this week. Nothing else has really been mentioned. James and Sarah both have birthdays in the next week so I'm sure something will be going on either this weekend or next. Then in 2 weeks Colt is coming to town to party for St. Patty's day. That should be a busy day. There is a new beer festival happening at Lake Las Vegas earlier that day.

Hopefully with the golf, birthdays, and other events the next few weeks I'll be able to relax a bit and take my mind off work.

The plans have been finalized for golfing this weekend. Sadly, Primm Valley was fully booked Sunday so the 4 of us decided to golf Black Mountain instead. But Ken and I decided we're gonna golf at Primm anyways...on Saturday. So I'll be kicking off my golfing this year with back to back rounds this weekend!

We also got the sign up info for our golf league today. So in 2 weeks we'll be starting that too. That first night we are definitely hitting up BJ's after for beer.

The long weekend couldn't have hit at a better time. Work has been busier than ever, so an extra day off was appreciated. Granted, now we'll probably have just as much stuff to do but now with 1 less day to do it this week.

The rain today kind of killed my plan to go to the driving range. Maybe I'll stop by at Callaway on my way home one day this week and hit a bucket or two. If not perhaps I'll try to go Saturday to Wildhorse.

Even without the rain, I might have stayed in today anyway. Aaron convinced me to go out last night. So I met up with him over at Ra Sushi for some food and drinks. Some of the others that were there wanted to go to Wasted Space, so we went to the Hard Rock after. The night was more fun than I had expected. Wasted Space wasn't terribly expensive, and it has an interesting setup. I wouldn't be opposed to going again.

Saturday I caught up on my Netflix queue a bit. Had some real stinkers come in though. Some old ones that slowly made it to the top of my list. The Darjeeling Limited is 2 hours I'll never get back. Max Payne wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but that isn't saying much. The games were so much better. Revolver was forgettable.

I'm not sure why I've been going backwards on this recap...but that leaves Friday. I didn't really feel like going out at all but I was getting bored. So I headed to Skizo for the retarded anti-Valentine's Day zombie theme party that pops up every year now. The themes are pointless but it leads to some real interesting disasters you can laugh at. The crowd was a bit bigger this week too. So I guess that is a plus.

Hopefully these 4 work days go by quick. Can't see myself headed out to the club this week. I'll be calling Primm tomorrow to get our Sunday tee time. Maybe the crew will be down for some Med Cafe or something.

I think I might be back to 100%. I had a slow building headache all last week that culminated with a massive fever and overall shitty feeling over the weekend. Luckily the fever part really only hit on the weekend, so I only had to grind through the headaches for work.

I really couldn't afford to call in this week or last anyways. Our boss is in France until next week so I've been on my own with everyone...which wouldn't be bad if it wasn't the busiest 2 weeks we've had since I've been there. Ugh. This 3 day weekend is coming up at the perfect time.

Anyways, a few things to recap since I last posted:

Superbowl weekend was pretty eventful. Friday was the boring day, with just an outing to Skizo. Saturday the crew went over to Yayo Taco to catch the UFC PPV for free. I got there before the rush to grab a table, which is good because it filled up fast. It was too busy to really order food or beers as the night went on so I'm glad I got my food when I arrived. After my first couple beers I just bought a bucket instead of waiting in the line. All in all, the fights weren’t that great. The big exception is the total ass whooping GSP put on BJ Penn. Good times!

Not one to call it an early night, I ended up out at Omar's house party later on with Aaron. It was a little subdued this time, probably because the cops showed up to the last one. But it was still fun. Kicked around with Sarahfina and Megan some. Metal James showed up and was good for a few laughs.

The late night led to me waking up just in time for the Super Bowl. I didn't plan on doing any fancy food items this year, just some comfort snacking. The commercials were such a let down this year. The talk about it being one of the greatest games of all time was a bit exaggerated though. I was falling asleep except for a 100 yard run at the end of the first half and the 10 penalties at the end of the 4th.

On Monday the previously mentioned headache started building. I didn't really think much of it until late Friday night when it really kicked into gear and I started burning up.

The rest of Friday was pretty good. It was Ken's last day so I went in early so we could all go to Yardhouse for his going away party. Our crowd was smaller than most of the previous going away shindigs, but that’s because most of the previous ones were for the cool people who actually went out. Oddly enough, Aaron was at Yardhouse again. He's been there every single time I've been there with Ken. By the time happy hour ended we weren't really feeling it anymore, so we headed to Ken's early for the poker game.

Poker wasn't bad. We were doing a winner take all game but I caught more bad beats against Dave again, so I was down to 1,050 out of the 24,000 chips in play. Luckily, an hour later I had built my stack up to be chip leader with almost 18,000 going into heads up with Ken. But I couldn't close the game out, and we ended up chopping the pot because it was taking so long and we wanted to play a second game. That was about the time I started hurting.

Saturday was rough. I didn't really move from the couch except to get water and some food. I did end up dusting off the old Halo 3 disc and played with Chris, Aaron, Ian and Adam. It’s going to take some time to get used to the game again. My goal was to beat Chris at least one game, which I was able to do. ;)

The Halo bug bit me though, so I downloaded the new Halo Wars demo. I don't know if I'll be getting that or not yet. The game play didn't seem very refined compared to a Starcraft or even Command & Conquer game, and the game was very light on the Halo feel too. I do have a Best Buy gift card sitting here, so who knows.

Don't know what’s up for this weekend yet. There will be a lot of the anti-Valentine's Day garbage going on at the clubs. Vomit. Don't know of anything else that's going on as of yet. I will try to hit up the driving range on Monday though. Figure it might be a good idea to shake some rust off if the plan to play Primm Valley next Sunday happens.

I can't wait for it to start warming up. I'm going to get into the golf thing a lot more this year since it was such a blast last year. Got to be careful with my budgeting though. The golf adds up quickly and I owe a pretty big chunk of money on taxes this year.

God I hate 1099s.

Yayo Taco is amazing. I had never heard of it, but apparently its been open for some time right across from UNLV, hidden behind Rebel Books in the little strip mall. Chris was talking it up and Aaron said he liked it to, so we went there last night for some tacos, beers, and tequila. The select of all 3 was very impressive. Over 100 different types of beer, just as many varieties of tequila, and crazy types of tacos like curry and Sicilian. We're going to go there next weekend to since they are going to be showing Penn vs. St. Pierre 2 for free.

There have been a lot of fights recently. Kyle came over and we watched the UFC PPV last weekend. There was the Affliction PPV last night, but no one was really interested in shelling out the money. It looks like Arlovski jumped right into a punch and got knocked the fuck out in mid air. Hilarious. There was a big WEC event tonight after the NHL All-Star game.

We all went and saw The Wrestler on Friday at GVR. Seems like we haven't really been seeing movies at all again, but it was good that this one was so good. Mickey Rourke was perfect for the role.

The second title update for Gears of War 2 was released this week. It fixed a lot of the cheat glitches, but the game still has some major latency issues and overall balancing problems. 3 months or so of playing has typically been my threshold for these types of games. I play through the campaigns, do the multiplayer thing for a bit, and then eventually everyone kind of gets tired of it and we all quit playing. It sounds like Chris is at that point now, and wants to go back to playing Halo 3. I'm not quite ready to stop playing Gears but it seems like every time we play we all just end up cursing at the lameness we encounter in every match. I'll be down for some Halo 3 though. I still need to play through more of Fallout 3 and Fable 2 as well.

A few more random notes before I wrap this up:

"Goth as fuck" night at Skizofrenia was a bad idea. The music was such a downer. There was absolutely no energy there and the crowd was weak sauce. Next week is "Industrial as fuck" night...ugh, the music might be better at least.

I got my Zetterberg Winter Classic jersey this week in the mail. Sadly it was what I kind of expected...it was a knockoff from China. It was actually a really good looking fake, but I have the feeling it would have shredded in the wash and it was ridiculously big. Luckily the seller already refunded me and I sent it back without any issues. I might hold off on getting one now though. I'll wait and see how much I owe the tax man before maybe dropping $180 on a jersey.

Got a poker game coming up soon. Haven't had our poker club night in a while because of everyone's holiday plans. Looking forward to that. I'm also hoping to get back out and golf. At the very least I'm going to hit up the driving range next weekend. Perhaps I'll go hit a bucket or two before the Super Bowl starts. Our golf league starts up again in March, and I think we are going to do it again even if we have to pay full price this time.

Time to watch Flight of the Conchords.

Jesus, I thought I had updated more recently than I have. I have a few weekends and a holiday of partying to recap. I didn't even talk about the huge snow storm yet? Ugh, this is going to be a long entry. Perhaps I'll just post the Cliffs Notes version. At the very least, there will be breaks between paragraphs for this blog….lol

So at my last post I was disappointed about not seeing the snow. Well right after that we got hit with a crazy amount of it. My drive home the day we got hit increased from about 20 minutes, to about 100 minutes. At least when I got home I got to play in actual snow. Not the couple flurries that randomly sprinkle down and melt maybe once a year...this was a good 6 inches of the real deal. I built snowmen, threw snowballs around at nothing in particular, and had an all around fun time in the snow. A few days later, I still saw it around on the ground in a few places. Thankfully the next day the roads were ok to drive in. I don't want to deal with that mess again.

At this point we are still a week before Christmas. Instead of doing a big gift exchange, I toss out the idea of us going somewhere nicer for a dinner. Since Sarah was leaving to visit her family and Aaron had some work parties, we did it the Friday before. We decided on Red Square at the Mandalay Bay. I think the dinner was a great idea. It was a little pricey, but overall really good. I had martinis, caviar and bilinis, a tasty steak, even dessert. Some others joined us during dinner and a few of us partied after.

Chris took Sarah home, but we hung out at MB for a bit. The ridiculous drink prices at the center bar scared us over to the goth club. They were doing a silly little Absinthe bar night. By the time we tried some Aaron was getting out of hand, so we migrated to the Tiki bar.

I decided to take a good chunk of my remaining vacation days starting on Christmas Eve and running through the New Year. That day I went over to my parents for our normal holiday dinner and gift stuff. Everything went well...we were all civil and no one started fighting. Everyone seemed to get the things they wanted. The ham we had for dinner was probably the best I've ever had.

That night I met up with Aaron, Chris, and others at Firefly. We did a similar outing last year on Christmas Eve. Firefly was just the jump-off though. We went to Tiki Bar shortly after, ended up at Artisan, and finished up with breakfast at Palace Station.

Christmas itself was pretty uneventful. Stayed in, watched a lot of movies, played Gears, etc. That Friday also wasn't anything special really. Skizofrenia had a $15 night and a few of us did the normal partying.

Saturday was a bit more exciting. There was a big A-tech reunion dinner that we were tossing around going to, and ended up attending. It was over at this place called Half-Shell, which was good enough for what it was. Saw some people I hadn't seen in a long time. A few people I didn't even remember too. After the dinner they were doing a game night, but we already had plans to watch UFC at Aaron's new place. When the fights concluded, we also checked out Aaron's new car. Of course the first night he had it he gets pulled over. I guess the car matched the description of some alert they had for some kidnapped women. The illegal u-turn probably didn't help either. Hahah!

Everything was pretty quiet the next few days until New Year's besides a quick stop at Yardhouse.

Near Year's seemed a bit tame compared to years past. Everyone I talked too took it easy. People stayed in, left their parties before midnight, or just didn't do anything special. The crew headed to Greg's for a bbq. Had some burgers, beverages, and watched Rocky IV before midnight. Did the big champagne toast thing at midnight...and then Chris popped the big question to Sarah. You can't really beat that for NYE highlights. Within the next hour most people called it a night. Ken was still having his party, so I stopped by his place for a bit. We ended the night drinking out at his fire pit with everyone and then watching a few episodes of Always Sunny.

Just like Christmas Day, I was sleeping off the previous night and relaxing on New Year's Day.

Friday I grabbed some lunch at Johnny Mac's with Ken, but sadly they had no chicken wings! That was the only reason we went though. That night Meghan was having more of her birthday partying, and Aaron convinced me to meet up with everyone at the Artisan. We weren't really feeling it there and ended up at the goth club again. Also hit up Crown for some food and to wind down before calling it a night.

Saturday night Amina was having a game night at her and Mark's new house. She invited Tina and I for their little pot luck gathering. Their house was really nice, though the game part of the night was lacking. The Monopoly game specifically became annoying as hell. Tina fell asleep when everyone was playing, so I took her home before returning for a quick poker game which I dominated.

Going to back to work this week was about what I expected. Some stuff got done, but a lot more was left that shouldn't have been. Made my week a bitch. The only plus side of having so much stuff to do was the week went by quickly enough. That leaves only one more weekend to recap and I can stop typing!

Friday I actually had 2 tickets for Lance Burton and Amina was doing another game night. But I was so beat early on I didn't feel like doing either. I don't think I would have gone to Lance regardless though. Ended up online playing Gears with everyone for a bit before we decided to go to Yardhouse for a late dinner. We went to Artisan briefly for a bit later on. It was overly crowded and we were all kind of beat by the time we got there. So it was a somewhat short outing.

Saturday we did one last group dinner. I had a restaurant.com coupon for Med Cafe and everyone seemed ok with going there. I don't think I have been there in 7 or 8 years. It was a lot better than remember. Chris seemed to think it’s changed a good deal over the years, so that may be why. I already want to go back...

Well, that just about sums up my holidays and the last few weeks. Went out a bit more than usual, but it was the holiday. There seems to be a few more places that are becoming regular hangouts. I've also been big on using Netflix and 360 lately. Basically any time I didn't go out over the last few weeks I was playing Gears, Fallout 3, or watching movies. I expect the trend to continue for the foreseeable future. Hopefully if it warms up a bit any of these next few weekends I'm going to try to make it out and golf.

Time to party in the new year tonight!

I'll post some of the fun from tonight and the last week sometime before the weekend is out.

Ugh, I should be headed to the Orleans for the Wrangler's annual midnight game. But plans seem to have fallen through. Not too happy about that actually. That seems to happen quite a bit lately. This whole year has been otherwise forgettable actually. I might make a big reflective post about 2008 when I have more time, but for now I'll stick to the last weekend and Nine Inch Nails.

I came down with a cold on Monday and it stuck with me most of the week. By Friday it thankfully had let up and I was doing pretty well. I was playing some Gears and debating whether to go out or not, and I ended up doing so. Aaron and I met up at Skizofrenia and partied. Kelly was there for a bit. Talked to some people I usually don't. Stuck around longer than I probably should have, but I was having fun. After the club I just went home to get some sleep for NIN.

So Saturday it was thrown out that we should hit up Memphis BBQ before the show. I was down, but Tina was having none of it. So we had to go eat a bit earlier so I could pick her up after. We ended up getting there pretty close to the start, but the parking garage was already ridiculous. We made the smart choice to look at merchandise first. Even at $35 a t-shirt they were selling out fast. Sizes were slim pickings but I got the one I wanted. After that we made it in to catch the opening act, The Bug. I really wish we hadn't. Some of the music was ok, but the vocals completely killed it. That was probably the most retarded band I've ever seen live. Thankfully the setup time between bands was short, and NIN went on right at 9:30.

They opened up somewhat subdued, just some standard lighting and rocking out to some tracks off The Slip. Then the shit got real, and they bust out March of the Pigs. Head Down is one of the few newer songs I like, and that was pretty slick live. Sadly the only song off The Fragile they played was The Frail, but they followed it up with a really slick version of Closer. This was the first really impressive part of the light show too. A giant screen projected a live feed of Trent singing right into the camera, though it had some filters and distortion added to make it really creepy and awesome.

After Closer they broke out into Gave Up, which might have had the most energy of any song of the night. It was fucking INTENSE, son. It was a fantastic song to build up the crowd before transitioning into a couple songs from Year Zero and slowing things down for Ghosts. The big screens came out and so did some interesting instruments. I don't think most people would expect to see xylophones being played at a NIN show.

When they finished up with the instrumentals from Ghosts, they played a really subdued version of Piggy. I really liked the way they alternated between some old favorites, the new stuff, and the different energy levels of the songs. Almost as strong as Gave Up they blew everyone away with Wish and then one of my favorites, Terrible Lie. Survivalism sounded a lot better live, as did most of the newer stuff. They pulled out some frames from the original music video if I remember correctly. There were 4 panels from the video, including the weird shot of a guy going to town on another dudes ass in a bathroom, as well as a couple more live cam feeds.

They played another Ghosts instrumental before building up to the end of the first set. The video wall effect they used for Only was one of my favorites. They had a wall of static hiding the band, and in a sort of reverse spotlight they would expose different parts of the group playing. Then it would splash to the floor, shoot to the ceiling, and splash to the floor again before returning to the full static wall. The Hand That Feeds was good, but it was quickly overshadowed by Head Like A Hole. I think it’s easy to say that the crowd reacted the strongest for this one, myself included. Its such a great song live, and the perfect way to head into the encore.

The encore wasn't as strong as it could be but they came out to a cool little touch screen effect with the video wall and then they played Reptile, which is one of my favorites. After another new song they played Hurt. I really think they should have ended the set with Hurt. I don't care how much you like Johnny Cash, but anyone who thinks his cover is better than what Trent does live with his original version is crazy. The final screen and video that was put up while they finished up with In This Twilight was kind of cool. I just wish that song was about 2 minutes longer since it seems like right when it’s picking up, it ends.

When all was said and done they played just about 2 hours even. There were only a couple minutes before they came out for the encore. Sadly the only big deviation for the last show of the tour was a couple minutes that Trent took to talk about the future. It was the last show for Josh Freese and Alessandro Cortini. The light show will be deconstructed for the South American part of the tour and then they will be back for a few more US stops in April. It was a little worrisome the way he talked about catching NIN while you can. Does he mean for this tour and era of NIN? Does he mean for good? It’s hard to say. He went 5 years between TDS and The Fragile...

A couple other random notes about the show:

The crowd was much more into the show this time at the theatre then they were last time we saw them. At the end, they tossed a full keyboard into the crowd. I checked out the message board today and it sounds like the guy got to keep it, and even got it signed. Lucky bastard! I can't remember when it happened but at one point they did this pretty sweet airbrush eraser effect on the video wall. I need to look up how they did that shit.

This post is getting long and the writing is terrible, but the weekend didn't end with NIN. At Memphis BBQ we talked about partying after. But Tina didn't want to do that either. So after a failed stop at McDonalds we found one that actually was serving people. Grabbed some food real quick, and then I dropped her off. She wasn't the only one who bailed on post-NIN action though.

Aaron and I decided to go to The Artisan and we met up with Sarahfina and Meghan. That place is such a cool little lobby bar and lounge. They have strange drink concoctions too. It’s a bit on the pricey side but we seemed to make it out of there without any real damage. There was also almost some drama, but things seemed ok once we all got breakfast at some hole in the wall.

I'm almost done, I promise.

I was very disappointed today that I did not get to see any of the snow. Sounds like it only really hit the west side. Winter hasn't officially started yet, so perhaps there is still time.

Aaron and I have been playing the shit out of Gears of War 2....especially Wingman. I finally leveled up today. That ranking system is complete bullshit by the way.

Jesus, I've been writing this shit for almost 45 minutes now. Sitting here still I'm actually a little more pissed off. Almost 3 months into the season and I've yet to go to a Wrangler's game. I'm not even sure why people couldn't go tonight...lame.

Alright, I'm out. I should have at least one more good thing to write about after the weekend...and then perhaps my thoughts about 2008.

I should probably get something down before I forget it all, since I skipped an update or two.

So the last time I wrote it was just before Thanksgiving. That Wednesday a few of us went out to Yardhouse to relax and have a few beers and take advantage of the late night happy hour. Didn't stay out too late, since no one wants to spend Thanksgiving hungover.

I went over to my parents house the next morning at halftime of the Lion's game. God they are terrible. Today they are 0-13 and I'm really pulling for them to get that perfect season. Anyhow, once they got done getting their asses kicked and everyone was over we did the whole Thanksgiving dinner thing.

That night there was some good partying to be had. Sarah was out of town, so Aaron and I had Chris all to ourself. For some reason it was decided to hit up Cyanide for their 1 year anniversary party. I recall going there after Thanksgiving last year for their grand opening. The club itself wasn't so special, but we were all able to drink and have fun. Needless to say I was hurting on Friday.

Actually, the rest of that weekend I pretty much stayed in. Watched some movies and played a lot of Gears. I don't quite get why we like it so much, because there are actually quite a few bugs and problems with the multiplayer. Saturday I did head out for a few minutes, but only to pick up a pizza Tina made for me at work.

Work this last week was rough. It always is after a long weekend.

Surprisingly I ended up at Cyanide again this Thursday. I typically haven't been going out during the week, especially to the goth clubs. But Sarahfina asked me there so I went, expecting to only stay out for a few. Pierre was rather accommodating of our song requests though, so we ended up being there till they were closing for the night. Sounds like I got him in a bit of trouble too, since he played stuff outside of the nights theme.

Friday ended up being a pretty typical night. Skizo and a little bit of Crown after. Seems like with the club re-opening I'm slipping into the old routine. At least next week will be different. There is the NIN show on Saturday night. Everyone is going and I've been looking forward to it for a while. Still am not digging the more recent albums, but the stage show is supposed to be epic. Then on Monday I plan on going to the Wrangler's annual midnight game. Back to this last weekend though...I guess this last Saturday wasn't really routine either. Aaron begged me to go downtown since that's where Chris and Sarah were heading after her work's Christmas party. The Griffin is starting to slowly grow on me. So the night turned out well.

Its crazy that we are already in December. Only 2 1/2 more weeks until Christmas. I'll be taking a chunk of days off starting Christmas Eve, and wont be going back until the weekend after New Years. 11 days off should be pretty good. I talked with Chris and Sarah last night at Griffin about possible plans for the holiday. I think we are going to skip the gift exchange stuff and try to plan a big dinner outting. Red Square was mentioned. Then for New Years, I think the plan will be to go to Greg's for a big BBQ. Should be a safe place to hang out and party all night.

Time to wrap this up. Need to call it a night and get some sleep.

Rather unexpectedly, this last weekend turned into one of the more epic party weekends in a while. Didn't really have anything planned except for watching the Michigan/Ohio State game on Saturday.

When I got home Friday I sat around uncertain of what to do. Jumped on Xbox a little bit but got too fidgety. After talking with Aaron we ended up at Skizofrenia. It wasn't the greatest to start. The crowds are all over the place at the clubs. Bad economy, gearing up for the holidays, too many nights? Who knows? But it ended up being fun. Aaron split after a while, but right as he was leaving Kelly showed up. So I hung with her and Jamie a bit, drank, and did the normal club stuff. Later on my friend Sarahfina came and we hung out. I don’t think I've seen her in over a year at least. We ended up staying till the club was closing, which I haven't done in a long time.

Of course that made getting up for the Michigan game rough. Thank god for DVR. Sadly the game got uglier and uglier as time went by. Rich Rodriguez led Michigan to the worst season since I've been alive. His comments after the game only pissed me off more.

Later in the afternoon I jumped back online and played some Gears with Chris and Aaron. That game is so much fun. Fallout 3 continues to sit by itself, not being played. I installed Gears to my hard drive actually, one of the new features of the Xbox Live Experience. I will be checking out the new Netflix streaming capabilities later this week over the Thanksgiving break. Anyways, at some point while playing we decided to hit up Yardhouse for beers and dinner before possibly going to Omar's house party

So at Yardhouse Chris and I decided to finally get some of the half-yard glasses. They turned out to be a pretty good value. Sarah wasn't feeling good, so Chris took her home while the rest of us continued on at Yardhouse killing time before Omar's party. Eventually it was late enough for us to load up at Vons and head over. I had mentioned the party the previous night to Sarahfina, so she met us there with her friend.

The party was intense. I don't know why Omar would ever want to have that many people at his house. It’s easily busier than the club nights. DJ's, kegs, and a shit ton of people having a good time. Chris actually was already there by the time we arrived. Later in the night Brian Dirk, Metal James, Kelly, and a slew of others also showed up. We talked to Pierre a bit, drank more, danced, yadda yadda yadda.

I'm not sure what time, but after a couple hours the cops ended up being called to give Omar a warning. The party wasn't actually that loud or anything, but I bet some neighbors were uneasy with the number of people who seemed to loiter outside in the cul-de-sac. The party went on a bit more before the cops showed up again and shut it down. There were at least 8 cop cars that I counted on the street. It was a bit fucked up though, because they were forcing people to leave while most of them sat in their patrol cars waiting for people to drive off drunk. We decided to hang around for a bit before heading around the corner to sober up at Crown and Anchor.

Aaron and I ended up there with Sarahfina and her friend. Rob was on a rampage losing a ton of money gambling while working behind the bar again. He always gives Aaron crap for when he stumbles through trying to order a glass of wine too. After some food, a few bucks in the machine, and chatter the sun was up and it was time to call it a night/morning.

Between Friday night and everything Saturday, I slept through most of Sunday. Caught up on all my TV and caught the HBO finales for True Blood and Entourage. There seems to be so much less on TV these days, but the few things that have survived or are new have been damn good. Tomorrow is going to be bittersweet, with the series finale of The Shield airing.

Only 2 more days of work this week. It's always nice to get a break. And in a surprising twist, we got at least some good news at our Town Hall meeting today. Turns out after they had their committee meetings, they decided we would in fact be getting our cost of living increase. With all the cutbacks, bonuses going away, and layoffs there were a lot of people thinking we would have a salary freeze as well.

Alright, this shit is getting long. That’s a wrap.

Gears of War 2 has taken up the majority of my free time. Finished up the single player campaign on Monday night. Played a good chunk of multiplayer after work during the week. Chris, Aaron, and I played through level 50 on Horde and unlocked that achievement today. The game has been a blast. Tina even seemed to enjoy watching me play Friday after we went and got Cheeburger.

She stayed over and we watched Michigan lose in the morning. I hate Rich Rodriguez. I'm glad UNLV could become bowl eligible with a win next week, but Michigan has played in a bowl game every year I've been alive. Way to fuck it up Rich. After the game I played more Gears. When Kyle finally showed up we watched the UFC fights. Poor Randy, he looked so old and beat up after Brock beat him. I think Randy could have taken him, but Brock just connected with a good shot.

Work was interesting this week. We moved to a new location on Friday. It was out of the warehouse area and back into the upstairs cubicles where I was when I first started. I guess its a better office area, but I much preferred the old location. It was like our own little area. Seems like someones been sharing our names with a recruiter, as most of us seemed to be getting calls from the Venetian for a similar position. Considering they have been even worse off then we are, and basically just laid off 10,000 people in Macau this week I don't know why anyone would want to jump ship. Then our Chairman and CEO also stepped down this week.

Who knows whats going to happen this week. At least I have Gears to distract me. Then next week is shortened for Thanksgiving.

I'm writing this while intermittantly while I wait for rounds to restart in Gears 2 multiplayer.

I went to the poker game we have fairly regularly with my co-workers earlier today. While I didn't win, I managed to come away with a shitload of Jack Daniels, a JD flask, and a bottle of Gentleman Jack signed by the Master Distiller. Seems Jack is a popular gift amongst all of us at work for each other's birthdays.

Last night's BBQ and YBR outting was a blast. I was stuffed with BBQ and taking in all the crazy characters at YBR. We haven't been in years, and it wasn't quite the same. But there were a lot of interesting people to laugh at. Apparently we caught the last night they were going to be doing at GVR.

Anyways, I'm a few rounds in now and its probably best to try to get some sleep. Just wanted to try a few minutes of multiplayer before the weekend was done. I'm sure I'll be playing this shit every night. Tomorrow I'm going to finish up the single player campaign.

Damn, last night was old school. Drunken night at the goth club and ending up at Crown & Anchor. I dont know how I'm not hungover today. Drrrrruuunk.

Anyways, I'm about to play some Gears 2 before I have to get ready for the belated birthday dinner at Lucille's and then some Yellow Brick Road action at GVR.

Gears of War 2 is badass. Picked it up Thursday night at the Gamestop midnight thing. Already had it reserved. Was in and out in like 10 minutes, surprisingly. The only downside to the game being so pimp is I don't know when I'll be playing Fallout 3, which Chris and Sarah got me for my birthday.

My birthday itself was uneventful for the most part so far. Which is to be expected given it was on a Monday. Thats why we're doing the stuff tonight. Tuesday was a bit better, as Kyle and I went golfing at Black Mountain. Then that night the gang got together to watch the election results. Our little Obama party was fun.

Haha, oh shit...Carl Weathers just popped up on the recorded ER I'm watching.

Some down time today was much needed.

Halloween took it out of me. Ended up at Greg's BBQ with Chris, Sarah, Atrain and co. Those BBQs are always good. We hung around there for a few hours before heading over to Skizofrenia for the official grand opening and big Halloween party. Wasn't nearly as busy as last week though. Don't know if the lack of open bar or just other Halloween options was the cause, but it was still fun. The Michael Moore costume got more recognition than I thought. I was actually a little worried that no one would get it, but it seemed to be popular. Random people wanted pics with me, which I didn't expect.

Last night we ended up at Yardhouse. Had some beers and food. As the crew was leaving, Kelly and Jamie were just getting there. So I turned around and had 1 more with them. They have some new menu items that all sound pretty good. Chris had himself a surf and turf burger.

Sadly the golf league is now over. Wednesday was a blast. I had gotten my Nike One's in the mail from TGW and liked using those over the cheap shit balls I had been getting. After we hit up BJ's Brewhouse. The food there is always so good. I can't wait for them to open up the new one over on this side of town in March.

Tomorrow is my birthday. I initially put in for the next 2 days off because Tina and I were going to hang out. Looks like that isn't happening now. Also would have liked to golf with one of the free rounds I got from the mailing lists, but obviously no one is available during the day. So with the exception of not having to deal with work for a couple days, looks like I took the days off for nothing. Oh well. Maybe I'll hit up the driving range and practice a bit.

Tuesday night I think there may be a small gathering at Chris' to watch the election coverage. Obama celebration? Let's hope so.

Then next weekend I'll do the real birthday partying. I think the plan is going to be dinner at Lucille's and then hitting up GVR to see Yellow Brick Road. We've been talking about doing it for a while, so I guess this is as good a time as any. Sunday there is also a poker game. Should be a good weekend.

So Friday was the big opening of Skizofrenia. I picked up Tina and we made it over there for the 11pm open. The valet was dropping the ball big time, so we just hit up the mall parking. Aaron, Chris, Sarah, and a slew of regular faces I haven't seen in a bit all made it out at some point. The place got pretty full up early on. Not sure if it was the open bar or just the fact that the lounge is about 100x better than the crap at the other places. Keith and Barnaby were spinning some good sets. Tina wasn't quite feeling so hot though so we split a little early so I could take her home. I was going to head back and party it up a bit more, but when I was about to head back I got a call from Sarah. Guess the partying went a little overboard so I went back and gave them a ride home instead. Aaron had already split too so I just called it a night.

The rest of the week was business as usual. Golfed on Wednesday and had a lot of fun. It's a shame this week is the last. I guess the next league isn't until March but I doubt we'll get a discount considering how we keep letting people go at work, all our bonuses were canceled, and what have you. So who knows if there will be a next league. Obviously I'm not too happy with any of that (the work stuff that is), but what can you do? At least I still have a job. Not everyone has been so lucky.

The next week or so should be interesting. Like I said the last golf night is Wednesday. Friday is Halloween. Saturday I think Tina and I are going to Fabulous Las Vegas. Then Monday is my birthday and Tuesday is of course election day. I already voted but I can't wait to see what the country decides. I plan on taking Monday and Tuesday off for my birthday. Given my lack of funds, I might not be doing anything but chillin over an extended weekend. I should be getting some free rounds of golf from some mailing lists I joined though. So we shall see.

I think the big birthday gathering might be the following weekend. Not sure what I want to do yet, but at least I'll have my paycheck to spend on whatever it is...