Back from the Dead

**YAWN***
Slowly emerges from 6 week long slumber.
Rubs sleep from eyes, looks around.

Ok, I wasn't REALLY sleeping for 6 weeks. In fact, quite the contrary. I have been working my not-so-little hiney off.
Lets see.
Where to begin, there is so much and yet SO little to discuss.

Work has been in a word: out-of-this-world-upper-stratosphere-of-busy-insanity.
And yes, that is a technical term.
Major project release, temp resources, weekly trips to the Quad Cities (oh yeah -- hotbed of excitement that one) and some long ass work weeks.
This has been the bulk of what I have been doing.
That and family stuff.
My Grandmother had her 90th birthday mid-July. This is the one that keeps getting herself into trouble with her less than stellar behavior.

But isn't she cute with her birthday hat on? We had a nice time. Good chunk of the family was there. That weekend re-enforced the fact that I am in FACT related to a good portion of North Eastern Iowa. I mean, like 80 people there and in some way, I was related to all of them.
Bizarro.


And then in a twist of fate, only possible in my family -- she passed away 10 days later.
So we got to do the whole family insanity thing again, this time with all the extra fun that comes with an Irish-catholic funeral.
Let me tell you, it is something to behold. I mean, I am always amazed at how these things play out. It is the strangest combination of uproarious laughter, crying, drinking and eating. And it can be one or all 4 of those things in combination at the same time.
I am also pleased to report that I was able to go into the church, attend a full mass and NOT be struck down by lightening. A fact both myself and my sister commented on.
Of course, I was balancing that whole week with the fact that it was our release week for another part of the application we are developing, so I spent some time in our Cedar Rapids office when I wasn't in funeral mode.
For the record, I have driven in major cities with very little problem. Give me a decent map and I can get around.
I CANNOT get around downtown Cedar Rapids without 3 wrong turns and backtracking like 10 blocks. Don't know why, but that downtown is ridiculous.

So after all that played out... Resumed work as usual. And just in time for Julie and Scott to come into town for a few days of celebrating all that is tacky and oddly Iowa.
They came in on a Thursday night - stayed until Monday AM. So we took in a few choice things in and around the Des Moines area.
Talladega Nights -- saw it.

"I'm gonna come AT you Chip"

has to be one of my new favorite quotes. That and the group favorite

"Tractor Beam of Hotness"

I laughed a lot during that movie. We all did.
Julie and Scott also did a little something special to commemorate their wedding annivesary.
It was a permanent decision and involved ink and needles.
Yep, they got tattooed. And I was there to watch the whole thing. It was quite the night. For the record, they looked AMAZING. I will track down some pics of them.
It was fun to be on the other side of that experience for once. Watching each one of them work through the pain in different ways. If you see Scott, ask about how often that needle goes into the skin -- I believe he worked that one out after counting down from 1,000.
We had a good time.

And then, it was time for the big dog. The Grandaddy of Mid-American Cliche's
The Iowa State Fair.
Yes. We went. For a whole day. We grazed, we drank, we mocked, we awed, we starting smelling like the pigs at the end of the day.
All in all a good time. A few highlights....
The Prize Bull -- coming in at 3090 Lbs
Meet "Blacky" - extra points were given for creative naming....












There was the patriotic...












The Obvious












And the most ridiculous thing that two grown men (Nate and Scott, you know who you are) could point and giggle at....
















And yes, that is Waldo, the prize pig. He came in at a svelte 1199 lbs.

All in all a good trip. I am not sure if Julie and Scott will ever come back -- you can only see so many couples with 4 teeth BETWEEN them before you get a little overwhelmed.
So that was the trip in a nutshell. And for the record:

• Fried chicken on a stick
• Fried cheese on a stick
• Porkchop on a stick
• Corndogs
• Funnel cakes

And we tried for the twinkes, but the line was stupid long. So not only did we get our "fair-0n" we also gained 30 lbs.

And the only other area that warrants discussion at this point is of course the matchmaking.
Or MASSIVE lack thereof.
I shall not bother with the details at this point -- frankly, I get pissed whenever I think about it. At this point, nasty letters have been sent, no matches have actually come to any sort of fruition and I have my lawyer friends giving me legal recommendations....
Stay tuned for that one.
I think this means that somone in the cosmos is telling me to just take a break for a little while.
Either that, or I am 150% destined to date a 40 year old with 3 kids.
Lets hope for the former.
I am expecting a call back sometime today. We shall see. And so, with the marathon post, photos and whatnot, it is time for me to call it a day. I of course, have a ga-zillion things to do, but motivation today is pretty low. Which is scary, because by the end of the week, I will be kicking myself for not getting stuff done.
Whee.


Oh yeah,
Now Playing: Sufjan Stevens