Posted 9:12 PM by MEATHEAD

Ok, tomorrow was actually a couple days later... Sorry. Went to Chicago per usuall for the 4th of July. Always good to see family, catch a cubs game and eat like a damn pig(I may have to join skycry at the gym). 3 years in a row now we've been able to catch a cubs game. Me, my dad, 3 uncles and my cousin popeye(was in the navy) enjoyed a good brew and some food at Bernie's before the game. The Great thing about being around my uncles and dad(family of 4 boys and 1 girl) is that I never have to reach for my wallet for a beer! They are always footin the bill. One of those brotherly things I guess? One uncle bought us a round of Jagermeister. I've only had it once before and I don't remember having it so I was a little skiddish about it but I actually enjoyed it and it went down nice and smooth, like cough syrup! :) Awesome game! Slammin Sammy hit a walk off homer in the bottom of the 10th to give the cubbies the win! And the crowd went wild!.

The next day was The Taste of Chicago, if you've never been to it you need to go! All the great eateries around town participate and it's gooooood eatin every year. Had my staples like Dominicks Waltermelon and Sweet Corn And a slice a pizza from Connie's and Lou Malnati's. Tried a couple new items like Gator Wings and Calamari. It's alway nice to try a new place out or something you can't always find or new on the menu. Some thing you wouldn't think of trying at these festival type scenario's but it's actually really good. It's NOT like a Vendor in a truck deal. They all rent or have real restaurant equipment and pretty much setup shop downtown on the street for the 2 weeks the event goes on. Of course I could't leave without a Turkey Leg! Helen's Kitchen sets up not one, but two tents for their bbq turkey legs. DAMN GOOD and massive! After a good day of eating we headed back home.

On July 3rd it was yet another day to drink beer and eat like a pig! Wohoo! For three years in a row we've had a cousin graduate from highschool and this years was the last cousin for about 10 years so we had to throw a good one :) Headed out to one of my uncle's houses' and ate and drank all day. Not sure where the evening went cause I woke up the next morning in their basement on the couch? Oops. Fortunatly I'm a happy drunk and not an asshole or angry drunk like some people can be. Really nice when you can drink and not have to worry about getting home.

July 4th was another family gathering but it was definitely a later start that day after pretty heavy drinking July 3rd. Actually I don't I had anything to drink except pop on the 4th. I'm kinda weird that way? After a day of drinking I usually don't like the taste of it the next day. I'm too old for two days in row party drinking :( One's enough for me. Had a pretty good fourth of July.

Monday the 5th was spent waiting around to catch a plane back to Nashville and drive on back to knoxville. Of course I couldn't leave town without Brown's chicken! So I walked down to brown's and picked up 16 pieces! A couple for lunch and the rest I brought home, sorry it's long gone :). Here's a few pics from the the trip.

Let's see.... I get back to work on the 6th and one the 7th I'm right back on a plane for a quick 2 days busines trip to Denver. It was pretty sweet, me and one of my bosses were able to catch a ride on the corporate jet. Very nice. Nothing fancy really but it's definitely the way to fly. Didn't have to wait in line anywhere and try to dodge masses of people or check any baggage. Just get on the plane and go. Even better.... The 3 major meals we had I didn't have to pay once! CEO picked up lunch, another VP picked up dinner, the district manager picked up breakfast the next morning and we had boxed lunches waiting for us for the trip back to knoxville! Mmmm :) Didn't get to do any site seeing at all but it looked like a real nice town. I did have an unusual problem being a mile high up. That whole first day I had some major gas issues. I'm pretty sure it was the altitude and nothing I ate. Ok, not so unusual for me :). For the dinner we ate at this Place called The Fort. Was a real fort back in the days of cowboys and indians and also had been a trading post converted into a very nice restaurant. The specialties are game animals. Axe Deer from india(I think) but bread in Texas, Elk, Caribu, Buffalo, Qual and snake when in season. Buffalo is their specialty. I had a 1/2 a rack of Buffalo ribs. OH MY GOD!! From the moment you see then all that pops in your head is The Flintstones Brontasaurus ribs! 1/2 a rack was four ribs the size of which I cannot describe. WOW. Good too. I could only eat two of them. For appetizers we had and interesting dish. I forget the catchy name they called it but it was Qual Eggs wrapped in Buffalo Sausage with a cherry or rasberry sauce. Damn that was good stuff.

Last weekend of freedom coming up.... Going to have to work the next 3 weekends pretty much all day and night :( We've got a big ass project going on and this part is just the preparation.

Posted 11:40 PM by MEATHEAD

Been a busy couple weeks. Went to Chicago for the 4th of July and then after one day back I had to goto Denver for a business trip. I'll blog about those later but this evening I want to discuss my trials and tribulations of Consumer Electronics stores. I was very happy when Best Buy came into town cause before that your only option was Circuit City or Sears for any sort of decent electronics and for CD/DVDs your choice was Overprices Cat's or overprice DiskXchange. I've had my ups and downs with best buy but the past 3 weeks have been just annoying. I've been contemplating purchasing XM radio for several months now and with going off what Bitter has had to say about it I decided it was finally time to make that move, plus I had a $100 gift card so it was going to be a nice little summer gift. And XM has a deal going on for a free home kit with the Roady. Well, I've been visiting best buy every couple days for the past 3 weeks anxiously awaiting for them to replenish their stock of XM Roady's because they haven't had any. When it gets right down to it, it never happened. The reason, which I found out on friday was because Roady 2 was about to be released. Aaaah. That's why, yet they continued to advertise the Roady and now this week it's on sale??? What's the point of putting something onsale if you don't have it and WON'T be getting any in stock???? Not even available on their website which tells me they ain't getting anymore. Hhmm? I ventured over to best buy today on a tip that they might be receiving the Roady 2 but alas they didn't have any, so I said Fuck it and went to Circuit City. I've never, ever liked Circuit City and they reminded me why today. They actually had the Roady 2 setup on Display and it was on sale for $112. It's supposed to retail for $129. So I'm standing there looking at it for easily 10 minutes while not 1, not 2, but 3 employee's were standing less than 5 feet away when Finally one of them broke away from their intense conversation to actually do their fucking job and help a customer. He asked if I needed anything and I asked if they had any of the Roady 2's and he goes "No we don't have any and I don't know anybody who does." He had to no reply to "Why do you have it on display then?" so I said Thank you and walked the fuck out. Damn that pisses me off. They had to have at least 20 employees in that store about 5 customers wandering around while Best Buy had 50+ customers and about 15 employee's. Maybe if they merged that customer to employee ratio would work itself out. I really wanted a Roady 2 Today damnit! So I went to trusty ebay.com and low and behold I found one for cheaper,brand new it's box and it was on a buy it now option so I did! Hopefully it will be here by the end of the week so I can enjoy commercial free music. Best Buy really upsets me sometimes, Always the one item you want they don't have. They seem to go through spurts of low inventory? I just don't get them sometimes. We need a Frys in Knoxville. I was able to visit one in LA and Damn! They have everything Cool Guy Gadget you can imagine. At least Best Buy is making it up to me with their stock :) Bought at 22 and it's currently at 48. Only 10 shares but it's still a nice chunck of change for a small trader like myself. Oh well.... Now if this blog wasn't an incoherent ramble then I don't know what is? :) More on my trips tomorrow.