One more win....

'The Tigers haven't stuck it in yet, but they are holding the fork.'

This is a line from Rick Sutcliff last night after the Tigers beat the Twins. It made me laugh so much. With three games left (they are currently losing 1-8, boo!), they have a three game lead (soon to be two games unless they get to the Twins bullpen).

A few more wins can clinch the division for the team and then they are playoff bound! The only bad thing is that the New York Yankees will be their first opponent, and that is very dangerous because they had a great season.

Reducing coffee intake

I have started to drink less and less coffee. I didn't read some article about it being bad for me or have some health epiphany, I just came to the realization that I drink way too much of it.

I tell this to people at work and they give me the weirdest looks because I am known for not being able to function without it. One thing that has changed has been my schedule. I am working some different shifts and not all of them start at six in the morning. Not getting out of bed at five has helped out. That extra hour of sleep can go a long way. I didn't start drinking coffee for the sole purpose of the caffeine anyway. I did it for the flavor, I like the taste of it. Much like drinking whiskey or scotch. I really really like the taste and flavor of it. The side effects are always a benefit.

Another reason for this is cost. Coffee is expensive! I didn't know that Colombian children's blood and tears were in such high demand that the cost of their efforts would sky rocket. I don't even buy 'that gourmet shit' (watch Pulp Fiction, if you didn't quite get that). I buy Folgers or Maxwell House, whichever is on sale. I could buy cheaper stuff, but what would be the point? I don't want to rot my stomach away on some cheap stuff. If I do, I am going to enjoy it.


With all that said, we will ignore the fact that I brewed a full pot this morning.

Productive day off

Despite making no plans for my days off, I still filled the hours of the weekend. Saturday was meant for work around the apartment. The dishes were done, as was cleaning of the kitchen floor. I also spent three plus hours watching football. Michigan football has come back to life and now sit at four wins and zero losses.

That was the day. I also went out and grabbed a few groceries. It doesn't sound like much, but before I knew it, it was seven o'clock at night. I watched the Tigers come back and win against the White Sox.

Then? Then it was off to a bar with a few friends who I haven't hung out with in quite some time. It was relaxing, despite the fact that there was tons of horrible karaoke being sung. Bad country, bad semi-classic rock, and the like.

The plans for Sunday are as follows: Take the recycling out, go out and watch some football and drink some beer. That is it.

Advantage at four in the morning

In a complete turn around in sleeping hours (going from ten to five) I am taking advantage of being up two hours before having to go to work. When I first woke up I thought about coming out to the couch and getting another hour of sleep, but thought better of it. So far, I have gone through and watched four shows that were stored up on the dvr, made some extra coffee for the day, and updated my ipod.

As much as I love getting tons and tons of sleep, it is good to get up a few hours before work and just get little things done around the apartment. At least every once in a while.

Sleep catch up and frolfing

One great thing about working Tuesday night is not having to work the next day. I have also been going out for a couple of hours with some work friends and grabbing a few cheap beers at a local establishment. So by the time I get home it is close to one in the morning. Sounds late, but it is only two hours after we get done with work. Normally on Tuesday night going into Wednesday I get about six or seven hours of sleep, but not last night. I got ten (TEN!) hours of sleep. I woke up at eleven this morning. It was wonderful.

The only thing I did today was go frisbee golfing. Something fun and relaxing. It doesn't take a lot of skill, but it takes concentration from time to time. It is difficult to make the disc go in a straight line and go about two hundred feet every throw. That is the fun in it as well, trying to get better at it. I have just recently started throwing in a forehand motion (the same motion in the picture I took of Marc earlier this year at the Colwich golf course). It may not make sense to people who don't play the game, but there is a big difference in the game. My wrist will definitely be sour as opposed to my shoulder. It is nice to get outside and just hang out with a few friends for an hour or so and have a purpose to throwing a frisbee.

Another fun photo

When we first moved into our apartment a couple of years ago it was stressful for us and our cat, Libby. She spent the majority of the day in the bathroom hiding behind the toilet. After we got most everything into the proper rooms and we settled down for some beer and pizza, but we had yet to move our bookshelf into the second bedroom. After dinner, we left the living room to unpack bedding and get everything setup to crash for the night. We came back out to find her hanging out on the empty bookshelf. It was quite humorous.

Apparently a rule of thumb for cats goes along the lines of 'if it is new and empty, I'll hang out in it or on it'.

Something random

When we visited my brother in law in Colorado earlier this year, we came across these two birds in Manitou Springs. It was something fun and interesting in the middle of their little business district. One fun thing that was there was just random statues, plaques, and pieces of art all around.



Oh, and all the hippies. They were fun too.

boring football?

I find myself enjoying college football more and more recently. Professional football just seems to take much longer. I don't know if it has to do with the style of game that is played in college or if the pros just take their time while they play.

Maybe it is the atmosphere. College stadiums are loud from kickoff to the end of the game. If the home team is winning, the place is rocking, but if the team is losing there are moments of silence followed by raucous emotional cheering trying to rally the team. That has to be it. If a home team in the NFL is losing, the stadium is just dead. Pins get dropped all over the place and you can hear each one.

I also think that money takes a lot of real passion out of the players. They no longer play 'for love of the game'. They play for the paycheck. Any other answer is bullshit. The college kids play for pride. All of the rivalries between schools are great, and it isn't just one team that they have a rivalry with. Take the University of Michigan for example. They have three big rivalries: Michigan State, Notre Dame, and Ohio State. It is about history.

Busy weekends

There has been much traveling on my weekends off. It has been nice to do stuff, but it also takes away the lazy part of not having to work for two days. This weekend we drove up to Topeka to par(rrrrrrr)take in the second annual Pirate Party. A good time was had by everyone there and it is fun to do something different like that. The previous weekend off was the float trip. Once again, it was a lot of fun, but there was plenty of driving to get there. Two weeks before that was my trip to Wilson's Creek.

So the weekends I am not working have been filled with plenty of travel and plenty of friends, but I find that come Monday morning, I am dragging ass. So, come hell or high water, I am planning to do nothing two weekends from now. I want to sit around and watch a bunch of football, maybe drink some beer, and be sloth-like. There may also be some movie watching in the line up as well.

One weekend of this would be enough. I'm sure that come Sunday evening, I will complain about not doing anything all weekend. I will have to come back to this post and remind myself that this is the plan.

Season beginning

The NFL season is starting this week. Andrea is thrilled, let me tell you. She is already excited about the college football season.

With the Tigers in the pennant race, I will definitely be paying more attention to them then in years past (2006 season excluded). But I am interested in how the Lions start. They have decided to go with first round pick, Matthew Stafford, at the starting quarterback. I don't know how I feel about this. I thought that they should have gone with their veteran QB for the first few games so Stafford could see a real NFL game. Pre-season games don't count. On the other hand, no better way to learn then by playing.

The first few games are going to be rough and will end up with some losses, but hey if they win three or four games (which is what I am hoping for), I will be happy.




Which is sad, isn't it?

Season ending

The regular season of baseball is coming to a close. There is about a month left, and roughly twenty to thirty games to play. I'm a bit upset with myself for not really keeping up with the Tigers. It is one of those situations where I don't check up on the team for three or four or five days and then try to catch up.

As it sits now, they are five games up on Minnesota. As I wrote at the beginning of the season, Minnesota is a team that is always there at the end. And so it is. The White Sox really faded in the past three weeks (BWHAHAHAHA!), and it is a two team race between the Tigers and the Twins. I was cautious this past series. Detroit swept Cleveland and opened up the lead they have now. It was quite a relief to see.

The way into the post season is through the division. They are too far out in the wild card. They need to hold off Minnesota this next month. The bats seem to be coming alive at the right time. Just as long as the pitching rotation stays strong. The pitchers have been a great surprise this year. They were the questionable part of the team last year and they have carried the weight as the batters have struggled every once in a while through the season.

Ending the experiment

After much consideration, I have decided to close down the Cheap Beer Experiment as it's on blog. It was a great concept, I just did not have the ambition to keep it going. It is fun to try different beers and expand the list of beers that I have tasted, I just don't want to be dropping money into something just because I want to write about it as a primary topic.

So, in turn, I will just roll it into this one. So look for cheap beer updates, it will just be here and not elsewhere.