This is a funny situation for me because I'm an avid biker. I spend alot of time hitting single-track and cruising around the neighborhood on my mountain bike. I even plan on entering my first road-race at the end of the summer. Go me. Anyway, we have finally decided it is time for Jen to conquer her fears, strap on some knee and elbow pads, and finally learn how to ride.

This weekend we took the first step towards that goal by picking up a nice $10 dollar ride for Jen to beat up on. We got at a early season garage sale that is around the corner from our apartment. As you can see from the pics below, the bike needs some work. I honestly don't think the thing has been ridden in 10 years, but the components are all in pretty good shape with a minimal amount or rust. I already started cleaning and greasing it up and it should be road worthy after I get a couple parts.

Somehow I think fixing the bike will be the easy part.

1. My grandpa passed away.
2. Me and the wife are finailizing the purchase of our first home.
3. I quit my job.

So far, 2006 is turning out to be quite nutty.

I could drink at home, but the wife doesn't really drink anymore and getting drunk by myself while the she watches home improvement shows on TLC just seems kind of sad. I could continue to play video games by myself, but I don't handle my own trash talking very well. So... I decided to do what all fun loving Americans do and turn to material therapy.

With our cell phone contract about to expire and both of our cell phones having the power and features of a happy meal toy the wife and I decided to get some new cellphones. As you can see from the image above we got some pretty slick phones. Its the Motorla Razr V3. It's a phone, a still and video camera, and it has bluetooth so we can both get one of those ridiculous headsets that even people in the Star Trek universe would refuse to wear. It even cuts a tin can as easily as a tomato.

Finally, I no longer have cell phone envy.

So far we have visited 2 places that have turned out to be pretty cool and we have a long list of other places that we hope hit up in the coming year. Stay tuned for some reviews of these places in an upcoming blogisode.

This is my brother and Saturday was his birthday. He is 10 years older than me and i've been cramping his style since we started sharing a bedroom back in '79. In honor of his birthday the wife, my 2 sisters and I took him out to get tore up and do some gambling down in Atlantic City. Hopefully, the picture of my brother's drunkeness above illustrates the evening's succes. Not only did we get drunk, win a couple bucks on some nickle slots machines and steel some orange parking cones from a unamed casino parking garage, but we did it all to the wee hour of 4 A.M. Suck on that biological clocks and 5 day work week responsability! Who's the bitch now, huh?!?!!?

eh hem.

Earlier that day we went down to watch my nephew Alex's street hockey game. Now i'm not usually one to brag, but just let me say that I spent 15 years of my life playing the fine sport that is street hockey and I was the freaking man. I was and continue to be lanky thin and I played goalie. I probably weighed just as much as my goalie equipment but had the reflexes of a cat and the speed of a mongoose. I could not be contained. Okay... maybe i'm making up the whole "containment" thing but with my vast years of hocky playing experience behind me I usually find it very hard to be impressed by little kids chasing a puck around in giant packs. I'm usually yelling at them to get into posistion or floorcheck like the actually know what either of these entail.

Color me impressed.

My nephew wasn't the speediest or biggest kid that was playing that day, but he more than made up for it with his smarts. That kid is a natural at getting his ass in places where the puck is most likely to ricochet off his stick and deflect into the net. In his short time playing, he's only 8, he has more goals and penalty minutes then I ever had in my 15 year career. Granted, I spent most of the time playing goalie... but still. The kid is good.