I am exploring new widgets and plugins for my blog now that I can install them directly with the new version of WordPress. If you already did not notice, I have added a second page entitled My Photos. On this page, I am trying out Tan Tan Noodle’s Flickr plugin for WordPress. Let me know what you think. It is a work in progress. It will allow you to see my photos easier plus it allows you to comment on photos without a Flickr account.

I woke up this morning to the smell of something weird. I open the door to find Steve passed out on the couch with the TV on and the room full of smoke. I look at the oven and it is off but I then remember Steve cooking a Totinos pizza as I went to bed after a long night of drinking. I open the oven to find the below scene. I think it was done. Have no clue how the oven automatically turned itself off. What a way to conclude a very interesting night.

Wow, the 12 and half day holiday break went by extremely fast. This  break went by a lot faster than my previous long holiday breaks the previous years. Normally, I am bored as all get out but I seemed to only accomplish half of the things I had planned for this break. I am still “off work” for another week since I am taking an International Business class at Wash U this week but I am keeping up with my emails with my new Blackberry.

As a warning, this is an extremely long post but I did a lot in the 12 days I was off.

Football

I watched a ton of college football this break. I think it was the combination of not having much on TV during the day plus I just love sports in HD.

The MU – Northwestern game was an utter disaster even though Mizzou won. This game should have never been close. I am not sure what happened to Chase Daniel. It seems that he had a Brad Lidge / Rick Ankiel moment in the OK State game. He never looked the same since that game. Like all the other games, he was making horrible decisions and throwing the ball randomly into coverage and not making the finesse passes we are use to. I really doubt he will make it in the NFL. I had an argument with someone at school today that thought he could make it in the NFL as a safety. I said he was crazy. He disagreed.

The Big 12 does not look at strong as it appeared in the season due to a Texas Tech and Oklahoma St loss plus the near loss by Mizzou. I don’t know what to say because I really thought we were the best conference in NCAA. It does look like Texas is turning it up on Ohio State which is making me feel a little better.

Nightlife

I did not go out as much as I expected. Amazingly enough, not very many people were off any of the days I was so we only ended up going out on Friday and Saturdays.

I went to a variety of bars which are in our normal rotation. They were Bar Louie (CWE), Lure, Lucas Park, Rue 13, and Pepper Lounge. The two nights that stand out are Bar Louie and Lucas Park. Bar Louie has really become a hot spot in the last year. I remember when I lived in the CWE that the place would really thin out around 11 but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. I also really want to work Lucas Park in the rotation more. There are just so many attractive girls in that place.

I did go to my first SOCO bar in  a long time. I went to House of Rock because my cousin’s husband’s band was playing there. The band was Disturbing the Peace who I actually saw open for the Urge quite a lot back in the day. It was a reunion concert since the band hadn’t played in forever. The show was good and the place was packed. I know an owner through another friend and he said this was the most packed he had ever seen the place. It was nice hanging out with my brother along with other friends. I did run into people I went to high school with which is not a normal occurrence in city bars.

Gaming

I got Gear of War 2 for Xbox 360 for Christmas. It did not disappoint. I beat the co-op in Gear of War 1, but never played it online. I started to play the campaign first on my new game before trying the online play. I at first, was a little hesitant but I eventually fell in love. I beat the game after about 10 days of play. Over Christmas, my much younger cousins kept talking about playing in Horde matches. I had no clue what they were talking about. I was surprised to find it was a pretty awesome online match wear you play waves of computer enemies on a team of 5 online players. I played this a ton with my cousins and other online friends. I got to wave 17 out of 50. We normally get to about 7 before the whole team dies so I have no clue how people get to 50. My only complaint is that you sometime lose your connection so teammates get dropped which really hurts your chances of making it past the 10th wave.

I also played a lot of Rock Band 2 for our normal pre and post drinking activities. I downloaded a good number of tracks too. My favorite being a lot of the Nirvana tracks from Nevermind.

Family Life

My moms sister was in town so I spent a lot of time with the family this break. I did the usual Christmas Eve and New Years day get together at my Dad’s parents. I had a Christmas dinner along with a good Italian dinner with my mom’s side. It is always fun to catch up with the fam and eat good food.

New Years Eve

Mike, Ted, Dave and I went to the Pepper Lounge for NYE. I did not go there last year, but did go there the two previous years. It was always a fun time. It did not disappoint this year either. I think this was the best yet. We have been going to Pepper Lounge lately and there has been a very good crowd; similar to the crowd 3 years ago. This same crowd was there this time. Almost everyone was dressed  very well. Guys in suits and dress pants and girls in dresses. I had a lot of fun and all my friends were successful in meeting girls. My cousin Mark was also there with his girlfriend.

Movies

All the summer releases were out so I spent some serious time catching up on my Netflix movie watching. Below are my reviews.

Wall-E – All my friends told me how great of a movie this was. I went into this movie expecting it to be great since my friend’s reviews plus my love of animated movies. I did not like it at all. It was basically a bad love movie. It had very minimal funny scenes and was not worth me seeing.

Hancock – I supposedly have a “man crush” on Will Smith. I have liked Will ever since Fresh Prince and have always been fond of his movies. This movie did entertain me but was one of Will’s poorer flicks.

Chronicles of Narnia – Prince Caspian – I hated this movie. I guess I did not remember what happened in the first movie so I was a little confused with the storyline. As some of my friends made fun of me, I also was distracted by deciding if the Susan character was attractive. She is over 18 so don’t judge me. I am still undecided.

Gym  and Workout Life

I worked out more in the 2 and half weeks than I probably did the entire year. It felt great. I had motivation from all angles. The highest being the mere fact that I weigh more  than I ever have but my main excuse for not working out was time (the last year of school was pretty tough) so I couldn’t use time as an excuse. I worked out at least every day during the break; sometimes twice a day. I have been taking a whey protein / creatine mixture from Walmart that seems to be pretty good since I think I have seen pretty good gains in a short time. It also seems like I have entered in a “weight loss” challenge with Mike and Dave in preparation for a possible “spring break” trip. We will see how it goes.

I concluded my break with a good touch football game with the boys in Forest Park. It was a lot of fun and I was in much better shape than our game a month ago. I had our teams first TD plus had a nice interception (something Matt Smith can not claim). I supposedly was too rough though. My friends say they are going to take Gear of War away from me since they say I have “roid” rage. I think it is the ton of energy I have lately from working out so much.

Random Stuff

• My Moxi DVR through Charter died on me. I got the new DVR and am not pleased. The Charter installer told me that I could still use my external hard drive as a secondary storage device. He was mistaken which sucks. I liked  not having to ever delete recordings since I had a 500 GB harddrive.
• I did buy three new fish. I bought a “Pimp Juice” replacement. I also had to buy a new filter since one of mine was on its last leg. My new fish are very aggressive so I am pretty happy. I was worried that my much larger lone fish would eat the fish but the three tiny fish really mess with the large fish. And one last note, inflation has really hit the fish market. These fish were outrageously expensive.
• I am not going to dedicate a whole post (like other people … Matt Smith) but I did spend a couple hours washing my car. It was the first time I had washed and cleaned the inside in over a year. Car washing has always been relaxing for me but was hard to do since there is not a close car wash nor did I have the time. I really love my car. It looks amazing after a good cleaning. The idea of getting a new Nissan 370z has crossed my mind. The subtle changes they made in the body made a big difference in my mind even though my friends disagree. It has a Porsche look even though I do not like Porsche brand. The 330 HP is also really attractive but I plan on keeping my car for another year. I do have an outrageous grad school bill that I am going to have to start paying for this year.
• On last note, I started the first day of my last semester of grad school at Wash U. I am so excited to finish. The one casualty is that I am going to miss Mardi Gras weekend since my capstone class goes all day that Saturday. That is quite disappointing since it is one of my most favorite days of the year in St Louis.