This was a pretty fun past weekend. It was neither a weekend to get sleep nor a weekend to paint which is what I had planned and two things that I really needed to do. I guess I am going to take the full day off Wednesday to get sleep because I need as much sleep built up for the 6 day trip to Chicago, Grand Haven/Spring Lake, and Grand Rapids.

We mixed it up on Friday. I met some friends at D’s place in Soulard for some cheap drinks then followed it up with McGurks. We should have never left McGurks because Wash Ave was dead. Lucas Park had about 20 people in it, Side Bar was about the same, and Rue 13 had its normal crowd (which normally means no girls but I did dance with a good looking lady for a while with no results). Hoff did convince me to get pizza at the end of the night to continue breaking my “Michigan diet.”

Saturday, the day I was supposed to take easy was pretty fun. After driving around in constant circle between my house and the Soulard area, I went over to a friend’s to swim and have some beers. It was a lot of fun. There was a lot of good Rengelisms to be heard. We started the evening at my house with the boys for a BBQ and some good ole fashion video game playing plus some hot tub lounging while we were waiting for the food to cook. I make sirloin kabobs. They were delicious. We played NBA 2k9 and Left for Dead along with some Rock Band 2. The group loved killing zombies but I more enjoyed the NBA game. Enough to purchase it which is exactly how Matt Smith recently got it and had this whole idea about a video game party. We concluded the night at Harry followed up with more Rock Band. I do have to say that Harry’s is still by far the best place in St Louis to people watch and see a lot of good looking women.

Weeds on Showtime

This used to be my favorite show but has seemed to go downhill recently. The whole Mexican mafia and preggo Nancy storyline isn’t as exciting as the earlier seasons when she was a pure drug dealer. It also seems like they have more Kevin Nealon in this season but his scenes are not as funny as they have been in the past.

Hung on HBO

This show seems pretty appealing to me. It has a funny storyline and feel like it has potential but I doubt it will make it past the first season based on reviews.

NYC Prep on Bravo

Even though I can not get this in HD, this show is right up my alley. Its like a real version of the OC so of course I am watching it. This is even better because I love the stupid stuff that comes out of these kids mouths.

Entourage on HBO

Always one of my favorite shows. I almost see this show as a fake celebrity version of Seinfeld since it is basically a show about nothing. I was a little worried

True Blood on HBO

They really changed the storyline this season. It seems like almost everyone is some kind of “freak.” The thing that I am the most curious about this show is the Tara storyline and why that woman is so interested in her.

Nurse Jackie on Showtime

An entertaining series and I am sure it will be picked up for another season.

Kings on NBC

I think this is the most underrated show on TV. It started on Sundays then got pushed back to Saturdays then eventually got put on hiatus then back on Saturdays in the summer. I like this show because of the characters. Especially Al Swearengin aka Ian McShane (from Deadwood). Unfortunately, I don’t see this show being picked up.

Harper’s Island on CBS

I started watching this show and then let it build up to about 10 episodes on my DVR after I got bored. Fortunately and to my surprise, the show got more interesting as the season went on for the mere fact that I wanted to know who the killer was. Not sure if this was intended to be a 1 season series but I know who the killer(s) are so not expecting to see this one back.

Merlin on NBC

Its saved on my DVR and I have watched a couple episodes but just can not get into it.

Shows that worked there way back with this crazy Saturday night lineup without me even knowing

• Eli Stone – Another one of my favorites that is set to be canceled.
• Dirty Sexy Money – Another ABC favorite of mine. It is basically a fake version of what we see on TMZ. Not sure why this did not make it.
• Better off Ted – A really funny comedy. Not sure why it is struggling. I know Dan B likes it because its has scientists.
• I’ll put Kings and Harper’s Island on this list too since they basically suffered the same fate but not as long as hiatus as the two shows above.

This was a jam packed weekend for me. I had a wedding dress rehearsal on Friday at Bartolino’s South followed up by hanging out at Bar Louie in Kirkwood. One thing that I learned that night is that we need to mix Kirkwood into our repertoire. The Kirkwood Bar Louie has a totally different crowd plus it is really close to Jeff’s house. I would say this location is probably closer in average to my age where the CWE one is pretty young. There is also a new bar in the old Johnny Rockets (I think that is what it was called) location that was packed.

Saturday was my Aunt Chris’s wedding. It was a nice afternoon and a fun reception. I hung out at the grandfather’s for a while playing Kan Jam (which I rock at) and hanging out with the family. I concluded the night by hanging out with the boys at Harry’s then a late night BBQ on Dave’s rooftop deck. I found out that night that frozen burrito taste pretty good when they are cooked on a grill. I also realized that I need a rooftop deck and that we need to hang out on Dave’s more often.

I attended a sand volleyball and BBQ party in Shaw Park on Sunday. The Rengler, Katie, Sarah, Mike, and Courtney were all in attendance. We played around with the volleyball for a couple hours then grilled some hamburgers and hotdogs. It was fun but unfortunately my vball skills did not improve. I still, for some reason, can not bump. Not sure why since I never had this problem before but I think it might have something to do with my shoulders. I have realized that the ball always seems to hit my right arm instead of hitting both arms straight. I have also realized in doing shoulder and back workouts that my shoulders do no line up evenly. I think this same problem is causing me to hit the ball crooked.

This was a week I was really looking forward to. I started trying to get tickets back in December and was willing to pay over face value if I knew other people interested. Luckily, I stumbled upon getting tickets through relatives after every other chance fell through.

Fan Fest

Like I described in my weekend wrap-up, I really had no clue what to expect for this event but got free tickets with our Pujols pack. I took off early on Friday to go to the first day. Overall it was pretty good. I was actually expecting more but it was a great environment. I would say that it was more kid oriented and perfect for a kid in the 5 to 12 range. Never the less, we had fun being almost 30. It would have been less fun it we did not get the line passes because I have no patience to wait in lines for an hour to do 2 minutes worth of activities but that did not stop me from jumping in front of a bunch of sad looking 10 year olds. I did the batting cages, the simulated batting cages, and the how fast can you throw exhibits. Rengel and Ted also did the fielding and simulated pitching exhibits. I did very well in the batting cages; hitting the ball over the fence multiple times. I sucked at the other two. I did not make contact against Matt Morris in the simulated batting cage. I had a hard time seeing the ball against the screen. I also must pitch like a 12 year old girl because I through 56 MPH every pitch while the other guys were in the mid 60s. At least I am consistent.

The Home Run Derby

The Home Run Derby is what I was looking forward to the most. I liked the idea of Pujols and Howard going head to head. I also had this crazy idea that Pujols could hit one out of the park in left field. Overall the competition was pretty good. Fielder and Cruz really hit some bombs. Pujols did not do very well but I think he was tired from playing a double header in Chi Town the day before. The event did drag on without commercial breaks so I would say it is better to watch on TV unless you happen to score a seat in the outfield. My cousin caught a Howard homerun in right field. That is an experience he will always remember. Our seats were almost the exact seats we have for our season ticket package so you can imagine how hot we were even though the temperature was only 80. I will definitely avoid those seats at all costs in the future. They just seem to be at least 10 degrees hotter than anywhere else.

The Allstar Game

The Allstar game was pretty exciting and turned out to be the better event to watch in person. It would have been nice to seen more runs and the NL win but it was still fun. Pujols made some good plays and 1 bad one, Franklin sent 3 up and 3 down, and Molina played the entire game and had two RBIs so a good showing from the Cards.

The Parties

There were parties all week in town. They were at the regular bars, at places like Lumen, and I even seen some in the lobbies of buildings downtown. It sounds like the biggest parties were on Monday night. Lumen (right next to my place) had a party hosted by Ryan Howard. It sounds like a majority of the players went there along with Sam (from Who’s the Boss). I know Pure also had a big party along with Nelly playing in Softball Village. I unfortunately did not go out Monday night because of lack of interest from my friends and the fact that I felt like crap from drinking too much and the heat.

Tuesday was a lot different. I took off earlier to go down to the Landing to see what was down there. Unfortunately, we left before Dr Z played so we could watch the parade. I haven’t seen anything mentioned but I bet no one was at the two concerts on the Landing. It was poor timing and poor location. I did watch most of the parade and the ball players’ hot wives/gfs then went to PaddyO’s to meet some friends. We drank all afternoon and scored a sweet entrance into the game when I ran into some people I knew that were in front of the giant lines. We followed up the night with going back and forth between Als and PaddyO’s. PaddyO’s was definitely the better turnout even though Al’s had two live bands. I’m glad a lot of my friends ended up going out that night along with a few people that I did not expect.

St Louis

Overall St Louis did a decent job for the event. Having the real ballpark village would have been better along with having more adult oriented events in softball village instead of all the same kids events that were at Fan Fest. It would have been much better if they would have setup a stage for Dr Z and That 80’s Band to play there instead of the Landing. The presence of cops on every block on Wash Ave was a good sight to see. I think they need to do something like that on Friday and Saturday nights. The weather was not good for Sunday which I imagine made a dent in people going out. I know I would have gone to the Futures game if it had not rained (even though it was played later in the night).

Here are all my pictures.

I read this article and thought this guy is a genious. He says he is giving away AK-47s but really he is only giving away credit to a gun shop that is enough to buy an AK-47 or anything else they want. This is good for two reasons. The biggest because it is generating a ton of free press. Secondly, its a city in the middle of nowhere selling trucks. I don’t think I am going out on a limb (since I did live in Hillsboro for over 18 years) but I imagine people that buy trucks also like guns.

I had many hopes going into this weekend. Many that were met. As most of you know, the MLB Allstar Game is in town this week so there were all kinds of festivities planned. The first for me being the fanfest. I knew it was more geared towards kids but we got free tickets (worth $30) with our Pujols pack so we went. Both Ted and Rengel scored big with getting a Holiday Inn Express band which basically allowed them to get in front of any line with hundreds of kids snarling at us wondering why we were butting in front of them when they had been in line for over an hour. Needless to say, I did not feel really bad plus the “gate keepers” thought I also had a band so we did almost all the events without waiting in line. The hardest one was the hitting with a simulated pitcher. I didn’t even make contact. We finished the night by getting some drinks at Dubliner with Ted, Rengel, and Ted’s lady friend.

I had hoped to enjoy some of the festivities around downtown on Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately none of my friends did which still makes no sense to me. You have people coming in from all over the country to enjoy this weekend (most who are not going to the game) but locals would not even come out. I didn’t push the fact since I would be in the area both Monday and Tuesday. I thought I knew a lot of big baseball fans but obviously not.

We did go out to Lucas and the Landing on Saturday night followed by Maurizos and a late night hot tub party. It rained part of the day on Sunday plus I hung out with the family so I did not go out except for a brief stroll down to the Dome. I did want to go to the Landing for the concert at 7PM but couldn’t find anyone to go. I barely even left the house after I tore my place apart looking for my keys to find out an hour later that someone (em Mike) took them home with him.

I will have a separate post with pics for the complete rundown of Fan Fest and the All Star festivities.

Last week I decided to take a 4 day vacation to Michigan for some good American lake action. I am scheduled to go on this exact same trip at the end of July but thought it would be pretty hard to pass on any boating action this week.

Day 1 – Driving and Chicago

Mike H, Jeff, and I began the journey after work on Wednesday. Dave and Steve did not arrive to late the next night. We thought neither was going to come because Dave decided to hold up a jury by saying the person up for trial was guilty while everyone else thought he was innocent. Needless to say, Dave has now lost all faith in the court system. But I digress, on our way and about 11 o’clock at night, we came up with the idea of staying a night in Chi Town. I was all for it since I knew I could get my own bed that way since we didn’t have the clubhouse till the next night. I called the HoJo we always stay at and got a great rate so we showed up around midnight. We went to Rino Lounge. If this trip is starting to mirror our last year trip, it gets even more similar. We paid the $20 cover at Rino to find out they had a Grey Goose special so vodka drink cost only $1 until 1AM. This made me super happy since I spent a fortune at this place last year. We enjoyed the night greatly and ended up at McDonalds (like last year) to see the sunrise. We did get two noise complaints but is it really a noise violation when it is daylight outside?

Day 2 – Driving, Spring Lake, and Grand Rapids

We slept in (one difference compared to last year) to drive to Spring Lake so we could go to Grand Rapids that night. I decided to be the DD and drove the 30 miles to Grand Rapids (albeit late since we didnt get there till midnight and the bars close at 2AM). We went to the B.O.B. but it was pretty late so we worked our way to MaFaddens (which is where we went last year) but it had a huge line so we went to the dance club next door which I can’t find the name for. We ended the night like last year by going to the same McDonalds on the way home.

Day 3 – Spring Lake, Grand Haven (a.k.a. Coast Guard USA), and Hanky Pank Cove

We woke up extremely early to do some king salmon fishing. Unfortunately we did not catch anything for about 6 hours. Fortunately I caught it and it was huge…16lbs. It was a bleeder too. My hand wouldn’t bend back for 10 minutes after I reeled it in.

We spent the rest of the day on the boat even though there was probably only 20 boats in the cove. We all had a good time. We went to Kirbys that night.

Day 4 – Spring Lake, Grand Haven, and Hanky Pank Cove

This was the day we were all waiting for since we figured it to be the best day for the cove. Unfortunately it was not sunny for most of the afternoon and it never broke 70. Once the sun did come out, more people got in the cold water. I did do some jumping off house boat plus did “flip and shit” on one of those big trampolines that someone towed in their yacht.

We had my giant fish that I caught for dinner. It was delicious. We went to Kirbys that night and unfortunately (and like last time) I got sick. I took motion sickness pills right before I left and I think my stomach did not agree with them. I instead walked the 1.5 mile journey to Lake Michigan since I had to get out of the bar. The fireworks were good too.

Day 5 – Driving

We all slept in, had to clean the place and the boat, plus had lunch with Jeff’s parents so we did not leave until about 2. We also hit 4 or 5 construction zones between Michigan and Chicago so it took us a lot longer to get home. I drive most of the way and fell in love with Jeff’s satellite radio.

Conclusion

Overall the trip was a blast. I was really against going to Chicago in August but it was a blast this past week (with a couple memorable moments that I can not post) so I am looking forward to doing it again in 3 weeks. The weather sucked in terms of warmness so that was sort of a downer but at least it did not rain like in the StL. The idea of having a boat is really awesome. I just love the water and it is always a good time. I am really looking forward to going again for Coast Guard Weekend at the end of the month.

Here are some of the pictures. Having trouble with Flickr uploader and don’t feel like going through all of them.

Here are all the pictures from the Lake of the Ozarks trip in June. Unfortunately, some of them are NSFW (in my opinion) so I classified them as friends only on Flickr.