Eric Krassinger

Wow, what a fun weekend. Mardi Gras is one of my most favorite weekends in St Louis. It is #1 when it is warm but we have not seen that in several years. I also missed out last year due to my senior capstone class at Wash U so I felt like I needed to make up for lost time. I headed out to my friend’s now annual party which has unlimited alcohol (or at least we thought), heated tent, and multiple port-a-potties. It was a a fun time. I was surprised that we did not walk around as much but it was pretty cold. It was also a first that I did not go to a bar but that is because we were having that good of a time. It was also the first time I woke up without a hangover afterwards…lol. Here is the limited pictures from the weekend.

Friday and Sunday were both laid back days. Got some good Vday time in with the girlfriend along with some DVR, COD, and movie watching. Two things: (1) I am getting better and better at COD (up to a level 21). Especially since I gave up on the sniper rifle. My kill to death ration is almost always positive now. (2) I watched District 9 on Sunday. The first 25 minutes was so bad that we turned it off but I gave it a second chance since it was recommended and up for awards. I turned it off right as it was getting good. The weird thing about it is that the movie had a totally different look and feel the first 30 mins compared to the last hour. It was almost like it was directed by two different people. The last hour was very good and I would recommend it. It had a good plot which I did not see coming.

I figured I needed to post something since I have been sort of dormant lately with my blog. I need to make sure that people still think I am alive. My lack of post will change soon since I got a post brewing about my Xbox fixing experience and Lost reactions with the season starting tonight.

This weekend was somewhat laid back. On Friday, my GF and I went to a 30th birthday party for a friend from grad school. It was good seeing some of the ole group. I was more amazed by the location of the bar. We went to Llywelyn’s Pub in Webster Groves. I had no idea it was even there…it’s almost hidden in a neighbor hood/back alley. We followed that up by meeting my GF’s sister and brother-in-law at The Dubliner. The place was empty which was good because it allowed us to talk. Saturday continued my laid back weekend. I chilled around the house and ended up finally watching Inglorious Bastards. I did like it but I had a hard time following it at times. I wouldn’t mind watching it again…especially since it is up for a Best Picture. As for Sunday, I got in a good swim and workout…something I plan on doing much more now that I have a YMCA Metro pass. We followed that up a good steak dinner with some friend’s at the GF’s.

Fun

I had a pretty entertaining weekend. I went to Double D’s to celebrate a friend’s engagement. Another group of people that I knew were also there. It was a fun time. I still am surprised of the crowd and the atmosphere of the new location.

On Saturday, I got some shopping in. I bought a couple fake trees for my place. The coolest one is a 7ft bamboo tree that I put in my bedroom. It was expensive but it fits the room perfectly. The base even matches my bedroom furniture. I hung out at a friend’s that night for his 30^th b-day party. It was a great night and was the first time in a long time that we all hung out. We fit in a little dancing at Big Daddy’s and then made a quick run to Pops to round out the night.

Sports

Pretty big weekend for sports. The biggest event on my mind was the MU – K State game. It turned out to be a great game and helped to ease a lot of the anxiety of the team after some tough road losses to some bad teams. MU now has a 30 game home winning steak which is extremely impressive. It was a good start to Big 12 play and hopefully it continues. I watched bits and pieces of all the playoff games. Thought I would watch more of the Dallas – Philly game but did not. The Blues won their first game under the new head coach too.

TV

Sunday night premiered two of my favorite shows. The first being Chuck which almost did not record because it lost a DVR matchup with Big Love and the Simpson’s 400^th episode special. I moved Big Love to 10:15 and it was all resolved. Chuck showed two new episodes back to back. There is another one tonight. I still do not know why more people do love Chuck. Here is a good synopsis from my favorite Lost writer on the show. All I can say is that it has drama, comedy, romance mixed with hot girls, fighting, and tons of trendy electronic callouts and references. As for the new season, it did seem that they were cutting cost since the show was basically cancelled and brought back to life by their strong fan base. It seemed like some of the CGI explosions looked a little cheesy to me. Overall, the two episodes were good and Chuck 2.0 seems like he will have some new moves. The Accord commercials with the characters were sort of weird. I didn’t know if I was watching the show or a commercial at first. I guess that’s good Marketing.

More importantly was the premier of Big Love. It has been so long that I forgot some of the major plotlines. I totally forgot that Joey killed Roman. It also looks like for now that he will get away with it. It was a very entertaining first episode and through out some very interesting twist to setup the season.

All I can about Jersey Shore is Gym, Tan, and Laundry. Everyone has to have a little GTL in their life.

As with every other year, I embarked on my two week hiatus from work for the holiday break. This year was a little different since I rarely went out and instead opted for a more relaxed feeling with the people I care about.

Movies

I saw a ton of movies over my break. All the summer hits all hit my Blu ray at the right time. I am not going to go into a lot of details but I was disappointed in The Hangover. It was definitely funny but I can think of a lot more comedies that are much better. For example, Old School is 5 times funnier. Maybe it was over hyped. What I did see that was amazing was Avatar in 3D. Going into the movie, I did not know much about it except everyone kept saying how good it was. It was very impressive and would only recommend it in 3D (well worth the $17 ticket). The color, images, and plot was fantastic. It instantly became one of my top 5 movies ever and can see it being my first 3D movie since 3D TVs are already hitting the market.

Fantasy Football

I came super close to do the unthinkable and winning my league. That is a hard concept to grasp because I lost 4 out of the first 5 games but had some good mid season pickups (Miles Austin) and people returning from injury (or getting more time due to teammates injured) that made my team into a powerhouse. Unfortunately, I got distracted in the semi finals and did not manage my team that Sunday morning and loss by 2 points when all my bench people had over 20 points each. I won the consolation bracket and scored my points in the final week than both the teams in the final.

Family

I spent a lot of time with the family. What is funny (or maybe not) is that I think I spent more time in a 30 day period than I do the other 11 months combined. I really enjoyed all Christmas and New Years parties that I went to.

New Years Eve

First off, I hope to never plan a NYE night ever again. Unless it is in Vegas (something I have always wanted to do and just happened to be something one of my Wash U friends did this year but she did it way more than I ever could). After much going back and forth, we went to MoMos for dinner and Big Daddy’s in Soulard for the night. It was my first time at MoMo’s. I was most impressed by the Sea Bass. It was $10 and was equal to a $30 serving at most fine restaurants. Big Daddy’s was also good. Well worth the $55 since they had premium drinks and Red Bull included … hello Three Olives Cherry Vodka and Red Bull drinks (my fav). Like expected cabs were impossible but worst than I thought. I thought it would be easier since we went to a 1 o’clock and all the city bars don’t close till 3 but I was wrong. Thankfully a friend drove us home after a couple hours. I found out today at lunch that I could have gotten a ride immediately from a guy at work that lived next door from where we were.

Sports

I only followed two sporting events closely this break, both MU games. The MU vs IL basketball game was a surprising win. The MU bowl game was a rather disappointing one. I did watch a lot of the other bowl games but no NFL games. It is also nice that the Rams got the #1 draft. I would like to see them get Suh as the #1 then a quarterback for the #33 pick.

Various

• After a couple failed fixing attempts, my Xbox 360 is still broke.
• My friends can be complete idiots at times especially when it comes to hot tubs in the cold.
• I did not catch up on my DVR watching which is amazing since no new shows recorded. Watched a lot of movies instead. I also probably only played an hour of video games the whole 2 weeks.
• No one goes to Wash Ave during a holiday break. Important fact to remember.
• Finally went ice skating at Steinberg Park. It was fun but very cold and windy so we did not stay long. One thing to note is that place must make a killing. Very low overhead since it is outdoors and getting like $9 a person.

Going to hit some quick highlights from my weekend.

• Had a good lunch with some family members Friday at J Bucks Downtown along with them seeing my place for the first time.
• Went to Electric Cowboy in St Chuck. It was interesting. I like the concept but not that they just played slow dancing country songs during the country music portion. The hip hip was all the classic club songs.
• Had a good dinner at Bar Louie on Saturday. Love the dipping sauces for the pretzels.
• Couldn’t fit ice skating in due to the torrential down pours but will try to reschedule soon.
• Watched 3 hours of Jersey Shores. That show is ridiculous. I will keep watching it even though I think I become more stupid after watching it…lol. It just so intriguing.
• Watched Funny People. Expected it to actually be funny since it had so many popular comedians in it but it was not. It really dragged on too.
• Watched half of the new Harry Potter and was bored.
• Had an amazing fantasy football performance. None of my guys did amazing but all except a last minute sub put up 25 points. Got to love the consistency. I put up top points for the week and still have the top D pointer getter in the league along with another guy on D.
• Did not fix my Xbox 360. More to come on that.
• Did get my car back but not happy with the outcome.
• Did get my third patent approved. The extra bonus money couldn’t have come at a better time. Two more to go which are solely in my name so an added bonus if they get approved.

Wow, how can a 5 day weekend go by so fast? I has so much planned for this weekend in terms of getting stuff done and feel like I accomplished barely anything. I look back and wonder what I did with all my time because I didn’t ever sleep more than 8 hours, didn’t catch up on my DVR, and didn’t play any video games (at my house).

I did watch Star Trek on Wednesday along with washing my car which took a good majority of my time. Star Trek was overrated and I think the first hour was boring because they were introducing the characters. I think the next movie could have potential. As far as my car, I spent over 4 hours detailing it. I feel like it is falling apart. I did some sweet super gluing action in the back seat. I am taking it in Wednesday to get it all figured out. As far as the biggest night to go out,  I met some Wash U friends at the new Double D’s even though they don’t call it that anymore. I knew it wasn’t going to be the same when we pulled up and they had valet. It was a karaoke dive bar so it lost some of its allure to me but it was packed beyond belief.  We finished up on Wash Ave which was also packed.

Thanksgiving was all about the Family. We all went to my aunt’s in High Ridge.  The meal was awesome and it was good to see the family.

I did hit up Black Friday but not electronics like I normally do. Instead I went to West County Mall to pick up my jeans. I was really worried about them all week since I paid so much and never had jeans custom fitted. Needless to say, they fit perfectly and I love them plus I got tons of complements all weekend on them. I also picked up a couple shirts but no real deals. We followed that up with a football game in Tower Grove park. I was more sore than I thought from our last game so I was really hurting and pretty unproductive. I also got in some awesome Super Mario Brothers on the Wii. The game is pretty awesome. Think multiplayer NES mario in semi 3d. Matt and I were kicking butt and taking names in it.

I went to the Dads on Saturday for another awesome meal. One thing is for sure…my dad can really cook. I loved seeing Pepper. He was so excited to see me. With all that fun, the best part of the day was the comeback win by Mizzou over KU. Some are calling it one of MUs most exciting games ever. I wouldn’t say that but I cant believe that KU tried passing plays 3 times in a row in the endzone as time was running out….how stupid is that? Saturday night was pretty awesome too. I had a great dinner at Drunken Fish in the CWE followed up by seeing That 80’s Band at the Old Rock House which was awesome. They combined my love of concerts and 80’s musics. I made a brief appearance at Dubliner then decided to go to Pop’s. Killing Vegas was there so got to hear a lot of awesome RATM. The place was more packed than I had ever seen it. There was probably 3 times more people than normal. I also ran into an old friend there too.

Sunday was a relaxing day. What else do you expect after having a late night on the East Side? I slept in really late and then watched Twilight….I know but had to see what the hype was about. I passed out by 7:30.

Wow, what a jammed packed and exhausting 3 day weekend. I could barely get myself up for work on Monday. Needless to say, I did have a lot of fun.

A group of us decided to buy tickets at the last minute to the Party Rock Tour at the Pageant. The tour consisted of LMFAO, Schwazye, Far East Movement, Paradiso Girls, Space Cowboy. Most people (my age) have no clue who LMFAO (or the rest of the groups) even is but they have probably heard their songs before. “I’m in Miami trick” was their first popular song and “La La La” and “Shots” are getting heavy radio play. I didn’t think I knew the other bands but Schwazye has a couple songs that were popular like “Corona and Lime” and “Get U home.” Paradiso Girls was a newer version of the Spice Girls. I guess they have a popular song called “Patron Tequila” but I am not sure if I had ever heard it. They were also just featured in the December issue of Maxim. The other two bands were pretty funny…that’s all I can say about them but all of the 5 groups are part of some popular 2009 songs so I guess the concert was pretty strong in party/pop/rock circuit. Overall the concert was interesting to say the least. I thought I was at a rave with a bunch of 16 yearolds. The 21 and up section was only half full (at max) while the various stages of the main floor had “one in – one out” which I have never seen before at the Pageant. I did see a lot of girls getting dropped off by their moms. What was even funnier was seeing some older regulars of the Party and the Park scene. I sure hope I am not in this scene in 15 and 20 years like them.

Saturday was a long day of enjoying some adult beverages for Mizzou’s final home football game. We had actually been planning this game for 3 months and this was the only game that everyone was available. I stayed out too late and had to be in Winghaven at 8:30 so I got very few hours of sleep. We didn’t get in CoMo and the hotel till about 11AM so we hopped in a cab from the beautiful Red Roof Inn (where we told by the cab driver that a stripper was just killed a couple weeks ago over a drug deal) to the field. We just walked around randomly for a couple hours tailgating and tossing the football. The game was entertaining but I was disappointed in the lack of people in the student section. I was reminded later that night that the students were on holiday break so that explains why there were less people tailgating, at the game, and at the bars. We went back to the hotel for a couple hours then went to Shiloh which was dead then to the Vu because the boys wanted to dance. It was a lot of fun but the Vu is definitely the Buca of Columbia.

We played a football game on Sunday and had a small bbq with some friends. I did not think I would be able to run because I still have some kind of respiratory infection but it didn’t seem to create a huge problem. The newly purchased spikes were a lifesaver. It makes it 10 times easy to play in coverage when wearing spikes. I think I only allowed my guy that I was covering to catch the ball 3 times (max). I also had a pretty good day at QB which really got me thinking about something. I use to be able to throw a great football in grade school and high school but went downhill in college and life after. I’ve had the same issue with a golf club. I could drive the ball so much further in high school than I can now. My new theory on why this is the case is that I have lost a lot of upper body muscle that I gained in college. Most people would say, shouldn’t it be the opposite? You would think but I think it is because I lost some flexibility so some of my quick twitch muscles were not performing up to par. Needless to say, I had a ton of fun at the game but I am extremely sore after a couple collisions and take downs. I can swear I was the only one that kept getting knocked down (except for the time I knocked down Courtney when she got in my way when I was gunning for the Rengler when I was trying to set a block after a pick. My legs are sore but not as bad as I was expecting. My shoulder is super sore from the Rengel take down. I also jammed a finger which is now swollen. As a side note I was told to mention that Courtney is a pretty good player. She had several catches and passing and receiving TDs.

Pretty jammed pack weekend for me. Mainly because Mr Matt Rengel got hitched over the weekend. I participated in his fun wedding rehearsal at the Moolah where I won two out of three bowling games we played….not bad since I haven’t bowled for at least 5 years. I was on a bowling “strike” for some reason over that time period.

I hit up The Scottish Arms for dinner on Friday. The thing that stood out the most is how much the Scotch Eggs tastes like an Egg McMuffin. The group ended up going to Mollys which sort of sucked then hit up the new club Europe “on” Wash Ave. The club could have huge potential but I ultimately see it failing.  The reason why it was good was because (1) it was a huge club with a large dance floor which Wash Ave is missing (2) it had a good layout with multiple floors with multiple bars (3) it had a great appearance … the designer put a lot of money into the project. The reason why it will fail is (1) location – This is the biggest downfall. The building is a block north of Wash Ave on 14th st. Its entrance is right across from the Windows off Washington Entrance. This is out of the beating path in both directions plus you can see the building from Wash Ave (2) advertising in general – there is no way to tell that it is even open from Wash Ave. They need to put a sign on the side of the building facing wash ave along with maybe even someone on the street. All in all I think they should have paid the extra money to move closer towards 12th or 13th st where all the action is. We gave up on the place around 12:30 to hit up the never disappointing Rue 13 for 80’s night.

Saturday was the big day of the Wedding. The Wedding ceremony was very good. The party bus, my first ever, was a lot of fun too. The reception at the Lemp Grand Hall was also entertaining but I was very tired. I think it had to do with me coming down with hopefully what is only a cold….I am really struggling today. I did feel really embarrased about a trick that was played on me at the wedding. The DJ called out the wedding party guys for a dance competition. I thought this would be interesting since Smith and Rengel have sweet moves. The kicker was that we had to put a paper bag over our head that had numbers marked on them so the people could judge us. Needless to say I won but found out that everyone took off their bags right away to watch me “act a fool.” I thought something was up in the beginning because I was sort of laying low in the back and they were not disqualifying me. I let it all out though once I was “one of” the last people left. Still not sure how I was chosen to be picked on.

This weekend went by so quick. Overall it was a decent weekend. I enjoyed the wins by both Missouri and the Rams which is always a plus. The one disheartening thing is that I am not feeling as confident with Missouri’s team. It is pretty obvious that we can not compete if the defense blitzes alot. I would think the other teams we play would also recognize this.

As for the actual weekend. I decided to stay in Friday and catch up on the DVR. I decided at the last minute that I was going to dress up for Halloween. For some reason, I am not a big fan of Halloween. Not sure why. Needless to say, I went as Brendan Ryan because he has a sweet stache. Unfortunately, mine was not as sweet since the Halloween store was out of the good ones and the one I bought was hard to manage. All my friends had no clue who I was but I had at least two people at Harrys tell me. I tried to get a Ryan jersey but couldn’t find one. The stache and the pulled up socks should have given it away. A straight brimmed hat would have helped but I despise wearing hats. Mike P definitely won the best costume award for being Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite. The pictures do not do him justice…he even pulled off the Pedro facially expressions.

Just realized this was in my draft folder when I know submitted it. Anyway, here it is.

This weekend was super long and tiring since I took off a couple days early to attend the MU football game on Thursday. As you can read in my earlier post, I was quite disappointed in the weather and the outcome. The good points were hanging around town on Friday. We visited all the old stomping grounds and even got some darts in (which I am going to start playing again). Some of the surprised were the new additions to Quintons and all the new bars like the Tonic lounge (which is in an alley behind Tonic). We ate some good food at Flat Branch and Shakespeares. We also stayed at the Regency hotel next to Field House the last night. It was super cheap with a military rate and very convenient. Great place to stay for a MU basketball game weekend…hint hint. Thursday’s night sleeping arrangements did not go as planned (and we almost drove back to St Louis after the game because we were disgusted with the Cards, MU, the situation, and how wet we were) but a good alternative presented itself and worked out great.

Unfortunately, the Cardinals losses put a huge damper on the weekend for me. Such high expectations all squandered. I did fit in a little Oktoberfest in Soulard. It was my first time at the event. I was quite surprised and would have probably come back from Columbia earlier if I knew how much fun it was. They basically had multiple bands and tents setup around Soulard Market. It was fun. I also really enjoyed Killing Vegas at Pops. How can you not like a band that plays a lot of Rage Against the Machine and 311?