There are so many exciting things to talk about these days so I figured a blog post was due.  I think I could list double the items below since I have so much on my mind but this is a good summary.

• Missouri dominated Texas this week. It has been an insane run the past two months for the Cardinals and it all culminated with a come from behind win against Texas. Missouri took notice and did the same against Texas A&M.
• What to do with Pujols is a very interesting question.  It is hard to see him leave knowing he is one of the best players ever in the MLB and in the midst of his prime.  It is also hard to pay him a long term contract for $22 million plus a year knowing (1) that could get the Cards two good free agents (2) a 5 year plus contact seems scary after seeing a chink in Pujol’s armor this year after having an “off year” (3) Pujols seems to be a little more dinged up and his feet issues don’t seem to be going away. Imagine what it’s going to be like in 3 or 4 years.  There does seem to be a lot of good free agents this year too.
• I am extremely disappointing in the setup that the St Louis ball park bars put out on Friday. Did they not expect thousands to be there? In 2006, we watched the game at Al’s under the tent in horrible weather conditions but there was huge portable tvs and the game was blasted over the loud speakers. I was expecting more this year as they was more hype and better weather.  Instead, it was the same setup at PaddyO’s . They did not even have the game playing over the speakers so the majority of the crowd there could not hear or see the game. They really needed to step it up. By 7, they were also out of almost every food item. How do you run out of hot dogs???? Kilroy’s had a TV on top of their building but the bathroom and beer line was so long that it was not worth staying.  At least they stepped it up a little. I was expecting beer vendors and a good spread. I was disappointed. Luckily Joe Bucks was a little more prepared and we had a great time there.
• So pumped about our Honeymoon to Maui. The hotel looks awesome and glad we got upgraded airline seats for the total experience.
• Totally addicted to credit card perks right now. I feel like I have spent hours on the Points Guy’s website researching the best deals.  Also, I have never gotten more compliments over my Chase Sapphire Preferred card. The Cards is like a piece of metal and weights about 3 times more than a standard credit card. Everyone I hand it too says how cool it is.
• The housing market sucks! I would be happy selling just one place for a fair price.
• My fantasy team continues to find ways to win but I am not invincible as I once thought I was. My defense is weak but improving based on some of my pickups the past two weeks. My defensive draft was basically useless as I only have 1 or 2 players left I drafted. My wide receiver stable is not excelling like it was which is giving me my doubts. I am also not happy that a couple players that I drafted and held onto for several weeks like Demarco Murray (who I had the first 5 weeks) which are doing much better.  At least I will be 7 and 1 and walking away with the Hodge Podge division title.
• Should I be getting back into video games? The new COD and Battlefield both look pretty awesome.
• I am really excited about Black Friday this year. There are a lot of new gadgets and electronics that I am interested in if the price is right.

Where to even start? I have been a bad blog writer this year. A combination of an extremely busy work load, selling two places, traveling (work and pleasure), and general lack of a personal computer have all contributed to not keeping up. Thus I thought I would give a brief run down of whats going on.

• Daytona with the family was awesome. It was relaxing on the beach plus I did not get burnt which is always good. The biggest surprise of the trip was visiting St Augustine. I had never been and would recommend it. It is a very European town (which you would expect from the oldest city in the US).  I would recommend Pizzalley’s Chianti Room (one of the best meals we had all trip). I would not recommend San Sebastian winery. Florida is not and should not be known for their wine. I did not like it at all.
• Work is insane. We are super busy which is great but extremely overloaded. On top of that, I have a lot of travel. I am definitely looking forward to my Germany/UK trip next month.
• Selling of the two homes is progressing. Very little activity on the condo which is disappointing. The house is looking good. We finished the upstairs this weekend and have just one more project left before it can be listed.
• We registered (and de-registered at another place…lol) over the past week. It was a lot of fun. We also went cake testing and picked one that is going to be awesome.
• I am despising my car. My extended warranty ends in two weeks and not sure what I am going to do. The truck broke again. I am really disappointed in the quality of Infiniti. I will never buy again and has me seriously reconsidering buying a Nissan too.
• The Cards are a huge disappointment. The Rams are a surprise….let see if they can keep the momentum. They have a lot of good players. Not sure what to think of the Tigers. The game this weekend will be a good test.
• We made some awesome chicken parmigiana last night after our first attempt failed. I love making new foods with my fiancee.
• I am not a fan of the stock market right now. It has not been good to me.
• Went to Iron Barley with some friends for my late bday present. It was awesome. It is in such a weird location but so good. I had the Schnitzel & Spaetzle. I saw others with the Prime Rib special which looked amazing. The sausage platter was good too.

That’s all I got for now.

What a great weekend! The weekend seemed to last forever which is sort of funny since I has extended weekends for the last 3 weeks and this was the standard workweek.

On Friday we celebrated my birthday and had a last hurrah at the condo. We timed it with a free Bel Biv Devoe concert that was only blocks away. The party was pretty awesome. We had some great food and fun times with friends. I forgot how much I loved Rock Band (you will see a post on this later). The BBD concert was okay but I was not expecting much since they are in theory a one hit wonder (I know they have two songs that were “hits”). We unveiled our first run of cake pops along with a buffalo chicken dip that were both awesome.

We moved most of the essentials out of the condo on Saturday so I can officially say I am moved. Now I am in process of selling the unit. On Saturday night, we went to a friends new house and had dinner. It is a great house and we had a lot of fun hanging out with friends again.

Sunday was a jammed pack day as we unpacked, went to our new gym for the first time, did a lot of shopping, did some house work, etc. I also watched the World Cup game (or at least the 2nd half). It was very exciting but disappointing. A lot of blown chances and bad mistakes. On Sunday night, we grilled some bacon wrapped fillets and corn plus made some baked potatoes. It might have been one of the best meals we had ever ate. We are really starting to get good on the grill with cooking and seasoning.

I was in Vegas for the ConExpo show a couple weeks ago. It was my first time at the show and it was an awesome show for my company. The show was huge….even bigger than SEMA which I did not think was possible.  I had some friends meet up with me over the weekend. It was a lot of fun since it at the same time as the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 NCAA basketball tourney.

Some of the highlights were the following:

• Watched  some very good entertaining college basketball games in which I placed and won my first sports book bet. I won my second too on the Lakers (of course)
• Saw Zumanity at New York, NY. It was basically a big porn in my eyes but it was entertaining and funny.  I still think Love is the best Cirque de Soleil in Vegas by far.
• Had some really awesome meals. Especially the Sunday brunch buffet at the Wynn and at Comme Ca in the Cosmopolitan.  Comme Ca was Ted’s recommendation and was awesome. My favorite meal of the trip.  All three of us had the Beef Bourguigno which was amazing.
• Watching the Dancing JCB tractors at the show. See the image below.

This week end was pretty action packed. I went to the Blues game with the extended family on Friday. We normally get upper deck tickets each year but we decided to go all out this year and get a suite. We invited some of the ladies too since we needed a minimum of 16 people. I was a little concerned with paying $75 a person with no drinks but the view and ability to walk around made it worth it. I would love to do it with a group of friends. The Blues blew the lead with 5 seconds left in the game and lost in a shootout so it was a disappointing outcome.

Becki and I tried out racquetball (first time for Becki and the first time for me since MU) on Saturday morning. I loved it but definitely need a new racquet. Let me know if anyone is interested in playing at the Downtown Y as I can get you in for free. Saturday night was a Valentine’s Day night for Becki and I since I thought I would be out of town on Monday. We grilled bacon wrapped filets, baked potatoes, and an awesome salad. The potatoes and salad turned out amazing. The steak did not as much as the grill in my building is a little broke plus I did not nearly cook it enough. We threw it on the grill for another 5 minutes then broiled it for another 10 and it was finally edible but it killed the mood. I would get it next time though we try. We also watched Social Network which I thought was awesome. I was expecting something much different.

I detailed my car on Sunday since we had awesome weather. It really needed it. I also repaired some things on the inside. Besides that, it was a pretty lazy day.

• I really need to head out to the new bars by my house on Washington Ave. Rosalita’s and Jive and Wail all recently opened. I am really impressed that Jive and Wail is offering free cover to all downtown residents that can show a 63103 or 63101 zip code on their ID. I think that is a great idea and all the places downtown should follow. I think that would lead more “locals” to hit up these kinds of areas and increase the sense of community.
• I also need to hit up the Whiz Tech Cafe which is on my street and a block away.  I am a little surprised by the location and the concept but the menu sure looks good.
• I am extremely happy to see work begin on the Leather Trades building across the street from my condo. You can read more about the redevelopment in the Stl Business Journal. This place was in the process of being built when I bought my place and was part of the Pyramid collapse. It will be very nice to bring more action to my block. The end goal would be to fill up all the buildings from my block to Pepper Lounge. It is a work in progress as that area continues to add more business and redevelops.
• I love that Charter is finally catching up to their competitors in their HD line up. I have experienced my issues with Charter in the past but they are doing really well in Customer Service in my eyes now.  They added 11 new HD channels yesterday and I have been told that they will add another 14 in March. MTV is awesome for Jersey Shore, VS is good for hockey, Nick is good too. I can not wait for E to come out in the future. It will pretty much wrap up all my tv watching in HD.

11 New HD Channels:
Versus HD (Expanded Basic): 731FX HD (Expanded Basic): 732Big Ten Network HD (Expanded Basic): 733Speed HD (Expanded Basic): 734Hallmark Channel HD (Digital View): 742Cooking Channel HD (Digital View Plus): 743VH1 HD (Expanded Basic): 744MTV HD (Expanded Basic): 746Spike HD (Expanded Basic): 747ABC Family HD (Expanded Basic): 748Nickelodeon HD (Expanded Basic): 749

14 HD channels in March 2011 (No firm date released yet):
ESPNU HD (Digital View/Sports View): 737Lifetime Movie Network HD (Expanded Basic): 738CNBC HD (Expanded Basic): 739MSNBC HD (Expanded Basic): 740Travel Channel HD (Expanded Basic): 741Disney XD HD (Expanded Basic): 750Cartoon Network HD (Expanded Basic): 717ESPN News HD (Sports View): 718TruTV HD (Expanded Basic): 724E! HD (Expanded Basic): 723CMT HD (Expanded Basic): 722Oxygen HD (Digital View): 721HLN HD (Expanded Basic): 720BIO HD (Digital View): 719

• Here is a great analysis on Blaine Gabbert. Finally, someone has watched all the tapes and realizes that this guy needs a lot of work. He might be the prototypical build for a NFL QB but he sure does need some work on pocket presence. I can really see him bombing if he is drafted as a franchise QB and thrown into a starting role in the 1st year or two.
• The Colorado upset of Missouri doesn’t seem to be that much of an upset anymore after Colorado beat K State in Manhattan last night. The Big 12 is just really strong and every road game is going to be tough.

That’s all I got. I was going to break up these posts based on Matt’s comments but I am too lazy so you will have to deal with it.

This weekend was pretty jammed pack full of all kinds of fun events. I was a little worried going into the weekend since both my girlfriend and I were both sick but I miraculously recovered by Friday.

I went to a friend’s 30^th bday part on Friday. The hype around the party was that we were going to have a pizza eating contest. This contest stemmed from a conversation over NYE about one of my friends who participated in an annual White Castle eating contest at his work. My friend ate 20 for the second year in a row and the winner ate 22. I thought that was very weak and said I could easily eat 20. Well somehow the contest we did turned into a Little Caesar’s Hot-n-Ready contest.  I really did not plan on participating. Needless to say I came very close to eating the whole pizza in the 12 minutes allowed to win the contest. I was half a slice away and came in second by only a couple bites.  I should have won it though as I thought I was far behind the winner. I also struggled because I had a huge lunch of Mexican, already had a couple beers (the guy that won had zero beers at that point), I had a fatty breakfast, plus my teeth were sore from my new braces. All I can say is that I probably ate at least 6000 calories that day. We ended the night at the Tin Can in Tower Groves.

I lounged around on Saturday and ran some errands. I still can not believe that Seattle beat the Saints. What a turn around in two weeks! We went to Café Eau on Saturday night for a 30^th bday party. I was pretty amazed by the turnout. The place was packed. They had a band who I think was called King Pin. It was awesome because it was basically a live version of PaddyO’s after a Cards game. They played all the classic 80’s and 90’s songs while also playing some of the new hits. Becki and I will definitely be going back.

We did not do much on Sunday. We watched some football games and my girlfriend got the new Evo Shift 4G. The jury is still out but I was sort of expecting more out of the Android operating system (especially since this is a recently released version (2.2 Froyo). It was my first time using Android and I was not overly impressed. I liked some of the live interaction but everything seemed a little too complicated. I keep seeing that Android’s market share keeps going up thus why I was expecting a totally unique UI. It gives me new found respect for my Blackberry OS 6 UI as I think it is simple to use while delivering all my needs.  I also watched the season premier of Californication and the series premier of Episodes. Californication was awesome and I am glad it is back. Episodes was sort of boring but I will give it a couple more chances. I saved Shameless for later in the week but I liked the early season premier episode last month. I can not wait for the start of Big Love’s final season next week!

Oh, I forgot to mention that this was the first week of having Invisalign braces. As I may have posted before, I have been toying with the idea for over a year but could not bear to spend that much money since it is not covered by my insurance. I found out about the pretax flex plan which saved me money since the money is taken out before taxes so I took the plunge. Overall my experience has been good. I do get a little choked up every once in a while but I was expecting a lot worse since I have a pretty sensitive mouth. My teeth are a little sore but I really only notice it when I take my retainers in and out to eat. The main thing that I did not realize until I got them was that my diet is going to totally change. My short addiction to soda will probably die and also my snacking since I can basically only drink water when I have them in and have to brush my teeth before I put them back in. Needless to say it is going to be a long 10 months but it will be worth the pain.

One of the things I love about Christmas is the extended time off for work. My work gives us two days each for Christmas and New Years and most of our supplier take the week off between Christmas and NY so its a big week to also take off. I normally take off the week before Christmas to have a huge break but was limited in vacation days due to the Australia trip. Thus, I only had 12 days off.

I may have wrote and said that Becki and I were going to tackle some big home improvement projects like painting base boards and refinishing her hard wood floors on her second floor but none of that happened.  Instead we relaxed and went to a lot of holiday parties with family and friends. Below is a summary of a little bit of everything.

Kinect

We got a Kinect for Christmas. We bought Kinect Sports and Kinect Dance Central in addition to getting Kinect Adventures with the device.  First off, you will find that most people do not know what a Kinect is so Microsoft is not doing something right. I know they are running a bunch of adds but they seem to not be sticking. Maybe it is the weird name. The Kinect is pretty awesome and everyone that has played it with us thinks the same. Dance Central is hard for Becki and I so we do not play it but others find it easier and fun. We love Kinect Adventures. The rafting and the 3 other adventure games are pretty fun but I can see the game getting old. The sports game is a lot of fun. It really mimics the actual sport in many ways. My favorite is volleyball and track and field. I am pretty sure you could play a game on this for an hour a day and would be a great work out. We were sore the whole first week we played. You always work up a good sweat when playing.

Sporting Events

The MU – Il basketball game was very entertaining. I do think that the IL foul was intentional but it was a tough call at the end of a close  game. The IL player should have never fouled in the first place anyway. If he wouldn’t have fouled they would have been down 3 with the ball and a lot of time.

The MU – Iowa game was very disappointing. I was expecting a slaughter knowing that Iowa did not finish good and was missing several star players. Maybe MU thought the same and did not bring their A game. Maybe MU does not get pumped up for bad bowl games when they deserve much better (the same thing happened last season). I blame a lot of it on Gabbert. He threw two costly interceptions. I find it lubricious that he is projected to be the #2 QB in the NFL draft and a possible top 5 or 10 pick. He might have the build and skills of a prototypical NFL QB but he has shown all season that he can not make it as a star even in college. I wanted him benched earlier in the season.  This must be a horrible draft year for QBs after the great year last year. I would hate to be the team that drafts Gabbert wanting to build a franchise around him.

The Rams are depressing….that is all I can say. You could say that they did much better than last year but I am not going to give them that cop out. They were in the position to win the division and choked. They had a weak schedule and could easily only win a couple games next year due to a harder schedule. I think three things need to happen. Get rid of the Offensive Coordinator. He is not getting it done in my eyes. He calls all the wrong plays at the wrong time. The second is to draft a WR in the first round. The third is to sign a big name WR. We can not wait for a rookie to pan out while Bradford is at the top of his game. Get in done Kronke!

Becki and I were fortunate to get front row tickets to a Blues game. It was awesome being on the ice but definitely not worth the $250 face value of the tickets. The tickets were all inclusive so that included food and drinks two hours before the game until 30 minutes after the game. There was only one place to get the drinks and food but fortunately it was in our section. I also caught two pucks but gave them both to kids sitting around me.

Family

I think I went to 5 different Christmas parties with both mine and Becki’s families. All were fun and I ate a ton of food. Its always nice catching up with family. It is weird because I think I get the majority of my family time visits in over a 40 day period between Thanksgiving and New Years.

New Year Eve

We went to Mango for a group dinner for NYE.  On a sort of different subject, Mango’s website was just blocked by my work’s internet filter because it said it was porn…pretty weird. We had 5 other couples. Overall, I would say the group was disappointed. The person that made the reservation specifically asked if there would be a special menu for NYE in which she was told no. Of course there was when we got there.  Thus everyone spent a little more than they wanted to but that wasn’t my problem. My problem was that the place was not full but it still took like 3 hours to get through our dinner. I thought that is why restaurants have special menus to avoid this. I enjoyed my food although I thought the portions sucked. Most of the people I talked to were not impressed or didn’t like it at all.  Thus after a bad group experience in Vegas and two years in a row of quasi service for NYE, Becki and I decided we are going to avoid group dinners and NYE dinners. It’s as simple as that! The party that Becki and I hosted was pretty awesome. We had a small gathering and basically just played Kinect all night. I was impressed as some of my friends stayed up till 3:30 in the morning and with their impressive jumping skills.

This was a pretty jammed pack weekend. We braved the mall on Friday evening to do some Christmas shopping. It was dead so that was a plus. We also watched Get Him to the Greek. It was a funny movie. The P Diddy scenes were the best.

We had a trivia night on Saturday for a family at my girlfriends work. It was a fun time and we did relatively well (16 out of 40). The funny thing was that we bombed on the sports category (2 of 8 ) but did well on all the others (avg 6 of 8 on the other rounds). I have realized that I am pretty good at useless trivia. We finished out the night at The Famous Bar. I am going to go and elect that bar to be the smokiest bar in St Louis….an award previously held by Rue 13. You could smell the smoke as you approached the door. My car still smelled smokey the next day. I can’t wait for January 1 to get here so St Louis and the county are smokefree.

Sunday was a big day for home work at Becki’s. We put up the Christmas tree and decorations. The blurry picture above does not do the place justice. Her house really looks great. I also installed a new front porch light above Becki’s front door. It sounds like an easy task but not on an old house. First, I had to drill out the screws of the existing one since they used flathead recessed screws that were as soft as butter. Secondly, I now didn’t not have screw holes to install the mounting plate for the new one so used some self tapping larger screws to mount it permanently. Besides that and the fact that it was 20 degrees, it went pretty smoothly and the light looks awesome.

In TV news, Becki and I both started watching The Event. That show is sort of additicting. It is my new favorite out of the new but old season (it is actually the only new show I watch besides Boardwalk Empire).

The past weekend was a pretty fun weekend. I ran a ton of errands with my girlfriend on Friday then called it a night. One thing to note is that we went to The Rack for the first time. I was not impressed…I was expecting better deals and more of an offering.

On Saturday, we went to a friends to watch the Mizzou game. What a disappointment! MU safeties played horrible and we did not play the same style of offense that we have been. Blaine looked horrible in the pocket with happy feet. Needless to say our National Championship dreams our over and probably the Big 12 tourney but we might pull a Kansas and actually benefit by not being in the tournament and still get a BCS bowl game if we win out.

My girlfriend and I dressed up as people from the roaring 20′s. She was a flapper and I was a mobster. We went to a friend’s party Saturday night. It was a lot of fun and we had the best costume (in my opinion).

I watched the awesome Rams game on Sunday. They look pretty good. Imagine if they wouldn’t have blown all those leads.  My girlfriend and I had a small BBQ for Halloween night and welcomed trick or treaters.

Here is my Halloween picture set.