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.

Another jammed packed weekend for Becki and I. On Friday, we went out to dinner with another couple. We tried going to Lola but it was too loud and they were going to charge us a $5 cover even though we were having dinner there which is totally wrong in my eyes. We ended up that at Bridge further down Locust. It was my first time there and I was impressed. Their dinner menu was a little on the light side but the vast assortment of cheese easily made up for it. We asked our waitress to surprise us after we gave her some suggestions on our preferences. She came back with a large spread of cheese, nuts, berries, sausages and bread that was awesome. We ended the night playing Kinect and the dance game.

Saturday was an awesome day. Downtown was packed with people for St Patty’s day. Unfortunately, Becki and I had a packed day so did not take part in the festivities. We hit the gym first then headed to Good Works warehouse to pick up a high chest and night stand. These last two items were to complete my bedroom set that I bought 3 years ago. Luckily they still had the same set available. Unfortunately, we had a problem. Upon unpacking them at Becki’s we found that the unit had some kind of mildew/mold on the bottom of it and the back. We were really disappointed. The box was clean so it had to be packaged like this from the supplier or packages wet. This is actually the second bad experience with this set as my hardware on my dresser had oxidation on it when it was unpacked and had to be replaced. The good thing is that GoodWorks is replacing the unit and offering free delivery. I’m still a fan of the store as I basically furnished my whole condo from it.

We went to a friend’s birthday party at Sol Lounge in the CWE that night. Amazing enough, it was the first time I have even been there. This is odd in my eyes because it is a 3AM bar in the CWE. You would of thought we would have gone to this while living in the area for 1.5 years. Needless to say, the place is odd. Its basically in a house that has the front entrance of a house in which you then go through a bathroom to a huge bar/night club. It is almost like it is a secret underground bar that they are hiding. Not sure why. The place is basically a larger Pepper Lounge. We did not stay late and it was pretty empty when we left but I was told it would fill up around 1AM. I guess I am getting too old but this is a kind of place I sorta phased out of my life.

Sunday was an errands day. I ran all kinds of them in prep for playing a real ice hockey game for the first time in 10 years and other things. The second to last  Big Love show was awesome too.

I have been slacking on post in the past two or three weeks. There has just been so much going on. I’ll try to sum up the highlights.

KC Wedding

Becki and I went to KC (Liberty to be exact) for her sorority sister’s wedding.  It was a fun trip and a really nice wedding at a country club. It was great finally meeting the people that Becki spent 4 years of her life with.

San Juan, PR

I went to San Juan for a work trip. I was unfortunately sick again like I was when I went 5 years ago for work. Luckily, I just had a cold instead of the flu so it wasn’t too bad. I stayed at the Caribe Hilton which was the first international Hilton according to a History Channel documentary I watched while at the hotel (weird coincidence). The resort was huge and very luxurious.  The weather was not the best though. It was very windy and a little rainy.

I had one free day when I arrived so I decided to do a snorkeling excursion. I almost did not make it because of over capacity but we were able to find another company. The experience was pretty cool. For $85, they picked you up at the hotel at 8AM, provided food and drinks (adult beverages too) for breakfast and lunch, took you on a catamaran all day, and stopped at an island for snorkeling and also another snorkeling spot (with gear included).  The meals and transportation alone were worth the $85. The water was warm but the snorkeling sucked. The water was very disturbed due to the wind so the visibility was poor. I wasted $30 on a waterproof disposable from the overpriced hotel gift shop.

We also had some dinner in Old San Juan which was pretty cool. There are a lot of forts over looking the ocean and has a very small town feel like in Europe. I guess that is because the buildings are 400+ years old.

Here are some more pictures.

Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras was very fun despite the cold weather. St Louis has been on a bad run of weather for this awesome holiday and the weather toyed with us again since it was nice the day before and after Saturday. Needless to say, Becki and I had a great time hanging out with friends. We even went to Maurizo’s after trying to get into other places that had over an hour wait. It was good but it was too early for the buffet. Mardi Gras still is one of my most favorite days in St Louis.

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.

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).

I went out with my lovely girlfriend on Friday night for our 1 year anniversary since our first date.  We went to Vin de Set which is where we went on our first date. We ate a ton of food (our bill supplemented this). We started with a mix cheese plate, then I had a three onion soup, then we both got the beef tenderloin medallions. The main entrée was awesome. It has great mashed potatoes, asparagus and the steak was so tender.  We got a cheesecake to go which we ate on Saturday which was extremely delicious.

I had most of the day Saturday to myself since Becki was hosting her sister’s baby shower.  I caught up on Dexter and all but one episode of Fringe. Fringe was very good and I had not watched a single episode yet this season. I really like the mystery in the show. I also like the crazy technology that is shown in the parallel universe. I also watched the MU Tigers basketball and football games. The basketball team has a ton of talent. Right now, they look a little lost since they have so many scorers. Hopefully they will gel and have a great season. The football game was pretty good too. Blaine had his best game throwing in a long time (in my opinion) but they still are not very consistent. They seem to forget about the crossing patterns and short throws up the middle in which they rock at. Becki and I closed out the night watching Iron Man 2. It was a pretty good flick.

We did some shopping on Sunday. I looked at the TV that I am toying with getting. Its going to be $1500 on Black Friday. I didn’t think I was sold on the LED technology but I will now only buy one with it. Best Buy had the same two 55″ platforms next to each other (one with LED and the other just a regular LCD).  The LED LCD was so much more vibrant. I also got the Kinect but its a Christmas present so I wont get till open it for another month. I watched the Rams game too. They look pretty good but couldn’t stop Atlanta. I also have no clue who that shuttle pass was going to at the end of the game.  On the tv front, I watched the season premier of The Event and Sarah Palin’s show. The Event was pretty good and I think my girlfriend liked it too so going to play catch up if I can find a place to watch the 2nd episode since I lost it in my DVR issues a couple months ago. The Palin show is good too. It makes me want to go to Canada.

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.

This was a jammed pack weekend.  There was oodles to do in St Louis this weekend which worked out well since the weather was amazing.  Unfortunately, there was so much going on that I missed out on the Soulard Oktoberfest but I hear it was a lot of fun.

This was reunion weekend at Washington University. There was a reunion reception at school, a gala, and there were supposed to be individual class parties. Our class party (albeit for only a 1 year reunion) sort of fell apart in the last week when we lost our venue so we decided to go see Wall Street – Money Never Sleeps. My fellow MBAers always talked about this movie and Gordon Gekko. Thus I watch the original 1987 movie on Thursday and loved it. It used a ton of financial buzzwords that we used pretty regularly in our studies plus it was suspense and action packed. We had a group of about 10 or 12 people hit the Esquire Theater on Clayton. First off, that theater sucks. The seats were uncomfortably small, there was actually a tear on the screen, and we could hear sounds from other theaters. There were probably only 10 other people in the theater on a Friday night so not sure how they stay in business. The movie was okay. The movie was basically based on the financial meltdown two years ago with aspects of the 1^st Wall Street movie. It would probably be cool for the average moviegoer but we discussed this crisis in great detail in school so it wasn’t any insight that I already didn’t know. The movie was also a little too sappy for me and didn’t have the action as the first one. Thus, I only give it a C. Everyone else were a little disappointed too. We went to Brandt’s for a couple free adult beverages courtesy of AB. I had not been there in a long time and I guess they changed management and structure. It was fun catching up with some of my classmates. Some of us went to Blueberry Hill to meet others and grab some snacks. I finished the night at “T Town” as my friend Mike puts it. Talayna’s is right next to his house so I went for an hour or so. It will probably be the last time I go back…lol.

I ran some errands on Saturday waiting for Becki to return from Sweden. I have a funny story. I have been searching high and low for a shower organizer that I actually like. It seems like no one makes a wide but short organizer. They either come in small or large where the small one is short and narrow and the large one is tall and wide. I might make one myself. Needless to say, I’ve bought some really expensive ones only to take them back. Why make a top shelf that is only 12”s from the shower head? Just doesn’t make sense to me.  After my second run to Bed Bath and Beyond in a week (and not last), I watched all the great college football games on before meeting up with Becki. Becki and I had dinner at Onestos in SOHA (as Matt puts it) for a friends bday dinner. The place was pretty good and we ordered way too much. We went back to the bday couples house to sit by a fire, talk about transgenic rats (we really know how to have a good time), and play with some dogs.

Becki and I went to the country on Sunday for Becki’s grandma’s 85^th bday. We were a little past Gerald, MO. It is sort of funny because it is very much like the area I grew up in but seems like a lifetime ago that I lived in that surroundings. We went on a hay ride and saw cows (both a first for my girlfriend), rode ATV’s, and had some good food. The ATV trails were pretty awesome. There were like 6 or 7 ATV’s with trails though fields and the woods over 50 acres. I had a ton of fun. The only bad part is that my throat is killing me today. I am hoping it is just irritated from all the dust and grass getting in my face from off-roading.

And that is it. I am glad to see Mizzou won its football game. I watched the first quarter and was a little scared. The same goes for the Blues winning their first game. Hopefully the Blues come out to a strong start. I can not say the same about the Rams. It looks like they got a little of a reality check. I did not watch the game but I heard the Rams started with an onside kick that was not recovered. I do not agree with that strategy and it probably put a bad tone on the game. At least we held them to a field goal that drive. I think we can squash any hope of winning the division despite how weak it is. I also looked to put up a strong week in fantasy football….possibly the best of the week.