Eric Krassinger

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 Paradiso Girls was a newer version of the Spice Girls.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.

This was a no frills weekend for me because I was sick with something. It wasn’t the flu so do not worry about any H1N1 talk. I never had a fever so this is my reason I do not think I have the flu. I’ve just been really congested and super tired. The bad thing is that it hasn’t seemed to improve in a week.

Needless to say I stayed in both nights….I did not even leave the house once I got home from work on Friday. I was extremely lazy and pretty much lived on my couch. Watched some sports; a bad Lakers loss (but not as bad as Sundays loss), a good Mizzou win in basketball and football, and a good Rams loss (I know its hard to say good but they played well and almost pulled off a huge upset). I also caught up on my DVR and Netflix watching. I watched 3 movies: GI Joe, the new Transformers, and X-Men Wolverine. GI Joe and Transformers were both good. I liked the storyline, special effects, and the amazing sound quality. These were the first Blu-rays that I have ever watched. I think I enjoy the sound quality 10 times more than the picture quality. Nothing is better than being immersed in an explosion that rattles the room. Wolverine was a bit of a disappointment. It was okay to see his storyline on how he was created but then the storied died after that. I was thinking “is that it?” as the movie ended. I was expecting still another hour of a plot.

So nothing really exciting. I am looking forward to the next week though. I am going to Columbia with a big group for Mizzou’s last home game and then have a short work week then a 5 day weekend for one of my favorite holidays because I love turkey dinners.

As a side note, I had lunch with my companies outside photographer who is probably the most interesting person I know. He travels all over the world taking pictures. The interesting thing is that he is always going to places that most people don’t. For example, his next trip is to Columbia, the country. He said you never ride in cars because you will get kidnapped if you do. Instead you either take a plane or a bus to go from city to city. This got me thinking and I really would like to do a trip to Peru. I’ve been talking about it for a couple years now and this is the time to go since it is summer there. He told me some trips to take there like a 4 day hike to Machu Picchu where you pay a guide to basically carry all your gear so you can enjoy the journey. Just something to think about.

Another week, another 3 day weekend….I am joking but it sure seems like I have a lot of 3 day weekends. This weekend was bigger than a normal weekend because we had a huge group going to see Missouri play Texas in the Homecoming game while also having my good friend Matt Rengel’s bachelor party.

Overall the weekend went pretty well despite the fact that Missouri got destroyed by the higher ranked and overly talented Texas squad. I was a bit worried about the weekend because it seemed like absolutely no planning went into the weekend which is not in my nature.

We left in a couple groups. Group 1 got to CoMo around 6 on Friday so we decided to go downtown to eat dinner. After going to a couple places, we decided on Campus (formerly Big 12) since we were able to get a table right away. After we were done, we wanted to play some darts so we tried Quintons then went to McNallys where we able to secure a board. We hung out there for a while then went to some random bar to hear Casey play. He was pretty good and sang all the classic songs I know and love. We rounded out the nostalgic night by hitting the tail end of the Vu. Also, we got extremely lucky and Rengel’s brother was the sober driver for the whole weekend so I and the group owe him very much gratitude. I also thank Casey for letting us crash at his place both nights.

We woke up “early” Saturday and met up with the rest of the group to get our tailgating supplies. From there, we decided to try out luck at finding a spot even though it was only noon and we thought our spot next to Reactor was not available till 4PM. We ended up getting a sweet spot right next to the tennis center. As you can see in the picture, we really went all out. It was the best tailgate we had so far. The weather was amazing. I was wearing just a tshirt most of the day.

As for the game there was nothing good about it. What disturbed me even more was our seats. We paid $75 for our tix and were somehow in bleachers above the $35 GA spots. It was actually the exact same section I sat in for the Nebraska game with my GA tickets. I thought we were going to be in the bleachers on the north end zone like our tickets said but obviously not. What really made me furious was the “fans” (if you really want to call them that) in our section. We had a group of 15 so we took the first 3 rows in our section. The issue was that we could not see the field because of the low seats, the railing, and the fans standing in the GA section. The people behind us didn’t care because they wanted to sit and did not care if we couldn’t see the seats. What made me mad is that they got belligerent (cursed and threatened me which is not cool when there are kids around) and even tried to throw us out and a bunch of other people who were standing. The idea of trying to get someone thrown out because they are supporting their team is appalling. We were just minding our own business and trying to enjoy the game and they ruined it. I basically felt guilty for trying to watch the game so ended up watching it on the score board … not cool after paying $75 for tickets. We ended up leaving at half because of the poor game and the seating situation. These fans didn’t even stand on big 3^rd down plays in the 1^st quarter. How is that possible? Might as well watch the game at home on your TV if your not going to get into the game. I totally equate this to fans that only came because it was homecoming and probably don’t even watch games.

As for the night scene, we decided to hit up Tin Can then the new Shiloh since Quintons, Harpos, and Campus had a huge line. What amazes me is the huge number of new bars in Columbia. There seems to be 3 times the places to go. Is there more people going out in Columbia now? Has the house party scene died? I do not remember all the bars being extremely packed so not sure how these new bars can be full. Smith and I ended the night eating some delicious eggs and hashbrowns at Waffle House. All I can say is that Waffle House needs to get some computers in that place to better automate the ordering system. It was a bit ridiculous.

On a side note, I forgot to mention playing the punching game at Tin Can. Somehow we ended up with zero pictures of this even though we did it for at least an hour. Somehow, all the tall and skinny guys in our group kept getting 900s which was high for the whole bar. Most people we getting in the 700s and 800s….girls were getting 500s and 600s. Smith somehow got a 47 when he actually tried so that is a whole other story. I saw some huge guys that looks liked they could kill you with one punch get mid 700s which is what I got in two punches. I think it is flawed by the angle of attack and the way it records. That’s the only way I can explain it. We did have a couple injuries…one being what was thought a broken wrist but turned out to be just a sprain.

Here is the picture from the weekend.

For being a 3 and a half day weekend, I did not do very much. I did go to the Cards day game on Thursday which is always a blast. Met up with some of the boys afterwards to hit the town. Finished up by winning our last game of our sand volleyball league.

Friday was pretty laid back. I did hit up some deli with Smith on Mackland in South City. It was good.

Saturday was a float trip day. It was a pretty good time. The water seemed cold at first but it was a perfect day. Not sure if it was because of the area or the time of the float but there was no one on the water but still a good time. The cabin concept worked out perfectly even though it was not hot at night. It is just so much easier sleeping in a real bed. The cabin was pretty nice and could have fit a queen size matress easily to add another 2 people. Its hard to beat floating and a cabin for $55/person for a group of 4.

I did absolutely nothing on Sunday. So much that I don’t even remember what I did. I do remember hitting the Ponderosa buffet with the crew in Farmington. Finally went there with the Rengler after all the talk over the years.

The ManEater is reporting that Reactor Field will be closed for tailgating and parking for the entire football season. This is after going last season to a schedule where they opened the field a couple hours before the game. I am not entirely sure what had prompted this closure. I remember the days when I was a student and Reactor was actually a field unlike its current state of being a gravel parking lot. It was the best time. I remember having kegs and eggs for the early morning games and tailgating all day for the late games. Throwing around the football and just enjoying life. I do also remember the hoosiers who would do donuts with their big trucks in this same field when it rained since it became a big mud pit. I thought this small group of individuals were the ones responsible for causing the small window of being open but evidentially not because they haven’t been able to do that for years. I remember reading a couple years ago that MU wanted the limited window of openness to curb people’s drinking and try to prevent people from just tailgating and not going to the actual game. This is a ridiculous idea to me. There is no way you are going to stop that. People will move from one spot to another. Another thing that bothers me is that they allow this at all the big money “donor” parking lots around the stadium but this never gets any attention. The other thing that bothers me is that I have not seen any out of control behavior in the past couple years that we have tailgated on Reactor. It actually has been pretty low key and tame. The other thing that just blows my mind is that one alternative is parking along Providence where speeding cars are flying by; just waiting for someone to get hit by a car. It also seems like it is a giant waste to be letting a big parking lot somewhat close to the stadium to stay closed when the school was making $15 a car. I guess it is only my tax dollars paying for that school.

Mike Hoff and I went on a float trip with a crew from AB. I realized I had not been on a float trip for a while since I missed the last couple group floats. I totally forgot how much fun they are. Saturday was one of the better times I had all year and it is super cheap and only 2 hours away. It has everything I love in life; girls, alcohol, water, and the sun.

The river was packed. We stayed at Bass River Resort which brought me back to high schools since it is where I always use to float. It was an extra 30 min drive compared to where we normally float but worth it. The river was actually low so we ended up doing the exact same float on the Current that we do with Ozark Outdoors.

The float itself was pretty memorable. The river was more packed than I ever remember and almost all rafts which is not normal in my opinion. We went though the 75 Jello shots pretty fast. Unfortunately we do not have any pictures because we sunk Mike’s waterproof camera a couple hours into the trip. Never thought it would be possible to lose it in the 2 feet of water. I hung out with a girl (from Chicago) the last couple hours of a trip and thought I lost my group. Mike said he got kicked off the girls rafts so not sure what he did. I am amazed how many groups were from Chicago with no ties to St Louis. Do they not have these kinds of things in the IL side?

The thing that is holding me back from doing float trips all the time is camping the night. I despise the heat at night. I thought I was going to kill myself last night. I didn’t fall asleep until about 5 hours laying down which just happened to be the time that dew started appearing so it was cooling down. I was debating on turning the car on and sleeping in there but thought it would wake everyone up. I also thought about just packing up and leaving but would be hard to do in the dark.

So all my friends, I have a suggestion. Bass has a ton of different cabins and houses with AC. Look at this one here. It would cost us less than $30 a person to sleep in the AC with beds, a kitchen, and a shower. I payed $15 to camp so seems like an amazing deal. The camping was so bad that I felt like they should have paid me $15. Not sure what everyone thinks about this or the availability but Mike and I would like to do one of these again this summer. Possibly with the Rengler group at the end of the month.

Day 1 – Chicago

We rented a mini van after a little trouble and began our journey to Chicago. We arrived at the HoJo around 9PM. We got ready and I left early to meet my friend Ann from grad school at Rock-It. The place was dead. Once the boys arrived, we caught a cab to Rino (the one bar I did not want to go to). Fortunately, there was only a $10 cover but the place still sucked but at least I was there with friends. I heard rumors of $1 Vodka drink but I sure was getting charged more than $1.

Day 2 – Driving and Spring Lake

We slept in the next morning so we did not get into Spring Lake until after 6PM. We normally go to Grand Rapids this day but we were all exhausted so we did not go and ended up going to sleep early. I think this was an awesome move and enabled me to go strong all the way up till the last day.

Day 3 – Fishing, Spring Lake, and Grand Haven

We woke up bright and and early to fishing. Unfortunately for Mike and I, our bodies did not like this morning. I took Dramamine but it could not hold up to the 4 to 5 foot waves on the water. I felt sick almost as soon as we hit Lake Michigan. Fortunately, I felt better are a little bathroom time. We also only caught 1 small King Salmon so the effort was not worth it.

The disastrous day continued when we thought we were helping out by cleaning the “Scream Machine.” Unfortunately, we thought Jeff’s Dad told us to beach the boat, which we did, but he did not because one of the props has a history of not going back down. After a couple hours of being on a rocking boat (that also made me not feel good after I got off) we were able to fix the issue by jumping the hydraulic solenoid. Afterward, We took the boat for a quick spin but had to get ready to go out.

We hit up Kirby’s that night. I had planned to explore the city but was still not feeling the best so I decided to stick with the boys for the night.

Day 4 – Spring Lake and Grand Haven

This Saturday is supposed to be the best day on the Hanky Pank for the entire summer due to Coast Guard week. Unfortunately it rained the entire day plus it was cold but that didn’t stop hundreds of boats from being out in the cove. We had a lot of fun. Some people on our boat did have an almost near run-in with the law after a water balloon launcher incident but everything worked out.

Mike and I decided to mix it up and no go to the Kirby this night. On the suggestion of Mr Kennedy and a little luck, we stumbled upon the Eagles beer tent. They had a band from Chicago that was well received. The place was packed. I at first thought it was going to be like Paddyo’s but unfortunately it never got to that level. I did have fun and enjoyed the $3 beers. Mike and I then bar hopped to Rose Bud, Theater Bar, then Kirby. We ended the night with a 1 hr cab ride to go 3 miles. Mike was pissed.

Day 5 – Spring Lake and Grand Rapids

This was by far the best day out of the trip. The sun was out in full force in Spring Lake but I was surprised with how little boats were on the Hanky Pank. We did pull up to some good boats with a lot of girls and had a lot of fun. Once we were pulled in, we cleaned up and drove to GR. Unlike the other times in GR, we only went to one bar; Crush in the BOB. It is an 18 and up bar and there were very little people over 21. The good part was there was a lot of dancing, super cheap drinks, and no cover.

Day 6 – The drive home

Nothing really memorable for the drive home. I drove a little bit and spent the rest of the time sleeping, surfing the web, and writing this post. We dd though hit up a Chinese buffet.

Memorable Moments

• Steve and his “wedding ring”
• The most stupid 19 year old I have ever met in Chicago. “What do you mean to 55? There is no 255 in Chicago.” I still think she is clueless.
• Watching all the “kids” bump and grind at Crush in GR. I remember the days of just going up to every girl you could with to dance.
• Someone stealing the floating couch and having the boys swim to the other side of the cove to retrieve it.
• Everything associated with the water balloon incident
• The inability to get a cab in Grand Haven and the fights that ensue once a car/bus rolls up
• The car ride to Chicago once we “picked up supplies”
• My body not agreeing with being on a boat even though I love it so much

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.

• Am I going to get an sleep on this lake trip? Probably not but it will be a great time.
• Is the Allstar Game really going to make the town insanely crazy. The city sent out a letter to all companies within the city limits to try to reschedule any deliveries to and from your facility to reduce traffic. Really? Is there going to be millions of people driving around? Are companies going to deliberately lose money by not shipping products? Who ever wrote that should be fired for being an idiot.
• Finallly scored free Cards tickets and they are very good. Many thanks to KJ.
• My whole idea of getting in better shape for this trip went down the drain when I got sick. I tried to workout tonight but only lasted about 6 sets.
• My sholders and chest are still peeling from last week. I am really confused. I barely got burnt. Maybe I have a skin eating disease.
• Still loving the great deals I got on Sunday. Sounds like I came extremely close to buying a similar swimsuit as another guy going on the trip. That would have been a distaster. We already have a problem of all wearing white or black shirts every time we go out … lol.
• Has anyone watched the NYC Prep show? I just found out about it today. Sounds right up my alley but I can’t get it in HD so not sure if I can stand to watch standard definition.
• Looking forward to both the start of our sand volleyball league and baskeball league (for me) next week. Thanks for Sarah N. for designing the shirt. I came up with both funny names. Boutros Boutros Volley for vball and Boom Boom Pau for Bball. The bball name is a play of words for the Black Eyed Peas song but we will have a picture of Pau Gasol (of the World Champion Lakers)  instead of Pow.