Gone Fishin'

Blogging will be non existent this week and I will be in South Dakota on a week-long fishing trip. Expect pictures galore, as well as tall tales of my fishing prowess and masculinity in the great outdoors.

I didn't have a "Gone Drinkin" sign.

Blogger Was Having Technical Difficulties...

...but everything seems to be back in proper working order now. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yeah, I Changed the Damn Template Again

Usually I make changes at the beginning of the year, but the brown-on-dark-brown template was really giving me a headache.

Who Needs A Gall Bladder Anyway? (Updated)

Tomorrow is the big day for Donna. She is scheduled for surgery at 5:00 AM. I took the day off so I could hang out at the hospital being glad it's not me. Donna should be discharged around lunchtime, after which I will be playing nursemaid. We dicussed things beforehand and it's decided: if Donna is too out of it from the anasthesia or otherwise incapacitated, I will step in and tell them we want to keep the biggest stone they pull out of her.

I already have plans for it, you see.

Updated (4/15/2010 10:19am) Donna is out of surgery and doing well. The surgeon says there were no complications. At this point Donna is not sure if she feels lighter or not. With luck she will be discharged around noontime.

A Good Start On My New Year's Resolutions

One of my New Year's resolutions was to get promoted. I had been working at it for almost two years, as my managers had been pushing me to fulfill this requirement or that competentcy in order to make the jump to the next pay level.

I got word today during our midyear reviews that I have made the grade. It was pretty unexpected (at least at this point; I was thinking more end-of-year) but certainly welcome. I can't go into details about my pay grade and where I am on the complex levelling chart Microsoft uses to keep all its employees straight as we aren't supposed to talk about those sorts of things. But as of March 15th I am climbing one more rung on the Microsoft ladder. So, yay me!

At Work, So At Home

So I got swamped today at work. One of my work machines had to be wiped and rebuilt not once, but twice. Needless to say, I didn't have a lot of time to play blogger today. At the end of the day all was well so maybe tomorrow I'll get some real work done.

Once I got home, I had to set up my new home machine. Yep, I'm now a multi-machine guy at home. Or as I like to call it, I've "gone computer Mormon". I bought a Toshiba mini netbook and it arrived today. I bought it mainly as a travel machine since I have two blogs that require my attention. Also, it's nice to sit in my easy chair and type up a blog post while I watch 30 Rock. Hey, kinda like I'm doing right now!

I also managed to get both the wireless network and the workgroup set up and running, so it's like I'm an IT guy or something.

One Bad Mother

Remember that scene in Star Trek where Kirk, the guy from Flash Forward and Red Shirt Prime had to space jump onto the drilling platform?

This guy's doing to for real. My favorite part:

Within 35 seconds or so, Baumgartner will hit supersonic speeds and break the sound barrier. No one really knows what will happen at that point, but the scientists seem confident that he’ll maintain consciousness.

Well, that's all right then.

Infantpundit

A food blog gets political.

The question is, can that little dude make Beef and Broccoli?

New Writing Gig

Rob Port, the mind and voice behind Say Anything, has asked me to provide content for that site. It's quite an honor, as Say Anything is the #1 political blog in North Dakota. Rob and the other contributors write about North Dakota politics and are the face of the conservative blogging movement in the state. They've been linked and quoted by some of the biggest names in the blogosphere as well as local and national media.

Their focus isn't solely on North Dakota politics, however. They also write extensively about politics on a national level.

Words don't do justice to how excited and honored I am to be asked to contribute. I'll still be posting political content here; I will simply post political content from this site on Say Anything, and any content I write there will be linked here. Any non-political content will be found here.

I hope you'll add Say Anything as a stop in your daily surfing.

Bug Control

I won't be posting much if it all for the next couple days as I am working through the weekend to finish off some deadline work. I will be back, possibly full time, on Monday if I don't get these done and subsequently lose my job.

New Year, New Look

Well, the blog is offically one year old. With that, I decided to play around with the look a bit. One of the things I didn't like with the old template was the extremely narrow columns. This template fixes that.

The only problem I am having is getting my banner graphic to fill the entire banner control. Oh well. I'll keep trying.

Anyway, let me know if you like the new look.

Oh, and...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

What Should I Be For Halloween?

Halloween is not far away, and I am already looking forward to getting dressed up, hitting a bar, and going out to the haunted farm. Donna and I did this last year with some friends and I had a great time. As I got a lot of "wow -- that was way more fun than I was expecting; we should do it again next year!", I hope to entice more people to give it a try.

That said, I'm not sure what to go as this year? Anybody got a good idea? I prefer something in one of three categories: funny; scary with a bit of funny; flat out scary. Here is what I looked like last year (I'm on the right):

Pinhead and I come to an understanding about balancing the need
to live a christian life with the drive to rip the flesh off teenagers
with rusty hooks.

So what should I be? I'm open to all suggestions; just put them in the comments.

When Did Fargo Become A Great Restaurant Magnet?

Not long ago Fargo had a glut of good-not-great places to eat. While there was an Applebees on every corner and a Chili's in between each pair of Applebees and a TGI Friday's in between each Chili's and Applebees, there weren't a lot of choices for an exceptional meal.

Apparently overnight, several really good restaurants sprouted out of the ground around Fargo. Last night Donna and I had a belated birthday dinner for me at Norman's, a new steak and seafood joint. The steak was out of this world. I mean it was quite possibly the best I've ever had. There's nothing quite like a 26 oz ribeye cooked rare. Oh yeah: 26 oz.

Norman's is an ala carte restaurant, which is French for "asparagus costs $8". It's not a place you pack up the family for a night out. I question its long term prospects, because the place is huge (it's a renovated Bennigan's) and seats a lot of people. I can't see that place being full on a consistent basis. Not when you're going to drop a minimum of $40 per person. The overhead costs may sink it in the long run. But while it's here, I'm going to enjoy it; I hope that's a long, long time.

W.F. Maxwell's is another gem in the area. It specializes in the kind of high-falutin' fare you normally only see in reality shows about people who got famous because of sex tapes. Stuff with cilantro and cherry-mango salsa and such. It's excellent. Like Norman's, it's not cheap. The menu changes from week to week, which I love (I don't know why more restaurants don't do this, except they probably don't have the chef to pull it off).

There are not one but two great Italian places in Fargo (three if you count Johnny Carino's, which I don't. It's really good, but it's also a chain). Toscana and Grazie's are both excellent in different ways. Grazie's serves more traditional American-Italian dishes. Toscana has more exotic fare, and mixes in a little French cuisine with its traditional Italian dishes. I've been to both several times and love them.

Monte's is another hoity-toity place where parts of the menu change over time. I haven't been there in several years, but I remember that the food was very good (but pricy) and the Espressotini was incredible. (Ed. note: you don't consider it a real martini, right? Me: nope)

A step lower on the ladder for me, but still very good, are Kobe's, which I've mentioned in this space before; the Thai Orchid, where I recommend the spring rolls; and Lone Star, where you can get a pretty good steak at a pretty good price.

A couple places I haven't tried:

The Silver Moon Supper Club is a new restaurant in the area. It is owned by the proprietor of Monte's. I haven't tried it yet, but I will in the future. Based on the commercials, wherein Monte proclaims it "simply the finest dining experience in the world," I'm expecting it to be something special.

The Hotel Donaldson has a decent reputation. I've stayed in the hotel before and it's very nice; each room is uniquely decorated with pieces from different local artists.

So, who am I missing?

Of Reunions And Pork

I am in Georgia for my 20th high school reunion this week. I'll chronicle the festivities in this space (they take place Friday night and Saturday). Before all that though, the plan involves beer, pork, swimming, and Krystals. Mission accomplished:

For those of you that don't know what a Krystal is, I have an easy explanation: Krystals are basically White Castles, except good. As a matter of fact they're one of the greatest things in the world.

In between filling myself with beer, barbeque and Krystal burgers, my dad and I took time out to introduce Macy to the world of target shooting:

If you're wondering, Macy is firing a pellet rifle and a .45 replica BB pistol. After some early uncertainty, she got the hang of it and enjoyed puttin' the smackdown on some plastic cups. I don't own any guns myself, but I grew up handling them in their various age-appropriate forms (ed. note: "age appropriate" has a different definition in the American South) and believe that familiarity with firearms falls more on the side of "good idea" than "child abuse".

Sarah Came To Town, Some Things Happened, That's About All We Know

Sarah, an old friend and one-time roommate of Donna's, was in town this weekend to do some prep work for her coming nuptuals. Sarah lives in Alaska but most of her family and many, many members of the Sarah Fan Club live in North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota. For that reason, as well as the off-the-scale cool factor involved, she is getting married in Fargo next year.

We went out to dinner Saturday night at Juano's, and were treated to the typically excellent Mexican food they serve. We then retired to Duffy's, where inhibitions and moderate intake of alcohol go to die. Really, there's a mass grave out back.

Due to some storms coming through the area the power was out at the bar, which actually improved the decor immensely. Because of the power outage we all got carded. Since none of us are under thirty, out sense of self-worth and attractiveness rose considerably (and they were pretty high to begin with). By the time the power came on we were deep into our cups and were pleased to realize that we were indeed as cool and gorgeous as we suspected.

Duffy's has a seven drink minimum, so obviously we had a good time. The bar is only a few blocks from our house, so getting home was accomplished safely. Also, we made Sarah drive. You know the old saying, "friends don't let friends drive drunk unless they're visiting from Alaska". No seriously, Sarah was the responsible one and quite okay to drive. Donna certainly was not, and I had to cover Sarah's minimum. I'm just a gentleman that way.

Stupidly, I forgot my camera so there is no visual record of the festivities. That's probably just as well, but still. We are seeing Sarah again for dinner tonight (she is staying with different friends in town tonight) before she heads back to Anchorage. We'll miss her.

Confidential to KK: Sorry dude. Next time Sarah's in town we will totally get it right.

Happy Anniversary

I am in the woods right now, hopefully having a good time camping and not getting rained on, but I wanted to say "happy 52nd anniversary" to my mom and dad.

Yep. 52 years.

And yes, I'll call them when I have cell reception.

Social Butterfly

This week has been crazy with the going out and the drinking and the eating of the expensive food and the being with friends. Tuesday we got in half of the planned celebration of Macy's birthday with the dinner at Kobe's.

Wednesday we had dinner at a John Alexander's, where I overpaid for a steak but finally got to meet Kate, long-time acquaintance-of-acquaintances. She lives in L.A. and does all kinds of exciting stuff with movie star types. By reading this you are cooler for having known that I met her. You're welcome. Donna and I have a Christmastime date with her to get good and plastered. Send me your Hollywood-related questions now and I'll try and get them answered.

Tonight was the third meeting of the Microsoft Fargo Beer-Thirty Club, a group I made up in the spirit of liking to leave work early on Fridays to drink. We patronized The Winery, a small bistro-type joint owned and operated by an ex-Microsoft employee. We had a great time and I got to sample a few fine wines. You may find this hard to believe, but I've discovered that leaving work at 4:00 on a Friday to drink wine is way more fun that staying at work until 5:00. I highly recommend it.

Weekend In Harding

We spent the weekend in Harding, Minnesota, celebrating Donna's grandmother's birthday. Lots of bratwurst and burgers and the attendant intestinal drama that over indulgence can bring. We followed up the meat orgy with the traditional walk down to the river and then headed back to Fargo. When we got back we discovered everything as we had left it, right down to the dark gray skies that refuse to release any rain. It's June, and we're still having a hard time cracking 60 degrees. Thanks, Al Gore!

Blowing out the candles in the Marshall family is a collective effort.

Macy and Donna's nieces Carly (l) and Emily at play.

Macy and I skipping stones at the river.

Taking Back The Land

We finished part two of our renovation of the backyard last night. It turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself:

Before: my backyard or a deleted scene from Life After People?

After: my backyard or a clever Photoshop?

That's no Photoshop.

A bird bath... classy!

All glory to the Hypno-toad!

Two Vertebrae Surgeries Later, A Garden Grows

As promised, here are some pictures of the newly finished landscaping project in the backyard:

This is what we started with. I know. You've

seen meth labs with better landscaping.

Once you clear out all the dead hookers

and and other detritus, it's not so bad.

Hey! Now it look like two people
with college educations live here!

And so on...

Okay. That's enough.

That's one project down, about six to go to get the backyard where we want it. Don't worry, I'll keep everyone informed of our progress in this space, no need to panic.