Why I Oughta...

We've missed you .

I need some help from the East Coaster's who read RhodesSchool. I've had nothing but bad luck from pretzel vendors. First it was in NYC, today the problem occurred in Boston. I enjoy the speed of acquisition and feel for food cart vendors on the street. I've done plenty of shopping from street vendors for "goods" and I will, on occassion buy a meal from a street cart vendor. I like that it's all cash. I like that it's a one-man operation. And...I like the whole thought about cart "turf" that I have in my head. ( how do you get the prime corners? Seniority? Does the Outfit control the turf?, etc... ) In the midwest, where I grew up, we had "big" or "jumbo" pretzels that were served hot. They were always, without exception soft. They were chewey and usually had salt applied to them and if you were feeling friskey, you'd even dip them in some yellow mustard - they're fantastic. In both NYC and now in Boston...

September 6, 2008. 365 days away. If you head over to our wedding blog , you'll see the countdown widget is finally under the one year mark. Natalie and I were engaged last December, so we're 9 months into it with 20 to go. Seems like a long time, eh? It is. But for Nat, the planning never stops. I'm excited about gearing up for this year and all that it entails. We've secured the venue, the caterer, and the church. That leaves pretty much everything else. Nat's on top of it, so I don't have to be. We're having a discussion over the band as we speak. I want one group, she wants another. We all know who's going to win that battle. There's so much to do and see that Nat has even started to write a secondary blog about all the wedding things she sees and reads about called i heart peonies . She's a great writer who puts a smile on my face. You should go subscribe to her feed on the site now. I'm excited that she's enjoying t...

I'm supporting Rudy Giuliani for President in 2008. I like who he's picked to head his campaign in Illinois: Tom Cross and I like what he brings to the discussion. I also think he can actually win in November and not make this election a referendum on Iraq. Over the long holiday weekend, the campaign launched a new website. Go check it out here . It looks nice, doesn't it? All shiny and patriotic, right? There's a few things wrong. First of all, there are zero feeds on the site. I can't subscribe to his news, blog, press releases, video. Nothing. Shame. I know I'm not the only one who would subscribe to the blog. (if it were actually a blog...) They've made, what I consider a larger error, however. The campaign had offered some nice badges on the site as a way to embed some javascript and demonstrate your support for Rudy. I had one of them on this very blog over on the right. See where it just says: JoinRudy2008.com? That used to be a nic...

As Nat and I are packing our bags and heading out the door this afternoon for a drive down to St. Louis for the Labor Day weekend, my mind keeps wandering back to a post I wrote almost a year ago . We're multi-tasking in St. Louis: Nat is going to a wedding and I'm going to see my Illini take on the Mizzou Tigers in something they're billing as the "Arch Rivalry" . I'll be tagging along to the wedding, and Nat has consented to joining me at the game, so it's a win-win for everyone involved. While I'm putting on my orange t-shirt, I keep thinking that we should have a similar impact on St. Louis that Clemson has on towns they travel to. In fact, other teams could/should be doing this, too. The Hawkeyes of Iowa are playing NIU at Soldier Field tomorrow. Imagine all those crazy farm folks from Iowa staying at the Fairfield Inns and La Quintas around the Chicagoland area spreading out 2 dollar bills with yellow hawks on them at the Chi-Chi's and O...

If you think Guitar Hero is popular on college campuses across the country, wait until they get their hands on this . Midway, the video game manufacturer, is coming out with Beirut or Beer Pong for the Wii. Video game publisher Midway has a new game coming out for the Wii system. “Party Game” will consist of several games including shuffleboard, darts, and ski ball, but the game that will take over college campuses this fall is Wii beer pong. Or Wii Beirut. Or “Ping Cup” as Midway refers to it: The object of ping cup is to use the Wii remote to throw a ping-pong ball at a pyramid of cups. Seems like that "Flippy cup" game is a natural fit for the Wii isn't it? A little flick of the Wiimote and you turn your cup over? That would round out the package.

One of the by-products of traveling for work is that you end up alone in a smallish hotel room with nothing to do but surf the web and watch television. If that wasn't bad enough, for me, it's been summer-time television - which means a lot of reruns, reality shows, and filler. Last night I ended up watching part of Last Comic Standing, which is a show that is trying to find the "best" comic in America. (as a side note, they must be looking for the best amateur, right? But...what really is an "amateur comedian"?) Anyway, I think I might have found my new favorite comedian: Lavell Crawford. He made me laugh out loud repeatedly. This morning, one of the first things I did was look up some of his other material on YouTube. It's priceless. I have no idea if he survived last night's show, but if his act was the only consideration, they should hand him the prize right now.