March 31, 2008
Clone had the last of his Birthday party's this weekend. We had his kid's party at McDonalds. Which after dealing with 10 3-6 year olds for 2 hours I was ready to call it the end. The important point was that he had fun.
After his party I took Clone to his first Football Game. Well okay, he's seen his brother play flag football and middle school football, but this was semi-professional football. The Rock River Raptors. I even had his name and birthday announced over the intercom and on the jumbotron. He loved the whole thing. He was pretty good up until the start of the fourth quarter. Then he started getting tired and wanted to go home. He had a lot of fun, and keeps asking me to take him again. And I will sometime... just probably not until next year.
After the game Bruce and I hooked up with Graumagus at Carlisle's for a couple of rounds of the best damned Scottish Ale on tap. This is where Graumagus tricked me into helping him move the next day. Apparently not only did he want me to give him the extra washer and dryer that I had, but he wanted me to haul it and help move it for him too. What an ingrate!
That was all on Saturday. Sunday I wake up at noon... after not getting home until 3:30AM. Grau was supposed to call and say he was coming over. I had just gotten downstairs when there's a knock on the door. Guess who? I answer the door with, "I thought you were going to call first?" He responded with, "Yea, I remembered that as soon as I pulled up." Fortunately I was awake.
The dryer was in my basement, the washer was in the garage. They had been sitting in the same spot unused for almost 10 years. It appears that my garage roof must have sprung a leak in the winter as there was a bunch of nasty water in the washer. Which made it that much more heavy. By the way, it seems that back in the 60's they made washers using cast iron. That damn thing was heavy! The extra water didn't help. Plus we had to lift it into the back of my truck. Fortunately it's only about a 3.5 foot vertical lift.
After moving the washer and dryer into his new apartment's basement, we plugged it in to check it out. I guess a 40 year old electrical appliance sitting under the leaking roof of a garage doesn't last too well... it didn't seem to work. Owell, as I told him. It's his problem now! I offered to give him his money back... but since it was free he didn't think it would be worth the hassle.
As punishment for making him take a broken washer, which I did warn him it may not work, I had to help him move a refrigerator too. At this point I should mention that Wes did come over to help with all of this. I don't want to leave him out. We go to his sister's storage unit where the frige is sitting and try to get it out. Grau had to play reverse tetris in order to be able to even thing about sliding it out of the unit.
When he opened the door we discovered that a year and a half ago when it was put in the storage unit, his sister hadn't bothered to clean nor properly empty the thing. Yea... that wasn't pleasant.
After getting that to his new place and making 398,7485 gay jokes about his curtains and just him in general we made a nice impression on his new neighbors. Lets just say me rubbing my nipples in the parking lot and saying in a lisp, "If you think that frige is dirty now, just wait until we get together later." Yeah... I think his new neighbors believe a big ol' "bear" is moving in. Even after that and the broken washer Grau was kind enough to take Wes and I to Hooters for some Hot Wings and beer.
That sounds like it was all pretty easy going and fun, so why do I want to go back to work? Well, Ktreva is in Chicago on business leaving me home alone with the boys. I'm about ready to tranquilize both of them and hide them in a closet.
Now if you'll excuse me in the time it took me to write this, I think they managed to disassemble Clone's bed.
Posted by: Contagion at
06:38 PM
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March 04, 2008
I handled it well all day and kept myself composed, but I'm actually saddened by this news. I started really watching football in the early 80's. I remember watching Lynn Dickey, Randy Wright and Don "Magic" Majkowski lead my team on the field of glory. I also remember watching a game on September 20, 1992 when Majkowski hurt his ankle and was replaced by Favre where he lead the team to his first of many comeback victories. Over the last 16 seasons, almost half of my life, Favre lead my team to 15 winning seasons, 2 tie seasons (8-8 record), and one losing season(2005). When we won the Super Bowl in 97, Favre was easily recognized as Green Bay's favorite son.
Favre in the Super Bowl
It's not because of this that it saddens me, it's that over the last 16 seasons he's been there on the field for us. I've watched him, cheered for him and have seen him overcome many obstacles. He overcame injury, addiction to vicodin, injuries, the death of his father, his wife Deanna's breast cancer and Katrina damaging his home town. Brett was a classy man that is a role model to kids and adults. He has been a big part of my football life and I'm going to miss watching him play.
I was just happy I was able to be at his last winning game in the NFL. The most memorable game I've ever seen in my life. It was a great time and a good victory. I'm really glad I was there for it.
Thanks Brett. Thanks for everything you did for me, my team and the NFL in general. You deserve your retirement. You are one of the greatest.
However, if you come out of retirement like some people think you might, you're more than welcome back!
Posted by: Contagion at
06:06 PM
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March 03, 2008
To increase sales the management and front office offered a package deal. If you bought all the playoff tickets and the 2008 season tickets they would knock 25% off of the total package and if the Raptors didnÂ’t make it to the next level of the playoffs they would refund the money for the tickets. It was a huge savings and well worth the money. I jumped on and purchased the tickets.
The Raptors were eliminated in the first round. Meaning that the second round of the playoffs and the championship tickets should be refunded to the ticket holders that purchased them. I kept waiting and calling about the refund only to never get it. The office would give me the run around about whose fault it is or just not return my calls. At one point I called the Raptors because I had heard that some of the season ticket holders that had pre-paid for tickets were not showing as paid.
When I called they told me they did have a record of my payment. I inquired about the refund and they told me they did not have me on the list for the refund. I was about livid. They added my name to the list along with the friends of mine and my father who had all prepaid. I still received a song and dance about when we will get the refund.
My tickets where paid for in June. The last playoff game was toward the end of July. It is now the beginning of March and I still donÂ’t have my money back. They where quick to take the money out of the account, but they sure donÂ’t want to give it back.
To make matters ever worse, they changed the league they play in from the UIF to the CIFL. When they did this they sent out a nice letter saying that they decided not to raise the cost of tickets this year, like they would have received another dime from me or I would have accepted anything short of the refund they owed me. IÂ’m still fighting to get my money when the schedule comes out. They shortened the seasons from 8 home games to 6 home games. In the past they were all on a Saturday night, now some are on a Friday night. Okay, itÂ’s a little annoying as no pre-game partying, but I can live with it.
When I questioned the raise of ticket prices, I was told they didnÂ’t raise them. Yes they did! I paid for 8 home games, I got 6 home games. ThatÂ’s when I was told that I still get two home games, but they are pre-season. Pre-season, thatÂ’s right. To add insult to injury, one of the preseason games wasnÂ’t even held at the MetroCentre (The arena the games are normally played in). The night we were able to pick up tickets we had to go to this indoor sports center in Loves Park, fight with parking to get into a crowded arena to pick up tickets. Where they wanted me to pay an additional $5.00 for Clone (my four year old) to get into the game. Again, they are not getting anymore money from me.
This wasnÂ’t even a pre-season game; it was an exhibition game against some local iron-man football club. You didnÂ’t even get to see them play players of the same caliber. They had an away pre-season game against a rival team from the UIF. Then they scheduled a pre-season game on a Monday night. Monday night?!?!?! Hell, IÂ’ve given up NFL tickets because itÂ’s a Monday night game. IÂ’ll be lucky if I get home before 11:00 PM tonight. Most of the people I know canÂ’t go because they have kids and itÂ’s a school night, they have to work, they have weekday obligations or itÂ’s just not feasible.
As for the regular season games, IÂ’m going to miss half of them because they are scheduled during re-enactments. ThatÂ’s not their fault, but when you only have 6 home games, it decreases the chances of you being able to get to one if you have any other hobbies, kids or plans.
Needless to say IÂ’m a bit annoyed. I do know that IÂ’m not spending one dime more than I have to this year on this team until I get my money back. I also know that I better get a huge apology for the treatment IÂ’ve received. There are a lot of other fans out there just like me, I bet you see their support drop off this year. You donÂ’t treat your fan base like this and expect to keep them.
Posted by: Contagion at
06:45 PM
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