OMG am I tired today.

Just got an email from Amazon with this deal. This is the laptop I got for $250 a few weeks ago.

Couldn't sleep last night. Tossed and turned. Need a nap.

Happy Thanksgiving! Go Browns!

I definitely have a few things to be thankful for. I'm not gonna write the list down here, but I am very fortunate. It's a long list and I don't have all night. I've really been feeling lately that I need to "give back" somehow. With Christmas being so consumerist, it drives me nuts to see so many people attached to "stuff". The holidays are not about spending your ass off. I want to volunteer at a soup kitchen or something starting sometime soon and then doing it on a regular basis. It's something that's been sort of pressing on me for a while now, like I need to do it as soon as possible.

Dinner with mom, John, and Julie on Thursday. J/J almost certainly would not have joined everyone at Caprice's mom's place for the huge feast, so it was just the 4 of us at my place. I cooked prime rib. Turned out great but the gravy was missing something. MUCH easier than cooking turkey, although I have no plans to do it every year. I like turkey, and my turkey gravy blows away my beef gravy.

Buckeyes beat Michigan and THE BROWNS BEAT THE STEELERS!!!! Christmas comes early this year. OSU win was no surprise, and I knew CLE had a chance with the rapist on the bench, but I don't think anyone really thought they would win. Even with the Stillers pinned back at their own 4 yard line and 20 seconds left, I expected disaster. Still 1 game to play against them, it would be amazing to sweep them for the season.

Speaking of Christmas, I have changed my mind on the phone I'm getting in December. Caprice got the Samsung GS3, and damn is it nice. Beautiful screen, great camera. Doesn't feel nearly as big as it looks. The entire front is all glass that rounds off at the edges, making it silky smooth. I also like the Android interface so much more than iOS. It's MUCH more stylish and pleasing to the eye. iOS has barely changed in 6 years. The newer Android 4.x OS seems quite a bit more stable than the 2.3 version I'm running on the Evo. I'll still give the iPhone a better grade for physical style and software stability, although Android has made huge strides with 4.x. I'm just hooked on that screen. Oh, and it's gonna cost at least $200 less for the phone and around $500 less in accessories and software over the life of the phone. Actually, the only iPhone software I really miss is the CycleMeter app, which was pretty cool.

Finished the book Proof of Heaven last week. Very interesting. Then, in an additional synchronistic event, I turned on the TV last week and there was the author, telling his story. He has a website and also does presentations. I'll have to check him out if he comes around.

So...what else happened over the last week...I was off work, which was nice. Got the Jeep cleaned, waxed, and detailed. Got some work done on my home PC that I'd been waiting to do. Mostly backups.

Rescued my crazy cousin from a biker bar on Friday night. I had stopped by to bring him some Thanksgiving leftovers, and called his phone when I got there, but when he answered he was already at the Trading Post. He was with a neighbor (young kid) and they were staying until the bar closed. It was 7:30 and he was pretty hammered already, so I went to get him out of there.  Glad I did, because there was no way he was gonna make it 7 more hours. He was stumbling into bikers' girlfriends and getting some serious stink eye. Worst of all were the prospects for the biker group (I didn't actually even get their name). The prospects are ready to throw down for the group at any minute, and those guys were pretty scary. I think they've seen a few too many Sons of Anarchy episodes.

I'm also getting ready to try a 3-day juice cleanse/detox. Doesn't sound too bad, and 3 days isn't a big deal.

World War Z

I had this as a book on tape from Audible. I liked it but don't recall much of it. Which is why I no longer get books on tape. I don't have much hope that the movie will be any good but I'm gonna have to see it.

Today is my mom's birthday. Took her out to Bubba's Q in Avon. Decent food. Service and atmosphere were a 2 out of 5.

November Update!

Halloween Party
Went to a Halloween party and had a great time. Got my pimp on. 

Recent Movies:
Flight - 3.8 out of 5 stars
Cloud Atlas - 4 out of 5 stars
The Perks of Being a Wallflower - 3.8 out of 5 stars
The Hobbit makes its big screen debut on12/14!

Books
Play Something Dancy
Dee Simon of the Sick and Wrong Podcast writes this expose' on his 5 years as a strip club DJ. He's got some hilarious stories, I highly recommend it, and check out the podcast too, it's always worth a laugh

Proof of Heaven
From one extreme to the other. This book is a non-fiction work by a retired neurosurgeon that contracted a rare form of e. coli meningitis and was in a coma for a week with zero brain activity. While in the coma he visited what could be referred to as heaven and met the higher power we refer to as God. I'm about 2/3 done so far and it's very interesting. I've been trying to wrap my head around my own mortality since my dad passed away 2 years ago, and I have to say that this book is encouraging for agnostics or people with no faith.


Cavs game
Eskimo hooked up me and Slacks with some free Cavs tix. Bad seats but we had a decent time. Tilted Kilt for grub and brews before the game. 

Hurricane
Had 4 days off work due to the "superstorm" that rolled through. It was pretty crazy, there were trees down everywhere.

Poker
Won my session before the Cavs game, and lost after the game. Ended up down a buy-in after winning $160 earlier.  Haven't played since.


Black Pig
Me and Caprice stopped in to check out the place on Friday. Very stylish looking place and the food was killer. I had roasted duck breast...mmmmmmm! We got free drinks and dessert since the owners' kid goes to the place Caprice works, so that was cool too. My only complaint was the classic rock in the background. Just didn't seem to fit.

Election
My Constitution Party candidate sadly did not win. I did get to see Karl Rove get skewered by Fox News. That was a beautiful thing.

Technology
The school levy at work passed, so we will be getting a $500k wireless network installed. They have already started at one building. Pretty exciting.

Also exciting is the like-new Asus laptop I scored on Craigslist. Core i5 CPU, 6GB RAM, 750GB hard drive. I pulled the SSD drive from my Dell and put it in the Asus. This thing screams, I really like it and it looks kick-ass. Gonna sell my Dell Core i3 to TK for $250, which is what I paid for the Asus. The Dell is going for $350+ on eBay right now, and the Asus around $500. Basically I'll get a free upgrade, so that works for me and TK gets a nice laptop at a great price. The Dell is probably the best laptop I've owned.

I'm gonna go check out the new Microsoft Surface tablets sometime soon. Might have work trade in my iPad for it if possible. With a full copy of Win8 on the Surface, I can use it for a lot more work functions.

This past week
Did a hike with the NEO Hiking Meetup the last couple weekends. Got a little lost with week but got some great exercise out of it.


Upcoming
I'm off the week of Thanksgiving! Black Friday road trip is at the CLE Horseshoe Casino this year. Kinda cool, no 2-hour drive in blinding snow. That one year was pretty crazy where we almost went off the road down a monster embankment.

I am also having my annual Nightmare Before Christmas tourney. $40 donkament and low stakes cash game. Should be fun.

Taking my mom out to dinner tonight for her birthday (tomorrow). Heading to Bubba's Q. Never been there, I hear it's good.

That's about it for now. Oh, almost forgot...the weather SUCKS!