PARTY TIME!!

Happy New Years All! Im about to head out the door with Val to Craig and Becki's NYE party. Should be a lot of fun. Im taking my camera with me to get a few pics. Hopefully i can post them on the site. Last night we had a really great Dinner Club outting. We went to a place called Thai Tango. WOW. Simply some of the best Asian food Ive ever had! Great atmosphere, great food and great friends. Overall, a great time! One of our friends flaked out and bailed on us just before dinner. Oh well, her loss. There were 6 of us, including CURLY, (ha!) and we all had a really good evening together. Well im out of here. I will update the site with party info and pics from tonight!

Another One Bites the Dust

Well another Christmas has come and gone. It was a good one this year. Everybody together with lots of great gifts, given and gotten. It started out Christmas eve. I went with Valerie to her parents house. They do their big feast and present exchange on the 24th. They had so much good food I could barely walk when I left there for the drive to my parents house, two hours later. I got one of the coolest gifts from my girlfriend Valerie. Long ago I had talked about getting a hermit-crab. She rememberd and got me a very large hermit-crab with a 10 gallon tank, sand, food/water bowls and play things for him. The next day I went down to the pet store and bought another hermie and another fake driftwood thing with plants growning on it so they have something to climb. I named the large hermie, Krusty... and the newest one I bought, Sideshow Bob. Soon I hope to get my web cam up so I (or anyone else) can watch them during the day. Most the time they are pretty still. But sometimes they get very adventurous and roam and climb around in their tank. As for giving presents, I got Val a few things she had been wanting and needing. One of those things being the movie Finding Nemo. We watched it. Pretty funny for kids or grown ups. I also got my brother a starter paintball gun. We plan on playing again on Jan. 4th and now he has a gun to shoot back with. I plan on taking quiet a few action shots and even some video I can share on the main site.
On another note, the Ghost Recon club I play often with, Red-Sector Inc., accepted me in as a full member! Read all about it at www.red-sector.com .

Chillin on Saturday

Im just hanging out at the pad right now, waiting for Val to give me a call up. We're supposed to go out and do some final Christmas shopping. I still have to get my Mom, Dad and sisters presents. Its all under control. I might go see The Last Samuri tonight with Craig. Looks like an excellent movie. The weather is really nice outside right now. Its close to 68F out and sunny. Sometimes I do miss the snow of Chicago, but i cant complain when i can just wear a long sleeved shirt and jeans and be comfortable. Well Im off to get things done.

The Un-Dead

Today I read one of the most interesting news articles that ive seen in a long time. It was a story from London, England. It seems that the CCTV (security) camera's at Hampton Court Palace, home of King Henry VIII, captured a ghostly figure. Some security guards noticed on their monitor that the double doors of a fire escape were open. They walked out to inspect for intruders and to shut the doors. When they got there, the doors were shut. So they go back to their office to review the video tape. To their disblief, they see a figure in a long thick robe, step out of the darkness of the doorway and close the doors! The freeze frame picture of the figure is incredibly creepy. The palace museum swears it was not a hoax or a prank. They have no explanation for it. From the picture, Id have to say if it was a joke, they did a VERY good job. Its one of the best ghost pictures Ive seen in quite a while. You really just have to see it for yourself. Have a look!!! Go to www.thorpeland.com/ghost.htm

Man Down!

This past Sunday we played another game of paintball. Man, what fun! This time we only had 5 guys, so we played games of 3 vs 2.... hunter/seeker. The 2 man team would go out into the woods and hide. The 3 man team would proceed to slowly hunt them through the woods. Once the teams found eachother, a fierce firefight would break out. Paintballs were flying everywhere, splattering through the trees and branches. With everyone using semi-auto paintball markers, you can shoot as fast as you can pull the trigger. In a single firefight, I would easily burn through 200 rounds of paint. I actually had a pretty good day. Only hit twice all day long. While on the other hand, I was able to land game ending shots on Paul, Courts, Adam and Ken. I even fired a few extra rounds into Courts after he was "dead". He said he yelled "Hit!" but I told him I thought he yelled "Not yet!". Hahaha It was a fun day for everyone. We all went home with humorous war stories to think about until the next time we play. Which should be in a couple weeks. Probably after christmas. I took some pictures with my camera phone, and I may post them if I get the chance.

Wal-Blog

I'm sitting in the checkout line in walmart blogging on my Sidekick. Kinda funny. Man this line is slow. Oh, good news. I found out today that I've been taken in as a "candidate" with a Ghost Recon gaming club (clan), called RSi. Check them out, www.red-sector.com. They are a great group of guys from all over the world. Not to mention they are pretty decent gamers. Geeze, why can't parents control their kids?! The kid in front of me in line is on the floor smashing all the candy in the in line display. The mom just keeps looking down at her and smiling. Will mommy do somthing about this kid or do I need to drop kick it out of the line? Harsh? Maybe.

Surprise, Surprise... Surprise!

My friend Jarod is graduating from college this semester and his girlfriend contacted me and our group of friends to say she's organizing a suprise birthday dinner for him tonight. Should be fun. It's at a Thia food restaraunt. Ive never had Thia food, but I like most other asian cuisines so I'll give this a good try. We are meeting tonght at 7pm and Jarod thinks its only he and his girlfriend, Andrea, having the dinner.
On another note I heard a funny story today. My friend Brandon, Valerie's brother works for a local video rental store. He tells me yesterday he gets a call from a guy who says, "my movie is due tonight but Im not going to be able to bring it in. How can we take care of this over the phone." HA! Brandon politely tells the guy he cant. He has to bring the movie back... thats just the way it works. The nerve of some people... thinking they can talk their way out of being charged when clearly they are at fault.
Tomorrow is another Paintball War day. We are meeting at our wooded location at 9:30am and will battle it out for a few hours. This should be a ton of fun. We are expecting about 10 guys. I'll try to take some pictures.

Woo-Whoo!! ... DOH!

Well this weekend in the NFL it was a weekend of good followed by not so good. First off, the dallas cowgirls lost BIG TIME to the Philidelphia Eagles. That was awesome! With McNabb back and healthy, the Eagles easily picked apart dallas' weak secondary and handled all of the dallas blitz packeges like champs. On one of them, McNabb scrambled out of the pocket away from the dallas players for a 30 yard gain down to the 4 yard line. They scored a couple plays later. On the not so good side of things, my Chicago Bears were leading the Greenbay Packers 14-0 but later blew it to lose 32-21. Oh well, still a good weekend.
As far as activities this past weekend it was pretty low key. Me, Val, Craig and Becki went over to Dave & Busters Friday night for dinner and games. That was a whole lotta fun. We did learn one thing. Of the four of us, Valerie is the best shot with a basket ball. On the time B-ball shooting game where you have 24 seconds to make as many baskets as possible, I shot 21, Craig shot 8, Becki shot 4 and Valerie shoots out the lights with 32!! Great fun.
Also, I started playing FIFA 2004 online after playing enough one player games to be proficient with the controls. My first match up was against a guy from the U.K., using Real Madrid. I knew this would be a tough game so I went with my favorite team A.C. Milan. It turned out to be a very well balanced game. Both sides getting plenty of scoring chances. Late in the second half I had my shot bounce of the goal post, almost a game winner for sure! Moments later, he gets a break away with David Beckham into my penalty box. In a last second desparation tackle, I bring him down and are called for a penalty shot. Well my instincts were correct. I guessed to dive right and made the penalty save! Then, with less than 30 seconds left, he fires one from the top of my penalty box which deflects off my defenders leg and into the upper right corner of my net. He runs out the clock and takes the 1-0 win. Oh well, it was a fun game. Im sure I will win more in games to come!

Blown Chances

Well its the morning after my game which i mentioned in my last posting. What should have been a sure victory, ended in an embarassing 8-8 tie. Lots of mistakes and sloppy defense gave our lesser opponent plenty of chances to get shots on our goal. And they did. By mid second half, we were leading 7-2. Normally this would be enough to secure a win if we just play smart and run down the clock. But no, we didnt. They pulled it to 6-8 with :44 seconds left on the clock. They score and then one of our guys takes his time returning the ball to the center after the goal, so the ref calls a delay of game penalty on him giving him a 2 minute penalty in the box. So now we're down a man. They throw everything they have at us the last :40 seconds, scoring the tieing goal with 6 seconds left. I grab the ball run back to the center circle and look up to see their goalie still high-fiving his team. The ref blows the whistle to start play and with 3 seconds left I chip the ball deep towards their goal hoping to catch him unaware. Their keeper dives back towards the goal line to make the save and tips it just over the open net. Saving the spoiler for them. We had our chances, we should have won. We have to get better.

Untested Opponent

Im preparing for my 9pm soccer game tonight. We're playing a team that is new to our division. So we really arent sure what to expect. But, we have a good squad this season so I think the odd's are strong we'll get a win tonight. But you never know. I'll update soon after the game. After last weeks huge 18-4 slaughter we dished out, team morale is at full throttle. I doubt will score that many again. I hope we do though.

Precious Cargo is in the Nest

Got the pleasure of driving down to DFW International Airport tonight to pick up my mom flying back in from Florida where she was attending my grandfathers funeral. Not too bad of a drive, only about 20 minutes for me. I was afraid traffic was going to spoil my 7pm pickup. Not to fear, I zipped thru traffic in the Saturn 5 Turbo and had her, 2 dogs and 5 suitcases loaded up and headed north before we new it. On the way home my mom confessed a rather chilling story. She said around 1:30am on the morning my grandfather passed away, she woke up suddenly after having an extremely vivid dream of my grandfather standing in the doorway of the room she was sleeping in. He was gesturing and trying to tell her something, then he turned and walked away into the room next door. This woke her up and she couldnt go back to sleep. At 8am, the doctor called the house to tell her my grandfather had passed away earlier that morning. Yeah, strange to say the least. Was it a coincidence, just a dream created from the stress of the situation... or was it really a message being given to her as he passed away? We'll never know for sure but it is awful interesting. Well grandpa... if your somewhere else now and your reading blogs on the internet and you come across mine, we got your message. Goodbye. :(

Bad Santa

Valerie, me, Becca and Dan went and saw the movie Bad Santa on Sunday. As far as comedy's go it would be considered a "dark comedy". But it was still a funny movie. If you are offended by lots of drinking, sex and the "F" word, dont go. Billy Bob Thornton plays his normal slob, perv character very well in this one. But for Christmas movies for this season my favorite still stands with Will Farrels, "Elf". I'll give Bad Santa a 6 out of 10. Entertaining but nothing to go home and wait for the DVD release over.
Oh I almost forgot to mention how great this weekend was simply for the fact that the dallas cowgirls lost BAD to the Miami Dolphins and my good old Chicago Bears whipped up on the Cardinals late Sunday. I love it when a plan comes together. haha