"Got no regard for the thing that you don't understand"

Concerts I'm going to in March and April:

• A Fine Frenzy
• Margot & the Nuclear So and Sos
• Spoon

Summer:

• DMB
• Coldplay -- their next album is supposed to come out in early summer and then they'll tour North America
• Killers -- I hope they're on tour again!

Happy Leap Day to everyone. Leap Day should be celebrated around the world. It's the seventh Leap Day of my life. 3 more leap days, and I'll be pushing 40.

"Sent my head into a backspin"

Two months into the year and it seems as though it will be another year of perpetual change. It's started with an all night dance party before leading into a ten-day Dexter bender and then a BANG* on the corner of fourth and Campbell.

Rogers has been wearing foot gear to heal a broken foot, has been to the after hours medical center for x-rays on a badly bruised arm and to a regular medical center to drain a badly bruised thumb. She's been looking incessantly for a job...any job that will keep her busy from 8 to 5 p.m. and won't have her working every weekend or evenings. She's had a rough 2008!

Meanwhile, I'm maintaining a status quo. In January, I was in Chicago twice and really enjoyed dining and meeting with two of our clients that I spent about 70% of my time working with last year. Aside from that it has been fairly monotanous recently. They really like me, which has been great. And perhaps most exciting is that one of our lead consultants verbalized that she would back me moving to Indy in a couple of years when I want to be there.

The two of us continue to enjoy several TV shows despite the lengthy writer's strike. Recently Big Brother, Survivor and Lost have kept us busy. For the first time since moving to Detroit, we're really starting to get involved in our church and meet people, which has been good. We're still looking for a Wii...

We enjoyed our first 2008 trip back home over the weekend. It was good to see friends and family. I spent a couple of hours on Saturday putting a puzzle together with my Grandpa and chatting with my Grandma. It was perhaps my most well-spent two hours this month. From Detroit, I always feel like I couldn't spend enough time with them. They've been married for 65 years and won't be around much longer. I really appreciate my Grandparents.

I also had the opportunity to play with my neice and nephew for a little while. It was good.

As the week goes on, I always get more and more tired. I always take my iPod to work on Fridays, and Fridays do usually move quickly. So tonight, I planned to do work, but decided to update my Blog. It had been too long and too infrequent for the beginning of what is promised to be an interesting year.

A Few Things & Events I Look Forward to in 2008

• Margot & the Nuclear so and sos -- concert in April and CD sometime this year, perhaps another show when they tour
• Sweet 16 Basketball --we might just be watching the Hoosiers win that trip to the Final Four live
• Vacation -- Rogers and I are going to go somewhere and it is going to rock! Last year was Chicago and it was a blast.
• Chinese Food -- 2007 was probably my best year for Chinese Food and I want to keep it rolling in 2008
• Dave Matthews Band -- Two nights this year, right? Two days of contact high -- uh oh.
• 25 -- By 2020, I'll be nearing 40. Anybody think 1997 and Third Eye Blind and Matchbox Twenty being new doesn't seem like too long ago?
• Indiana Jones -- I saw the trailer. Old Harry Ford still has it.

And there's a lot more where that came from folks.

Currently listening to: To Run - Josiah Leming

*Upon re-reading, I decided it might be best to point out that the "BANG" was a reference to our hit-and-run car accident.

"The wings are wide"

Having company come to visit your house is a great feeling...and very much appreciated, by the way. Both are that much better when you live several hours away. On that note, thanks very much to those fellows who journeyed north last weekend braving the snowy February weather in Michigan.

It was nice to have you visit and I enjoyed the adventures, including specifically playing a good old game of Risk and sitting in the movie theatre looking straight up and moving my head from side to side for a couple of hours.

You all are welcome up here anytime...Lisa will make some muffins and we'll treat you to $0.33 Cinnamon Rolls from Ikea, if you want to shop at Ikea for Cinnamon Rolls.

It's been 0 degrees in Michigan with windchills at -15. After church yesterday we grabbed takeout Chili's Chips and Salsa and huddled in to stay warm. We watched both A Perfect Murder and Batman Begins. If you haven't seen A Perfect Murder, it's worth a rent. It's a great suspense movie.

I hadn't seen Batman Begins since the theatre so it was time to rewatch in preparation for this summer's The Dark Knight.

In Six Degrees, Viggo Mortenson is in A Perfect Murder and also in The Lord of The Rings with Cate Blanchett. Cate Blanchett was in The Gift with Katie Holmes who is also in Batman Begins.

I really wanted to take LOTR to Liv Tyler who was in Armageddon with Ben Affleck who was a Newsie with Christian Bale. However, I'm nearly certain Ben Affleck wasn't a newsy so that would have been incorrect.

That's enough rambling for one 20-minute period...

Currently listening to: "I Feel it All" -Feist

"Litter little brother spills"

This evening I hooked up the old Super Nintendo Entertainment System and began to play the Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. This was prompted in no small way by the recent re-browsing of the 25 Nintendo Power magazines from the early 90s that I purchased my freshman or sophomore year of college. I know it was one of those two years, because I ripped out all of the posters and decorated my walls.

As I read about A Link to the Past, I couldn't help but get excited about playing that game. I played it for a couple of hours several years ago, but now I am planning to play through the complete game.

The last video game I played was Madden 06 on XBox. I played a whole season and won the Superbowl so I think that's about enough of that game...unless I decide to fire up the old XBox Live account again. We'll see.

The last television season I watched was Heroes Season 1. I would give it a B- or C+. It was entertaining and interesting, but also slow at parts and overall not as well-executed as it could have been.

It's goal-setting time at Mercer. Time to write down what I'm shooting for this year. It would be nice if someone told me what I had to accomplish to get promoted. Then I would write those things down. Perhaps coming up with my own goals is one of the first steps toward that promotion. If I am promoted someday, I'll have 5 more vacation days. That's what I'm working towards folks. I am a fan of taking vacations to rejuvinate.

Happy Fridays to you all.

Currently listening to: "Dogs" -- Damien Rice