This much I know.

Friday, at the Globe's Halloween party, which I told you about in the previous post, was a very interesting experience for me. Not in the idea that I was working a special event in a bar, that's old to me by now, having been a dj and currently hosting pub quiz. No, the interesting and new bits came from the people who showed up and participated in the scavenger hunt.

It all started when you walked in the bar. You had the option of participating by paying $10 and receiving a tankard with a map and a free drink ticket inside. The map was also available behind the bar, drawn on the mirror. The first clue on the map led you first to a glowing Bud Light sign behind the bar, which then sent you to the Golden Tee game, where the next clue was taped to the side of a pumpkin, which I had helped carve that afternoon:

Marooned he was for many a year
You see him wandering, drinking a beer.
Seek the Flying Kiltsman, he has the clue
To put you on the path that is true.

The Flying Kiltsman, that was me. I was him. So folks came to look for me, and I sent them along to a clue beneath the Arsenal Football Club's flag in the front bar, which then led them to the back, where we made them do a shot and "walk the plank." Somehow or another, I wound up in charge of making people walk the plank, so I had a double-duty. Honestly, the second of my duties was slightly more fun. After walking the plank, blindfolded and spun around after drinking a sugary shot, they were told to find a howling bartender, who served them yet another shot, and then they were entered into a drawing for $100.

What's missing from this description is D, a regular at the bar, who is more than qualified to be the bar's pirate expert. She came in full costume, carrying a flogger. Some folks, who were having troubles walking the plank, received a little "encouragement" from D. Pictures, which were taken almost entirely by her camera, will be available soon. We were, I will say, quite a pair.

Thing two missing from the description is the Globe's own version of grog. It was pineapple juice with orange juice, Sprite, and dark rum. It was sweet and tasty and gave me a massive, 'why-am-I-still-alive' hangover the next morning. Oh, and the name of the pirate ship was The Crimson Beaver, which was also the name of the shot of the night for people to do. The shot was Watermelon Pucker with Sprite, well vodka, and something else I'm chosing to never drink again. Sad that I can't remember precisely was it is.

Needless to say, I'm more than happy the whole thing is over, especially my hangover, which was enough to make me swear off of many different kinds of booze indefinitely. Did I have fun, though? Oh, hell yeah!

How my boring life turns suddenly interesting.

Last night, I didn't want to eat anything I had in the house, which wasn't much in the first place, so I made the executive decision to go to the Globe for a sandwich and a couple beers, maybe even some fine conversation with a friend or two.

I wandered in, and sat down at the bar, and ordered a Belhaven, as I've had too much Guinness lately. I chatted with the bartenders, and my pub quiz waitress, and ordered one of my favorite sandwiches, the buffalo chicken sandwich. It is very mmm-mmm good. As I sat there, the owner of the bar came downstairs and found me. "Don't leave. Whatever you do, do not leave until I talk to you," he said with a look of urgency in his eye. I told him not to worry, I'll stick around for a bit. It took a few minutes, but he made his way back to me just as I was ordering another drink. "I've been meaning to talk to you about the scavenger hunt."

They're throwing a big halloween bash tonight, which includes a scavenger hunt. We had spoken about it just before my birthday, but there wasn't a clear message as to what exactly my role was in the whole thing. Last night I found I was to write the scavenger hunt. One of the added bonuses, is I am one of the stops on the scavenger hunt. If you happen to be around, and if you happen to stop in, you'll probably see me dressed similarly to this picture.

So, today, I put the finishing touches on the scavenger hunt, carved a pumpkin for the first time in probably 15 years, and am looking very forward to snacking on roasted pumpkin seeds later tonight.

silly, because life is too much right now.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 2 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Rattle, rattle, thunder, clatter, boom-boom-boom...

Don't worry. Call someone. I'm sure you'll be able to figure out who.

Life, friends and neighbors, is very interesting. The skeleton in my closet is rattling yet again. This time, with motives unknown. This could be dangerous. On the positive side, the woman I like likes me, too, so I've got that going for me.

Sleep should be here soon. I hope so, as I am sick as a dog. I also don't seem to sleep much.

Opinions really are like assholes.

Joey posted this pic the other day, from SANCTUARY blog

The image got stuck in my head, honestly, and I kept trying to figure out what it reminded me of. Finally, after some mindless wall-staring contests, I realized what it was:
I'm not sure why, but that's what it reminds me of.

To get back to the title, and the point, of this whole post, my step-sister is now an E-2 in the Navy, soon to be an E-3. She looks very good in a uniform, and she's the happiest I've ever seen her. At the beginning of graduation, before they sent the 8 divisions of seaman recruits in, they showed us, the family and friends, a video of what their boot camp was like. My step-mother and I were both a little surprised to learn that they not only gave my step-sister a gun, but that she won a ribbon as a marksman.

After that, they showed us a video about the war we're not fighting in Iraq- the one we supposedly won, what, 2, 3 years ago. It basically glossed over the issues, and made it seem like no one ever gets hurt in combat. I felt almost like I was watching a cartoon.

It should go without saying that I got a little red under the collar. I also got to thinking, which eventually formed into an idea once I had met up with my friends for drinks and general mayhem later on. I was discussing the video with my friend J, the anarchist who says he'll vote for me if I run for president in 2008. We got into it a little about the causes of the war, where the blame lies, etc., etc.

You want to know what I blame the Iraq war on? Well, if you're still reading, I'll tell you then. I blame it on NASCAR.

I'm not shitting you. NASCAR lulls people into thinking that they're watching a sport, a sport where people drive in a circle for hundreds of times in a row. NASCAR consumes vast amounts of fuel in qualifiers, practices, and actual races, and wouldn't you know it, they bitch about the price of gas, too.

Anyways, the conspiracy theory I'm trying to put forth is that NASCAR hypnotizes people into watching a sport that is entirely dependent on gasoline and oil, which we're supposedly not fighting a war (that we're not still fighting) about, and most folks I know who enjoy NASCAR are from, drumroll please, red states. Red states, of course, enabled a jackass to be elected POTUS not once, but twice. That jackass then got together with a bunch of cronies and a boatload of bullshit and got us into a 21st century version of Viet Nam.

The dominoes, my friends have fallen.

I could, of course, be talking out of my ass, that's very much so a possibility. I'm just going to stick with my non-subliminal hockey and my blue state and my cold beer and that is that.

I am the very model

As I'm sure you're all aware, I celebrated my birthday last week. In case I haven't already thanked everyone, thanks again. One phone call is still reeling in my head, actually. The phone call my father placed to me. Once he had wished me a happy b-day, we got to chatting, as my cab rushed me away from Rogers Park, down to my neighborhood, after seeing The Science of Sleep (which I can't really recommend, unless you speak Spanish and French and enjoy Bjork videos to an extreme), he asked a strange question my father usually doesn't ask me.

"What are you doing next Friday?"

I knew I had friends coming to town that night and that I was going to the Wolves home opener on that Saturday, but the potential of having my dad visit me in Chicago got me all atwitter. Alas, it wasn't meant to be. What's really happening is my step-sister, unbeknownst to myself, my father, or my stepmother, had enrolled in the US Navy. They found out the day they came around to tell her where to report, which is, of course, Great Lakes Military Academy, right here in the cozy Chicagoland Area. She is graduating tomorrow, and my stepmother and I are attending graduation, as well as a reception for honored recruits.

I have to admit that I'm more than a little proud of her.

I'm also worried. There's this war that isn't going on in the Middle East, and some nut over in North Korea who's making his case at being the next target of this misled administration. I've had family in the Navy, even a step-nephew of mine graduated a couple years ago, and I have friends who have also served, most notably Bosco, who tells me that the safest place to be in the modern navy is aboard an aircraft carrier. He would know, too, as he served on the Nimitz. I'm going to try to hint that it might be a good idea to request that, if she can.

In other news, it was my grandfather's 74th birthday on Friday, the primary reason for my trip out to the ancestral homes near Chadwick, IL. He's looking good, he's lost a lot of weight, but he's a fighter, and he's so amazingly upbeat is makes me jealous. Oh, and he had no idea I was coming out there, so the surprise was priceless.

A bonus for my trip out there was that my cousin's homecoming football game was that night. He's a senior this year, and he's the last of the male grandchildren for our generation, so it'll be a while before I have someone I'm related to to root for in a game, so I was more than happy to go out and support the team's captain. It was fun, and the game included a 93 yard kickoff return by the home team, who won 30-24.

Again, I have to admit that I'm a little more than proud of him.

Last week, I applied for a job that I thought I would really like. I applied through a website, so it required me to upload my resume, which I made public, in case someone else might be interested in a guy like me. That was Tuesday. On my birthday I took 4 calls and received 2 e-mails. On Thursday, still more calls and e-mails, and this week, I got a lead that I really liked, so this morning, I woke up early, showered, shaved, put on a suit and headed down for an interview. I'm not going to comment on the interview yet, as I don't want to jinx myself (I've been unemployed so long, I'm getting superstitious). Afterwards, I went over to my old Tower to do some shopping before they close permanently- they're going out of business, so time is short!

Lastly, my beloved Chicago Wolves are starting up their season tomorrow night. I'm excited to have hockey back. Very, very, very, very excited to have hockey back. I just can't hide it. I'm about to lose control, and I think I like it.

BlogACatMas

I'm heading out to the farm for my grandfather's birthday, but decided that I couldn't miss BlogACatMas:
Speaking of odd photos that came up during my search for an appropriate picture of the all-too-photogenic Mia, here's a picture of a confused Scotsman, a crazy karaoke jockey, a pretty Texan and a roasted pig:

And just because it happened, and I laughed endlessly at it, here's a picture of a bottle of mustard that didn't make it:

Is it in the stars?

For a while, here at Logan's Dave, I posted my horoscope for the previous day when I wrote about it, just to see what came true and what didn't. It was a silly experiment, but still kinda fun. So, for the next year or so, let's keep the following two horoscopes in mind, both from the Chicago Sun-Times:

F OCT. 4 IS YOUR BIRTHDAY: Actress Susan Sarandon (1946) shares your birthday today. You have excellent taste, and you appreciate beautiful things. You like harmony and are pleasant to others. Nevertheless, you're forceful and direct! (You rule with a velvet glove.) You're not afraid to take a risk. People are attracted to your humor and your modern ideas. Work hard this year for rewards in 2007.

IF OCT. 4 IS YOUR BIRTHDAY: This year, you use your talent to produce remarkable accomplishments. Who you love loves you this month. November features double the workload. You handle it and are paid well. Living conditions get an upgrade in April. Travel in June -- anywhere you've never been is fantastically lucky. Cancer and Leo people let you know you are so loved. Lucky numbers are 6, 34, 20, 45 and 11.

Thanks to everyone who sent cards, called, sent e-cards, bought me drinks, sang karaoke with me, or watched a strange movie with me for my birthday.

Why I posted so angrily this morning.

I hear that it is appropriate to never go to bed angry, that this is a good guideline to a happy marriage, blah, blah, blah.

Well, friends and neighbors, I went to bed angry last night (this morning), and I woke up just as angry.

Mind you, I'm not angry that I'm having a birthday, although I did falter in my stoic "it doesn't matter that I'm having a birthday" stance yesterday. I'm angry because the bar that I run a certain event in suddenly dropped a bunch of changes on me last night. I'm sure you all remember how much I like surprises, so I'll avoid that speech. Allow me to finally get down to the point: I am no longer to be treated like an employee, I am to receive a $30 tab on Tuesday nights, but pay full price on any other day. I am no longer allowed to take tables from the front room to the back room when quiz night gets busy, although I am allowed to take chairs, provided there's an ample amount at the bar and at least three chairs around every table in the front.

Ok. I don't really care about what kind of discount I get- frankly, that's not why I run my show there, but it is nice to receive a bonus which reflects what I do for that bar. That, while it makes it harder for me to go there on non-quiz nights, and not exactly cheap to do so on the nights I am there, is not the big deal.

The big deal is that I'm not supposed to bring tables or chairs back to run quiz. The reason I've heard so far, is that they're not getting a lot of business in the front when it's busy in back. So, as happened last night, we're going to turn away business because they won't have a place to sit (out of 17 teams, two spent the entire time standing)in order to accommodate business that might come in.

Does anyone else smell the bullshit? I sure do.

Frankly, I figure an average person spends on my night is between $15-20. I'm being rather conservative with that guess, too. Over the last three weeks, we've had 189 people, an average of 63 a night. So I figure they ring in about a grand a night thanks to my show, and that's some serious business that I'm certain any other bar in my neighborhood would love to have.

Now, if that doesn't tell you how pissed off I am, I'm not sure what will.

Anyways, I'm not trying to spend my birthday brooding and stewing in my own anger. I'd like to have some fun and forget about life's troubles, so I think I will. Although I will admit to feeling like running back into my room and crawling back into bed after checking my myspace profile and seeing that my age has already been increased.

D'oh.

So happy to be...

well, I don't mind being another year old. Ok, maybe I do, but I'm really pissed off right now, and that's not how you're supposed to be at 2:14 in the morning on your birhtday.

I'll get into it later, but this is really just a placeholder for my anger. More in the morning.

Wasting time, again.

I'm bored to tears today, writing pub quiz, so I thought I'd break up the boredom with a couple celebrity look-alike thingys.


Man, I'm really REALLY bored.