Thursday, April 29

What do stylists look for in a house?

The same things that everyone do, that's what. Next time someone is lopping your lovely locks, ask them about the home buying process - they know more than you may give them credit for. They say you should ask how old the roof is, and take a good whiff when you're in the basement to see if you can smell any dampness or mildew.

Close your eyes and open the circuit breaker - if there are little flippy switches with 100 or more written on 'em, you're golden. Don't worry about frivolous things like flowered wallpaper or how nice that painting looks hanging on that wall above the couch. What really matters is that the windows aren't drafty and the ductwork is shiny.

You can EVEN tell by looking the color (and believe it or not, font) of the furnace to determine if it is old and hurty. Ivory or green with fancy italicized lettering that reminds you of how your grandma writes? That's a bad thing, my friend.

All these gems, and I only tipped her an extra dollar :(

Nearest CD: Jessica Simpson - In This Skin

posted by Brad at 4/29/2004 06:51:00 PM | permalink |

Wednesday, April 28

The Lodi "Fighting Loaders"

For those of you who don't know (since there are SO many people reading this thang), I am trying to move to Lodi. It all started on the relatively innocent afternoon of February 10th, sitting in a corner office at work. I was having a relatively innocent conversation with one Mike Kirst, when he mentioned that one Greg Barntsen would be vacating his post at our production facility in sunny Lodi, CA.

I felt something move under the table, and realized it was me getting excited about the opportunity to pick up my life and drop it on the west coast for a while. Fast forward 2 1/2 months, and picture me trying to navigate the men's department at Marshall Fields and remember all the things that Men's Health and GQ and Cargo and Kiplinger's Personal Finance have taught me about dressing for success.

I'm in a hurry, because Susan is ab00t to lose her 20% discount to someone who works at Federated (whom I don't happen to be dating), and Feliks is getting impatient. Do you match a wide stripe on your tie with small or large checks on your shirt? What colors best "frame" my complexion and hair color? Which one of my 7 watches should I wear?

This is all very funny, of course, because I am actively subscribed to about 4 times more magazines than I have the time to read. That's enough fodder for a whole different post, and I don't want to blow all my good material right away. Instead, I will now calculate the value of Twins tickets I have been gifted so far this young season:

$318. Not bad.

Now Playing: Kill Bill, Vol. 1

posted by Brad at 4/28/2004 04:03:00 PM | permalink |

Tuesday, April 27

Everyone Poops.

It's the title of a children's book, so it must be a legitimate discussion topic, right? Earlier today, I took what must have been a 14 inch crap. Have you ever done something so unbelieveable, and felt the urge to take a picture and record the historic moment? But you are instead forced to wipe, and your masterpiece is gone forever.

I swear I do some of my best thinking in the bathroom, although the shower is my true mental sanctuary - and recording studio. With any luck, I will have some new soap-induced revelations to share with you soon. In the mean time, don't forget to drop the kids of at the pool.

Now Playing: Dave Matthews Band - Before These Crowded Streets

posted by Brad at 4/27/2004 01:31:00 PM | permalink |

Monday, April 26

Holy crap!

If you use Outlook and work somewhere where they restrict your space on the Exchange server (100 MB just doesn't cut it), have I got some news for you. John Durant used to be "one of us" at the Mills, but now works for big bad Microsoft as the Office Content Strategist and manager of the Office Developer Center team - what a mouthful! I was poking around his blog oh about 2 MONTHS AGO and sent him an e-mail, which he conveniently decided to reply to TODAY. It was great to hear from him (apparently he misses me), and he sent me a few links that changed my life forever.

I now find myself in a bit of a conundrum - if I tell you what the links are, you're going to accuse me of being a huge 700|. If I don't share them with you, then I am just plain mean. Or something. Right? I give up...

http://www.outlookcode.com
http://www.slipstick.com
http://www.microeye.com

You guessed it, these are all sites related to Outlook development. But seriously, some of the custom things you can do with Outlook VBA can make your life quite a bit easier - that is if you use Outlook in the first place. I have been using (and loving) 2 custom code snippets for the past few months - one that turns e-mails into tasks, and another that creates calendar appointments based on e-mails. The gem I found today was one that allowed me to easily save & remove attachments from messages I have received - attachments that take up a vast majority of the 100 MB quota I am forced to deal with every day of my life.

That's enough 700|$P3@|< for now, I best gets to steppin' as not to miss the first pitch of tonight's Twins/Bluejays game at the 'Dome. I wonder if it will be an ESPN Instant Classic? Just pray that it doesn't rain ;)

Now Playing: Blue Man Group - Audio

posted by Brad at 4/26/2004 06:04:00 PM | permalink |

Sunday, April 25

Welcome to Eagan

I'm now using the third different computer in 3 days to post to my little blog here, after unsuccessfully trying to enable bidrectional communication between an HP DeskJet 1220c and Windows XP. I'll save you some time and tell you now that there has not been a driver released by HP for this printer since 2002, and they sure haven't fixed the problem.

I found a new breakfast joint that y'all should check out, called the Copper Dome Restaurant, at 1333 Randolph Ave in St. Paul. To make things even better, my parents joined us after a fun day of moving & painting in St. Cloud. Too bad they didn't ask us to help, we would have made the drive in a heartbeat.

Spring Jam was fun, but the weather didn't exactly cooperate. We grilled and enjoyed a keg of Coors Light at the 404, but had to bring a space heater outside just to stay warm... The evening was thrilling, watching the Timberwolves let down against the Denver Nuggets in Game 3 of NBA playoffs round 1 action. The Twinkies got throttled by KC yesterday, but bounced back with a 4-2 win this afternoon - hooray!

I'm starting to think I need some sort of theme to tie my postings together, beyond "what I'm up to." I'll work on that, and be sure to let you know when creativity strikes...

Now Playing: Jet - Get Born

posted by Brad at 4/25/2004 03:59:00 PM | permalink |

Saturday, April 24

Brr.

After a night of drinking and trying to pick up a brown paper grocery bag with your teeth while balancing on one foot with a beer in your hand, we got up this morning and ran exactly 3.1 miles in the first ever Run of the Mills. I guess cold weather is great while you're running (if you don't have asthma), but it is a lot of work to stand around before & after in the wind. We waited around to watch the little tikers run the Sprout Sprint, and then pawned the last t-shirt off one of the volunteers. Too bad it's a youth XL, it would have looked good on me.

Today is Spring Jam at the U of M, which is another way of saying we are going to drink outside all day. The house is having 13 kegs and some wacky vodka concoction that Prull dreamed up, so I suppose as sketchy alumni it is our duty to get wasted with kids who are 5 years younger than us... My parents are up in St. Cloud helping Nick move into a new apartment, but we'll get to see them tomorrow on their way home. I wonder if there's anywhere great to have breakfast that I haven't tried yet?

Susan (from Living Room): Baby...
Brad (from Bedroom): What?
Susan: Come here
Brad: Just a second

And we're spent.

Now Playing: U2 - All That You Can't Leave Behind

posted by Brad at 4/24/2004 11:04:00 AM | permalink |

Friday, April 23

The playlist just changed

I'm such a blog-loving tool!

Now Playing: Maroon 5 - Songs About Jane

posted by Brad at 4/23/2004 02:18:00 PM | permalink |

Well isn't this fun - my very own blog.

I've been thinking about it for a while, but I finally decided to get off my ass and do it. Lord knows why I did it this afternoon, when I should be working on any number of things instead. Actually I know why I did it - I was taking a crap and thinking to myself about how much I regret not having at least some written record of the past twentysome years of my life. Insert cliche here about "better late than never."

Now I'm worried that this will be my only entry, and I'll never have any motivation to come back and update it. Things like this always start with such good intentions - I wonder what percentage of blogs that are started are still posted to a month, or year later. I spend quite a bit of time in front of the computer though (many will argue far too much), so I should be able to do this every now and again, right?

I guess we'll see. In the mean time, I should admit that I stole the title for my blog courtesy of a Google search. Holy man do I love Google - are there others like me out there in that way? Even though I can change the title, I wanted to come up with something better than "Brad's Blog." Instead, I attempted to give some credibility to my blog by discrediting every blog that came before mine. I haven't even read the article, but thanks to David Needle and the folks at internet.com for The Myth of the First Mover Advantage

Now Playing: Shinedown - Leave a Whisper

posted by Brad at 4/23/2004 12:51:00 PM | permalink |