Weekend Review: Lines, Dances, and Breakfasts November 9, 2009
Posted by glanzerr in baseball, dj, illnesses, tv, weight loss.Tags: black eyed peas, breakfast, dexter, house, metrodome, minneapolis, minnesota twins, moving sale
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Time for a weekend recap! Friday after work it was “date night” at Buffalo Wild Wings for me and Lauren. We sat at the bar (rather than waiting in a 35-minute line for a table) and were delighted to find someone had left a bunch of credits in the tabletop game thingy. So we sat and had a couple beers and lots of delicious boneless wings. At night Jason stopped by to hang out.
Saturday, Lauren went to earn some big bucks by working OT, while Jason and I went to the Metrodome for the Twins Metrodome moving sale. I thought this sale would be very cool—my one big chance at buying an authentic piece of Twins history. Apparently, so did 15,000 other people. We got there when it opened at 10am and our jaws hit the ground when we saw the line stretched all the way around the Metrodome and down the street. Over the speakers, a recorded message stated “you may experience a short wait in line.” That was the understatement of the day. They had a queue up at the entrance that would corral about 100 fans. The other 14,900 filed in behind. Very poor job by the team organizing that sale. I heard there were just two checkout counters, causing a 90-minute wait just in the checkout lines.
Dejected and unwilling to kill six hours to get halfway through line, Jason and I instead went out for breakfast at the Uptown Diner, home of Minneapolis’s largest, unhealthiest, most delicious portions of hashbrowns.
That night it was off to the Profile Event Center to DJ my first wedding dance since our own. The couple was very nice and fed me a filet mignon dinner. The highlight of their reception was a choreographed dance during the introductions featuring the wedding party dancing to “I Got a Feeling” by Black Eyed Peas. Their dance rivaled ours in terms of crowd participation, but an exhausted bride and groom pulled the plug on the dance shortly after midnight despite their raucous guests enjoying themselves.
Sunday, Lauren and I met up with the Berglund-Husebys for the Bar Abilene breakfast buffet. If you’re looking for a good southern-style breakfast buffet and bottomless $4.95 mimosas and no wait in line, this is the place to go! Then I spent the afternoon watching football, including the Chargers’ amazing 21-20 win over the Giants. I took a late afternoon jog around Lake of the Isles to get some exercise, and my God, the pain. My upper left abdomen was in such sharp pain I could take no more than ten steps before I’d have to stop running. The pain never really subsided, but I eventually just fought through it and ran home. It still hurts today. I wonder if I didn’t strain a ribcage muscle or something. Then we watched Dexter, some more House from Netflix, and went to bed.
Weekend Update; Comcast October 25, 2009
Posted by glanzerr in dexter, tv.Tags: cable, comcast, dexter, house, weekend
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Not a whole lot new from here. Lauren and I are just wrapping up a fairly restful, enjoyable weekend.
Friday after work we used a gift card to Laredo’s in St. Louis Park. We will have the review available soon on our food blog, but I will say that it was a very unique Tex-Mex dining experience. That night we chilled at home and continued watching House on DVD, the next show up in our series of TV shows on DVD. It is taking me a while to get into it because, unlike awesome shows like Six Feet Under and The Wire, there is no arc from episode to episode yet.
Saturday we spent much of the day in Edina at the Galleria where Lauren used up our Crate & Barrel gifts cards from the wedding and completed her wish list. Let me tell you, that was a lot of fun for me. I did run into old VF co-worker Jeff Gwost though and had a friendly chat. At night Lauren was excited to break out her new kitchen gear and entertain some dinner guests. Apologies to golden birthday boy Jesse Cooney for not being able to join in his celebrations!
Today we wandered over to the Walshichetti house to watch the Vikings/Steelers game, which ended disappointingly. But the Chargers won easily over KC to improve to 3-3.
I also had my share of excitement with Comcast this weekend. We have had problems with our HD service and they sent out a technician Saturday morning who swapped out our bad box for a brand new one. After returning from our afternoon shopping spree, we were greeted by a strange repetitive clicking noise, which turned out to be the new cable box. The hard drive wouldn’t start up, making our DVR feature useless. I called Comcast back again at 12:30am and they assured us they’d come back Sunday to give us another new box. To make it up to me, the support guy offered me six free months of the premium sports package! Right now, there’s another Comcast technician in our apartment replacing the cable box, and he too is offering us some free programming for our run of bad luck. I could pick whatever I wanted for free between HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, and Starz, and I chose Showtime because of Dexter, though HBO with Curb and Flight of the Conchords was very tough to pass up. Our failures with Comcast have actually been a good thing!
Where Does “The Wire” Rank? June 16, 2009
Posted by glanzerr in dexter, tv.Tags: bunny colvin, clay davis, dexter, hbo, jimmy mcnulty, lester freamon, seinfeld, the wire, top 10, tv shows
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Lauren and I last night finished watching HBO’s The Wire on DVD, which Jason LaPlant graciously lent us. I went in a little skeptical, figuring a cop drama wasn’t really for me. But then again I gave in and tried Dexter and became a huge fan, so I gave it a try. After five riveting seasons, I had a tear in my eye as the final episode came to an end. Jason, Walsh, Sarah, and President Obama were among those singing the praises of The Wire, and they were right, it was one of the very best shows I’ve ever seen.
Where does The Wire rank all-time on my favorite TV show list? Is it better than Dexter? Does it have as good of rewatchable value as Seinfeld? Is it more difficult to follow than a newcomer to Arrested Development? Are the characters more dislikable than Larry David on Curb Your Enthusiasm?
Great as it was, I think I have to place it third on my all-time list. Seinfeld is still #1 because I just watched two more episodes tonight that I’ve seen at least 25 times before, and still found them extremely entertaining. I think I’ve still gotta give Dexter the nod at #2, thanks mostly to the second season, the best single season of a TV show I’ve ever seen. And then The Wire at #3. Here would be my full top ten.
- Seinfeld
- Dexter
- The Wire
- Freaks and Geeks
- Scrubs
- Arrested Development
- The Office (BBC)
- Curb Your Enthusiasm
- The Office (NBC)
- Frasier
The Wire also provided some of my favorite characters. There are way too many to name, but here are my favorites.
- Bunny Colvin
- Lester Freamon
- Jimmy McNulty
- Clay Davis, only because of his amazing signature line.
- Dennis “Cutty” Wise
- Stringer Bell
- Cedric Daniels
- Omar Little
- Bubbles
- Roland Pryzbylewski
So, to sum this wonderful series up, it was wildly violent and profane, featured corrupt characters, rarely had any uplifting stories (Cutty and Namond the exceptions), and employed virtually no known actors. Yet, I would recommend it to all!
Walshichetti Visit, Target Field, Pulltabs June 8, 2009
Posted by glanzerr in baseball, dexter, dj, tv, work.Tags: dexter, dj, gambling, lauren poulter, minneapolis, minnesota twins, sarah domenichetti, sculpture, target field, the wire, walsh
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This weekend was quite the time, as usual. Lots of crazy stories and fun times were had, but I’ll spare from incriminating myself this time. Friday after work, Lauren and I stopped at the Poulters and had a friendly chat and dropped off some free/cheap groceries Lauren picked up from work. Afterwards, we joined the gang at the Hopkins Tavern for Amanda H’s birthday. Lauren insisted on playing the pulltabs and gave me $5 to go pick a winner. I picked a barrel and told the lady to dig deep for a good ticket, and wouldn’t you know it, we won $102 on the first ticket I opened! We split the profits and got out of there relatively early.
Saturday we were greeted by Walsh and Sarah’s visit to Minneapolis. We hit up a variety of Uptown watering holes, including Zeno, Williams, and the VFW. Yada yada yada, I was really tired Sunday morning!
Target Field looks much more official with that giant Twins logo up!
Sunday, Lauren cooked us all a delicious breakfast before Walshichetti departed. In the afternoon, I went for a 5.5 mile walk to get some fresh air and check out the Twins’ new stadium. It seems like the project is coming along very nicely, and now that the huge Twins logo has been installed, it all seems a lot more real. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get very close due to construction equipment, but I got a good enough view.
The rest of the afternoon was spent napping and watching The Wire, season 5. I am not quite ready to proclaim it the best show ever, but it’s definitely up there, probably top five now. I think I still like Dexter better.
Monday at work I kept plugging away on writing product copy for this new company, which has been rumored to officially launch a week from today. I can’t imagine why it would be a bad thing for me to give more details and create some buzz, but I’m sure it would get me in trouble somehow, so I’ll shut up until it’s really live. I will say that I have now written original descriptions for almost 200 products.
Tomorrow I am going back to the Profile to meet with potential DJ clients, including one couple whose wedding is over 11 months away. Better early than late, I suppose. Saturday is the big day with my 8am-2am DJ gig. It will be tiring, no doubt, but an excellent pay day. All money will be put into the wedding savings account.
My visit to the famous Minneapolis landmark.
My Best of 2008: Pop Culture Awards December 22, 2008
Posted by glanzerr in Big in 2008 Awards, baseball, dexter.Tags: awards, best movie, best of 2008, best tv show, chris cagle, darius rucker, denard span, dexter, michael c. hall, milk, minnesota twins, pop culture, sean penn
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Best TV Show: Dexter
Honorable Mentions: 30 Rock, The Office, Jeopardy!, Always Sunny
Oh Michael C. Hall, you slay me!
The best TV show in 2008 was the kind of show I never thought I’d like–a suspenseful crime drama. After a recommendation by Bradley Feeney (the King of TV suggestions), I purchased Season 1 on DVD. It took a couple episodes to get into it, but soon I was completely enthralled with Dexter.
Lauren and I watched all of the first season on DVD, then watched all of Season 2 online. I think I’d go so far as to say Season 2 was the best single season of a TV show in recent memory. The build-up to the finale was the most entertaining and suspenseful TV I’ve seen. Season 3 was different, but also good. Not quite as good as the other seasons, but still the best show of the year.
Best Movie: Milk
Honorable Mentions: Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Tropic Thunder, Dark Knight
Milk wins for best movie kinda by default. The reason is, I simply didn’t see many movies in 2008. I tried to count all the movies I went to in ‘08, and all I could remember were the movies mentioned above. I bet I’m forgetting a couple… not to take anything away from Milk.
I saw Milk very recently, with Travis, Feeney, and Brad Gausman here in Uptown. The movie is about the first openly gay man to win a seat in a public office. Sean Penn gives another outstanding performance, but I’d bet Josh Brolin and James Franco are more likely to win an Oscar for their supporting roles.
Best Music Artist: Darius Rucker
Honorable Mentions: Weezer, Supersuckers, Travis & Jonny, Tuesdays Robot
Darius Rucker
Man, come to think of it, I didn’t really get very interested in a music performer this year. Usually there’s one artist who sweeps me away for a while, like Meat Loaf, Bon Jovi, and Smashing Pumpkins. But this year, I can’t think of any such artist.
So, in a year when America elected its first black president, I will award this honor to the rare black country artist. I really did like Darius Rucker’s new country album, Learn to Live. Lauren and I listened to that CD on the way home from work for weeks, singing along to hits like “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It” and “All I Want.”
Along with Weezer’s self-titled red album and Tuesdays Robot’s Peace Sing-a-Long, this was one of three albums I paid money for in 2008. And I must say, well worth it!
Best Song: “What Kinda Gone,” Chris Cagle
Honorable Mentions: “It’s Good to Be Us,” Bucky Covington; “Just Got Started Loving You,” James Otto, “Lookin’ for a Good Time,” Lady Antebellum; “Country Fried,” Zac Brown Band; “Heart Songs,” Weezer
In my opinion, 2008 was a great year for country music. The problem I had between this category and the last one is a ton of artists had one good song, not multiple good songs. So it was easy to pick a good song over an artist.
The one song that sums up 2008 best is undoubtedly Chris Cagle’s “What Kinda Gone.” It may never be remembered as a great song (in fact, I don’t believe it ever hit #1). But we sure listened to it and sang along with it a lot this summer. I think when I look back on ‘08, this (and perhaps Kid Rock’s “All Summer Long”) will stick out the most.
Outstanding Sports Moment: Twins 7, White Sox 6 (10)
Honorable Mentions: Chargers beat Colts in AFC playoffs, Timberwolves almost winning a game
Mauer and Punto, only after a win like this is this excusable.
Oh, what a game it was in late September. The White Sox came to town, leading the Twins by 2.5 games in the AL Central with just six games to play. The Twins needed a sweep to stay alive. They took the first two games to get to within a half-game, and then came the greatest baseball game I’ve ever seen in person.
The Metrodome was packed for a Thursday night game that had the season on the line. Unfortunately the White Sox capitalized on some sloppy play and took an early 6-1 lead. But the Twins kept chipping away white holding the Sox’ bats in check. When Denard Span tripled in the tying run in the eighth, the Metrodome was absolutely rocking. I was screaming, jumping, and cheering. Then some strange Chinese man leaped into my arms.
In extra innings, Alexi Casilla singled home the winning run with two outs, sending the crowd into a frenzy. It was crazier than any playoff game I’ve been to. It certainly looked then like the Twins would win the division, but KC came to town and took 2 of 3, sending the Twins to a 1-game playoff in Chicago, where they lost 1-0. Talk about deflating.
Overall Award for Most Oustanding Pop Culture Icon of 2008: Michael C. Hall
Honorable Mentions: Denard Span, Darius Rucker, Chris Cagle, James Franco, Alex Trebek, Charlie Day (Always Sunny), Nick Blackburn, Tina Fey, Rainn Wilson, Barack Obama, Jennifer Carpenter, John Gordon, Sid Hartman, Al Franken, Tom Petty
And, the best of 2008 in pop culture goes to none other than Dexter actor Michael C. Hall, for his role as Dexter Morgan, blood spatter analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department. Congrats, MCH!
Ma and Pa Pay Visit to Mpls. November 18, 2008
Posted by glanzerr in dj, random, wedding.Tags: beagles, dexter, dick glanzer, dog tricks, granite city, laundry, lauren poulter, macaroni grill, marcie glanzer, minneapolis, parents, travis and jonny
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It was a good time this weekend as the Glanzers made the pilgrimage from Carpenter to the southwest suburbs of Minneapolis to pay me a visit. Mom and Dad arrived safe and sound Friday evening, and went out with me and Lauren for dinner at Granite City. Afterwards, the two got a taste of my style of living when they visited our Uptown Minneapolis house. They were particularly intrigued by a Christmas sweater-clad Roscoe, who wowed them with his ability to beg, sit, roll over, and play dead on command.
Saturday, Lauren and I hit up yet another possible wedding venue. This time, it was out to Eden Prairie, very close to Lauren’s former home, to check out the Olympic Hills Country Club. For the first time, Lauren walked away feeling very optimistic. It had everything we were looking for and amazingly was on the lower end price-wise of the places we’d seen so far. If we were going to pick a place and date right now, it would be Olympic Hills on October 3. But we still have at least one more place to visit before we can start telling you to save that date!
So later Saturday night, the Glanzers and Poulters met for the first time. Mom, Dad, Steve, and Anne all seemed to get along very well. Most of us seemed to enjoy the food at Macaroni Grill, as we sat and chatted for over two hours. And then Sunday morning the Glanzers were right back over to the Poulter residence for brunch before departing. There, Mom and Dad met the whole family, with Kate, Tim, Pete, Sarah, Abby, and Nate also in attendance. Now we just need Jordan, Alex, and their crews to meet Steve and Anne and everyone will be very well acquainted.
Monday night after work, Lauren and I did some grocery shopping, did laundry, and watched the latest Dexter. The rest of the week is mostly up in the air, though I have promised Travis and Jonny to do some website work for them and I keep putting it off. Thanksgiving plans are currently to stick around Minnesota. I agreed to come out of DJ retirement to do one last dance November 29 for the AA group, since I was asked back by special request. But this time it’s for real—that really will be the last one!
Sick Day! October 23, 2008
Posted by glanzerr in baseball, wedding, work.Tags: cleaning, credit card, dexter, engagement, lauren poulter, philadelphia phillies, sick day, tampa bay rays, world series
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Every year at work I am allowed ten vacation days and five sick days. Historically, my sick days have gone to waste because I don’t get sick and I am far too honest (as you all know) to use a sick day for any other reason. But today, I am home sick. And by “sick” I mean I’ve been confined to rooms within close proximity to the bathroom most of the day with the dreaded “D” word. I think it’s in everyone’s best interest that I stay away from work today.
That said, the day has been extremely productive so far. I slept till 10, watched Sunday’s episode of Dexter online, and then spent over three hours cleaning the downstairs. I’ve got laundry going, I did a load of dishes, I picked up an entire garbage bag of trash from the downstairs, I dusted, I swept the floors, and even mopped in some troublesome areas, and it’s still only 2:30. With the rest of my day, I plan to take Roscoe for a brief walk (he’s been staring at his leash and whimpering for hours) and then get some dinner cooking for my working girl, who should be home around 5:45. Nice little role reversal there.
Last night Jason was over and we all watched Game 1 of the World Series. I guess I would say I’m rooting for Tampa Bay, but I just want there to be seven good, tight games. Last night was a good start as the Phillies won 3-2 on the road. Tonight it sounds like Walsh will be over to see Sarah after spending the last week on the road for work and we’ll probably check out Game 2.
For anyone interested, Little Sister has posted a preview of my and Lauren’s engagement photo session from last weekend.
Also of very exciting note today: for the first time in many years, my Discover Card balance is $0. I intend to never charge anything on that account ever again!
Dexter, DJ, Wisdom Teeth October 2, 2008
Posted by glanzerr in dj, random.Tags: always sunny in philadelphia, dexter, djthe office, heroes, wisdom teeth
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You should watch Dexter.
This fall, I made a rare TV trade-off. After two years of watching NBC’s Heroes on Monday nights, I’ve decided to give it up (and wait for it to come onto DVD next year) in favor of Showtime’s original series Dexter. I concluded that watching suspenseful shows like Heroes is best done viewing every episode in succession with limited commercial interruption, so DVD is the way to go. Plus, I really only have time to get into a few TV shows at a time, and the 1.5 seasons I’ve seen of Dexter have blown me away!
For those of you aren’t familiar, Dexter is an emotionless 30-something single man who works for the Miami Police as a blood spatter expert, but at the same time holds a dark secret of murdering murderers. Throw in the romantic subplot and it’s one hell of a show! Of course I can’t take credit for discovering the show, Feeney had been raving about it for months. Then again, Feeney raves about a lot of shows, and he’s always right. The other shows I intend to follow this fall include The Office, 30 Rock, Scrubs, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I’m dropping the seldom-funny My Name Is Earl from my regular viewing this year too.
In other news, I’m gearing up for another wedding dance this weekend in Shakopee. The couple is in their mid-30s and expect up to 100 people to be dancing at any given time all night. I hope they’re right, cause that makes my job a lot easier. This is either my last or second-to-last DJing gig of the year. I’m still trying to hammer out those details. After that, my weekends will be free enough to make the occasional trip home or at least leave to go somewhere for a day or two.
Official x-ray of my teeth.
I’m all set for an appointment with the local oral surgeon, Dr. Tidstrom. I have been told by various dentists since 1998 that I need to get my wisdom teeth out. X-rays do in fact show that all four wisdom teeth are growing in. The ones on bottom look like they’re fine, but the two on top literally have nowhere to go, as you can see on the x-ray.
In a Pickle September 4, 2008
Posted by glanzerr in random.Tags: board game, dexter, flight of the conchords, jason laplant, lauren poulter, minnesota vikings, nfl, san diego chargers, weird science
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I’m sure Jordan had good intentions when she and the Krogman family sent me a new game for my birthday. The game, called In a Pickle, is all about size: what can fit in what. There are hundreds of cards with nouns on them. You basically just try to play one of your cards on a stack of other cards. Can a feather fit in a mailbox? Can a gopher fit in a library? The game is completely open to interpretation and you can try to play anything anywhere, but you must be warned that you have to make a good case for it or you’ll be challenged by the other players.
Yes, good times were sure to be had, especially by me, Lauren, and Jason—an inseperable trio. Laughter, witty banter, silly arguments—oh, the fun! Ten minutes into the game, screaming and yelling led to the abrupt cancellation of In a Pickle with Lauren and Jason both declaring “I hate this game!!!!” Believe it or not, I actually was the calm one for once. The heated debate erupted when Jason persuaded me to part with him and vote against a move by Lauren.
In other news, tonight is the kickoff of the NFL season, a nice distraction from heartbreaking, late-inning Twins losses. My attention will never focus completely to football until baseball is all said and done with, but I’ll still be paying close attention to the Chargers game Sunday against Carolina, and of course the Vikings-Packers Monday Night Football game. I won’t go to any great details making NFL predictions like I did baseball, but if the Chargers and Vikings are ever to meet up in the Super Bowl, I think this is the year.
A few notes on TV… I finally got my three amazon.com DVDs in the mail yesterday (cashed in gift card from Mom & Pop). We watched the first episode of Dexter, which is really good although very confusing. You have to pay very close attention. Jason said I was cheating by having read the series synopsis on Wikipedia prior to watching the show, but unlike most, I want to know what happens going in because I’m very easily confused if TV shows or movies don’t make 100% sense right away.
We also watched the first episode of Flight of the Conchords, which I had seen before. It’s a show about a New Zealand folk duo trying to make it big in the US, to little avail, and they sing throughout the show which adds to the hilarity.
Next up, the complete series of Weird Science, which aired on USA in the early 90s.
Birthday Party a Hit! August 25, 2008
Posted by glanzerr in random.Tags: birthday, brad gausman, dexter, dvd, jason laplant, keg, lauren poulter, premium grain belt, weird science
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Yesterday’s birthday celebration was a hit for many, and just plain mystifying to a few. Throughout the course of the day, we welcomed friends in and out of the house to help us drink up that keg of Premium, the beer of exceptional quality. I was up bright and early, ready to begin the day. Lauren cooked me my favorite breakfast of sausage gravy biscuits and eggs while I chilled on the couch and watched Scrubs. Jason and Brad were the first guests to arrive, and among the last to depart, and got their money’s worth on keg beer.
Throughout the day, we welcomed over Nick, Liz, Patrick, Steve, Travis, Andy, Feeney, Katie, Sarah, Walsh, Josh, Krista, Jaime, Christian, Tim, Kate, Steve and Anne Poulter, Pete and Sarah Anderson and baby Abby, and Nate. Pretty good turnout of 26 people total! I received a few gifts and cards, and was very thankful so many were able to take in the day’s events.
Some of the day’s highlights included Liz’s goofy golf heroics, me getting caught in an awkward lie, Travis’s beer spills, WeFest stories from Steve C, Steve P running the grill, shots with Nate, my cardboard cutout entertaining some while scaring others, and what I thought was an arrythmia. I thought the funniest moment of the day came from Josh, who knew virtually no one at the house and took Jason’s verbal abuse for no apparent reason while sitting in the living room with what appeared to be a very mismatched group, watching the Olympic closing ceremonies.
I received cards from Grandma Bell and the Kleinsassers, and also cashed in my Amazon gift certificate from Mom and Dad, getting several seasons of TV series on DVD—Dexter, Flight of the Conchords, and Weird Science. The Krogman girls left me a nice voice mail Saturday evening. Apparently there is more to come from the Glanzers as soon as I get home, but as of now I’m not sure when that will be. And 20-some friends left me Facebook greetings.
All in all, a very good 26th birthday weekend! Thanks, everybody!
