On Wednesday December 21st, 2005 at 4:32pm my sister Cassandra gave birth to a new addition to the Schlick's. Chayce Trenten Schlick was born. Go here to see pictures of the little guy.

I sometimes miss working in a coffee shop, the odd banter with the customers but almost all really for making the drinks. And by drinks I mean espresso drinks or brewing up coffee. There isn't anything better, in my mind, then go straight from sleep to a shop before anyone else is there customers or coworkers, and starting up that espresso machine. Obviously running the machine through a few times, and then having that first drink of espresso. Be it straight up espresso, a mocha, a latte, the ever famous cappuccino, or some wacky drink that you and a friend made up. Such as the banana monkey slammer or anything else crazy. Now especially with having a laptop and a lot of shops have free WiFi I miss the coffeeshop experience, and I am not talking about the corporate plywood cut-out shops, i.e. Caribou Coffee, Starbucks, etc.

 

So it might seem like I have been in jail or incapacitated because I have been absent for so long. Thankfully neither are true I have just been ignoring the fine world of blogging. The Cingular bitch was deleted put back up after popular demand for it I initially removed it because we finally went into a Cingular store in Southdale Eden Prairie Mall and were helped well enough to be pleased with the results. I have Tiger now so I feel pretty cool, I am obsessed with Widgets and am constantly amazed by the new things I discover. I do need to get a new keyboard soon I believe because this one is sticky even after I took off all of the keys cleaned everything and replaced them. But you know what why go for just a new keyboard why not a whole new computer....haha when I actually earn enough money myself I will. So anyways that is all for today. I will be busting my butt to form a habit of posting but based on past experience...don't hold your breath. 

In response to a comment that asked the question where do I get my coffee from.
I get my coffee from a local food co-op that we are members of, Lakewinds Natural Foods. Why do I get it there? Well because I am trying to cut out the bs and support good causes. I feel that buying organic coffee is good because of the lack of pesticides used (good for the environment and my body). Shade grown, because it doesn't ruin the land, and promotes good land conservation. And finally Fair-Trade, because it means that I am helping to support the farmers that raise the product. I have heard this about coffee, I don't know if it is true or not, but it holds a grain of truth I believe: "Coffee is one of the largest traded commodities". To me the fact that the farmers that just do this for a living cannot survive is a pity. It is not good business practices and the such, I cannot articulate myself well enough, and I haven't done enough research about this (because I don't even know where to start), but the point is I look at the alternatives to buying organic, shade-grown, fair-trade coffee and I don't like what I see. I also feel that I get a great product, taste, quality, quantity for a price that isn't much more than if I were to buy coffee from a huge chain store, or a huge corporation. They have to pay all of the middle-men that is what jacks up their price, and I will pay almost the same for a product that is better and I am paying the people that produce it in a more straight forward way.
As for the type of bean or "flavor" of coffee that I buy. Right now I am into "Love Buzz" from Equal Exchange. It is a nice subtle flavor that I really enjoy.
For a quick glossary of terms used to describe coffee go here.  

"He awakens and rises from his slumber, eyes slit and fearful of the whisper of sunlight along the horizon. He moves from the chamber where he lies like the dead and into a linoleum tiled room, slinking past the humming electric equipment to the sink. He has almost found his refuge, his first feeding if you will....
He slowly sips the warm liquid, careful not to spill a drop from his precious lips. After his first sip he sits up and waits, he waits for the shiver that
always hits him a few moments after his initial drink, almost an electric body wave that moves quick from the spine out. It hits him hard and fast, and in that instant he is whole, alive, and ready for what lies ahead. Of course he won't know what his waking hours will hold until he checks his calendar, so he moves his coffee cup and it is the beginning of a new day."

That is how I feel about coffee nowadays, it wasn't always like this though. I remember when I was younger I just liked the smell of the ground coffee.
And back then it was Folger's in a can, or Maxwell House. Then I worked for McD's and started to drink their coffee in the God awful early morning hours that I had to work (5 am, for a 16 year old is hell on Earth some days).

But I didn't actually taste or honestly fall for coffee until college. Yes, it was the late nineties, and of course around college campuses there are coffee shops, although not many where I was.
I was making a gradual transition from Mountain Dew to coffee, but more specifically espresso, the latte, and cappuccinos. That was a slow road to get into, but once I started working for a coffee shop, I was hooked.
Since, my favorites have moved from the mocha latte, to honey-cinnamon lattes, to French-Press coffee, and to cappuccinos, but the stable of my morning is drinking, organic, shade-grown, fair-trade coffee. Bought in whole bean form, and then I grind it every morning. Of course I still have to drink it with cream, but there are the occasional crazy times when I need it straight-up. Those are truly crazy days indeed.
 

So yes I have joined Weight Watchers as well. I guess according to the military height and weight charts I am 30 lbs overweight. I knew that I am a little tubby, but 30 lbs geeshh. So to get them to shut up and also just to get my butt motivated and back into shape I decided to join the diet program, along with working out more. So my first meeting was March 23rd, and since that date I have lost approximately 6.2 lbs. But we have our meeting tomorrow so we will update the weight loss then. And tomorrow I don't have school, so maybe I might get around to writing a few posts?  

 

So school is the thing on my mind lately, whenever anyone asks me what is up or what is new (and when I say anyone I mean friends and family), I say oh school. Because seriously that is what is going on right now. I have about 7 weeks left in the semester and I am just a lump of slop. I have explained it as, I get homework while at school when I leave school I want to be so far away from that commitment that I procrastinate up until like the night before an assignment is due, then I rush to get it done. Then the next day when I am at school all day I get more homework, then go home and am "schooled out" because of the last minute rush that I just had that I want to be mentally checked out of school thinking for awhile. Hence the process of procrastination, cram/rush, turn-in, receive more HW, continues until this day. Oh and by the way if you get a little bit behind, that is like getting hooks in your back, that are attached to chains which are attached to the floor back where you needed to turn that assignment in. Yeah it is a struggle, because when I rush to complete an assignment at the end I usually get great grades and kick myself in the ass. I say to myself, if I can do that good being rushed or by doing it last minute imagine what I could accomplish if I didn't rush or I planned everything out. Well enough of the whoa is me crap.

This morning it was my 56th day since I gave blood last so I made an appointment earlier this week for today, also the wife wanted to give as well. So we did that together great bonding experience, for us aspiring vampires. I try to make an early appointment (today it was 7:30 am) because they need certain types of blood for the

great bonding experience,
for us aspiring vampires.

Children's Hospital, and as soon as they get those types they go deliver them right away. So I want my O negative to help a baby or a premie out, it just makes me feel special. Quite an interesting fact, which I knew before, but asked about today, is gay men cannot give blood. When asked off-handish-ly why, it is because they are at "a higher risk, because of the type of sex they have." WOW!!! That just blows my mind, you would think that since all of the blood gets tested for all of the same diseases and the such that their is no more risk, (which I would think there wouldn't be, but I ain't no Dr.). To me it conjures up imagines of about 50-100 years ago in this country where we had separate blood banks for black people, and white people.

Speaking of bigotry I guess Minnesota's House of Representatives voted today in favor of having the Gay Marriage issue put on the ballot. Now you would think that this is unnecessary because homosexual marriage is already illegal by law in Minnesota, right? Wrong, we must protect ourselves from activist judges!!!! (said with overwhelming sarcasm) Now could someone please define to me what an "activist judge" is? In my limited (once again sarcasm) knowledge of how America works; Legislative branch passes laws,

2006 the "Missionary Position Act"
to save the sanctity of our bedrooms.

Executive branch enforces laws, and the Judicial branch defines the laws. So how can a definition of a law (which definitions of laws are evolving over time) be activist? Doesn't it seem more activist to pass such biased, homophobic, discriminatory laws? In order for this ballot initiative to actually take place, the Senate has to vote in favor of it, and then the Governor has to sign the law. Which in my constant politically depressed apathy chances are high that it will pass. FUCK YOU VERY MUCH. Sanctity of marriage my ass, if you want to sanctify marriage outlaw divorce. Oh wait.....it isn't straightie that is pissing on the the sanctity of marriage it is that moe over there with his boyfriend . Isn't love supposed to conquer all, well only if it is straight love I guess (sarcasm). Oh and for those of you straightie's out there that think you can have sex in any position, you had better watch out. Because I feel in 2006 the "Missionary Position Act", to save the sanctity of our bedrooms, will come in force. And always remember sodomy is still illegal in Minnesota, and don't even think about oral sex you perverts!!!! Geesh, welcome to prude central, where the prude must be satisfied because the prude is the one to go out and grab a gun and kill you if you don't adhere to their belief's.

Well I should end it right here because I didn't intend this to be a bitch-fest. I was going to mention why I haven't posted in awhile, and then move on to happier things, ha-ha. So to add a little light heartedness to this check this video out.

 

Reading in a quiet relaxed state is one of the best moments that I have shared with my wife this weekend. It is happening right now. :) 

Well three years ago today I asked my wife to be my girlfriend. And her answer was "Yes but..." Well the buts didn't matter because I took care of her and she took care of me. So now three years later we are a newly wed couple and opening a new chapter in our lives which is really exciting, now if only we had enough money to buy a house. Well I guess first if I had a job then we would have enough money but I digress that is a different topic. NOW CELEBRATE FOR US!!!! Have an extra shot of espresso in your drink, take a few minutes out of your day to just breathe, or have another drink at the bar, whatever it is have one on us* for it is a good day.

*Offer of "on us" is not valid on the planet Earth if you are from the planet's SORbgte then have a shot of Gooblygoo on us. 

So I have been really focused on school and working out, not to mention that I had Guard this past weekend. Those are the conscious reasons why I have failed to blog in about a week, but we all know that the subconscious reason is laziness. Anyways on to happier things. Last Tuesday was the Keynote speech of Steve Jobs at Mac Expo SF. He announced a few things that are now driving me mad!!! I really really really want iLife '05 and iWork (which my educational, because I am a student, discount are cheaper than the already cheap $79). The Goddess wants an iPod Shuffle, which I will be happy to oblige. You see she isn't into Apple stuff as much as I am, well she isn't in to tech stuff as much as I am, so any opportunity that she shows interest I pounce. Something else that I am going to need to get is more RAM, we currently only have 256MB, and that is what the computer came with. In all the recommendations for the iMac G4 programs you should have a minimum of 512MB, well 256 has worked out just fine until now. I do notice that when I have multiple programs open speed is drastically reduced, hence I need more RAM. Also I cannot (seriously I am going crazy) wait for the next major release of OS X, Tiger to be released. The biggest thing that I am looking forward to on this is Dashboard. It is so ingenious. I mean Expose is genius enough, but then to add Dashboard, I mean come on!!!!!! AWESOME!!! The widgets are amazing and I am going to guess that there will be many more made, but the included ones are just breath-taking. Take for instance the calculator, smart, it was easy to open the calculator before (if you had it in the Dock) but now you don't have to keep it open in case you were surfing and just wanted to figure out a quick calculation and go on, because you know you are going to use it again. And this will be tons better than "Windows calculator getting": Start>Programs>Accessories>Calculator (I think that is how many steps you have to go through, I haven't used one in a long time). Just genius!!! Another widget I am in love with is the dictionary, I hate having to go to an online dictionary (yuck!!! so many steps, even if it is bookmarked) to figure out how to spell something, or the definition of something. Also I hate having to get up and go to my bookshelf and flip through the pages of the small dictionaries that we have (lazy, yeah a bit) but sometimes the words aren't in the dictionary and that is because we have either an older one or a small desktop one. So I am hyped that one will be only a keystroke away!!! Other features that I am hyped about pretty much for the same reasons or just because they are cool are: Yellow Pages, Translator (so going to make me more worldly, I hope), Stock ticker, Converter, Weather, Stickies, photo flipper, flight checker, etc. So as you can see it is going to be a good year for Apple, at least in this household.

And while I am at it, another wild wish that I have of getting from Apple is an iBook G4. Although this is a pipe dream:
1. I cannot possibly afford it.
2. As far as practical uses I have for it, are zero.
3. Since I don't really have any reason to own one besides just wanting one, it would be a burden. I would be worried about it wherever I took it.
4. I love computers because of surfing the internet and the options available when you are online, with a laptop the only internet usage I would get would be from home. And we don't have wireless internet at home so we would have to buy more stuff (which I wouldn't mind but wouldn't be smart) to outfit our home. And if away from home there aren't many Free WiFi options available around here that I could use and I most definitely not going to buy eye gouging prices for WiFi access options that are available around here. Especially for the amount of time that WiFi would actually get used the price is not worth it.
So for all those reasons getting one is a pipe dream, although I really want one, it just isn't smart to get one.

One more thing on Apple is that I would love to get my family into Apple computer's because of the ease of use and since they released the Mac Mini that is now a possibility whereas before it wasn't because why spend $1000 or more on a totally new computer when you have one that works right now? Well I am not going to push but I will suggest, because OS X is so easy to use, but I do realize that some people still prefer Windows or Linux or need to use these things, while still others just don't care. But I believe it was smart for Apple to offer the Mac Mini where you provide the monitor, keyboard and mouse and they provide the computer. Another genius move by Apple! 

Ok so I finished the Dark Tower VII book, and it was GOOD!!!!! Not going to have any spoiler's here though so you will have to read it yourself. And along that line I will keep the commentary to myself, so as to not ruin anything.
So yesterday I spent all day at school, and today I spend all day at home, but I have tons to do today and I just want to take a nap. Here is my list....
-Dishes*
-Defensive Driving course online (for military)
-call friend about a ride
-laundry
-prep work for recipes on menu
-bill planning
-make dinner*
-school prep for tomorrow and the rest of the semester
-email notes to a friend
-blog entry
-delete .mac pages (to create more room)
- homework (which has it's own little subset, blah)
i. Acting paper
ii.Study Algebra book and do problems
iii. Read poetry for English
(not a lot of homework, but blah...I want a nap)
-read the rest of the Dark Tower VII

*(the Goddess is doing these)

There and I bet everyone thought that I was just some lazy guy that sat at home all day while his wife worked, and surfed the internet and watched tv, playing video games and wasting the day away. No peep's I kid you not I am my own type of "Suzie homemaker". Anyways back to the grind of trying to do everything before passing out into nappy land.
(sidenote:Updated at 2:04pm; and again at 5:48pm) 

So the Goddess and I joined a gym, that is near us, on Friday and that is where we spent pretty much all weekend. Ok maybe not all weekend but would you believe 2 hours each day? That is why I haven't written over the past two days, I have been licking my sores, it has been more than a year since I last seriously worked out. Actually a lot longer than that, I remember a competition that my friend David and I had called "63 Days". Oh boy that was fun. So anyways the plan is to get fit fast, we have talked about it enough that now it is time for action. The other thing that I have been doing is reading I am trying to finish the Dark Tower before school today, and I am not succeeding (I am kinda a slow reader (I said only kinda!!!)).  

So tonight, even though we are broke beyond belief at this point in our lives', we decided to go shopping at the grocery store. While there I decided that I wanted to pick out a few things so that I can make some granola bars, because we need food and we went shopping in the first place because we didn't have anything to make. I mean sure you can eat Ramen noodles, or mac and cheese, but all day for like a week? Yeah no, so we went shopping and ...back to the point... I wanted to make those granola bars because then we would have snacks around that were healthy and that would tide us over until the next meal. Even though the next meal was going to be something small until we got paid again, the snacks would be hearty and good enough to hold us over from starving. Not saying that we both couldn't lose some weight but when I get hungry I get really really crabby!!! Just ask the Goddess, oh she'll let you know. I am a BEAR!!! So anyways it was about 9pm when I started making the granola bars, then when I was done with those I was like well how about I make oatmeal raisin bars too...so yeah it is now like 1041pm and I am waiting for the bars to come out of the oven. What the heck is up with this weirdness that I have with baking in the evening? Well at least it isn't like 2am or some other crazy time.
Ok so now it is 11pm and they are done, and I just sampled the granola bars, yummy!! Although the Goddess doesn't like them, what a punk!! Oh well more for me. Oh check out my bawls!!! It is an ok energy drink but yah know to hard to get so I think that is the last I will have of it. One thing that sucks big time is that we are out of coffee beans so I cannot have a fresh cup of coffee in the morning with these wonders. Although I do have a Senseo Coffee maker which I love, I guess I will just have to have a pod cup of coffee. Remind me to talk about coffee soon...got some things that I want to say but it is getting late and I have to get up early in the morn. So on one last coffee note...check out Andrew's site I love it!!!