Mastur-baker

My "Marketing Graveyard" cake won "best dish" at work on Halloween goodie day. Woo hoo!

The brown sprinkles are meant to look like mounds of dirt and the yellow and orange sprinkles are fallen leaves.

(The tombstones all have names of people in my department.)

Halloween pics

I had a great time at Halloween this year... turns out, this town does know how the party and the Halloween pub crawl was loads of fun. People were everywhere downtown. They even closed off the main street where most of the bars are. It was great!!

I went as a construction worker from the Village People... People kept screaming "Y.M.C.A.!!!!!!" at me, all night long, LOL. I loved this costume. I felt so ridiculous, it was great.






With my friends Gil and Shawn. And yes, I was freezing.

Headed North

Big news - the lease signing isn't final until Monday, but I've put a deposit down on renting a duplex on the north end of Springfield!

Ok, so the La Quinta Inn is my backyard, BUT I will be a mere 5 minutes from work (right now I'm 25 minutes) and I'll live right beside I-44, making my drive back home to Lebanon 30 minutes shorter. I'm thrilled!

Not to mention, the place is bad ass. The duplex is brand new - but it's priced right! It was the perfect find. I move in next week!

It's 1100 sq. ft., 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms. The pics only show the living room and kitchen.

Pop Dreams

For the last two nights, I've had very bizarre dreams related to pop music. They were both quite enjoyable. Perhaps these nocturnal brushes with pop celebrities is my subconscious' way of telling me I was destined to be the next Justin T or George Michael? LOL... I'll let you be the judge.

Two nights ago I dreamed that I was back in college and Madonna was one of my professors. Not only was she my professor, she was also in semi-retirement. But, she was gearing up to make her big comeback with a top-secret performance at the VMAs - and she held the rehearsal on the stage in our classroom, exclusively as a treat for our class (apparently I had her for theater?). Anyway, we were all very excited and I grabbed my camera and started filming the whole thing. This didn't set well with Madge and she stormed off-stage half-way through the performance and vowed that that comeback was off (because I filmed her) and her dancers would have to just do the performance without her. I tried to talk her back into it, but my best friend Brandon got extremely pissed at me when I called her "Madge" to her face - he said that'd only piss her off worse because "Madge" is a derogatory nickname which is short for "vag." Who knew?!

Last night, I dreamed that U2's Bono was my half-brother. That before my mom and dad met, my mom had him. I remember in the dream, actually doing that math to realize that my mom would have had to have been around 2 years old when she had him, but I just thought "maybe Bono is younger than he looks?" Anyway, no one ever told me he was my half-brother, it just accidentally slipped out one night when we were all in the same lounge/bar together. Once I found out, I was extremely excited (of course) and tried to get Bono to get me a job in the music industry. He was not amused, though, wanted me to just leave him the hell alone. I think he was also pissed because the media found out. It was all very exciting!

Justice vs. Maui

Yesterday morning I went for a photo-taking adventure amongst the Marriott and Hyatt resorts on Kaanapali Beach. The music that provided my soundtrack? The critically-acclaimed album by Justice. I'd been avoiding this album because of all the allegations that they're nothing more than a Daft Punk rip-off. But, when I saw two twenty-something straight boys rocking this out of their iPod-fueled boombox (1992-style) while strolling down Kaanapali Beach, I knew I'd better find out what all the fuss is about. The Daft Punk comparisons are definitely right, but that doesn't mean the album isn't enjoyable. In addition to their penchant for filtered guitar riffs and french house beats (Daft Punk), they've also got a taste for mid-90's inspired industrial electronica (think NIN, Aphex Twin) and the occasional 80's beat (one track sounds like they took the beat straight from MJ's "Billie Jean"). All in all, it was a great soundtrack for my picture-taking jaunt. I've since listened to the album 2 other times - at the gym and at the pool. It's not interesting enough to make good pool music. But the beats and melodic sound effects are perfect for the gym.

Here are some of the shots I got yesterday... click the pics for larger versions.

Mama's Fish House

Last night we had a perfect dining experience at Mama's Fish House on the Maui North Shore. The restaurant sits right on a cozy private section of beachfront. They serve fresh fish caught on Maui that very day. I had mahi mahi stuffed with lobster and crab and baked in a macadamia nut crust with a light drizzling of sauce on top. Not only was the food perfect, so was the ambiance. Totally perfect!






This was our appetizer... The official name of it was in Hawaiian, so I can't remember it. But it was tender pork, sweet potato, onion and tomato drizzled in coconut milk and cooked inside the tea leaves (which were tied together and cut open fresh at our table).


We got there early just to get this table - on the corner, right on the beach. It was worth it!


I wouldn't blame my travel companions if they are tired of me making them take cheesed out posed photos of all of us. But hey, isn't that the duty of any good blogger/MySpace junkie?

More Maui Pics

The whole gang, out for dinner at Leilani's on Kaanapali Beach.


Outside one of the 9,238 ABC Stores on Maui.


Amy and I outside the condo... Also, a great opportunity to show that I actually have a tan which is quite an accomplishment for a pasty white Missouri boy with Scottish/Swiss/Irish/German genes.


The Whaler's Village shopping center, right down the beach from where we're staying.




Amy outside our condo.


The "Maui Marathon" happened while we were here and the awards ceremony took place right next to our condo. We crashed it.

Greetings from Maui

We're on day 2 of the vacation and we couldn't be happier to be here. Amy and I spent the whole afternoon laying on the beach. The thought of the day was "Sure beats being stuck in an ice storm." We are in heaven!

We had a full day of traveling yesterday. Despite the seemingly never-ending haul to get here (Springfield to Cincinnati to LA to Maui) we seemed to enjoy ourselves along the way. It didn't hurt that I sat next to some very friendly lesbians on the plane to Maui and we had a nice chat about Britney;s VMA performance (I was carrying the Entertainment Weekly with her on the cover) . It's always great to run into family when you aren't expecting it!



Amy (my roommate) and I pose for a cheesy timer photo in the Cincinnati airport around 10:00am. If we look tired and haggard already it's because we were - the day began at 4:00am.
We didn't make it to Maui until midnight Missouri time.


Sexy escalators in Cincinnati.


We were barely in the LA airport... However we were there long enough to grab a Cinnabon, a smoothie, and a tourist photo.


A creepy long corridor in LAX.


My first morning in Maui - at the Whaler's Village on Kaanapali Beach.


Mom and I after breakfast. This is our favorite breakfast spot. Not only does it overlook Kaanapali Beach, the food is excellent. I had fresh mahi mahi, rice, scrambled eggs and toast. Yes, I'm so excited to get real fresh fish, I'm having it for breakfast.


Dad and I on Kaanapali Beach.


A gecko we spotted after breakfast.

My Plants

So they probably aren't going to win me any prizes at the county fair, but, I am pretty damn proud of the fact that I've kept these flowers alive all summer. Granted, I have had about 5 or 6 die over the course of the season, but hey, at least these still look pretty, right?

Mostly I just wanted to document the fact that for the majority of the summer I have been out in the back yard watering these fuckers every (work) day at 6AM.

Don't Call It a Comeback

After the public outcry at the close of VonBlog, I have decided to re-enter the world of blogging at Blogger - because it's free and VonBlog was not.

What do I anticipate putting on this blog? Mostly my thoughts on electronic music, or whatever music I may be listening to at the moment. But I'm sure I'll also find time to post some random thoughts on life in general.

Here's hoping I learn to post with a little more regularity!