Charlie’s Haus

Welp, spring is trying to pop in here, winter just doesn’t want to leave though….stupid snow.  That means it was my birthday!  Really, bdays aren’t that big of a deal to me.  I don’t feel any older (although I may look it…I am getting a few greys in my beard).  I had a good birthday though.  My Mom took Mandi and I out to a place of my choice.  I chose Texas Roadhouse since I have never been there.  It was delicious.  Apparently they think a little different about your birthday.  Instead of giving you free desert or something, they embarrass you.  That’s all.  I wasn’t that embarrassed though, it was kind of fun.  They have this saddle mounted on kind of a sawhorse.  You get on it and yell “I’m a cowboy!”  Now I shouted it out so everyone could hear me (and my Mom got a great picture…Ill post it when I get it).  Most people were too embarrassed and you could hardly hear them.  It was pretty funny.

I have started working on the basement/bar again.  I have the insulation up behind the bar and covered.  I need to make a stop at Menards tonight for a few items so I can continue working on it.  I somehow managed to lose my drawings/plans, so I had to stop last night and draw up some new ones.  Im just hoping that I remembered all the little pitfalls I had found.  I am pretty excited to see the finished product, hopefully it matches what I see in my head

I did some behind the scenes cleanup of my site this week.  I updated some old plug-ins and found a few new ones.  Today I was going to look for some new cool ones.  I installed one yesterday to show what song I am listening to in winamp.  It shows on the right bar under the random image from my gallery. 

Well, I suppose I need to get back to work, so I will leave you with this cartoon that is pretty funny:

Too bad the book that has more stories like this is well over $150 if you can find it.  They have a limited edition copy out now that is going for nearly $500.  Ouch.  But stories like this are so cool.  They draw you in and hold you on the edge of your seat.  Here is a short story by a man who lived his dreams, Major Brian Shul.  http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/archives/7821-Major-Brian-Shul-I-loved-that-jet.html

It is simply an amazing read.

Its been a while, I know, Im a horrible person.  What can I say.  Im sorry.  Where to start.  2 weeks ago I got my new camera.  I bought a canon 40D digital SLR.  I am amazed at the stuff I can do with it.  Now I am just waiting for some nicer weather to really take advantage of it.  I have a new photo gallery to showcase some of the better pictures I take with it.  So far, I just put up the only stuff I really have.  http://www.charliemaurice.com/photography is where it is right now.  Which if you look there, I will explain those photos later.  Anyways, I am learning a bunch of new stuff with this camera such as how to use photoshop.  I bought an awesome book that walks you through steps on how to do things.  The best part about the camera is that I can fix so many things that you cant with a point and shoot (well you can some stuff, just not easily). 

On sunday, Mandi, Lisa and I spent the day in Milwaukee.  We started out going to the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) to see Body Worlds.  It was a pretty cool exhibit, but I was a little disappointed.  It was much smaller than I thought it would be (which may be because the MPM is pretty small to begin with).  Im not sure what I really expected, maybe I just had to high of expectations for it.  Either way though, it was really cool still.  Definitely worth going and seeing at least once.  I would like to see one of the newer versions (we saw Body Worlds 1), that might be better.  On my photography page, you will see some butterfly pics.  I took those at the butterfly vivarium at the MPM.  That was pretty cool.  First time I have been to something like that, and their were butterflies everywhere.

After the MPM, we went in search for The Safe House to lay low from the coppers you see.  Once arriving, we were told they were full until after 7pm (it was like 4:45pm) even though there was hardly a sole in there.  So on our walk back, we decided to eat at Rock Bottom Brewery.  Apparently its a chain, but it was once of the best places I have eaten in a very long time.  Their beer was phenomenal, and the food was top notch.  There were so many things on the menu I wanted to try they all looked so good.  I definitely want to go back there.

After supper we headed to the Bradley Center for the Billy Joel Concert.  He played for about 2 hours and it was quite the show.  He was pretty chatty and even made fun of himself in the beginning for his car insurance rates.  Im glad we went, especially considering that he may be done touring within the next few years.  He played a lot of his older stuff from the 70’s, and while he didnt play as much “famous” stuff, it was awesome to watch him play.  He really is a master piano player. 

My mom is down in Madison during the week for a job she is working.  We had supper last week together.  It will be nice to hopefully see her a little more often.

I also put up a few pictures of Haiden in the photo gallery on this site.  My sister sent them to me.  They are starting to pack up for a trip and Haiden was just to excited to get going apparently.  I think he just thought they were packing to come see me!  Those pictures can be seen here:  http://www.charliemaurice.com/?page_id=265&g2_itemId=474