Plethora

Fishing

So, I won’t get into major details in case Lindsey decides to post about it. But, recently Linds wanted to go fishing, we got our licenses, and fished. I don’t the body of water we were on, but it was actually fairly fun. It was cold, and I think it’s say I got colder than Linds for reasons I’ll let her explain, but I did take a video. Here it is.

7 comments April 30th, 2008

Bill

Last week around this time Linds and I had a special visitor. Now, I realize many of my readers have visited us in Philadelphia, fully realizing they may never have gone to the city on purpose, but came here just for us. And that was amazing. But, when an uncle you could count on one hand how many times you’ve spent time with in your life makes the trip and wants to hang out, it’s special. And that’s what happened when my Uncle Bill came to visit last week.

First, some background on Bill. He’s the oldest of the Eugene and Harriet Rausch gang. Probably among the least athletic, which doesn’t mean he wasn’t a great athlete, just that the Rausch family is a family of excellent athletes and he was towards the bottom of that totem pole. With that being said he may be the smartest person I know. It is said he read every single book in the Ortonville HS Library in HS, reading 3 books a day. I think I heard he’s a member of Mensa, a certified genius, and a speed reader. He does security for a credit union and has 8 kids. He’s very cool and a great storyteller.

He flew in last Monday and we picked him up at the Hyatt right on the water between Camden and Philly (thank God he was on the Philly side) at Penns Landing. We then took him to Chickie and Pete’s where we sat in the exact same seat as when Dan came to visit. We actually had an awesome meal, Yuenglings, Crab fries, Crab legs, and Mussels. I believe Bill had lobster tail. It was a Mon night so service was very fast, but unrushed and high on quality. Thinking this was our only night with Bill we then took him for a cheesesteak at 10pm…right after supper. Halfway through his cheesesteak, as we were all struggling, we finally said, “you don’t have to finish it to be polite, you can be done if you want” and he gladly tossed it away. Dropped him off at the hotel, he let us know that he will actually be available on Wednesday night as well, and then hit major traffic at 11pm. I was so tired when I got home and collapsed into bed.
Wednesday we met him a bit earlier with plans to get some food, see some sights, and get to bed.
Seems easy right, a random Wednesday night, downtown shouldn’t be too busy, right? WRONG. Why? Democratic debate in Philadelpha ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE LIBERTY BELL! So, we somehow found a parking spot downtown for a few quarters, walked to a really good Italian place, decided rather than spend all night at the restaurant (Maggiano’s) we’d eat at a lil pub. That was actually a lot of fun. Bill just told us stories about each of his brothers, sports specifically, and college. I found out that Mike was a stud, Andy was wanted by everyone to play football, but never played a single down, why liane is crazy, and why my dad got as strong as he is. Very very interesting.
Before eating we briefly checked out the liberty bell, so we drove by Love Park and also checked out the Rocky steps and Chinatown.
We definitely had a good time, I realized just how cool Bill was, you can definitely tell he’s an engineer in the way he talks about things and analyzes situations and problems. It was actually pretty interesting watching him think.
All in all, it was great having him, our next visitors are Ryan and Natalie. Still brainstorming what we should do with them. So many options, so little time.

6 comments April 23rd, 2008

Ben Folds Concert!

Well, it all began with a conversation with Big T. He mentioned they were going to a Ben Folds concert in a few weeks and were all excited about it. I had this confirmed from Miles and Chet as well. So, I looked it up and found out, ah shit, he’s playing like 25 miles from where I work. Money!

So, $25/ticket and we were in to see Ben at Lafayette College.

So, Linds met me right after work, we traveled to Easton, PA and went looking for a place to eat before the concert. We went to the center of the city and walked around until we finally found a place to eat, which ended up being wayyy too fancy for us. We ate their anyway, but it was a “poor your beer for you, pull your chair out for you” place. Wearing my Ghostbusters t-shirt I was definitely under-dressed.

We then found the college and as we were waiting security came up and down the row of people screaming “if you have a camera do NOT get caught using it, I love cameras and I will take yours”. This was a major bummer, I was planning on taking some video and pictures, and with my crappy cell phone I knew I was just out of luck. So, Linds sent me to the car with her purse and our camera. I of course came back and the line had finally begun and I had no idea where she was, and just as my luck would show, I was told to get to the back of the line of probably 200 people. Bastards.

Before the show, holy hell high schoolers. Everywhere, I should’ve counted braces. It seemed like the crowd were either 40 years old, 18 years old, or 15 years old. I definitely felt too old to be around many of these people. And we definitely came too early thinking we’d have to fight for a spot, cause the place was mostly empty. Standing on the floor there were I’m sure 200 or so people. And about the same amount sitting in the stands to the sides of the stage. The concert was on a basketball court, so there were quite a few people, but definitely not a sell out crowd.

Finally Eef Barzelay, his opening act came out. With guys like him it’s hard to tell if he’s eccentric or drunk. I definitely liked his voice, he was funny, but it was very clear the crowd didn’t love him or appreciate him like I did and so many of his jokes went unheard and people mostly talked while he played. Not cool.

After he was done there was a brief setting up the stage period and then Ben Folds!

As best I can remember, his set list was this:
In Between Days
Gone
Hiroshima (Watch me falling)?
You to Thank
Evaporated
Rockin’ the suburbs
Army
Philosophy
Bitches ain’t shit
Landed
Something about when he puts a tin can on the piano and plays
Underground
Not the Same
Zak and Sara

Something like that.
Notes on the songs: Bitches was the best song of the night, really long and the synthesizer was an awesome addition to the recorded version.
Loved the new songs and cant’ wait for the album.
He played for like 30 minutes without the band, just him. He played 2 instruments pretty often, either the synthesizer with one hand and the piano with the other, or moraccas and the piano. I thought that was impressive.
When Underground started everyone started to applaud and I was like, what am I missing? And then there’s a part where someone from the crowd has to yell something and I had no idea what they yelled but it was obvious the band knew. I was actually kind of embarrassed because here I consider myself a big fan and I wasn’t even aware this was a crowd favorite.
He broke his stool on the piano and then everyone walked off (that might’ve been the end of Underground), and when he came back for the encore he chuckled and said “surprise!”.
It was a laugh out loud moment. I knew he played 3 songs, I can’t remember which 3 they were, but for sure the last song of the evening was Not the Same. I remember he said “I really love playing this song because it gets the crowd to sing in 3/4″ and he trained us how to sing it and as the song was ending he quit playing the piano and got on top of it and directed us for 30 or so seconds. Very cool way to end the show.
Another joke he said was “I know you might’ve heard me say this before, but as I tour and hear new places I really must say that..um.. this is the best sounding gymnasium I’ve ever heard” lol.
Also, someone handed him a language card for the word “bitch” and he went through the card in every language. He also said that he doesn’t really love saying it, it’s just a word that people have written for him in songs and stuff like that so he says it. Basically, he doesn’t want to be the “bitch” guy. It’s just a coincidence.

Not really concert related we had a fat girl who I could only imagine was wasted dancing in front of us and she would go from Linds’ extreme left to my extreme right skipping and singing with her friends and Linds and I would be shifting back and forth like we were skiing downhill.

I really wanted a Ben Folds shirt, but didn’t find any I liked. That was too bad. Also, since the concert I have checked the colleges online newspaper and every local newspaper in the area for some type of concert review with no luck at all. All they’ll talk about is how Jim Brewer is coming there next.

I would give the concert 9 out of 10 stars only because the crowd kind brought everything down a notch because there weren’t a ton of them and many didn’t really seem like true fans of Ben, Ben talking to the crowd was a downer, too, he wasn’t as funny or talkative as I had hoped, and he didn’t do a few songs I was hoping for, like: rock this bitch (which I believe he’s decided not to do anymore, check out the album “Songs for Goldfish” and the weatherchannel music song (AWESOME I wish I would’ve yelled out “Weatherchannel” or “Rock out with my ___ out”)), Fred Jones pt 2, Emaline, Eddie Walker, Jackson Cannery, or Song for the Dumped. But, I can’t be too picky, it was still amazing. After seeing it I definitely want to see him again in more of a lounge area rather than college basketball gym.

5 comments April 20th, 2008

Probably stupid

Ok, watch the full thing, I only laughed once. But I laughed really freaking hard. It’s in the last 10 seconds. I nearly cried I was laughing so hard. For serious.

7 comments April 12th, 2008

Ben Folds

Went to the concert last night. Have a lot of thoughts about it. But, I don’t want to ruin the show for everyone, so I propose an idea. We should all post about Ben Folds on the SAME day. What everyone thought of the concert. I’m not sure who in the MilesRausch.com tree is going, but I believe many/most are. So, you figure out the day, cause I don’t know when your concert is.

Have a nice weekend.

5 comments April 11th, 2008

Hey everyone.

So, you all think you can just go to a Ben Folds concert without me, huh? HUH? Well, since I’m obviously the coolest guy on the MilesRausch.com circuit it seemed only appropriate that I did my best to One-Up ya’ll. So, I’m going to watch Ben Folds on Thursday.

Alright, jokes aside, when I found out ya’ll were headed over to the concert I checked out Ticketmaster to see where he was playing. Nothing showed up for Minnesota or much of anywhere for that case. So, I checked out his website and I found out that 1. he’s playing at Duluth and St. Peter, I’d imagine you are going to St. Peter. 2. He’s playing in Easton, PA on Thursday of this week. Tickets were $25/ea. and I asked Linds if she’d want to go, she said yes, and it was done. Easton is like an hour from our place, and 45 min. from work.

Another place opened up that since Denver is looking like a No Go, I may have a new favorite, D.C.. Time will tell. Work is going through some changes and right now I’m eager to move with my wife to someplace new and exciting. The more I think about it the more I’m ready to go. I will miss the money, but I am hoping the next job will be even higher paying.

Well, I’ve at least shot the basketball around everyday since my embarassment from last week. I am trying to only dribble left handed, shoot more left handed layups, and working on my runners. I can spot shoot as well as anyone, but a lot of time I’ve noticed that I’ll fake and then go to the basket, but due to my height I have to pull up short and float it in. Without practice it’s a difficult shot to attempt in a game, because it requires JUST enough touch.

So, that’s all from here. Looks like we’ll be having one more visitor before we get out of here. Ryan Guse and Deb Morton.

Peace.

8 comments April 8th, 2008

Happy Birthday Dad

Happy 48th!

4 comments April 5th, 2008

Howdy.

Well, Linds is definitely in full swing for the job hunt. She’s starting to get letters and emails, some good, some bad. As of this morning it may be safe to rule out Denver. And as of the previous couple days it’s safe to include Maryland and Ohio.

I honestly hate the feeling of having no control of where she’s going to get a job. That’s great knowing she’s qualified to get hired all over the place, but not knowing which place will eventually say yes is grueling. I don’t know what my address will be in a month and a half, and I guess there’s a chance it won’t even change. Crazy.

In less important news I played basketball last night at a Presbyterian Church. It was alright, a normal type thing, there were 3 of us guys from work and we picked up a kid named Ryan to play with. And you would play 2 games and then sit 2. They only play to 7 points by mostly 1’s since it’s in a church gym so they don’t have a 3 pt line from the sides (which are my favorite spots). So, ultimately I was very disappointed with my play. In 4 games I scored 4 points, 3 blocks, no assists, 1 rebound, and 2 turnovers. We committed way too many turnovers as only the guy we picked up had played consistently and my shot was clearly off. But also, most importantly, my team wanted to play a zone defense. I have never played a zone defense. In fact, as much as coaching is in my bloodline, I don’t know much about coaching. I know a swing offense, I know after an offensive rebound is an ideal time to kick the ball out for a 3, I know basic things like that, but I don’t know typical plays because I haven’t played real organized basketball since 8th grade and I guess I only ever focused on my role, never fully grasping what others were doing around me. I have a lot to learn and right now I’m angry and driven to get better. I think I could just FEEL Lindsey rolling her eyes.

Aside from that, the final four is this weekend and I think UNC is looking good and so is Memphis. I like this final four because literally any team could win any game. All 1 seeds, crazy how something so predictable has NEVER happened.

Lately my shoulders have been hurting worse than ever before. The doc gave me a pain killer (which seems not to work) and some exercises. I haven’t even lifted since going to the doctor but I have been doing my stretches, and I think it’s those stretches that have made them that much worse. Not to sound like a woman or anything but a few times this week I have woken up around 5am and nearly cried cause of the pain. The X-Rays came back showing that everything is normal, so at this point I just regret ever going to the doc. Waste.

That’s all from here, looks like a relaxing weekend ahead of us, maybe catch a movie, I have several movies I’ve been wanting to watch.

Go Twins.

8 comments April 3rd, 2008