Randy

Mountains Snow and Four strokes

~ randyaa ~ 2 Comments

When we got to camp last night conditions were better than we could have hoped. Easily two feet of snow on the level and trails freshly groomed. Unfortunately it was midnight and -10 outside so we promptly hit the hay to prepare for the ride ahead.

This morning one of the other diamond sportsman club members (Chuck Ferrel) stopped by on their way to the Backwoods Inn (previously known as Hams).  After some chat about where they were headed we decided to join them.

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We were going right by Little Blue Mountain so we went on up the trail. I say this every time but it was the clearest I’ve ever seen it on top. Usually, if it’s clear, White Face Mountain is just visible through some haze. Today, there was no haze and White Face looked clear as could be.

There wasn’t as many people there as usual but on the way down we met a guy who was having problems getting his sled started. It was an Arctic Cat T660 four stroke with a dead battery and no pull start. No pull start!? Yep, seems since it’s a four stroke there’s too much compression to pull it over so they don’t even bother including one. I’m pretty sure there won’t be any of these sorts of sleds in my future. I wouldn’t want to be stuck out in the woods with a dead battery or a blown starter like that guy.  To make it worse he wasn’t even smart enough to bring jumper cables!

NOTE: this post is pre-dated, as it was written but not posted in the mountains since there is no data connection.

Famous Wok

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We don’t eat at the mall very often but whenever we do I eat at the Famous Wok. It’s nothing fancy, just your typical mall cafeteria style food joint. However, they have the best sesame chicken around and I don’t think they have a place anywhere else in Rochester. Tonight I learned their sweet BBQ pork is just as good.

Lunch For The Week

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LunchesWe made our lunches for the week again today.  Yes, we label each day, which gives us an extra push not to forget them.

Rachel and I have been making our lunches on Sunday for about a month and a half now.  We make them for the whole week at once.  This was Ramit’s first tip in the save $1,000 in a month challenge.  We had been trying to bring our lunches for a while but it just wasn’t working out.  We always either forgot, didn’t have enough time for it or just didn’t feel like it.  Doing it all at once for the week has worked out great.  It actually saves us time because making 5 lunches at once only takes a few seconds more than making only one.

My favorite part of lunch this week?  The Nuts and Bolts.

Merry Christmas 2.0!

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Merry Christmas!

We’ve done Christmas a little bit different this year.

  • Hours spent in the malls: 0
  • Hours spent online shopping: 0

Sorry, we can’t give it away just yet though…

By this time everyone should have heard our request for memories for grandma.  Everyone wants to know what our gift was, and so rather than describe it, we thought we’d just show you.

Grandma's Hug Jug

To explain it, this is the card we gave her:

It was 1991, the year of the ice storm.  Your house was one of the few which still had power.  Mom dropped us off to spend the day with you.  To keep us busy, you pulled out a few empty gallons of milk which we decorated and filled with warm water.  You called them our “Hug Jugs.”  When we got cold you told us to hug them to stay warm.

It is said that memories are one of life’s greatest gifts.  They are like little hugs from the past that come to warm our hearts.  This is Grandma’s Hug Jug.  Inside, you’ll find cards which contain memories or pictures from your family and friends.  Some contain thoughts of all the times you have made us laugh, others contain memories of how you have helped us to be strong or how you have touched the lives of those who love you.

When you feel the need for a warm hug or a few giggles reach in and pull out a memory or a picture from the past.

And finally, if you’d like to read over some of the memories people have, they’re all available below:

Thanks for everybody’s help who contributed, we couldn’t have done it without you!

A Very Memory Christmas for Grandma

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If you’re part of the Masten/Kerber family you’ve probably already seen this note from Rachel but duplicating it here just means more people might see it.

We have something special planned for Grandma this Christmas and we need your help. We are looking for memories that you have of Grandma. It can be a funny memory, a special way she has touched your life, copies of old pictures, reasons why you love and appreciate her or anything you think she will enjoy and cherish. In order for us to complete this project we need to have 10 or more memories from each person in your family. This is much easier than it sounds.  Once we started thinking the memories just kept coming and coming.

While this task definitely deserves some attention, some people might be stressing about it. Don’t over think this task as it can be as easy as reminiscing on the old days. We thought we’d throw up some ideas to get you started.

  • I remember when you 
  • I remember how you used to make us 
  • I’m so thankful for you teaching me
  • I remember the old days when
  • I appreciate the way you helped me
  • I love the way you always
  • It always makes me smile when
  • I like how   always makes you
  • When we were kids I loved when you would take us

As a more specific example:

  • I remember how we would feed the chickens at Grandpa Frankies and …

Obviously your memories don’t have to be limited to this list, but hopefully it’ll get you thinking and give you some ideas.

Remember, Christmas is just around the corner and we can’t finish this little project without your help!

BBQ with Cake

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For my birthday Rachel organized a surprise party by tricking me into a dinner at Dinosaur BBQ.  It was a load of fun and completely unexpected.  It was my first surprise party and I’d call it a success.

To top off the great BBQ dinner at Dinosaur Rachel got everybody together for the Cake concert.  Cake is one of my favorite bands and she had been making excuses for why we weren’t able to go.  When I opened my birthday card at dinner and found 2 tickets for the concert I was ecstatic.  The concert was better than I could imagine.  Cake turns out to be one of those bands that sounds just as good if not better live than on their pre-recorded music.

An awesome birthday thanks to the worlds best wife.

And yes, I know this post is 2 months late.  Sue me.

Main Street Rochester NY

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Until a recent trip to the Memorial Art Gallery – to take advantage of Free Museum Day – I had no idea that the Main Street Bridge in Rochester NY was originally covered in structures much like the original London Bridge.  There’s an excellent history recap of Main St available on the RocWiki if you’d like even more of a history lesson.  An archaic style of bridge like that somehow makes me think Rochester hasn’t always been as behind on the times as it is now.  After all, they had the good sense to remove it.  A small digital copy of a painting of the Bridge can be seen below or see the full version at the Memorial Art Gallery.

Rochester Main Street Bridge – Colin Campbell Cooper

It’s always impressive to go and view Artwork in your local city.  Even a small city such as Rochester houses some famous Artwork by names you’ll recognize.

This next painting is one of my favorites at the Gallery from an Artist I’d previously not heard of.

The Exorcism of the Waves – Alessandro Magnasco

Friend Quotes

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Continuing with the quote theme, the following is a list of quotes from my friends, last updated in 2002.  Some are funny, some are just weird.  Sorry.

DISCLAIMER: Nothing has been added or made up. Names have not been changed. Screw the innocent.

Eating a Wegmans Cream filled donut is like an orgasm in your mouth.
~Brian

Randy: but I think I’m actually going to make money on the deal 🙂
Anthony: lol
Randy: they already gave me $270
Anthony: With you involved I’d be disappointed if you didn’t

The thing that drives us in life is coincidentally.. death. Without mortality, humanity would never strive to make things better for ourselves and more importantly for our children
~Brian

Partying without you 2 (Randy & Brian) is like sex without the ass slapping
~Tim

Jen from store 82: not that I have even come close to proving my thesis
Jen from store 82: because I don’t even understand my thesis

Randy: Yeah they’re gonna know we had a women navigator cause we’re late.
Anthony: Yeah but they’ll know she wasn’t in the drivers seat cause we actually got here.

If she and I were the last two members of the human race, stranded on an island; I’d rather **** in the ocean and hope to inseminate a fish than **** her.
~Jeff

my balls are like dynamite, wanna bang
~Jeff

Be careful in the winter this summer
~Rachel

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. my teammate wrote a class, I wrote a class.
they interacted but they didn’t. I adapted and he didn’t. I was right, he was wrong. I won he lost.
~Random CS student

freeman is becoming a non-exister. I say let it fly. it can’t hurt us, only him.
~Matteo

if somebody washes that kid before the next class I’ll give him a cookie….
~Lars

Brian: btw Zack is gay

Don’t criticize someone until You’ve walked a mile in their shoes, that way, when u criticize them you’ll be a mile away and you’ll have their shoes!

There are 10 types of people in this world; those who understand binary, and those who do not.
~Tim

Randy: hey
Auto response from Anthony: off takin pic’s of my cocker 😛

There is a priest, a rabbi, and a golf pro and they all come up to this lake. Priest goes, “Bless this lake”, Rabbi goes Mimpf Minshkoosh Mincki which means, “Bless this lake”. The golf pro walks up and goes, “Wheres my ball”. And the lesson of this story, “The Devil took the ball and the lake”. No really…there is still no point to this “joke”
~Rob

Patience is:
-letting that driver in front of you go slow without pulling up to the side of him and swearing at him (actually…its usually a her).
-learning to slow it down once in a while in this fast paced society.
-just waiting for her to happen.
-expecting to be disappointed and growing on it.
-realizing how short life is and accepting what you are doing with life.
-finding a target “her” and realizing its still out of reach.
-hearing someone out before you panic
-taking a chance
-is life
-is reading this whole thing and adding your own instance of choice.
~Rob

Fighting for Peace is like Screwing for Virginity
~Anthony

Sometimes I wish I was you…
So I could have sex with me
~Lindsay – AIM Profile

Elena: poor canada
Randy: truer words have never been spoken

Randy: dork
Auto response from Corey: Randy is a dork!
Randy: hey thats not cool I didnt even talk to you yet
Auto response from Corey: yes randy is still a dork

but you were all about boobs your senior yeat
~Randy

Yeah…perhaps…I don’t think so… I don’t know.
~Randy

Matteo: did you hear about the new S-Box??? It’s great. Even better than the real thing. Yep. Microsoft teamed up with Satan to create a hybrid video game system that will make you scream. The X-box hasn’t been doing good and a new IMPROVED game system should change that statisic. I just saw a commerical yesterday for it and it was so funny. Satan was marketing it and had a little boy playing with a few of the games. Here’s a few that I can remember. Satan vs. Jesus, Hitlers final solution, Angel wars, and my favorite Terrorist Air 666!!! All great titles that will make this the greatest game experience you’ll ever see. Konard from Gamestop gave it 8 fingers up!!! He is preordering 3 of them. Stocking stuffers I guess. Well, thats about all. It’s going to be HOT!!!

My chaps are lipped.
~Rachel

make sure the munchkins put some rocks in their pockets tomorrow,
we don’t want them blowing away
~Liz

a true wise man does not play leap frog with a unicorn.
~Brian

Randy: dork
Mary Beth: am i giving you a huge…….?!
Randy: ?
Mary Beth: lolllllllll
Mary Beth: wrong screen!!!!!!

Randy: so what the hell do you want anyway?
Liz: I want you to lick Brian’s foot
Liz: that what I want

A Whole lot of nothin….
~Rachel

SmarterChild: Whatcha laughing about?
Randy Aldrich: your face
SmarterChild: Yeah? I think you’re the one with the funny face.

So it’s easy to understand and it’s understandable.
~Kristy

A Wedding and a Party

~ randyaa ~ 3 Comments

My best friend Anthony’s wedding was this weekend and I had the honor of being best man.  One of the biggest (or at least the most stressful) responsibilities of the best man is the toast.  I’ve never had to speak in front of that many people before but I think it went over relatively well.

My Speech:

Ladies and gentlemen, if there’s anybody here this afternoon who’s feeling nervous, apprehensive and queasy at the thought of what lies ahead, it’s probably because you just got married to Anthony Ventura.

When I sat down to write this thing I had no clue where to start.

Some people tell jokes, but I’m not that funny.
Some people write a poem, but I can’t rhyme.
Some people give advice, but I’ve only been married a year so the only advice I have is to shut up and let her do the talking.

Since I can’t do any of those the best thing I came up with is to tell everyone how I got to know the lovely new Mr & Mrs Ventura.  The only problem is, I’ve known Anthony for so damn long I have no idea how we met.  What I can tell you is a few things that he’s taught me over the years.

I’ve learned that the Ventura’s really know how to raise a son, but I have no idea how they deal with both of them. (Harriet you’re a saint)
I’ve learned that Rollerblading down giant hills can lead to war scars the size of your fist.
I’ve learned that Mascara really does look horrible on a guy (Ask me later, I have pictures).
I’ve learned that transformers and Lego’s are fun to play with at any age, wait no not really.
I’ve learned how good friends stand the test of time.
And I’ve learned that a list like this can go on for days so we’ll just stop here.

The really awesome part of having a friend like Anthony is that every time we see each other, even if its after months or years apart, it’s back to the same old shenanigans, drinking past 2am and befriending trashcans (or toilets).  He’s always only a phone call away any time you need to patch a hole in a wall or get away from your pets for 2 weeks.

I remember the first time I met Meg. It was Anthony’s birthday and he wanted me to come out to MacGregors to meet this stunning girl he had been seeing.  A few Irish Car Bombs later and there we were, 2 country boys and a beautiful blond stuck in front of Deer Hunter the video game.  When Meg proved she had what it takes to kill more Bambies than us I told him:

“Any woman that can shoot a toy gun like that is worth keeping!”

I was right because he’s definitely getting the better end of the deal.  Anthony, you are a lucky groom – you’ve married Meg, who’s beautiful, smart, funny, warm, loving and caring, and she deserves a good husband. Thank God you married her before she found one.

I’ve been told that Meg is good at a lot of things but directions are not one of them.  I don’t know how she found her way to their first date, but I’m pretty sure one of the biggest reasons she keeps him around is because she can’t read a map.  Anthony, whatever you do, don’t buy her a GPS device because she might not need you anymore.

I lied, I do have one small piece of advice. If I have learned anything during the past year it’s this. Love one another and you will be happy. It’s as simple and as difficult as that.

From the moment I saw them together I could tell that they’re very much in love and would bring each other happiness for years to come.  It was truly an honor for me to be a part of their day.  I would like to propose a toast to the happy couple, wishing them years upon years of blissful happiness. 

To Anthony and Meg…

May your love grow ever stronger as you share your lives together, and may your future be  more wonderful than you dreamed possible.