This is The World According to Buchs - Keepin’ it moving since 2003!

June, 2005

Vegas Tips

For the first time in about 6 years, I won't be making a trip to Las Vegas. Mom & Dad have a 2-bedroom timeshare condo *on the strip*, and they're usually so generous as to share. I've stayed there once with the whole family, twice with Judy, Mom, and Dad, and once just Judy and myself. I've also spent time at the Imperial Palace, Treasure Island, and Paris. Add to that my numerous outings to Potawotami Bingo & Casino, and I'd say it was a safe bet (pun intended) to call me an aficionado of wagering. Our good friend Jim has been gearing up for a Vegas trip for some time now - which I ...

Posted June 28, 2005 in personal, tagged , .   There are 6 comments.

Do The Math

I played another round of Saturday Morning Golf this weekend at Currie Park in Wauwatosa. I lost my sunglasses during the round. My eyes are terribly light-sensitive, and I wear the shades pretty much year-round. The course at Currie Park is approximately 6,500 yards long. I'll estimate an average of 30 yards wide, plus another 750 yards from each green to the next tee. That all adds up to 202,000 square yards. My glasses are about 7 inches across, maybe 2 inches top to bottom - 0.0389 square yards, to keep things in perspective. That means my glasses are equal to about .000000192% of the course. It was a busy day, so I'll estimate that there were an average of ...

Posted June 27, 2005 in sports & games, tagged .   There are 6 comments.

It turns out that I’m too short

I bought this beautiful blue driver last spring off eBay. It was a great deal - something in the area of $50. The only problem was, it was built custom for a man standing between 6'6" and 6'10" tall. I stand 5'12", or 6'0" when I don't slouch. I hadn't really been able to hit any driver well until this year, so I never bothered looking into getting it reshafted or resized to fit my height. Over the last few weeks, I've been hitting it occasionally very well, and more occasionally with a massive slice. Well, I happened to be out in Brookfield yesterday, and stopped into Golf Galaxy to look for a new ...

Posted June 20, 2005 in personal.   Comments Off.

I feel so naked.

All I have to say is this: I better get that project. Commemorative pieces of the Live Strong! wristband are available for $0.50 per inch, while supplies last. All proceeds go towards a Good Bender.

Posted June 16, 2005 in personal.   There are 2 comments.

The Bat-Man

Quick review: Whoooooohhhooo!!!!! Saw it last night with Chuck and Les. We had to really dig and nitpick to come up with anything wrong with it. The strongest part of the story is the first hour or so, going into the backstory and origin of Batman. Casting was dead-on. Bale is a great Bruce Wayne/Batman, and Michael Caine might have been even better as Alfred. The "universe" that this Batman movie is in was completely different than the previous movies - a lot of work went into making everything seem, at the least, plausible. Once you see what Wayne goes through, and what he has available to him, there's no suspension of disbelief to get to the point where he dresses ...

What’s For Lunch?

Just take a look at this thing of beauty. That's 24 ounces of pure roast beef goodness. 16 inches of cheesy deliciousness. The best part? $5.99

Posted June 15, 2005 in food & restaurants, tagged , .   There are 5 comments.

Beep! Beep!

Mr. Cable Installer just left. Not only do I get super-fast speeds on my new cable modem, he was late! Which means I get a $25 credit on my next bill. I ran a bandwidth test this morning on the DSL line, and another on the Cable just a few minutes ago. DSL ------------------------------------------------------- File size transferred : 3.02 MB (3167484 bytes) Total time taken : 39.89 seconds (39891 milliseconds) Throughput : 79.0 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second] = 0.08 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second] = 632.0 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second] = 0.63 Mbps [Megabit-per-second] Download Statistics ------------------------------------------------------- Best speed = 0.63 Mbps, Average speed = 0.31 Mbps Worst speed = 0.63 Mbps, Average time taken = 19.94 secs RoadRunner ------------------------------------------------------- File size transferred : 3.02 MB ...

College Is For Suckers

At least that's what Steve Jobs says. More or less. Just don't forget where you heard that first.

Posted June 14, 2005 in computers & gadgets.   There are no comments yet.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith

Judy and I caught a Saturday afternoon matinee of "Mr. & Mrs. Smith". I hear that there's a lot of hoo-hah and hub-bub about the movie that has nothing to do with the movie. I don't concern myself with hoo-hah and hub-bub, so I can't offer an opinion on that. The movie itself was a lot of fun. The basic premise is this: Brad Pitt is married to Angelina Jolie, both of whom are secretly assasins for competing agencies. On one job, they're coincidentally assigned to rub out the same person, and hilarity/mayhem ensues. The bickering between the two is fantastic, and Vince Vaughn is also very good as Pitt's "manager". There's one terrific fight scene between the two - Mrs. ...

DSL Bad! RoadRunner Good!

Over drinks with Dan last night, we had a short discussion about DSL vs. RoadRunner. I've been pretty happy with DSL, and have had that service for almost 4 years now. RoadRunner recently upgraded their network, and are offering some pretty blistering speeds; I've been on the "Pro" plan with SBC for about 2 years, which offers pretty good speeds. Or so I thought. Since it was on my mind, I called tech support today to have them check out a small problem I've been having. My connection has been randomly dropping out over the last few months, and more recently it's been happening a lot. They're going to check it out and get back to me. In ...

Posted June 8, 2005 in computers & gadgets.   There are 4 comments.

Tess

For my first official weblog entry under the hotly anticipated "King Of Brunch" banner, here's my review of the Sunday Brunch at Tess. Judy (AKA "The Queen Of Brunch") and I were seated outside on the patio. Service was pretty good. Coffee was so-so, as was the bloody bull ("not enough veggies"). We were given a full basket of pastries to munch on before our meal arrived, which contained croissants, muffins, and cinnamon-raisin toast - all very tasty. We shared the crab cake appetizer before our entrees. I can safely say it's the best crab cake in town. Most places prepare a base mixture of crab meat and bread crumbs, then fry it. This was a good 1-pound hunk of seasoned crab (mixed with bits of celery, onion, and pepper), then coated with bread crumbs before frying. The end result was spectacular - a sweet, meaty cake served with a remoulade sauce and a bed of greens. Next time, I'm getting my own and not sharing. Judy had the bagel & lox plate. A large bagel half smeared with a dill spread, topped with a pile of smoked salmon, onions, sprouts, and capers. I had a bite, and it was quite tasty. Prior to ordering, I had narrowed down my choices to the BBT panini (basil, bacon and tomatoe), or the eggs benedict. At the last second, I went with the Southern Scramble. A mixture of peppers, onions, and smoked andouille sausage, the eggs were scrambled perfectly - not overdone and dried out. Topped with a bit of cheddar cheese, and served with some very nicely done fried potatoes. My entree wasn't bad, but it was lacking in a little flavor. Next time, I'm going with the panini.

Posted June 7, 2005 in milwaukee.   There are 2 comments.

Day 16

Day 16, and still Living Strong.

Posted June 3, 2005 in personal.   There is 1 comment.

Version 3.5.1

I just can't stop the tinkering. Last night, I finished converting this weblog from MovableType's conventional "static" publishing model to the newer "dynamic" publishing. It took me a little while to wrap my head around it, but in the end, it wasn't that big of a deal. Since there aren't any "pages" anymore, I can make quick edits to the site templates - everything updates in real time. So I'll probably keep tweaking... The dynamic publishing system is built on two components - ezSQL and Smarty. Both of which I just happened to have started using on some other projects. Once I figured that out, things went pretty quickly. I struggled a bit with the "Current Playlist" feature on ...

I Want My TV Stand Back!

I was doing a little lunchtime reading over at The Mecca, and followed a link to an onMilwaukee.com piece about Milwaukee Legends. Lo and behold, #1 on the list is my former neighbor, Frank Pecoraro - better known to most as simply "Pepperoni! Cannoli!". Known to me, however, as the jackass who robbed me of a perfectly good TV stand. I'm not even sure what year it was, but I used to live on the corner of Brady St. & Marshall St. I was there for almost 3 years, and for the last 2, I lived in a first-floor apartment, with access to the back "patio". Seperating our apartment from the neighbor's ...

Posted June 2, 2005 in milwaukee, personal, tagged , , .   There is 1 comment.

They’ve Fractured Journey!

The last Marcus Amphitheater act has been announced for Summerfest 2005 - (Not) Journey. Message to Steve Augeri: "I knew Steve Perry; Steve Perry was a friend of mine. You, sir, are no Steve Perry." If you've never seen it, keep an eye out for VH1's "Behind The Music" episode featuring Journey. Words cannot describe it. Perhaps "scrumtrulescent".

Posted June 1, 2005 in milwaukee, tv, movies and music, tagged , .   There are 3 comments.

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