Goodwin 1st MRB

He's not dead.

Her parents live in Vegas Free place to crash, and meals provided!

Well, Not many of you knew this (only a couple people) - but I had recently got my gf and engagement ring. We've been together almost 3 years, and she's my biggest supporter, as well as my biggest challenger. She is quite simply, my best friend. Allow me to give some back story: For months I had been browsing motorcycles. Online, in-stores; pretty much everywhere I went I was thinking about them. As a former MX'er, 2 wheeled machines keep me alive. Last week is when I bought the ring, but being the dolt I can sometimes be I paid for it with the credit card her and I share. She could see the charges, so I told her not to look and I would handle finances for a bit. Of course this raised some red flags for her, and she demanded to know why. I told her I bought a bike, and I didn't want her to know how much it was until she saw it and went for a ride, only then could she judge the amount spent. She begrudgingly agreed not to look and I thought I was set. I paid for the overnight shipping (from Belgium) so it would hurry and get here and I could surprise her (so I could quit lying). There was a problem... the place I bought the ring from was closed. I bought the ring on Thursday, but because of Easter they were closed Friday, Monday and Tuesday! To top it off - this past Wednesday they were without power/internet most of the day so they didn't get the ring out until yesterday! An entire week I had to wait despite my payment for overnight shipping. Well, for the past week poor Dee has really been angry with me. She was mad having thought I made some huge purchase, well beyond what I had planned to spend without telling her, or even talking it over first. She let me know virtually every day. The first day I told her about the bike, I spent the next 48 hours speaking in sign language because she refused to speak to me (we're both moderately fluent in sign). Last night she was crying because she was upset about it! I felt horrible, but I knew the torture would be worth it in the end... Today I did it. I took the morning off work and waited for the package to arrive (I had to be here to sign for it) - I then went out and bought a dozen roses, a white T-shirt, and a Sharpie. Why those other things you ask? Well, my gf is an art teacher - she likes creativity (and lots of it!); needless to say I felt obligated to do something out of the ordinary, and as 'large' as I could secretly put together. So what about the sharpie and white t-shirt!? Well... I took the new t-shirt out and defaced it with the sharpie. It now has a slogan on the front of it that reads "WILL YOU MARRY ME?" I put that on under a zip-up hoodie, and proceeded to her school. She teaches Jr. High and those kids are VERY excitable. When I arrived I asked the secretary (who ran a triathlon with Dee and I) if I could hand deliver the flowers to her room. It's not uncommon that I bring flowers to her randomly at school, so asking to bring them to her room in person caught her off guard. She said I could as long as she came with, and that's when I told her "Well, I have a bit of a question I wanted to ask Dee, which is why I wanted to hand deliver them..." and I showed her my shirt. Everyone in the office freaked out, all the ladies wanted to see the ring, etc, etc. I zipped up the hoodie and we headed down to her class, interestingly enough, her class was doing some projects out in the cafeteria today - so there are all the tables lined up, all the students happily working away; and there is Dee happily going around and assisting everyone. She sees me and the flowers and starts grinning - she likes surprises like that. She walks over and gives me a little kiss, and she thought that was it. So, then I tell her "There is a surprise for you on your desk..." - she wasn't sure what to think. How could I get a surprise on her desk without her knowing? I told her not to ask questions, but to trust me and go look. As she went into her room I got down on one knee, unzipped my hoody, pulled out the ring and waited for her to come back (the girls in the class were ooohing). She came around the corner from her room and was just about to tell me she didn't see anything when she saw me. She instantly turned bright red, and if her smile could have lept off her face it would have. She walked up, nearly in tears and I asked her "will you marry me?" She nodded and said yes, and gave me a wonderful kiss. By this time the class had all but gathered around and the girls were falling all over themselves. Some of the girls had gone into a couple other classrooms and told some of the other classes teachers what was happening and they came out quick as could be (with their class in tow) and congratulated us and there were hugs all around. Anyhow... I hope everyone else has a great Friday. I said 'screw it', and took the rest of the day off work just for the hell of it. It's way too nice to be working. I didn't get any pictures of the actual event, but of course the girls were all over it afterward with their cameras. I'll post some when I get them.

Happy Birthday!!

Happy birthdayyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wells, Conners just PM'd me and said the girl in that .gif needs bigger ta-tas (like the girls in his sprays!) Just kiddin! Happy Birfday Conners!!

That's a good lookin map right der.

I just wasted a lot of time there. Very cool!

Buy the cheapest router you can find that accepts DDRT Firmware, and is the speed you want.4 Buy it, install the firmware and enjoy. I'm still using an old WRT-54G - but I put the DDRT firmware on there. Basically takes a $60 router, and gives it all the special fun of a $600 router. To top it off... my router was a refurb I bought for $20 but I can do absolutely ANYTHING with this router... very impressive.

I fapped to that.

Didn't even see this till now... Happy Birfday Viktor!! Had I known, I would've at least gave a reacharound earlier!

I really prefer Shōryūken myself - but... tomato, tomato.

that picture made me feel funny in my pants... is that bad?

Yes, what Yamagata said Gooderham said Wells said.

Whoops! Forgot to include the fine print Thanks for remembering McKenzie :-D haha I can always count on my bromantic partner.

A brewer friend of mine, who has been brewing for years (closing on 8 years I think) came over tonight and had a few brews with me. His was delicious! He tried my newcastle clone and said it was good.... Then he asked for a bottle of my Smoked Porter... My Smoked Porter was something I've considered a bit of a failure up until now. It was a bit too heavily smoked for my liking, and as he pointed out is missing a bit of malt backbone to stand up against the smoke. However, he also said it was very good and I should enter it into competition. What do you guys think? I've never entered a competition - would be interesting..

What do I win?

So, pictures are worth a thousand words, and all that... So here is the freebie (which runs amazingly well!) - I haven't drilled it or put the taps on the outside (yet), and that's my 5 gal. mashtun sitting on top. Here's the inside - so far just 1 keg, and 1 Co2 canister... Out of that keg, will come around 50+ of these little fellas...

Why? Are you bitter about us getting into the playoffs by the skin of our teeth?! :-D However, I will openly admit, I can't even call myself a fan. I'm a casual fan if anything - I can't name more than 2 or 3 of their players, have no idea who or when they play, but I do very loosely keep tabs on them. I've always 'kept tabs' on them since I was a boy. I'm a chicago fan except the white sox... Bears, Cubs, Hawks, Bulls. <3

Please do! We should have plenty of beer!

Chicago burbs - Bloomingdale to be specific. North of Naperville, south of Schaumburg.

While I would love that, I don't think my wallet would! I think that is so cool.

I just finished part 1 of my kegerator earlier this week. Previously I bottled my homebrew. This process is probably one of the most busy parts of brewing, because if you brew 5 gal batches which is pretty standard, you'll fill anywhere from 45-55 bottles depending on size and your efficiency. I tried 2.5 gallon batches as a friend of mine brews 2.5 gallon batches frequently (couple times a week sometimes!), but found that my biggest gripe was still bottling. What is 'part 1' of the kegerator you ask? Well, I found a working fridge on craigslist for free! (score!) - so I clearly needed to get started with kegging first and foremost! The next day after getting my free fridge involved heading to the local homebrew store and picking up a couple kegs, a dual gauge regulator, tubing and such. Then came the part that was probably the most expensive - Co2. After doing a bunch of research I decided to buy my own 20lb Co2 tank - I figure I'll get around 1 year or so worth of use out of it before it needs a refill ($40). After that it was just matter of getting the brew from the fermentor into the keg (like bottling, except only having to do 1 giant 5 gallon bottle!) Luckily I had a Newcastle clone in a fermentor ready to bottle - so instead of bottling, I kegged it in a new keg! Had a buddy come over to help, and we hooked it all up. Now in my kegerator I have a big Co2 tank, and a full keg of my Newcastle clone (darker than new castle, with a touch more 'sweetness' than newcastle, very good!) Part 2? Will be drilling through the sides of my fridge to install stainless steel taps and hooking them up so I can fill my glass without ever opening the fridge - I suspect that part will probably take some time to get around to as I've got a lot of other stuff going on right now. Part 3 will be filling my 2nd keg with beer, building a shelf for my Co2 tank and getting it all hooked up. Ultimately I'm going to try and have 3 kegs 'on tap' in my fridge at all times with 3 various flavors of homebrew. As for now? My newcastle clone needs to get drank, so stop on by if you're in the windy city! I'll add pictures later (of the kegerator, and the wonderful liquid it dispenses!) Oh, and on a positive... with bottling it takes 3 weeks to properly carbonate in the bottles... with kegging it only took me 36 hours to have perfectly carbonated delicious brew!

i need to get a few of those. I wonder if any of my old cards are worth shit these days... they're so old, maybe...