The Net Monkey

Title: Millenium Park

Uploaded By: mattbarton77

My Chicago plans didn’t exactly work out the way I expected, but everything went very well.

After arriving Friday night, Nate and I went to dinner at Joy’s Noodles in the Boystown area. Delicious! One thing I adore about restaurants in Chicago is that you can BYOB. So, Nate brought this great bottle of Reisling for dinner.

Afterwards, we checked out a couple of bars: Charlie’s and The North End. I liked the North End a lot, especially since they were playing the Cure when we entered. I only wish I could go to a gay bar here in Indy that played something other than techo and remixes of pop songs.

Unfortunately, Saturday morning Nate woke up with a very high temperature, possibly caused by a middle ear infection. This meant cutting our plans short, but the trip wasn’t a bust, as I was able to make some alternate plans and see my friend Shane in Decatur. I was planning to see him on Sunday, on my way back to Indy, anyway, so this just meant that I’d be coming down earlier.

Shane was able to accomodate for the change in plans, but it meant that I would need to kill some time in Chicago while waiting on him to get home so that he could receive me.

So, I did what any cultured gay man would do and checked out the Art Institute of Chicago. I’ve never been there, actually. I really liked the photography exhibit they had called The Concerned Photographer. Check it out, if you’re in the area.

I made it down to Decatur in the early evening on Saturday and went to dinner with Shane. Afterwards, we hung out at his house and watched a lot of television, which was pretty nice and relaxing.

We finally got up in the morning and went and got some breakfast at this divey restaurant called Clare’s. I was craving biscuits and gravy so I just had to have some. Mmm!

I had a really nice time with Shane and look forward to seeing him again. He is going to make a little trip here in the next couple of weeks, so I get to play host and tour guide of Indianapolis.

Title: View from Victory Field

Uploaded By: mattbarton77

Last night I went with Andy E. to the Indians game at Victory Field. It was a pleasant experience, but a little chilly since I forgot to wear my jacket. Andy is going to move away at the end of May so I’m hoping he and I get to attend at least one more game before he leaves.

I called my insurance company today about hail damage to my car from this past Friday.  I do not expect to hear from them any time before Monday, according to my agent. No problem here; it just means that I will have my car with me when I travel this weekend.

Speaking of which, I’m heading up to Chicago this weekend. I’ll be leaving Friday night after work and won’t return to Indianapolis until sometime Sunday night.

Today turned out to be a nice day; however, it didn’t start out so well.

I was awakend at 5:30 AM (after having about two and a half hours of sleep) by a co-worker, saying that our offshore monitoring people were unable to access anything in our production environment. I eventually figured out the problem and was able to fix it from home, thankfully, but it took me a long time to get back to sleep. You know how it is.

After sleeping for a while, I woke up and showered, so that I could head over to my parents’ house for Easter supper. It was the usual fare: ham, corn, green beans, potatoes, and rolls. Mom had one of those honey-glazed, spiral-cut hams that I just love.

After dinner I played a very decent strategy board game with my father called Kahuna. Essentially, you build bridges between islands and then try to control as many islands as possible. It was a lot of fun so he and I played about three games of it.

Following the game, I said goodbye to my family and then came home to meet up with Jason and Tony who I went with to Angela’s house for another Easter meal. Turned out to be practically the same dinner as earlier: ham, green beans, potatoes, and rolls. That’s so Indiana of us.

Oh, before I forget, I did some shopping yesterday. I bought myself a pair of sandals (no flip-flops!) at the Clarks store. I also picked up two pairs of shorts since I am “short” on them this Summer.

Title: Hands of Hail

Uploaded By: mattbarton77

Spring is upon us!

The trees outside are starting to bloom, the weather is getting rough, and I need to head to the mall and buy some new shorts and find some appropriate seasonal footwear. I don’t think black leather shoes go well with shorts, do you?

We had a couple of bad storms come through last night. On the way home from my parents’ house I was caught in a hail storm (stones the size of golf balls) and managed to get a few minor dents on my hood. I managed to stop underneath a bridge, but the damage was already done. The dents aren’t all that noticable, so I think I’ll just leave them.

Update: I looked at the car and the dents on the hood are very noticable in sunlight, so I am going to give a call to my insurance company tomorrow and see what we can do.  Ugh!

Title: i had a helmet party

Uploaded By: joshloewen

Warm weather brings endless social affairs and this weekend is no exception.

My neighbor Angie is having the first party of the season on Saturday. The roommates and I will make an appearance, for sure.

Angela (a different Angie) is having an Easter dinner at her house for those who wouldn’t normally celebrate the holiday with anyone. I’ll be heading over there after participating in whatever my family decides to do.

On another note, I am pretty sure that I’m going to take a trip up to Chicago next week.

If you haven’t see Thank You for Smoking, you should check it out in the theatre.  It’s very funny!

If you’re in Indianapolis, it is currently showing at the Landmark Keystone Art Cinema up on the north side.

We decided to drive all the way through from Montana. The total mileage on the trip was 1,670 miles, which is from the cabin in Big Sky all the way to my parents driveway here in Indianapolis. Whew!

On the way home we stopped in Wall, South Dakota, to see Wall Drug, at which time we ate some dinner at the restaurant across the street. I wanted chicken parmesan, but they were out of the sauce; so, I ended up eating a patty melt. Mmm!

I arrived back in my condo at around 3:00 PM and hung out with my roommate Jason. We ended up watching the Flava of Love Reunion show which was fabulously tragic.

After TV time, I went upstairs and took a nap, which lasted until around 4:00 AM this morning (ten hours later). I was pretty tired, to say the least.

I have to say that it is awfully nice to be back home. I missed my bed so much.

So, yeah, I did some skiing today and had a fairly decent time. My legs are killing me right now and I can’t wait to go back to the cabin and get in the hot tub. Of course, I have to finish writing this blog entry.

We’re packing our bags and loading up the car tonight, for we will be heading out early tomorrow morning on our return trip to Indianapolis. I can’t wait. I miss home and I hear the weather has been fabulous, in the 70’s, according to Dad.

I’ll probably write one more entry on the road tomorrow night, assuming I have wireless Internet. We’re going to stop somewhere in South Dakota, but we aren’t exactly sure where. The women in the group want to stop at Wall Drug, so I think we’ll do that, eat dinner, and then find some lodging.

I expect to be home sometime on Saturday or very early Sunday morning.  We aren’t exactly sure how long it will take, but it’ll be at least a full day’s drive from South Dakota to Indianapolis.

My sister Lisa and I were going to try skiing today, but ended up not doing it since the conditions are poor. It’s quite nice outside, actually, but the snow is melting pretty heavily right now; so, I’m not sure I’m going to hit the slopes at all during this trip.

I’m not worried about not skiing. After all, a vacation of being lazy, eating, watching movies, and sitting around in the hot tub for hours is pretty good, if you ask me. The whole point of vacation is get away from your regular life, right?

Lisa bought some margarita mix last night. Mmm.

Create Your Own Visited States Map

I figured I should update this since I’ve been traveling lately.

I ended up not doing any skiing today, which is rather unfortunate, but the temperature is reaching in to the 50’s up here and the snow is getting slushy. Those of us who did go skiing today got pretty wet, unfortunately.

I’m down at the lodge, writing this, while I wait on my mother to get her facial. I scheduled one for her yesterday down at the spa downstairs. She’s down there now getting an hour’s worth of refreshing, moisturizing treatment.

I had a chuckle when we got down there. They asked her shoe size to give her some slippers, as well as a key to her locker; she then asked, “Do I have to take off my clothes?” Bless her heart because she’s never been to a spa (and, actually, neither have I).

We were planning to head down to Yellowstone tomorrow, but it would seem that the north gate is clothed to cars, for some reason. If we can’t head down there, I won’t sweat it. My attitude during this vacation is that I’m not going to get all upset if I don’t get to ski or go to Yellowstone. I’m happy to be away from home and especially my job.

Instead of doing something physical, maybe I should just get drunk? Hmm.

The trip has been interesting thus far.

We daparted Indianapolis Thursday night and arrived at our cabin in Big Sky, Montana, in the late evening on Saturday. Of course, we had hotel stops in Davenport, Iowa, and Rapid City, South Dakota, so we did not drive straight through. We had some bad weather in Iowa: very windy and rainy. Ended up encountering our first snow on the way up the mountain here in Big Sky.

To be honest, I’m surprised we managed to find the cabin since the check-in counter was closed and we had to deal with some pretty heavy snow to get up there; however, we made it in one piece and got in to the cabins at around 1:00 AM.

On the way out we stopped at Mount Rushmore, which was hella cool. We took a little side trip out to see Devil’s Tower, which you might recall from the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Unfortunately, my dad is unable to join us on this trip. He missed his connecting flight in Minneapolis because he went to the wrong gate. Dad and my brother-in-law were traveling together, but they did not manage to stay together.

We were very concerned when we found out that he missed his flight. We managed to track down a ticket counter agent at SFO (San Francisco International), as we couldn’t get a person on the phone by calling Northwest’s toll free numbers, who told us that he decided to rent a car and drive to Bozeman.

We finally heard from Dad a few hours later last night, at around 3:30 AM, telling us that he was just outside Rochester, Minnesota, and was actually returning to Indianapolis. As of an hour ago, he was already in the city, returning his rental car.

I haven’t done any skiing yet, but plan to start tomorrow. I’m going to try snowboarding, for the very first time. Not sure if I’ll enjoy it or not, but I’m willing to try something new and see how it works for me. If I like it, I’ll probably stick to it and never ski again.

I’ve been taking a ton of photos. I’ve created a photoset on Flickr, so check it out.

http://flickr.com/photos/netmonkey/sets/72057594098019437/

I’ll be adding photos as I take them.  So, please be sure to check them out.

I’m having a decent time out here.  It is nice not having to deal with work and just enjoy hanging out with my family: drinking, smoking cigars, playing games, and watching movies.  Can’t get more relaxing than this.