William Drew

Black Sweat

(speaking like the beginning of ABC's "Lost") Previously on William Drew's Blog:  I was all excited about a possible promotion at work.  The Sr. Vice President of the company sent out an email last Friday stating that decisions had been made and he was going to call us on Saturday to inform us as to what these decisions were (beside my promotion, there were also Assistant Managers waiting to hear about the two promotions available to them to become General Managersand two other General Managers waiting to hear about the same promotion I was going for).  So, Saturday got off to a nice start.  Um, no it didn't.  I actually headed in to work as I was a little too fidgety to sit around the house all day waiting for a call (I don't have a home phone, so when the call came, it would have been made to my cell).  I got to work around 9 AM.  Let me remind you that this was my one day off for the week, and I've been putting in 13-15 hours a day during the week.  I didn't do anything there on Saturday and I wasn't in uniform, so I just sat around and... waited.  And waited.  I was still there at 5 PM.  Without hearing a thing.  Wait, let me correct that.  I did hear something.  My phone rang off the hook all day long with friends and family members asking if I had heard anything yet.  I think they were all more nervous about it than I was.  So I left work and headed back home.  I was still a little fidgety so I put on a movie.  But it was hard to stay focused on the movie because.... my phone kept ringing off the hook with friends and family calling asking if I had heard anything yet.  The movie finaly ended, and still no word from my boss.  But the Minnesota Wild hockey game was starting on TV, so I decided to watch that.  Again, my phone, ringing like a machine possessed.  Not once was it the call I was waiting for.  Then at 10:15 PM I get a call from work.  At that time of night I figure it's just my assistant manager forgetting how to do something again.  Well, I was part right.  It was my assistant manager but he had a message that the Sr. Vice President called the store and asked my assistant manager to call me, and to tell me to call the  Sr. Vice President on his cell.  Didja get all of that?  My assistant manager then proceeded to take up 10 minutes of my cell phone time to tell me that I have to call him back at the restaurant as soon as I'm off the phone with the Sr. Vice President.  That I had to call him.  That he had to know if I get the job.  That I had to call him to tell him.  That he needs to know if I get the job.  If I had a bitchslap mode on my phone I would have used it to shut him up so I could actually make the call to find out my fate.  So, I finally got off the phone with my assistant manager, took a deep breath and I made the call.  (as we switch back to the voice over guy from "Lost")  Stay tuned to for a sneak peek into Next weeks edition of William Drew's Blog...

OK, just kiddin.  I did not get the job.  But I also didn't get a definitive answer as to what I will be doing.  During the call I was told repeatedly about how impressed he was with me, that I put on a much better show than I think I did.  He said he was planning on visiting with me to go over a couple of things he wants me to learn, and if I did that my career would be set.

What the heck does that mean?

He also said he wants to take me out to California to visit some of the restaurants out there that he feels are some of the best restaurants in the company.  So... yes, I can say I'm a little disappointed that I did not get the promotion.  But I'm also a little intrigued with what he has in store for me.  He flies back into town next week to visit with me, I guess I'll find out more then.

Alright, on to my Body-for-Life world.  I still have not had any time to get to the gym.  These 13-15 hour shifts have pretty much eliminated that part of my life right now.  But I have been doing a fantastic job with the food.  I ate clean all week, I felt great all week, and I noticed some changes for the better in the mirror.  I did make Friday my free day this week instead of Sunday.  I was unexpectedly bounced around between 4 different restaurants during the day and in doing so my food that I prepared for my mid-meals was at one restaurant while I was at another.  So I just adapted, had myself what ended up being a half clean/half free day.  Now I just have to make sure I don't take another free day on Sunday. 

Prince has release another single and video for his upcoming album.  The song and video are fantastic and I'd make the video my 'Friday Night Video' if I could, but the copy I have is licensed, so it can only be watched by those that spend the two-bucks to buy it.  The video was shot in a cool looking Black & White film and it was just him and another girl standing there, doing their thing, shaking their butts, and makin' ya just get entranced in the video.  The song  is called "Black Sweat" and it has an almost 'Sign 'O' The Times' old-school Prince feel to it, which is really freaking cool.  It also comes on the heel of his performance of a completely different song on SNL that had a very 'Dirty Mind' even older old-school Prince to it.  My only issue with the video/single?  It's too short.  Damn thing ends and you're left still wanting to shake somethin'.  Something that might be interesting about the video?  I've sat in that strange lookin' circle chair he uses in the video.  Well, at least a chair that lookes just like it.  He used to have it out at his Paisley Park Studios.  I'm gettin excited for this album.  It will be out next month.  He also has a protege again and her album comes out in May.  Actually, I just found out the video is on VH1's web site as I was typing this.  If you want to check out the video for Black Sweat, click here to go to his VH1 page.  The video is listed right at the top of the page.  If ya wanna spend $0.99 buying the video or single, head to npgmusicclub, Prince's website.

And no, that is not my 'Friday Night Video'.  That was just a bonus.  But it's only a bonus if you check it out.  So go, click on the link I gave ya and watch a fonkey vid-ee-oh.  Now, for my choice for this weeks installment of 'Friday Night Videos'.  Some guy gets punked while on a radio show on his birthday.  I laughed my ass off at this video.  Twice.  If you didn't dance your ass off to the Prince video, a) what's wrong with you and b) get ready to laugh it off.  Click here to see the video of the week.    

Merry Christmas!

On this day of Joy & Happiness, I hope all of you are able to spend it with the ones you love, and the ones that love you more. 

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.  The exercise plan was hung by the weight set with care, in hopes that Bill Phillips soon would be there.  The soon to be fit were all snug in their beds, While visions of tomorrows Upper-Body-Workout danced in their heads.  My trainer in her leotard and I in my cap, were just sitting down with meal six in our lap.  When out in the kitchen there arose such a clatter, I sprang from my dinner to see my house-guest getting fatter.  Away to the bookstore I flew with a flash, no credit card today, I'm paying with cash.  When what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a miniature waist and eight abs did appear.  With a slightly bold swagger, so lively and quick, I knew in a moment this book would do the trick.  More rapid than eagles the workout plan came, and he whittled and scribbled a grocery shopping list.  Now Chicken, now Turkey, now Green Lettuce Leafs, On wheat bread, On egg whites On cool protein shakes.  To the top of the scale, to the top of the climbing wall, Now fat away, fat away fat away all!  Merry Christmas to All, And to All a Body-for-LIFE

An American Dictatorship

OK, this post is going to go off on a tangent.   It's going to take on a topic that you won't hear me talk about much.  I'm not one to speak much about politics or religion.  I don't mind talking about these subjects, but usually someone has to bring them up, and then I'll listen and give my 2 cents.  Well, today you're gonna get more than 2 cents worth.  I'm fed up.  I've had it up to here (imaging me waving my hand wildly above my head) and I'm gonna spill what ever beans I have to spill.

I'm not a fan of George W. Bush.  Period.  I never voted for him, and I'm proud to say that I'll never get the opportunity to vote for him.  Shortly after 9/11, I thought he was doing an outstanding job.  Now I'm feeling more and more that it was a snow job that he was doing.  There was an opinion piece in Tuesday's Minneapolis StarTribune that has pushed whatever tiny little bit of hope I had left that this "President" of ours might actually do something that won't put more black marks on this country is now gone.  Now, I don't know any thing about the author of this article.  I know it's just an opinion piece.  I know that there are two sides to every story.  But with everything else I have read about this "Presidents" policies and acts of government I... I just don't know how someone could defend this man.

Here is a link to the article: Bruce Schneier: Unchecked presidential power   

OK, didja read it?  So, let's see if we can go over what we have learned:

1. Mr. Bush is hyping the good deed he is doing by removing a ruthless dictator and installing a democratic government in a Middle Eastern country.  But in his own country he has legally turned his powers into what can only be called a dictatorship.

2. This "War on Terror" that he is waging, a war that is allowing him to impose his dictatorship, was started by an attack on our country that has more evidence pointing towards it having been an "inside job" than having been planned by a group of people living in caves.  Have you seen this video?  I can't say that I know for sure that Bush knew about the attack.   It may have been planned behind his back by our own government, or maybe we have been told the truth and it very well could have been planned so well by Bin Laden that he just happened to leave evidence behind that points towards an inside job.

3. OK, that's enough.  I don't need to go further with this.  I just needed to vent about how I feel about the direction our "leader" is taking our government.  This country has been a beacon of hope and opportunity for so many people for such a long time.  Our freedoms that we have have enabled many, MANY people to follow their dreams and become successful.  Hopefully I've just been reading between the wrong lines and this is  and will be a democracy for the people.

OK, now back to the lighter side of things!  How are all my BFL buddies doing this Christmas week?  ME?  I'm doing crappy!  I've only made it to the gym once this week, and I was a very bad boy eating at work today.  Man, treats were being dropped off like crazy.  All of these vendors that we use at work have been dropping off food every time I turn around.  I've never seen this before.  Usually we get cards or calenders or cheesy little trinkets for gifts.  This year?  It's nuttin' but the Sweets.  And my sweet tooth was very much in charge today.  Today the sweet tooth won.  Friday I'll be back in charge.       

-6

Yes, I titled this post "-6".  What inspired that title?  That is the temperature outside as I am finally putting another post on here.  NEGATIVE SIX. 

OK, so what the heck have I been up to in these past couple of weeks that kept me from getting my butt on here to post any updates?  Well, number one, I've been shoveling snow.  Every freaking day.  We got dumped on with 6" on Wednesday.  Another 2-3" on Thursday.  And another inch on Friday.  One very important thing I learned when I was clearing the 6" off my driveway on Wednesday:  Don't go to the gym for an upper body workout right after clearing 6" of snow off of your driveway.  Man, I was already spent by the time I started lifting.  Especially my shoulders.  I sat down to to my shoulder presses and my shoulders were like "you're not seriously expecting us to lift that, are you?"  Yeah, I definitely hit my 10's on that day.  It was just a LOT earlier in my workout than normal. 

I was planning on getting my Christmas shopping done on Wednesday.  Yeah, that didn't happen.  After shoveling the snow and hitting the gym, I got back home and surrendered myself to a nap attack.  Actually, that nap turned into a full on sleep and I didn't wake up until around 4:30.  The snow was still falling, and it was rush hour.  No freaking way was I going anywhere, so the Christmas shopping had to wait.  But, I did get out to see Ferris Buellers Day Off at the movie theater by my house.  That movie is still funny as anything coming out now. 

On Friday, I made it to the movie theater again to see "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe".  That movie is as good as it's title is long.  Seriously.  My fingers cramped up just typing the title.  Actually, I didn't think it was a great movie, but I honestly don't know how anyone could not like that movie.

I did get out and do most of my Christmas Shopping on Saturday.  What the heck was I thinking going Christmas Shopping on the last Saturday before Christmas?  Holy crap.  It took 10 minutes just to get into the mall parkings lots.  Then driving around trying to find a parking spot that wasn't a 20 minute walk away (failed there on the 1st stop, my ears were about to freeze off by the time I got from my car to the mall).  My 1st stop was to the mall that I used to own a store at.  I have not been there for over a year-and-a-half.  Since I closed my store down I just haven't wanted to go back again.  It was very good to go back and see old friends that I made while working there.  I wasn't sure if anyone would recognize me as I've obviously gone through some changes since I left.  But not two minutes into the mall, the guys at the shoe store right by where my store was hollard out to me the second they saw me.  I was like "WTF?!?  How did they recognize me that quick?"  These four guys have worked at this same shoe store for an average of 20 some odd years.  Seriously.  The guy on the bottom of their seniority list has 18 years in.  That's insane I tell ya.  There was only a few others that were still working at the mall from when I was working there.  It was kinda cool as I entered their stores and they approached me to ask if I needed help, and then after a few seconds watching the lightbulb go on as they figured out who I was.  I went to two other malls after that, including the Mall of America, and man, remind me again to never go shopping on the Saturday before Christmas.  You know it's a bad sign when the line just to get into the parking lot is a mile away from the mall.  Yuck.

Prince has a new single out for his upcoming album.  The song is called 'Te Amo Corazon' and the video is directed by the very talented and incredibly beautiful Selma Hayek.  The single is a big change from what Prince used to do with his first singles.  He always used to release these provocative, shocking and attention grabbing songs as 1st singles.  But now that he is on his own, it has been a different story.  As brilliant as he is as a musician, songwriter and performer, he's always been absolutely dreadful at choosing what singles to release when it's been his choice.  I'll have to wait until the album comes out to know for sure how he did this time, but Te Amo Corazon is no where near what he used to release.  It's a very good song, a beautiful Santana-ish ballad.  Maybe it is something he is trying to do.  His old way of releasing the provocative, attention grabbing singles turned a lot of people off, and a lot of people didn't give him a chance and never heard just how good his music is.  VH1 has his video available.  It's on his video page on VH1's web site.  You can click here to go to his video page, and then just click on the very 1st link to see the video for Te Amo Corazon.  And while you are there, I am going to highly recommend two other videos.  There are a bunch of videos on this page, and you would probably enjoy most of them, but there are two that I'm telling you that you should watch.  The 1st one is for his song "Gold".  This is an absolutely brilliant song that no one ever heard because it was released during his fight with Warner Brothers and they wouldn't promote it.  The other reason to watch it is to see if you can see me in the video.  I was there during the video shoot somewhere in the crowd.  I've never actually seen me, but damnit, I've gotta be in there somewhere.  The other one you need to check out is "The Holy River".  This is by far the best song I have ever heard.  It is by far my favorite song of all time.  Even after nine years, if I sit and listen to it instead of just having it on in the background, it still brings a tear to my eye and gives me goose bumps.  I've had many people who didn't like Prince go out and buy the 3-disc Emancipation album after I played this one song for them.  When you watch this video, don't actually watch it.  The video is kinda lame.  In fact, instead of watching the video, I'll post the mp3 for the song itself and you can just listen to it. 

Now, on to my BFL journey.  I'm absolutely loving the gym.  Although I'm now missing my workout today.  I wasn't going out in that -6 degree weather for nothing.  And in a little over an hour I get to go to work for my noon-10 PM shift.  Good times.  Yeah.  But, I'm noticing some very nice changes in my muscles.  I'm getting much more developed.  I'm not dropping the body fat as I should (way, way, WAY too may Christmas snacks floating around at work and I've given in way, way WAY too many times to their temptation).  My legs are still giving me a little trouble.  From all of those hamstring pulls that I gave myself playing football back in the fall, my hammy's still don't like doing too much work.  I usually get through my 3rd set for my hamstrings and they let me know loud and clear that they are done.  And no, I'm not going to post a picture of my new muscles yet.  Maybe that will be a Christmas Day present.

Merry Christmas everyone.                

**Edit, I tried uploading the mp3 file for Holy River twice times and it failed both times, and it is now time for me to go to work.  I'll give it a try again later, but in the mean time, watch the video, but, maybe watch it with your eyes closed. :-)

Ahhh... that's better

Lazy.  That is what I've been the past two days.  Lazy.  And I enjoyed each and every minute of it.  Normally when I get two days off in a row, I either try to get a bunch of stuff done around the house, or I try heading out to someplace that let's me 'get away' for a while.  But this time, it was a whole bunch of nothin'.  Which is exactly what I needed.

I did get my workout in today.  I worked my legs like they have never been worked before.  It was a very intense workout and I felt great as I left the gym.  OK, so I had to wobble to my car as my legs were shakin' like an over-caffinated crack head.  But that is a good thing.  I've also been a clean eating freak these past few days!  Yeah!  I've had such a hard time sticking to my diet that it's just felt great ignoring the calls of the cream puffs. 

OK, now for the good stuff!  Aerosmith kick ass.  You can tell that the guys are starting to get up there in age.  They still put on a great show, but there's not as much flying around the stage as they used to.  The last time I saw them, Steven Tyler had just had surgery on his knee, and was wearing this big, bulky knee brace, and he was running and prancing all over the place.  It was something that I was very amazed at watching a 50+ year old man fresh out of knee surgery putting on the performance that he gave that night.  Last night, while he still exhudes energy like crazy, and was all over the stage, he more or less took his time getting from here to there.  The one bad part of their show was the sound.  They sound guy had a very bad night.  Things were muddy and there were times that you coudln't hear Steven at all.  You could tell that Steven wasn't happy with it either.  He kept making signals over to the sound guy and when he didn't get what he wanted, he would mess with him by putting his mic right in front of the guitar amp or right on the drum set.  They opened with 'Love in an Elevator'  and then ripped through a bunch of hits like Walk This Way, Crazy and Livin On The Edge.  They performed a lot of older material that I hadn't heard live before which was cool.  And Joe Perry even got a chance to be the front man as they did one of his songs from his solo album.  And holy crap, Steven's scream during 'Dream On' was freaking fantastic.  On the other hand, I was pretty dissapointed with Lenny Kravits show.  Their sound was fantastic, as opposed to the muddled sound we got with Aerosmith.  There was a lot of times that Lenny's performance sounded just like listening to the CD.  But, for whatever reason, his performance was dull.  He is no where near the showman that Steven Tyler is.  The best, most entertaining person to watch during Lenny's set was his drummer.  She's a wild thing on the skins.  Hair and arms flying all over the place.  Everyone else just seems to be going through the motions.  I've seen Lenny twice now, and I came away with the same impression both times.  I do think that I might go into his shows expecting too much.  I love his music, and I might go into his shows expecting him to be at a certain level, and when he doesn't hit it, that's why I'm dissapointed.  Or, maybe he just isn't that good of a live performer.  But, all in all, it was a good night.  And to finish the night off, I got to snuggle with KG!   

Insane Weather

OK, just what in the heck is going on here? 

On Monday we had record high temperatures.  It was 20 degrees above normal, not to mention how freaking humid it was.

On Tuesday we had 5"+ of rain!  It was insane how much it rained.  Even the major freeways were flooding!  Isanti county (just an hour or so north east of the Twin Cities) had 9" of rain!  It rained so much it almost doubled the previous single day record for rain in October.  The local weather peeps said if the water had fallen as snow instead of rain we would have had over 55" of snow.  

Speaking of snow... Now on Wednesday the temps have fallen.  And fallen a LOT.  Tonight it is expected to drop to 33 degrees.  That is 20 degrees below normal!  Let's go back to that first part of the story where I mentioned that it was 20 degrees above normal just two days ago... yeah it got cold in a hurry.  And they are predicting snow for tonight!   

There is also bizzare weather in areas close to us Twin Citians. 

Up in North Dakota they have already had a blizzard!  13" of snow, trees down, power lines down and 15,000 people without electricity!  The storm closed 155 miles of I-94 in North Dakota. 

And up in Duluth, the winds were whipping around strong enough that people were surfing on Lake Superior.  Yes, Surfing on Lake Superior up in cold, chilly northern Minnesota.  These surfing pics are not from today but they are of people surfing on Lake Superior.  After seeing the story on the 6 PM news about people surfing up there today, I did some digging around and found out that surfing on Lake Superior is actually a very popular thing.  People fly from all over the world to surf in in Duluth Minnesota on Lake Superior.  If you're reading this Jim, how about that?  Duluth Minnesota and San Diego: both big surfing destinations!

So, let's recap mmmk?  On Monday it was so freaking hot I had the Air Conditioning on.  On Tuesday it rained so freaking much I was cleaning water out of my basement.  On Wednesday it is getting so freaking cold I have the furnace on.  There is a major blizzard in North Dakota, and people are surfing today in Duluth (where it is only 45 degrees). 

Yeah.

It's gonna be a fun winter.