The US Treasury department estimates the lifespan of various denominations of paper currency. I find that the new money seems a lot less durable than the older money. Pretty interesting

$ 1 — 21 months

$ 5 — two years

$ 10 — two years

$ 20 — 22 months

$ 50 — four and a half years

$100 — five years

Odd Weekend...

Man it was nice having that extra day off on Monday. Got a lot accomplished this weekend, and even managed to squeeze in 18 h0les of golf and the new Star Wars movie.

Regarding the Star Wars movie, I thought the movie was entertaining. But I did have a few problems with the movie. I thought the end was rushed. They wasted a lot of time in the beginning and middle of the movie then seemed like they rushed to tie it all together at the end. Dave had mentioned that Chewbacka's attire was a bit dated. I felt the same way about Darth Vaders uniform. It seemed kind of cheesy. By the end of the movie, I was quite tired of all the light saber duels as well. I think they are a little played out too. I wasn't all that bummed out at the end, though I did feel sorry for Yoda. The movie didn't really feel like it had an ending. I guess the whole chronology of the movies attributes to that feeling. But it did leave me wanting more. I think Ewan McGreggor did a great job as Obi Wan. He seemed a lot more like the Obi Wan from Star Wars, Empire and Jedi. His mannerism's and way of speaking was very close to Alec Guiness. Made it very believable that he was a young Obi Wan.

I have a question for those who have seen it. At the end Yoda tells obi wan he has training he needs him to do. Who did he ask to train or train with? We couldnt hear because some idiot next to us was talking. I thought I heard him mention Qui-Gon, but I thought he was dead.

On Sunday I got an odd calll from an old aquaintence. They were going through a 12 step program for alcohol abuse. Aparantly one of the steps is making amends with people from your past. I was never particularly close to this person, but apparantly they felt the need to contact me. Talking with them, made me really angry. Im not sure where the making amends part falls in line with the rest of the steps, but they took no responsibility for their actions. They blamed everyone but themselves for their alchol abuse. Past relationships, their parents, work, their friends. I've never believed that alcoholism or any kind of addiction is a true illness. Cancer is an illness. Noone says they want cancer, but people who abuse drugs and alcohol are making a conscious decision to abuse a substance. Sure someone may have a screwed up childhood, but noone is forcing them to pick up a bottle or to pop a pill. They could stop if they realy wanted to. Millions of people can have a drink or two socially and go about their lives normally. But then there are these pathetic people who choose to have drink after drink, after drink. Night after night, after night. Most people would probably go on drinking or abusing drugs if they didnt get in trouble with the law. A judge ordering a 12 step porgram is a quick fix. But most of these people who are addicted to a substance don't really want to quit, they like being a drunk. But of course if you are given a choice of going to jail or going to AA meetings, most will chose the later. But can we really expect them to quit cold turkey? I certainly didn't get the sense that my aquaintence truely wanted to stop drinking. They sounded kind of bored and pissed off about the whole process they had to go through. I wished them good luck, but didn't offer them much sympathy.

You Write the Caption...

Kick Ass!!!

Since I made fun of poor, crazy, eccentric Phil Spector yesterday, I decided to pick on myself today. With the new house on the horizon, I'll be doing a lot of little repairs, hanging shelves, pictures etc. SO I'll be spending a lot of time in these snazzy safety goggles. 80 year old women will be hitting on me in these things. "So when did you have the cataract surgery?"

My new Hairdo

It's not easy for a white man to pull off an Afro, but I think Phil Spector manages to do just that! WOW

Sold...

Well looks like the townhouse is officially sold. We thought we had a winning contract Tuesday night when we first reviewed contracts, but the potential buyer got cold feet and backed out of the deal. But it worked out ok because we had 8 other contracts to fall back on. Of those 8, two potential buyers resubmitted contracts, and we got everything we needed over the weekend and signed the paperwork yesterday. Closing is scheduled for June 22nd. We move out July 6th. It's sort of a bitter sweet feel for Rachel and I right now. While we are both happy we are moving to a new house, the townhouse was our first home together. So it will be a little sad leaving, but we'll always have some great memories of the townhouse. We hope the new owner will be as happy as we have been in that house.

There's a line in the movie Old School that was totally like my weekend this past weekend. Will Ferrell is talking to these two frat guys and he's talking about this crazy weekend he and his wife have planned. But in actuality his weekend consisted of going to Home Depot, Bed Bath and Beyond and Pottery Barn. This past Saturday was spent buying a new vacuum, lawnmower and picking out paint and carpet colors. Sunday consisted of furniture shopping and buying a new washer and dryer. PARTY!!!! SCORE!!! But I did manage to get myself a laser level and they come with these sweet looking amber goggles. Rachel said I look like an old man who just had eye surgery when I put them on. This coming memorial day weekend...all about ceiling fans and patio furniture baby!!! Man I'm old.

Unfortunately because of the craziness surrounding the sale of the townhouse, I didn't get to see a single inning of the Subway Series. The series has sort of lost some of it's luster for me, but it's still exciting when the Yankees beat up on the Mets. Nothing will compare to the exitement of the 2000 World Series, where the games meant a whole lot. Chances are I may never see another Subway World Series in my lifetime, but Im glad I got to see one. Having a crosstown rivaly with the Mets IS something I appreciate though. There are a few good ones like the Cubs and White Sox and the Giants and the A's, but then there are just awful ones like the Nationals and the Blue Jays and Arizona vs Detroit. Wow a football games between those two cities would be pretty shitty too. The Cardinals vs the Lions. Yuck!!!

It's funny to me how many ex Yankees show up on the Mets. I guess the Mers are tired of being second fiddle in the Big Apple and grasp at straws. Kind of ironic that Miguel Cairo's error was one of the contributing factors of the Yankees come back yesterday. I will commend Chris Benson for a well picthed game on Saturday (except for when he almost broke Jeter's wrist. The Yankees lineup has been on fire for the past two weeks, and to shut them down the way he did is very impressive.

Didn't see the Star Wars this weekend. May try to catch it this week out of pure curiosity. While I enjoy the other Star Wars movies, I guess Im not one of the huge die hard fans. If anything, Rachel is more of a fan than I am. Whenever there is too much hype about something, it makes me want to see it that much less. I guess it just makes me feel like a lemming, mindlessly following the masses. Plus overall I don't really enjoy the movie going experience as much as I used to. I know Im gonna sound like an old man here, but between the idiotic teenages who talk on their cell phones, and people getting up from their seats 100 times, I'd just much rather watch a movie at home. I can pause a movie if I need a bathroom break, I can grab a soda and it won't cost me $5.00, and I don't have the urge to jam a cell phone down a pimply faced teenagers throat. Plus if I start a movie at 8:00, I don't have to sit through 30 minutes of commercials and trailers. Lately I've started to feel the same way about sporting events. People in general are just rude, or maybe the rude ones just always get seated next to us. A prime example of a few bad apples ruining things for everyone. Wow I'm starting to sound like Larry King and Andy Rooney. Every morning I start my day with delicious Welch's grape juice and Ester C!!!

We got around to watching the seaon finales of CSI and House this week. Wow they were both so good. The episode of CSI was directed by Quentin Tarantino which is cool, but the overall story was just amazing. One of the CSI's gets kidnapped at a crime scene. He's then burried alive in a fiberglass coffin. Inside the coffin is a tape player, a gun with a single bullet a spotlight and a web cam. So all the other people back at the CSI lab can go to this web page and see poor Nick laying in the coffin, trying to claw his way out. Then when things get really bad, they get even worse, because the coffin begins to crack a little, which causes fire ants to start spilling in, eating him alive. So I now officially have a new worst fear!

Go White Boy!!!

It's so nice seeing someone in the NBA who can actually shoot an outside shot! It's just too bad her's Canadian :-)

New House

A few people have asked for pictures of the outside of the new house. Here ya go...

Sinead Portman?

For Dave

Dave has been keeping us all well informed about the latest XBOX 360 news. Here's an article I read that made me get whalelike in the pants.

EA 360 Lineup

Im particularly interested in Madden and Tiger Woods golf. Two of my favorite games of all time!!!

It's hard to see the detail because I resized it, but in the full sized picture you can see the sweat spraying!!! And doesnt that guy getting knocked out look like Dave Chapelle?

Tipping Point

I was able to stay at the house during the day Saturday, so I spent a good deal of time over at Borders. I picked up a really neat book called "The Tipping Point". So far it's very interesting. The author discusses things like how does a disease turn into an epidemic. And he basis his theory on the 80-20 principle. That basically there is a small part of the population (20%) that account for 80% of a given problem. Like he theorized that 20% of drivers are poor drivers, but they account for 80% of the accidents on the roads. Im only about 50 pages into the book, but it's pretty awesome. So essentially his theory plays on the whole "a few bad apples spoiling the whole damn bunch" saying.

Random Shizzle

I saw a bit of this new ESPN show called Teammates. It's kind of like the Newlyweb game, but with athletes. My favorite part was when Stewart Scott asked Brandon Stokley the place where and and Reggie Wayne first made woopie. I guess ESPN is really hurting since the NHL season got cancelled.

Our townhouse is officially up for sale. MLS number PW5245369. So if anyone is looking for a townhouse in northern Virginia check out Homes Database for the listing...man I can't wait till the house is sold.

King Tut

Hrmmm is it just me or does King Tut look like a trani? It's like the crying game...with pyramids

Odd Thomas

I'm not a huge reader. It has to be a really entertaining and/or thought provoking book, to keep me interested. I received the Dean Koontz book titled Odd Thomas for Christmas. After finishing Angels and Demons, I was looking for something a little more "light" to read. And Odd Thomas sure did fit the bill. While the book may not be considered true literature by some, it is highly entertaining.

The characters are so real and likable. Koontz does a fantastic job of describing this small, desert town and it's people. It seems like everyone in the town knows one another, and they all share some type of hardship which seems to bring them together. Koontz has a way of ending each chapter like a cliffhanger which makes putting the book down, really difficult. I found myself intentionally stopping half way through a chapter, just so I could pull myself away for a while.

The book has a little bit of everything...mystery, romance, drama, a bit of a super natural aspect to it, and even dables a little into philosophy. While the central character is Odd Thomas, Odd encounters several different people throughout the story which keeps the story fresh and interesting. Koontz is incredibly descriptive, sometimes to a fault, but for the most part he is succesful with making the reader visualize a person or a scene. For someone who is very visually oriented like myself, that's important.

Backstage Pass

A couple weeks ago, I came across this really neat section on the smoking gun website. It lists all the crazy demands that musicians ask for before every show. They range from bizarre things, like J-Lo insisting she has a white couch and a white table with white lillies and white candles on top of a white tablecloth. To humorous items like Busta Rhymes requesting a bucket of KFC and ribbed condoms. And there is to be no pork or beed products anywhere in his vacinity. Then there are bands like Metallica that request enough food and drink to feed a small village. 12 cans of diet coke with lemon, 12 cans of regular Coke, 6 cans of Sprite, 6 cans of Pepsi, 6 cans of Red Bull, 6 bottles of Lime Ice Gatorade, 12 cans of Coors Light, 12 bottles of Corona, 12 bottles of Heineken. ANd some of the other requests are so damn specific. All these items are to placed in a cooler, but no styrofoam coolers. And the cups they drink from must be clear Solo cups. And the bottled water must be room temperature. Geesh! I think the most impressive list was what Emenem asked for. His requests were pretty modest and he asked for mainly health foods. My favorite request is "soft" toilet paper for him and his crew. They probably have over 100 artists listed. Some like Metallicas are very detailed, while others are pretty general.

Power of Three

This Power of Three quiz seems to be circulating around the Blog circuit, so here's my go at it...


THREE NAMES YOU GO BY:
1. Mike
2. Squilky
3. Kraus(man)


THREE SCREEN NAMES YOU HAVE HAD:

1. Squilky
2. mikey22192
3. max cannon


Three PHYSICAL THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:

1. my eyes 2. my forearms 3. my c#%k

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU DON’T LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. Barney Ruble feet
2. hair
3. Im too short

THREE PARTS OF YOUR HERITAGE:
1. German
2. Italian
3. none that I know of.

THREE THINGS THAT SCARE YOU:
1 Violent crime
2 Losing a loved one
3 failing

THREE OF YOUR EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS:
1. Carbonated beverages
2. Internet Access
3. Music


THREE THINGS YOU’RE WEARING NOW:

1. Golf ball boxers
2. khaki shorts
3. old navy t-shirt

3 OF YOUR FAVORITE BANDS OR MUSICAL ARTIST

1. Metallica
2. Led Zeppelin
3. System of a Down

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE SONGS

1. D'yer Maker
2. Here Comes the Sun
3. Snowblind

THREE THINGS YOU WANT IN A RELATIONSHIP:

1. Companionship
2. Support
3. Booty

Two TRUTHS AND A LIE: (Which is a lie?)

1. I once ate an entire box of Oreo cookies
2. I've driven a car in excess of 120 mph
3. I've never had a speeding ticket

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS ABOUT THE PREFERRED SEX THAT APPEAL TO YOU:

1. Boobs
2. Eyes
3. Hair


THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE HOBBIES:

1. Golf
2. Cooking
3. Reading

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO REALLY BADLY RIGHT NOW:

1) Learn to pilot a plane
2) A vacation someplace warm and tropical would be nice
3) Move into the new house

3 CAREERS YOU’RE CONSIDERING:

1) Photographer
2) Professional musician
3) Hitman

THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO ON VACATION:

1) Australia
2) Costa Maya Mexico
3) Galapagos Islands


THREE KIDS NAMES YOU LIKE:

1) Max
2) Christine
3) Dick

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:

1) Fly a plane
2) Visit most of the 50 states
3) Hole in one in golf

THREE WAYS THAT YOU ARE STEREOTYPICALLY A GIRL/BOY:

1) I can't help but stair at women asses and boobs
2) I love sports
3) I live everything super sized


THREE CELEBRITY CRUSHES

1) Brooke Burk
2) Kira Knightly
3) Carmen Electra

And this is just one I felt like adding because I'm an angry man...

Three Celebrities you would like to vanish off the face of the planet

1) Russel Crowe
2) Renee Zelwigger
3) Julia Roberts

Down Goes Frasier!!!

This is pretty funny...

Down Goes Frasier

More Beatallica

Back by popular demand...

BEATALLICA

The beginning is very low and builds up, so give it a sec. Let me know if you have a problem with the link.

Random Thoughts...

Nothing really of importance to say here, but I'm waiting for a server to be imaged, so I have a few minutes to kill.

I've heard a few people at work mention how great Silk soy milk is. At first I was repulsed by the thought, but since regular milk doesn't always agree with me, I decided to give it a try. And I have to say, it's pretty damn good. I love milk, have always been a big drinker of milk all my life, so it's nice to have milk that I can drink that doesn't make my stomach all crazy. I tried the vanilla flavor, I saw they also had chocolate and regular, I'll have to give them a try as well.

This runaway bride case in Georgia is just amazing. I knew the woman was loco when I first saw her picture. She has some crazy bugged out eyes. But when I first saw her picture, I felt bad thinking that because she was missing at the time. So I pictured her laying dead somewhere. But now that I know she is just a freak, I have no problem saying she has some googly eyes. I haven't seen eyes like that since I played with Mr. Pototo Head! I can't believe her fiance still wants to marry her. I mean she's kinda hot and all once you look past the aforementioned eyes, but have some f'ing pride dude. She went thousands of miles to get away from you!

An old friend e-mailed me a few weeks back and told me about an associate of his who is in trouble with the law. Apparantly the associate was going for his masters degree and he was going around campus snipping off locks of Asian girls hair. Ok that's a little wierd, but not so bad. But then a bunch of Asian girls on campus reported that they had witnessed him leaving "love deposits" in their drinks. I'm not sure if any of these girls drank any of it before realizing what he had done, but I sure hope not. So it got me to thinking, what causes a man or woman to slip off that slippery sloap of sanity?

I think most every man has had a sexual fantasy about someone they see on a bus, or someone they work with. I can't speak for every man, but I know I have. But what causes a person to take things from a fantasy in their mind, and try to make it a reality? Like I love Carmen Electra. And I'm perfectly content seeing pictures of her in magazines or watching her on tv and in movies. But then there are the people who become obsesssed and feel the need to stalk a celebrity. What makes a man go from undressing a woman with his eyes on the subway, to following her home and raping her?

And lastly, the Yankees. It's strange seeing the Yankees struggle, but it's understandable. They are pretty old for the most part. Alex Rodriguez is the only player under 30 who's a regular every day starter. So I was happy in a way that they decided to bench Bernie Williams. He's steadily been declining the past 2-3 years, and this year has looked awful. He's a much better hitter when he bats righty, but he insists on continuing to switch hit. Personally I think if the Yankees give him a chance to work his way back into the lineup, he should bat righty all the time. I'm also glad to see some young guys getting a chance. Andy Philips has been pretty impressive so far. Yankees had a run there where they had tremendous talent in their farm system, Jeter, Rivera, Williams, Pettitte, Posada, and Soriano all flourished into great players. I tend to like that method rather than trying to one up the competition by throwing wads of cash at the big name free agents. Young upcoming players still have a pure heart and a desire to do well and win. When players get fat $100 million contracts, they tend to get lazy.

SQUILKY.COM

We are experiencing technical difficulties with the comments. Please bare with me...

New House

We had the home inspection this morning, and thanksfully everything went well. We were able to take some pictures of the house. If you'de like to see them, click THIS

Birthday Pics

Here's some pics from the 1st/90th birthday party that took place up in Pennsylvania on Saturday...I think you'll be able to figure out who's the 1 year old and who's the 90 year old ;-). That last picture is my favorite.

What Happened to the Family Guy?

I love the Family Guy. I own the box sex of season 1 and 2. So I was so fired up for the return of the Family Guy last night. Then the Family Guy came on...
They started the episode with a Passion of the Christ parody. Real timely! The movie came out a year ago! The only parts I found to be funny were the baby Stewy parts. Like when he heard the bed squeaking while the Griffins were having sex, and he envisioned himself on a rocking chair as an old southern plantation owner. And when he was laying in bed with his reading glasses on. The rest of the episode was just moronic. Hopefully this isn't a sign of things to come.

Then American Dad came on. Geesh what a load of crap this show is. The characters are drawn to freaky, it's hard to watch. Normally cartoons, no matter how bizarre, have a little bit of cuteness. The American Dad characters are just plain ugly. When the teaser episode came on after the Super Bowl, I thought it had potential. I found the alien and the perverted German goldfish to be hysterical. I was less than impressed last night. Maybe they will get better, I don't know. Or maybe Im getting too old for cartoons. Nah that can't be it.