In between various other projects this weekend, I decided that I need a new suit. Seeing as how there’s a distinct dearth of places to purchase suits in Terre Haute, I chose to postpone this bit of commerce until I return to Minnesota. Not wanting to be caught off-guard by the whole ordeal, I went to The Men’s Warehouse‘s web site. I read through a few of their suit-related guides when I happened upon a page containing “LifeStyle Lists,” or as they put it, “crib sheets for life.” Though all entertaining, insightful, and maybe – just maybe – useful, one in particular caught my eye: “11 Observations that reveal more about you than your sign.”

The eleven, and my opinion of how I fare, are:

• How you eat. How I eat depends on the situation. At breakfast (yes, I do eat breakfast), I tend to eat as fast as possible. Usually I can get down my bowl of Cheerios and glass of orange juice in just a couple of minutes. Lunch is more leisurely (but only slightly), and dinner, if it happens, varies greatly on the situation. When in a more formal setting, such as at a restaurant, I generally progress much slower and with much greater precision than at other times. My etiquette follows the situation: at high-class functions, I follow social protocol as best I know how. One quirk I have, if one could call it such, is that I tend to eat in the “American” style in informal settings and the “European” style on formal occasions. The most noticeable difference between the two is the hand that the fork is in – right for American, left for European.
• How you dance. Well, I can’t dance. Frankly, it isn’t too high on my list of things to learn either.
• The items, or lack of items, in your refrigerator. Currently in my refrigerator, I have two 96-oz containers of Tropicana ‘Homestyle’ orange juice, two half-gallons of skim milk, one Red Barron cheese pizza, a half-empty container of margarine, and an empty Tupperware container, previous contents unknown.
• How you say goodbye. I suppose that how I say goodbye depends on who I am saying goodbye to. For example, saying goodbye to my mom when returning to school involves lots of hugs, tears on her part, and wishes for safe drives. Saying goodbye to one of my buddies is usually a quick utterance of “Later!”
• The sheets on your bed. The sheets on my bed are blue. I think that they are made of cotton. Beyond that, I know nothing about them.
• The shampoo in your shower. I have the Pert Plus all-in-one shampoo/conditioner.
• The CD that comes on when you turn the key in the ignition. As of today, the CD that comes on is Linkin Park’s “Meteora”
• Your shoes. My usual shoes are a pair of brown leather Sketchers Alley Cat, which are Oxford-style casual shoes. My sandals are also brown leather, though unfortunately, they are nearly worn out. I’ve been on an informal quest as of late to find replacements for them, but have so far been unsuccessful.
• Your underwear, or lack thereof. It’s there, and that’s all I’ll say about it.
• What’s in the trunk of your car. All of the items that have taken up permanent residence in my Bonneville’s posterior are car related. Items run the gamut from a 2-ton jack, to complete factory service manuals, to motorcycle gloves, not to mention the various car-care products, engine fluids, and tools. It’s all (mostly) organized into a compartmentalized bag.
• Your five favorite movies. My five favorite movies, in order of preference, are Pulp Fiction, The Shawshank Redemption, The Sting, Fight Club, and The Game.

What does this all mean? Let me know!

In the past week:

1) I Witnessed BonnevilleClub.com‘s busiest day ever. The site, which I created, just had its forum pass the 30,000-post mark, with almost 800 members. Even better, about a dozen of the members organized a Minnesota Bonneville meet, scheduled for the end of April. Who would have thought that there would be so many devout Bonneville enthusiasts?

2) The Gophers Men’s Hockey team recently celebrated the WCHA championship. For the NCAA Division 1 Men’s Hockey field, the Gophers are seeded number 1 in the west. On the professional side of the world’s greatest sport, the Wild clinched a playoff berth tonight by shutting out the Wings (a.k.a. the Yankees of Hockey) 4-0. Fun to watch, especially with Minufo in the room (Minufo, of course, is a big Wings fan).

3) Strobel and I worked on our Fraternity’s two fire trucks over the past weekend. The newer of the two, a 1964 GMC 5500-frame pumper truck, has a broken clutch master cylinder. Yup, it’s a hydraulic clutch, and the plunger in the cylinder simply broke, preventing the clutch from disengaging. Fortunately, when this happened, we discovered that the starter motor in the truck is powerful enough to start the truck with the truck in gear! Unfortunately, the replacement part to fix the clutch is proving exceedingly difficult to track down.

4) I found out on Friday that there will be not one, but two Minnesota Pikes working as interns for Medtronic this summer. Who’s the other? None other than my little Brother, Vince.

5) Speaking of which, I went to a Tridentine mass today with Minufo and Vince. The Tridentine Mass is the Old Rite Catholic mass, meaning it’s done almost entirely in Latin. I considered it a step to satisfy my curiosity along my quest for theological and spiritual contentment (ask me about this sometime). I had never been to a Latin mass before, so I found it quite intriguing. If nothing else, it allowed me to see first-hand the changes that Vatican II made.

6) I enjoyed the nice weather (70 degrees and sunny) by washing and waxing my car. Truly, there are few things as satisfying as a clean, shiny automobile.

I’m happy to say that I will be working in Minnesota for Medtronic this summer.

Hmmm. What else happened today…

At work, I found out that one of my close co-workers (a full-timer with a family, not an intern like me) will be laid off on Thursday. Times are tough, and he and 149 others at the organization were unfortunately casualies of the current economic situation. The layoff provided a stark contrast to my internship decision.

I dug up some more Steamboat photos. Check out a view of the condo, another condo view, the group lounging in the condo, the group doing more lounging in the condo, the group waiting for the free bus, the group in front of the plane, the group with the plane and the pilot, inside Mother’s restaurant, and me with a weird look on my face.

Tonight, I was talking with my third little brother, Tyler, (the other two being Willis and Vince) about things. It turns out that we share many of the same political, societal, religious, and technical views, which came as somewhat of a surprise. In fact, it took 45 minutes for us to come up a significant topic that we disagreed about. (The prompt for the discussion was a component of the Fraternity’s Associate Education program)

Mmmm… random thoughts good…