Death, bucket lists, and does life really begin at 30?

Recently I attended a funeral for a family member I barely knew. During the service I listened to the pastor talk about him, telling stories of how he liked to fish, he was a generous person, and loved spending time with his kids and family. This got me to thinking, if I were to die tomorrow, what would people say about me? Let's see...

Jeff, he liked pro wrestling, and video games. He looked down at the ground a lot, wasn't very social, hated his job and spent most of his nights watching television with his 3 cats. Man, that guy loved his cats...

Newton and Figaro, you tell me you don't love these guys...

Newton and Gizmo, or as my girlfriend and I refer to them as, Newt Newt and the Momo cat. 

Needless to say, if I were to die tomorrow, I'd die knowing there was a TON of stuff I'd still like to do. At one point in time my list consisted of things that one would expect when you were younger, buying a house, buying my first car, etc. Well, been there done that: This is my top 30. Feel free to leave me comments about your lists, or what you think I should change/ add, or just comment for the sake of commenting. I'm so lonely...


1: Do 100 pushups without stopping, or becoming super winded. Right now I can get through about 20 before I feel like I'm going to pass out. I blame my lack of motivation and McDonalds for that. Damn you Big Mac!!!

2. Host or co-host a webcast: I've always thought it'd be cool to webcast playing a video game, or do a live wrestling commentary during a show (similar to live tweeting, but actually being on camera so people could see my real-time reactions).  Edit: I got to co-host Mash Tactics with King_Foom on 2 seperate occasions, and on 2/24/12 did my first test broadcast...that nobody watched...

3. Make at least 5 items from the Star Wars Cookbook: Simple enough, I'm actually surprised I haven't done this yet. I may need to have people over for this.

4. Get an article published on PWTorch or Wrestlezone: I've actually had an email published on Wrestlezone about Brian Knobbs shilling for 1-800-Ask Gary and had a comment published in an article about Bragging Rights when it was in Minneapolis, so I think that counts? Plus I had one of the writers tell me my email was one of the best ones he'd ever read, I'll let you guess who that was.

5.Visit Disney Land and World: self explanatory, another one I should have done a long time ago.

6.Donate Blood.

7.Get Married: Someday? Update: I got engaged over Christmas, I will be getting married in March! ^_^

8: Have kids: Do my cats count?

9. Go to a video game convention: Don't care if its PAX, E3...I'm not picky!

10. Go see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

11.Visit more than 10 of the 50 states. So far I've got MN (does it count if I live here?), WI, FL, AZ,UT,SD,TN, and WA out of the way. Although TN was just seeing the airport so I don't know if that counts.

12. Fly first class: I want to know if it's like the Fresh Prince tells me, will I get to drink OJ out of a champagne glass?

13. Buy a new car: By new I mean, new for that year, preferably something with power windows and locks. Oh, and a working dashboard would be epic! (My current car as much as I love it, has none of those things.)

14. Do a walk/run for cancer research or a fun run: Update: I'm doing Warrior Dash on June 29th. Leveling up my life 1 step at a time! ^_^

15. Take a community education class: Could be anything, it's always been more of trying to convince my job I need those nights off that has obstructed this goal, I'm thinking of taking guitar lessons, or karate, or I could learn auto repair...the choices...

16. Ride a mechanical bull: I don't think the mechanical penis at Sexworld counts, although I've never ridden it, nor do I plan to.

17. Visit Canada again: I'd like to see Calgary and Toronto. I've only been to Ear Falls,Ontario. Amazing place.

18. Visit the Philippines: Obvious reason, not going into this one.

19. Go to a wine tasting and visit a vineyard: I blame the movie Sideways for this, but it looks like it could be a lot of fun, and who doesn't like getting wasted on fermented fruit?

20. Visit Las Vegas: I could knock off like 5 things on that trip. This needs to happen. No "Hangover" type Vegas trip though, I'd like to remember what happens.

21. Meet someone famous: I've met guys from the MN Wild, MN Twins, and local newscasters, which I guess would count, but nobody people not from here would know.

22. Plant a tree: Just not in my yard, I've got 5 as it is, another one would not be needed.

23. Visit  famous landmarks: Mount Rushmore ,Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Space Needle  Rocky Mountains, CN Tower, Route 66

24. Swim in the ocean

25. Go on a road trip: I'm surprised I didn't do this in college, but then I did go to a tech school. Sigh...

26. Go Snowboarding

27. Learn how to ride a motorcycle and get my motorcycle license

28. Win something: Don't care what, I have terrible luck when it comes to these things.

29.  Grow a grizzly Adams style beard (Sorry, this one will probably never happen, my facial hair just won't grow!!!) Substitute, not shave for 6 months?

30. Meet KISS, sadly, my girlfriend has done this and I haven't. I'd even be happy meeting Peter Criss, and even Peter Criss doesn't want to meet Peter Criss.

That's it for now, hopefully I'll get back into writing more now that the holidays are over with. Until next time kids...

Why I don't have a dog

So the other day at work, the topic of pets came up and someone asked me why I don't own a dog, besides the obvious fact that I barely scrape by as it is because I won't leave for something better, (I'm a very complacent person) I'm happy with the way things are now. Dogs, unlike my cat, require a lot more upkeep. My cat poops in a litter box, I clean it out once a day, takes a few minutes tops. Dogs have to go poop outside, my backyard is filled up enough with bird droppings and broken tree branches from the 3 trees in my backyard that I'm pretty sure have some type of plant leprosy.

 Neither my girlfriend or myself would ever be home to take it for walks,wait, scratch that, we'd be home, neither one of us would do it, I come home from work, grab a soda out of the fridge and fire up the Simpsons or whatever else I have recorded on the DVR. They require upkeep like vet visits, depending on the dog, grooming and factor in the fact we live in a pretty small house (compared to our friends who all have 4 bedroom houses, our little 2 bedroom looks small.) it just doesn't make sense to me. My main argument for this though has always been, but we have Momo!

This is the Momo. Fear him, for he bites. Sometimes. 

Momo or Stinky as I sometimes refer to him, is our cat, his actual name is Gizmo. We've had our little orange ball of terror for roughly 2 years now. We adopted him from a family member who couldn't take care of him, which was supposed to be temporary but here we are 2 years later and he's still here.  Momo has 3 things that he has to do: Eat, Sleep, Poop. That's it. If he's not doing one of those 3 things, he's usually doing the 4th, which is driving me nuts. Most cats as nature shows and other people's cats have taught me, they are only really playful as kittens, as they get older, they sleep a lot and usually don't do much else. Not mine, he has a weird obsession with doors and bottle caps. I've been woken up many of nights to him playing with our kitchen cabinet doors, opening our freezer door so he could knock down a tub of ice cream that he tried to eat, or bringing me random trinkets he finds around the house that he wants me to throw so he can bring back. His favorite items to bring me are bottle caps, hair binders and oddly enough, drinking straws. The straws are the best thing to watch him take, he will trot around like a show pony usually bringing it to his kitty toy fortress, in other words, his food dish.

Accept me as your all-knowing and powerful ruler and nobody gets hurt.

 Not everything about him is bad, he does like to greet me at our door as I come home from work, usually because he expects treats which he is very vocal about getting (he has a very distinct meow for treats, and another one for when he's upset he got locked into a room).For everything he does that annoys me, he makes up for it with doing the occasional cute thing or by being there when I need him to be. Whenever I come home from work and put my keys away, I usually end up giving him treats and sit down to watch tv in the living room, the second I sit down, he comes and sits in my lap and watches tv with me, he'll usually sit there until I move him or he finds something that interests him elsewhere in the house.

We've been through a lot together, when I left my apartment and decided to move into our house, Mo wanted to make sure I didn't leave him behind, so as I packed up my computer, he hopped inside the box and began meowing at me, he wanted to make sure he got to come with.

Hey you, don't forget to bring me with, I wanna come too!

 Shortly after we bought our house, we wanted to move furniture in and get things set up before we brought him home, so I left him at our apartment complex. Every day until I brought him home, I'd go to the apartment to check up on him, on more than one occasion I ended up sleeping on the floor of my old apartment because he didn't want me to leave and I felt bad about leaving him. I guess the real reason I don't have a dog is, nothing else could replace the companionship I have with my cat, he's my little boy and nothing will ever change that.

Dreaming of Cheeseburgers and  Caturdays