We went across the Mississippi River to Clinton, Iowa to do some troll hunting.

We took the girls to the groomers today to get their nails and Grinch paws trimmed.

Crackers is the master of the over the shoulder look-back smile.

Just finished watching the second season of Narcos with my wife. She keeps empathizing with the Pablo Escobar character. I'm like, please tell me it's Wagner Moura you have the hots for, not the brutal cartel leader/narco terrorist. I'm fine with it if it's Wagner, lol.

Finally got around to seeing Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die. It was right up alley, absurd fun. Really enjoyed it. To be fair, I really love San Rockwell and Michael Peña in most everything they're in. The rest of the cast was great too.

Went for a walk along the Mississippi in the Quad Cities yesterday.

Sell your condo on the coast and buy this piece of small town Illinois history and still have $100k+ left over. www.facebook.com/share/1AeJLw...

Legit, one of the things I miss most not living in Southern California is going into basically any independent donut shop and seeing posters of Cambodia on the walls and buying little rings and bars of heaven in a pink box.

I believe that there's only one way remaining to fix U.S. society. It's a drastic measure, but I can't see any way around it. We're going to have to ruin golf.

My wife starting working where I work this week. We actually have the same job title but work on different shifts. As of yesterday, I'm officially married to a certified forklift operator, lol.

Went for a walk at one of our favorite parks today!

Coming to Paramount Max in 2027. Taylor Sheridan's Guns of the Wild Westeros- A lone Hedge Cowboy must defeat Essos terrorists sneaking in with illegal immigrants from Dorne.

Taylor Sheridan must really be racking his brain trying to figure out how he's going to introduce cowboy hats and guns to the Game of Thrones universe.

This building for sale on the corner of the main intersection in my small town is pretty dope. If only I had the need for it and $330,000. www.facebook.com/share/18BpP1...

My wife might come work at my work and get the same position I have just on a different shift. If we didn't have the dogs I'd switch to the same shift but I didn't think they'd love being home alone 10/hrs a day 4/days a week. The main upside is she'll make 60% more money.

I can't tell if Crackers is happy.

Beautiful day here in the Midwest. Dogs enjoyed a nice hour+ walk that involved crossing the Rock River twice.

The funniest part of the whole airspace-shutdown-over-a-balloon-mistaken-for-a-cartel-drone thing is that it will probably inspire cartels to release a bunch of mylar balloons into northerly winds at the same time they fly their drones across. Seems like it would work!

Drove by a blonde Big Boy today.

Courtney asked for this rose with gold painted on the outside that she saw at Kroger. I bought it and some additional babies breath. Her real Valentine's Day gift is the vase though. Her family is Polish. She loves Polish pottery so I bought her this hand-painted Polish pottery vase.

Getting shit done, haha

My dogs love and tolerate me.

"There's no age of consent ON MARS!"

Chicken Potato Soup made with a little magic

I watched His and Hers on Netflix and, boy, was it full of twists. They were mostly fine and I mostly enjoyed it but the final twist was... gratuitous.

There's a whole lot I miss about Southern California but I just received my annual escrow account disclosure and it says my mortgage payment is going from $893/mo. this past year to $897/mo. this current year. That's 4 years in on a 15 year mortgage, btw. Illinois def wins on housing affordability.

My 2 favorite video creators are Nate the Hoof Guy and Parker's Mobile Mechanic. Just 2 dudes using their hands and doing their jobs. One is helping cows and the other helps less fortune people by doing car repairs for free. Nice distractions from... all of this.

It's the American golden age of boot licking.

I made my pups into Calendar Girls. Sweet Calendar Girls...

We just bought this signed numbered hand colored etching at a consignment store. We saw it on Wednesday and Courtney really wanted it. We decided this morning to pull the trigger on it. I think it's pretty cool.

For my birthday, my wife bought us tickets to see @rilokileyofficial.bsky.social in Chicago in May. Pretty excited about it. Love an experience gift.

Christmas Wrapping is my favorite Christmas song, hands down. Followed by Father Christmas and then Fairytale of New York. Honorable mention to Last Christmas, I guess.

Look, the Beatles were HUGE for me as a kid, and I still love them as much as, if not more than, the next #BeatlesGuy. But I’m BEGGING someone to put this kind of energy into the KINKS, for the love of god

Backyard Midwest winter sunset. 2025. Yes, I took this through the glass of the back door. I'm not going out there if I don't have to!

My awesome old gay hippie uncle in Vermont wrote a song about ICE. www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBbe...

They're saying 10"-14" of snow might fall here in this storm this weekend. That would be the most snowfall in a single storm since we moved here. That would also make it the most snow I've ever seen fall in one storm in my life, seeing as I rarely ever experienced snow before moving here.

I was so livid an hour ago. So livid that I actually contacted the authoritaries, as reluctant as I naturally am to doing so. For the third time, the neighbor's 3 unleashed dogs charged and attacked my 2 leashed dogs as we walked by. Thank God my dogs weren't harmed.

Courtney and I are watching a great Rivian commercial called "All Her Fault".

Waiting for the show to begin

Going to see @bestshow4life.bsky.social 25th Anniversary Tour in Chicago tonight. If my tattoo counts, and I say it does, there will be at least one mouse with a cape in the audience.

I had to work late so we missed the protest in our town. We drove 45 minutes away to one with a later start time. Figured it doesn't matter where so much.

Until today, I was the only name on the car insurance for both vehicles. The insurance company said Courtney didn't need to be listed until she got her actual license. She got it today. We went to the insurance office to add her. My premium went down $3/month. How in the fuck? Not what I expected!

Anyone here going to the Best Show live in Chicago next week?

My wife is an angel!

Courtney donated a painting to a charity that had a big event tonight. I accompanied Courtney to the event. There were hundreds of people in attendance. I shit you not, I was the only dude there that wasn't working or volunteering as usher. To be fair, the event was called "Diamonds and Divas".

For a second, I fully expected the missing part after the first ellipsis to be "ng of the juggalos."

We woke up on Friday morning at 8am MDT in a dumpy motel in Evanston, Wyoming. I'm currently writing this at home in Rock Falls, Illinois on Saturday morning at 3:48am CDT. About 1200 road miles. ~17 hours of wheels-on-the-street driving + pit stops.