Matt Bernier

Soda is a weakness for both Melissa and I.  For her it’s pepsi, fountain coke, or ice cold coke in 8oz glass bottles. For me, it’s Cherry Coke, Apple Soda, fountain coke from McDonalds, and fountain coke in movie theaters.  Yeah, I know…pretty silly, but it’s the truth.

We have both quite drinking soda for extended periods of time, but mostly for bragging rights. This time we’re a little more serious about it because there are higher stakes on the table.

I have been fighting with GERD for far too long, to the point where on doctor’s recommendations I am taking twice the recommended daily dosage of Prilosec.  Recently there have been studies that indicate that taking certain hearburn drugs can aide in causing weaker bones in elderly people. While I am not elderly, I cannot afford to go around breaking bones anytime soon.  If I break an arm I am shit out of luck with work since I sit at a keyboard everyday and have to be able to reach it and type on it.  It has been brought to my attention that drinking soda is more than likely what caused my condition.

In order to make the stakes interesting, get healthier, and have a partner in this task I made a bet with Melissa.  The bet is for $100 from the personal account of to the person who fails to make it to Thanksgiving without drinking any soda.  However we put in a couple twists.  The first is that we are going to put in $75 of the money we would save from buying soda at the store, in restaurants, and at movies.  The second is that the winner has to make it to Thanksgiving to collect any of the money.

This is going to be extremely difficult for me because I have really strong cravings for soda.  There is nothing like an ice cold Cherry Coke. Nothing.

Melissa and I did some recon work in Estes Park, CO to determine if cellular signal was available up at a friend’s cabin.  Turns out it is!

While we were there, we took the opportunity to roll through RMNP and look at the Elk.  Most of them were still fluffy with their winter coats, and the males were in velvet. Overall it was a beautiful day!

This is a weird “feature” in the iPhone, but a cool one and it is simple to do!

1. Start a call with someone
2. Navigate to your iPod app and start it up
3. Choose a song or podcast
4. Enjoy!

The other person will not be able to hear it, and you should still be able to hear them over the music!

I recently got a new helmet for when I go snowboarding, in case I do something stupid (very likely).

The one I got was all white, which is alright but I wanted something unique.  So, I hollered at my good buddy Nemo who does some awesome art.  He said that he could do some Koi fish on there and this is the result:

I have not seen it in person yet, but I my great friend Tony has taken care of picking it up and putting it as his house.  I will be going into KC tomorrow to get it, change out the timing belt, and put new brakes on.  Then I drive the new tuck home!

Some friends have asked for pictures, so Tony sent me a few:

Recently, I have noticed a bit of ingenuity on the part of spam bots that are hitting my blog sites.  They have been posting jokes, one-liners actually, to my comments.  They also have links to viagra and cialis so I do not approve them.

Here are a couple examples:

Did you hear about the dyslexic rabbi? He was walking around everywhere saying, “Yo!”

How do you circumcise a whale? Send down fore-skin divers.

What do you call bedtime stories for boats? Ferry tales.

What kind of flowers grow in outer space? Sunflowers.

Why wouldn’t the dishwasher’s gloves fit? Because he had Dishpan Hands!

What happens when a ghost haunts a theater? The actors get stage fright.

Why do bagpipers walk when they play? They’re trying to get away from the noise.

Why did the bunnies go on strike? They wanted a raise in celery.

No Shave November is an easy and fun thing to do.  Just don’t shave!

The idea is to grow the most impressive beard you can in the month of November.

Here are the rules:

1. Shave your face on November 1st
2. Grow your beard during November
3. You can trim/shave:
   1. Your Mustache out of your mouth – dude seriously
   2. Your neck – I have yet to see a good neck beard, prove me wrong if you want. I am shaving my neck

Links:

• Twitter List – I’ll add you, just tell me you are in!
• Twitter Searches:
  • “#nsn”
  • “No Shave November”
  • “Novembeard”
• Novembeard the Site! – email your JPG in and they will post it to their site
• Join the Metal Mustache Team!

Send me your pics, and I will share them here!

Pro Note: I will post my beard pics on the blog and on Facebook as the beard develops. Join me, share your pics!