I've been a little out of commission lately. This is because I got two of my wisdom teeth out last week. The picture to the right shows a little bit of swelling on the right side of it. It hurt.

I did not go with the conventional dentist-oral surgeon route, however. No, I instead took part in a study for post-op pain at this mad scientist lab in Austin. All I had to do was go through a screening process and stay overnight on the day of the surgery...and they paid me $400!

Yep, I'm officially a lab rat but all in all it wasn't so bad. It did suck because I definitely received the placebo drug after surgery and I had to wait about an hour and a half before I got the "rescue medication" pain-killers. Oh well, it taught me a little about my pain threshold I guess.

da Baby!

Here is a picture of my new Nephew. I'm sure everyone who reads this blog has seen plenty of pictures of babies lately, but I like this one. Morgan does look a little scared of me but I think it's because someone was talking about my Kickboxing skills.

Moving on Up (to the East side)

Well, it's August 1st and I officially have to say goodbye to my apartment and say hello to a new house. I will be living slightly southeast from where I used to live with the addition of three other dudes. One of these dudes I know from work. The other two are random guys from my friend's church. I met them both last month, though, and I think we'll all get along pretty well.

I'm kind of excited to move in to my new place because I've been living alone for so long now. Even though I loooooove being able to do whatever the hell I want to in the comfort of my own apartment, I think I'm going to like the things that come with this new house (cable, cheaper rent, and friends who like to watch the UFC).

Even though I don't have an extra bedroom anymore, everyone is still invited to come stay with me!

For All You Cynics

I'm just writing this post so I can quiet all those people making silly comments on my May entry. Here is an update and a picture for you:

I'm still working.

I'm going to apply to schools sometime soon for a PhD in Social Work. I wouldn't start until Fall of '09 though...

I am moving into a different house this week so I will finally have internet at home again. Maybe this will help the blog.

...and the picture:

This is David, Me, and our friend Shaw at some bar in Orlando.

There ya go.

What's Happening?

Well, aside from me becoming an Uncle again this past weekend (which I'm sure Shirin will blog about so I won't talk about Lil' Cyrus just yet) I haven't had much happen in the last month or so.

I did go to Orlando to see all my boys from FL and we had a pretty good time going out and lounging by the pool.

I've been going out here in Austin a good amount so I'm pretty much an expert on how to blow $100 in a few hours at a bar now. Ha.

I got back from San Angelo, TX a while back helping out with the FLDS removal business and I'd really like to talk about that but the Department of Family and Protective Services give us strict instructions to NOT BLOG about stuff like that. Oh well...

I also recently got done with two video projects that I was working on for a month or so. One was just a fun video with footage from my cruise and sock puppet reenactments (it's done kind of "George"-style and is probably only funny to the people who went on the cruise). The other video, however, was one for my old job at the gym on FSU campus. My old boss paid me about $150 to edit together a bunch of footage they had from a big workout contest they did this spring. I'm trying to compete with Gabe's video project efforts in order to one day be able to under-cut him on every offer he receives (ya gotta love sibling rivalry).

Other than that, I've just been trying to relax a bit here in the great state of Texas. I think I'm going tubing down a river next week and maybe renting a movie or two. Adios...

Cruise Pictures!

Well, they are about 3 weeks late but here are some pictures from my cruise to Cozumel and Grand Cayman. Enjoy!

Here are the girls from Orlando that we hung out with a bunch

The hot tub - we spent about 50% of our time on the boat here

A pic of us driving a jeep around Mexico

Me riding a donkey with a Mexican 40oz

The boys

We commandeered a table and started playing beerpong on it. I'm
intensely coaching Brice right here.

We took a lot more pictures but I don't have the time to post 'em all right now.

Damn

Well, I've lost the wireless internet connection that I was stealing at my apartment so I can only get online at work now. On top of that I've been working a lot more and lot harder at my job so I really don't have any time at the office to get on this blog.

The good news is: I'm going on a cruise with all my Lakeland boys next week. I'll be back just in time to get to the Ides at Mamaw's though, so I'm excited.

See everyone soon!

The 'Burg

Last weekend I went to St. Pete to celebrate my big brother's birthday. I wanted to post some pics from it but I forgot to get them from Casey's camera/computer. I had a great time and as usual - DJ Mingle Mixx threw a damn good party.

Just wanted to say thanks Casey for letting me be a part of your extravaganza. Let's do another one in ten years...

(If you have pictures please send them to me)

Pictures!

I've been working my butt off the last couple weeks but I figured I'd take some time to post pictures from the last month or so. Here are a few:

Here is a picture from my friend's birthday dinner (she's getting old so she needs a sippy-cup to drink her wine now)

...Later on after a few drinks at the b-day dinner

Two friends of mine: Vanessa and Carrie. Vanessa actually went to FSU at the same time I did but we didn't meet until I moved to Austin. She saw me in a sports bar when I was wearing a FSU Water Polo shirt and we've been friends since then.
This is my neighbor Tanya that watches all the UFC pay-per-views with me. Her mom is from France and speaks little English.

This is Tanya with one of the bartenders from a great dive bar we went to. This woman was very obliging and let Tanya behind the bar to take this.

Tanya's dog, Anna. I think she's about 95 in dog years.

The three pieces of art that my sister-in-law, Shirin, did for me. Can you guess what they mean?

The seat covers for my kitchen chairs that my mom upholstered:

My old chest of drawers that I sanded and stained (I hope it looks fine to you mom)

Trips to FL and Other Stuff

I got back to Texas this week after spending a long weekend in Tallahassee, FL (thanks mom for setting it up!) visiting my boys who still live there. After my plane got to Tally we hung out for a little bit and went out to eat at some new restaurant in the city. Then me, Brice, David, and our other friend Crispy (real name Chris) went to a couple of bars in order to try to increase the guest list for the party we were having at David's house the next day. Needless to say we all channeled our "Mingle Mixx" side and ended up meeting a bunch of people to invite to the party. It was awesome. Later on, after we got back to the house, I showed all the guys Gabe and Shirin's DVD they made me of funny internet videos. They friggin' loved it. Good job Modaresi-Beal's!

The next night we had the party and had a truly great time. I won't give any details but ya gotta believe that any night that allows me to both bartend for the party AND give 3am jiu-jitsu lessons is a good night.

The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxing...I hung out around the house and played Rock Band with the guys and called up some old friends of mine that I hadn't seen in a while. I ended up leaving Tally late on Monday night.

When I got back to Austin I was pretty rested up...and good thing. On my first day back to work I already had two new cases waiting for me and during the week I got two more. I also had a huge family team meeting to help facilitate because one of the kids on my caseload was in the juvenile mental institution and needed a serious plan of action before the weekend started. Geez.

So we're supposed to try to close as many cases as we get in order to keep our caseloads even (or like I'm trying to do - close more than I get so I don't have a million families to deal with). Well, I got four cases this week and closed one. It's not looking good people. My supervisor says that you just have to ride out some of these busy weeks and then close a lot of cases on a slow week. We'll see if that philosophy works out for me...