← Garage Logic
Garage Logic
SCRAMBLE: Yet another last minute road trip, Yellowstone eruption, and Mike wants his tax money back!!
00:40:20
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- [00:00]
A
Mishke here, joining the GL world to pitch my new podcast, which now comes out twice a week, Wednesdays and Fridays. The show features an extraordinary array of exotic circus performers, forgotten Hollywood starlets, reclusive Fortune 500 CEOs, professional taxidermists. Oh, wait a minute. That's a different promo. Where's the promo for GL ers? Here it is. Let's try this again. Mishke here pitching my new podcast. We're out of time. Could I do it again?
- [00:32]
B
This is the weekly Scramble, a place where we chat about life over a cold one or two. It's time to belly up to the pod with Mike Fratelloni and your host, Chris Reivers.
- [00:47]
C
That's right, it's time for the weekly scramble podcast. My name is Chris Reivers. With me as always, his name is Mike Fratelloni. Hello, Michael.
- [00:54]
B
How you doing, Reivers?
- [00:55]
C
I'm doing phenomenal. I was telling you that I had a story that I'd like to tell you on the air. And I assume. Did you not listen to Monday Night Sports Talk yesterday? I'm not gonna be offended if you did not.
- [01:07]
B
I did not. I listened to a little tiny bit of it, but I'm not. When he was talking about his knee replacement.
- [01:12]
C
Yes, yes.
- [01:13]
B
That's all I got.
- [01:15]
C
And I want to get to your lovely party here in a second as well on Friday night. So Saturday, I got up and my son and I. My oldest son, he's 14. He is a die hard, dedicated Josh Allen football fan.
- [01:35]
B
Don't tell me you drove somewhere.
- [01:36]
C
He loves the Buffalo Bills. And I have a good. And it's kind of a almost. He was almost adopted because I have a very good friend that works for the team. And so I've been to a million games. It's a great place to watch the game. And so for his birthday, every year I say, okay, you get to pick a game to go to. Unfortunately, back in November, it didn't really work out because from a timing aspect with school and everything like that. And so we had been talking last week about potentially going to a game during their winter break, which started on Monday. And I had said, okay, well, let's look at the weather, because you got to be careful, right?
- [02:15]
B
You don't get stuck somewhere, so.
- [02:17]
C
Which we almost did a couple of years ago. So I decided he and I were going to head to Cleveland to watch the Buffalo Bills take on the Cleveland Browns. And I thought, right, Shador Sanders. And I thought, you know what? This will be great, because the Browns stink. Tickets won't be that expensive.
- [02:37]
B
Okay.
- [02:38]
C
And it's an, it's actually not a bad drive. It's only about 11 hours.
- [02:42]
B
Okay.
- [02:44]
C
From Jordan through Chicago. Through Chicago.
- [02:47]
B
And Gary, Indiana.
- [02:48]
C
And Gary, Indiana. So we depart 10am Saturday morning. And it was not last minute because he and I were kind of chatting about it and I said, okay, we gotta. And I've got a younger son who's been dealing with some health related stuff. Not feeling good, not feeling the best, but everything's fine. So thank you for all of you that I mentioned that a while ago. So thank you to everybody that's reached out. He's doing great. He's doing great, but you just gotta. Got to kind of keep an eye on.
- [03:12]
B
He wasn't going to go for the drive.
- [03:14]
C
No. And he. Yeah. And he's my oldest one, loves to road trip. My youngest one will do it, but would prefer not to. He's Mike Fredaloni.
- [03:23]
B
Maybe your youngest one is like, dad, I really want you to be happy with me, but I don't want to be in the car for 22 hours over the next two days.
- [03:31]
C
So we depart.
- [03:32]
B
Okay.
- [03:33]
C
And 10am Saturday morning. And. And I thought, okay, this will be perfect because we'll hit Chicago at, you know, 7 o' clock on a Saturday night. We'll breeze through Chicago, no traffic. And we got all the way. We got to almost the Indiana, Ohio border.
- [03:50]
B
Okay, I made some good times.
- [03:52]
C
Oh, I mean, we were flying. And the thing is, you know, when the speed limit says 65 in Chicago, everybody's going 90.
- [04:01]
A
Oh, really?
- [04:01]
C
Well, it's just, you know, and so.
- [04:03]
B
It'S like once there's open road, they're like, I gotta catch up.
- [04:05]
C
Well, but that's the thing. Like I'm going, you know, 75 and a 55 and I'm in the right lane. Everyone's flying by me, right. So you can make really good time if you time it perfectly. So anyway, so we crashed for the night. We actually watched the Bears packers game in our hotel. And I was looking at tickets and things like that because I always say to people, because people ask me about road tripping and stuff all the time, because I'm the man, I'm the. I am the road trip. You master.
- [04:31]
B
You've done this once or twice.
- [04:32]
C
And so I always say, hey, for a game like that, wait until the last minute. Because all of these season ticket holders that are just trying to get something for their tickets, they wait to the last minute. And I found two great seats, lower level, end zone. 50 bucks a piece or whatever it was. Right. I'm thinking, oh, this is great.
- [04:51]
B
Normally a $300 ticket or something, easily.
- [04:56]
C
So we get to Cleveland, and I looked at the forecast is going to be in the mid-30s. Sunshine. Mid-30s, like, off. We don't even need to wear a coat. Well, that stadium is on the lake. And when you walk from. We parked at. Right by the Cleveland Hotel, which. I gotta show you this photo because this is great. My guy got his picture taken next to where they filmed the Santa scene in A Christmas Story.
- [05:25]
B
Oh, very cool.
- [05:26]
C
So they got the little plaque of the leg lamp there, you know, where Ralphie gets his head kicked in by Santa, saying, you'll shoot your eye out, kid.
- [05:33]
B
Yeah.
- [05:34]
C
But as we were walking, we were walking with two gals. They were super. They were Browns fans. And he was wearing his Josh Allen jersey. I was just dressed, like, in my Chris Reavers clothes. Like, I didn't have any paraphernalia.
- [05:45]
B
Black.
- [05:46]
C
100%. Yes.
- [05:47]
B
The exact same thing you're wearing right now.
- [05:49]
C
The exact same thing I wear every day. And so she kind of looked. I said, oh, we drove from Minnesota. We're here for the. Oh, that's so great. Then she saw one like, oh, are you Bills fans? Well, I'm actually a Vikings fan. Blah, blah.
- [05:59]
A
And.
- [05:59]
C
And she says, well, as soon as we turn this corner, it's. Cause they were starting to bundle up.
- [06:03]
B
I'm like, it's gonna get cold.
- [06:04]
C
Yeah, the sun's out. She's like, as soon as we turn this corner, the wind is gonna nail you in the face. And my God. Because again, you're walking through all these tunnels right by the lake. And it was as if that God turned down the hairdryer.
- [06:19]
B
It was like the Levy. The Metrodome, where you were like, 100.
- [06:21]
C
Yes.
- [06:22]
B
You're getting forced down this tunnel.
- [06:23]
C
That's exactly what it was like. And so we went to the game, and I thought, oh, thank you so much. You've been a wonderful help. She's like, don't go in this. Don't go where all these fans are going. Go into this. Because it's the suite level entrance ramp, but anybody with a ticket can get in. And there was no line whatsoever. So she was. I forgot to ask what her first name was. And we didn't see her again after that. But she was so awesome.
- [06:48]
A
Pretty.
- [06:49]
B
Pretty, you know. Okay. I mean, you're talking about her kind of a lot.
- [06:53]
C
No, no, I just.
- [06:53]
B
Like. You have a crush on the girl from Cleveland.
- [06:55]
C
No, but it's always cool. I just like chatting with people.
- [06:58]
B
People are nice.
- [06:58]
C
Yeah. And people are cool. She was super helpful. Anyway, so we get in and as I'm looking at her section, I'm like, okay, well, buddy, we got to go this way. I go, do you. Do you want anything? He's like, no, I just want to get to our seats. Okay. Got to go to the bathroom. Nope, I just want to get to our seats. We get to our section, and I didn't realize that I had purchased tickets to sit in the Cleveland fan section known as the dog Pound.
- [07:23]
B
The dog pound.
- [07:26]
C
And you want to go to that? No, I walk in and the people that were. Because I bought seats one and two were right on the aisle. Right. The best. Right. And they're bench seats. So you don't actually have a fold down seat to sit in. You're on a bench. And the guy next to us says, hi, how you doing? And he couldn't have been. It was him and his girlfriend or wife or whatever, and they were super nice. And he looked at William wearing his Bills jersey, and I said, we're actually from Minnesota. He's a huge Josh Allen fan. We'll be civil, I promise. He's like, oh, no, we're fine. Fff. And I talked to William. I said, hey, buddy, we're going to Enemy. You're not at the Bill Stadium now. We're at the Brown stadium. And I go, and I knew it's a very blue collar town. It's a very blue collar fan base. And I said, you're going to hear some words. But we know what the rule is, right? We don't repeat anything we hear. And he actually thinks it's funny when people lose their minds at sporting events.
- [08:22]
B
He's 14.
- [08:23]
C
And so the running back for the Bills Cook scores a touchdown. And he's like, yeah, he starts doing like the finger chop. And the guy next to him was super. He's like, buddy, it's okay. You could cheer. We're not going to yell at you or whatever. And it was because it was sick because it's such a close drive. It was 65% Bills fans in that stadium.
- [08:47]
B
Oh, really?
- [08:48]
C
Oh, yeah. And so we get to about the third quarter, and he kind of tugs at my. My, my. Cause I was wearing my vest. He tugs at my sleeve. And he goes, dad, I said, what's up? He goes, everybody in here is getting really drunk. And everybody in here is getting really angry because you could. You, you know, you can feel the hostility start to Build a little bit. Because at first it was frustration, but at first it looked like it was going to be a blowout, like the Bills were going to. But all of a sudden the game got kind of. Kind of close, and I went, do you want to walk around? He said, yeah, let's just go, because we had to go to the bathroom. So let's walk around a bit and look at the stadium. And it's actually. It butts up against the lake, which is really cool, beautiful. And they have the smoking section, which is almost the entire exterior of that main level where you can take selfies and stuff by the lake. It's really cool. And I said, you don't want to go back to sit in those seats? He goes, no, those people were getting really mad. And that one lady was screaming in my ear the whole time because there was a woman standing behind him. They were nice. I talked to them, like at the end of one of the quarters or whatever. But I could tell, like, there's going to be hands thrown in this crowd at some point. So maybe my 14 year old probably shouldn't be subjected to that because you just make a decision. So we walked around for the third quarter.
- [10:03]
B
He's toughen up if he's going to.
- [10:04]
C
Be a Bills fan. I kind of said, I go, this is kind of how NFL games are. So we ended up making the business decision of getting out of there because we were also at a ramp, and so we didn't want to be stuck there and we want to get back, right? So I said, all right, let's do this. It's almost the end of the third quarter. Let's walk back to the car and we can listen to the fourth quarter driving out here because we were basically coming home because I had to work yesterday. And so we're listening to the game in the car. It was fun, right? But I asked him at one point, because we were, I think, driving through. Have you ever driven on the Ohio Turnpike before?
- [10:40]
B
Sure, I have.
- [10:40]
C
I can't remember. So it's basically wide open. I mean, you can. You can see. I mean, everyone's going 85 miles an hour, right? So. And it was kind of cool because the sun was kind of setting. And, you know, you're driving west, right? So you gain a little bit more time.
- [10:55]
B
You're catching a little bit more sun.
- [10:56]
C
You're catching the sun. Exactly. And so when we finally, the second the game ended on the radio, he fell asleep, right? And I thought, oh, this is perfect. Now I'm just gonna. Because I see Astro, how long we're gonna drive? He didn't know that I was gonna have to work yesterday.
- [11:12]
B
Yeah, he's going, you're going.
- [11:13]
C
One, driving all the way home. So anyway, so he slept for a while and then we get through Chicago, it's still like seven o', clock, you know? Cause you gain an hour, right?
- [11:23]
B
Because you could spend 180 bucks on a hotel room or 120 bucks on a hotel room or to make it all the way home.
- [11:29]
C
But we ended up staying in. Is it Black River Falls, Wisconsin? Is that what the name of the city is? Right off the freeway?
- [11:36]
B
That is adorable that you asked me.
- [11:38]
C
I know. So anyway, so we, I said, you know what I mean? I almost thought about driving all the way home, but it would have been one in the morning, right? And I thought, I know. But I wanted to, I did want to watch a little bit of the Sunday night game. And I thought, you know, let's crash for the night.
- [11:53]
B
How many hours is Black river away from Minneapolis?
- [11:56]
C
Well, it was two hours away from my house because I was going to drop him off at home and then I was going to come to work or. Yeah, it was like two and a half roughly. And then. Or two hours to work and I thought, all right, perfect, 10 o'. Clock. It was like 10, 10, 30 somewhere in there. Let's crash for the night. We only have two more hours to go. I'll drop you off and then I'll head to work. Well, that was all great and the place was amazing. Then we got that fricking ice storm that went through.
- [12:20]
B
Oh, you got hit by that?
- [12:22]
C
Mike, the reason. Well, this has been a long story. I apologize. So we get up and I start, you know, I said, okay, do you want to take a shower? Do you want to grab some continental breakfast? What do you want to do? He's like, I'll just grab something to eat and I'll get changed. I said, no problem. So I start. I was gonna start packing stuff up and take it to the truck. There was 2 inches of ice everywhere. Oh no.
- [12:43]
B
And I went.
- [12:43]
C
And immediately I went, oh, that two hour drive just turned into five.
- [12:46]
B
Yeah, I'm never getting home in time.
- [12:48]
C
And I went, oh, crap. So I get in the car, I start the car, get the windshield thawed and all that crap. And then I pulled up my navigation. 4 and a half hours to get home, which was about two.
- [13:00]
B
Oh, no.
- [13:01]
C
And I went, what the heck? They closed the freeway on 94. They closed the freeway. No. So I'm Thinking, oh, my God, what am I gonna do? I said, well, Gabe, you're about to get your first experience running Garagelogic. So the freeway was open for about the first 20 minutes, and then it was routing traffic off of highway because there was. I mean, there were jackknife semis everywhere, right. And it's. It's a lot of our new neighbors driving these semis with sandals on. And so it was this county road to that county road to this icy county road to that county road. And finally, the further we kept getting north and west, it started to get warmer, so the streets became more manageable. And then by the time I finally got back to 94, it was pretty much smooth sailing. But I just thought, you got to be kidding me. We just drove all the way there, we're two hours away, and here comes mass chaos. It was. But it was, you know, it's fun. And the thing is, like, you know, people like to have fun with me about. But it's like I always say, I'm only gonna get a certain amount of time right with either one of my sons. And it's the nonsense. It's not about how long you're in the car. It's the nonsense that takes place when you're in the car. The dumb conversations that you have about this, that, and the other thing.
- [14:31]
B
You got to talk about something. You're in the car for 22 hours.
- [14:33]
C
Well, and that's just it. Like, for me, it's so much more about, like, I'm going to remember the stupid observation that he made. Not stupid. That's the wrong word.
- [14:43]
B
Silly operation.
- [14:44]
C
The silly observation that he made. That's going to make me laugh. Fifteen years from now, I'm not going to remember what the damn score of the football game is.23 to 20. It was.
- [14:54]
B
You're never going to forget that.
- [14:55]
C
Well, but.
- [14:56]
B
Passes to Shador Sanders. Complete.
- [14:58]
C
You know what the funny thing is? Do you know what he asked me? This is adorable.
- [15:00]
B
Okay.
- [15:01]
C
What do you. Because I said, hey, I think I got us good seats. Right? He goes, do you think we could just sit by Dion? I said, I'm going to guess, buddy, that he's in a suite.
- [15:10]
B
Yeah, we didn't get quite that good a seat straight.
- [15:13]
C
Exactly. But it's just. Yeah, I know. I'm kind of a SAP, but I enjoy that kind of stuff.
- [15:19]
B
I like that trick, traveling with one kid, too, because then you're fully focused on one child.
- [15:24]
C
Yeah, right.
- [15:24]
B
If there's two, then they kind of team up a little bit. You're the third wheel. If there's one, you're full on.
- [15:30]
C
But then it almost becomes a game of two where the.1 of the. Usually the little one in the back seat is always the instigator. Always. Always the instigator. And so that is kind of fun, too. So it was a fun. Kind of impromptu. Hey, let's just do it quick.
- [15:46]
B
You know what you should get your oldest for Christmas?
- [15:49]
A
What?
- [15:49]
B
Get him a folding table and just say, if you're going to be a Bills fan, you got to start being real stupid real quick.
- [15:55]
C
I got to tell you, though, I did confront a Bills fan. That was a row in front of us. So the running back for the Browns got hurt like, a pretty significant knee injury. Like, almost. I mean, he's definitely done for the year, but he might be done forever. Kind of a knee injury. And he started screaming, get him off the field. And I went, bro, not the time of the place.
- [16:15]
B
Yeah.
- [16:16]
C
And he was 0.3. Right.
- [16:18]
B
Why'd you even attempt to argue?
- [16:20]
C
Because he was agitating everyone around us, and I didn't want people thinking that he was anyway, associated with me or my son. I just said, bro. Not. No, that's.
- [16:29]
B
That's not cool.
- [16:30]
C
That's not a good spot to do that. Plus, I have to show him this is not how you behave in public. You know, that's. Anyway, can I tell you what we did consume a lot of, though?
- [16:38]
B
Okay, Go for it.
- [16:39]
C
We are nuts.
- [16:40]
B
Oh, did you?
- [16:41]
C
I am not joking.
- [16:42]
B
That's all you ate on the way.
- [16:43]
C
There and back, so we're talking. I forgot to look up what the exact mileage is. It's close to 2,000 miles we put on. Right? I'm not joking.
- [16:51]
B
Oh, no.
- [16:52]
C
He ate four jars of cinnamon toffee peanuts. I am not joking.
- [16:57]
B
Oh, my God. You can't do that.
- [17:00]
C
And then he said, dad, my tummy hurts. No, no, no, not at all. He said, what do we have? I mean, he's a. He's a furnace, right?
- [17:07]
B
And he's like 5 foot 9 and.
- [17:10]
C
110 pounds, and he's growing like a weed. I'm not joking. I should have. You know what? I should have taken a picture of.
- [17:16]
B
The empty carcasses before I put him in the recycling. I'm sure you just whipped them out of the car as you were driving.
- [17:20]
C
No, no, no. We saved the recycling people.
- [17:22]
B
You want somebody to pick that up off the ground and say, we are nuts? They're always empty. Huh? These must be good.
- [17:27]
C
Must be good. Yeah. But he's addicted to the cinnamon toffee peanuts.
- [17:31]
B
I get it. I see why.
- [17:32]
C
And you were nice enough to have we are nuts at the frat pack get together that we had last week, which was phenomenal.
- [17:38]
B
That was fun.
- [17:39]
C
But here's the deal. Go to any one of your Fratelloni's hardware and garden stores locations, Lunds and Barleys, Kowalski's Markets, Cub Foods, Kwik Trip. Now available at Coburn's. They're fantastic. And it's handmade small batch snacks made right here in the great state of Minnesota. And it's a wonderful family owned operation.
- [17:59]
B
They're not going to be small batch for much longer.
- [18:02]
C
I think a second location is going to be needed for production.
- [18:05]
B
They need a production facility just for Fradaloni's because we're selling so many of them.
- [18:09]
C
Yeah. Especially this time of the year.
- [18:11]
B
Oh, I didn't. I didn't quite get the holiday season. So Fradaloni's kind of missed it a little bit because we didn't order hard enough. We didn't. I should have assumed that people bring these for parties. People have parties. They load up on them. It's not one can for your cup holder because they fit perfectly in a cup holder. It's. I'm bringing seven jars to grandma's house so everybody can try them. It's been crazy, crazy busy with. We are not.
- [18:33]
C
That's so awesome.
- [18:34]
B
It's really a great partnership.
- [18:35]
C
But if you're not able to make it to those locations, you can order it online@wearenutsmn.com and tell them that you heard about them from Reavers and Fraterloni on the weekly scramble podcast. We will be right back. Did you see the explosion that took place?
- [18:53]
B
Which one?
- [18:53]
C
Yellowstone.
- [18:54]
B
I didn't.
- [18:55]
C
Not the big one.
- [18:57]
B
Okay. Okay. I know.
- [18:59]
C
I don't know why I'm such a sucker for this. Do me a favor. Go to. Go to your Google machine right now. I want to watch your reaction. So Google. Google Mud Explosion Yellowstone National Park.
- [19:14]
B
How did I miss this?
- [19:15]
C
So I'm watching the news and I got to be honest, I keep it. This is nothing against our friends downstairs at KSDP channel 5. I like 9 only because they stay local all morning. I don't really want a national perspective. I just kind of have it on as background noise to kind of get a local flavor all morning long.
- [19:37]
B
Let me just state this. I don't even consider 9A channel. It is channel 5 or it is nothing.
- [19:44]
C
I agree.
- [19:46]
B
So we don't watch anything Different.
- [19:48]
C
I agree.
- [19:48]
B
We get kstp, then they have other stations, right? What do they have? 45.
- [19:52]
C
Yes.
- [19:53]
B
We watch 45. We got those two stations. That's it.
- [19:56]
C
My nighttime news. I watch my gal, Lindsay.
- [19:59]
B
That's all you got?
- [19:59]
C
That's no one watching in the news business? No. Lindsey is the best broadcaster in the local space.
- [20:05]
B
But now that you cracked on our.
- [20:08]
C
No, but Cody Matz did a great story about this because Cody's a listener and Cody's a great dude. And so I saw this, and it said, all I saw was explosion at Yellowstone National. I went, oh, dear God. And I'm thinking, is it time to pack up the car and start heading east?
- [20:28]
B
Sure.
- [20:28]
C
I had no idea.
- [20:29]
B
But is a black cloud gonna kill all the crops?
- [20:32]
C
I missed the first word that just said mud explosion at Yellowstone National Park.
- [20:36]
B
You know, this is kind of funny because Cody did what you almost did with the Garage Logic podcast from today because Arne Carlson said he didn't think Governor Walls should run again. And as you were writing out the little chyron for the show, you said, arnie Carlson thinks Walls should step down.
- [20:55]
C
So I. I had heard.
- [20:57]
B
This is behind the scenes.
- [20:58]
C
Yes. So for those of you that didn't hear the Garage Logic podcast earlier, former Governor Artie Carlson was on the show, and I thought I heard him say governor because Joe had asked him, what do you think of Governor Tim Walz? Or I think he just said, what do you think of Walz? And Arne responded, I think he needs to step down. That's what I thought I heard him say. At the end of that conversation today, the question that I had asked Governor Carlson was something along the lines of, I don't even remember. But he corrected my line of questioning, saying, I didn't say he needs to resign. I want to make it clear I think he needs to step out of the race, meaning for reelection. But I thought I heard him say he needs to step down. So that's completely my mistake.
- [21:49]
B
So when you were writing the description for today's show, you're like, I'm going to put that Arnie said Walsh and step down and out of the race.
- [21:57]
C
Well, that's the thing.
- [21:58]
B
He didn't do that, by the way.
- [21:59]
C
No, he. Joe basically flat out asked him, he said, do you think Walt. Meaning we talked a lot about fraud, obviously. And Joe flat out asked him, do you think Walls is on the take? And he said, no. And I was thinking, damn, that would have got us on cnn.
- [22:15]
B
Yeah, that would have made it all the way. And I don't believe that Walz is on the take either. I do believe Walz mismanaged a lot of things potentially. And I'm pissed now. I'm getting more pissed every minute. The reason why I'm getting pissed is because the federal government doing some of their investigative. Look at this. They said, well, here's some weird things. Here's five areas that had fraud in these five different NGOs. And look at. We have this guy's name in 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. The same guy. They said, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to conclude that potentially this guy's filled with fraud.
- [22:53]
C
Do you know what Governor Carlson's job. And I did not until today. Do you know what his role was before he was governor?
- [23:01]
B
Was he an auditor?
- [23:02]
C
He was the state auditor. Correct.
- [23:04]
B
Okay.
- [23:04]
C
And this is how out of control it's become in this state. When he was the state auditor, there was a missing chunk of money in some small town, 13 grand in northern Minnesota. He got in his car and drove there and asked. I forget if he said the mayor, whoever was in charge, he asked that person, where did this money go? And that person said, well, I heard Governor Quie was gonna withhold some funding, so I stashed some of it in a bank account so I could keep. So that way I had something for my citizenry. Right. In the event that this money was withheld. And he laughed. He said, all right, I understand. And he said, here. Here's the bank, here's the. Right. So think about that.
- [23:52]
B
Sure.
- [23:53]
C
And this is probably 20 grand.
- [23:55]
B
Yeah.
- [23:56]
C
Or whatever. Even if it's 100 grand, whatever.
- [23:58]
B
Less than a billion.
- [23:59]
C
Yeah, but that's just it. And now you look around and you're saying to yourself, who's in charge? Why is this happening?
- [24:09]
B
You know, I'm saying something different right now. I'm saying my tax dollars were totally exploited. The dollars that I fund Minnesota. I'm a fairly large taxpayer in the state of Minnesota. It's a real amount for my taxes. It's not a chump for fun. I'm not paying $7. I'm putting in a real, relatively large amount. Real big for me. Feels very big for me.
- [24:31]
C
Right.
- [24:32]
B
And it's just getting stolen. Well, I want that money back. I want someone to pay for stealing my money. Someone through the Minnesota state government stole my tax dollars. Who do I sue? Who goes to prison? I understand the people who committed the fraud, but those who let the fraud happen blindly because it is theft. Yeah. They have to pay a little price. Too, potentially. I personally have a hard time blaming Walls because he's way up the ladder. And you have different facts for me that could change my mind on this a little bit. He's so far up the ladder, he's not knowing what dollars are going to what ngo. He's not looking at that. But the moment someone said to him, there's fraud, he should have come down like a sledgehammer and said, stop. All payments are stopped. Then you know that one court said, no, we gotta make those payments. And they should have said, don't care, take it to the next court. We're still not paying the payments. We're not gonna allow potentially the federal government to say, $9 billion. I don't believe that amount. Right. But $1 billion to be raped, and I'm calling it rape from taxpayers like Mike Fradaloni and Chris Rivers.
- [25:41]
C
But the thing is, Michael, if the likes of Joe Thompson are in fact saying that it's 9 billion. I'm sorry, if it's Joe.
- [25:50]
B
Could be.
- [25:50]
C
If it's Joe Thompson saying that, I believe him. Because here's the reason why I believe him. What reason does he have to lie to me?
- [26:01]
B
Well, he can make it hyperbolic, right? 9 million is a much bigger number than 9 billion, is a much bigger number than 1 billion. But anywhere, I don't care what it is we paid those dollars. Reverse. The listeners to this show, you and me and Sushire and Rookie and everybody, paid those dollars in and someone stole them. If someone walked into my house and stole 100 grand from me, I'd be awfully pissed.
- [26:30]
A
Right?
- [26:31]
B
I mean, I can't tell you how long I'd fight to get that money back, right? I'd go nutty. Well, someone stole a billion dollars from our state. Why is no one apoplectically pissed and hunting these people down all. All across the world? I don't get it.
- [26:45]
C
Yeah, that's just it. That's just it. And I guess for me, it's almost become somewhat like white noise for so many people, which is just as maddening in my opinion. Because the thing is, if you're not angry, well, then you're not paying attention.
- [27:03]
B
What percentage? I'm forgetting what percentage of our taxes was this theft? I mean, if it's $9 billion, it's a fairly large percentage of our state's GDP.
- [27:14]
C
Young Gab had this number a while back and basically 33 cents of every dollar. One in every three dollars. Yeah, 33 cents went towards fraud.
- [27:25]
B
So I'm a big fan of Shining Light on things. And I think companies like mine should have to in their payroll statement say, oh, by the way, your taxes went to the federal government. Here's the breakdown of what was paid from your paycheck to the federal government. Defense, roads, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Right. Emergency services, emergency services, all of that. Social network, the Social Security and things like that. The state should have to do that, too. And then they should have a line item of 33 cents in every dollar that we spend to Minnesota and should say fraud and theft. If I read that on my paycheck and said, oh, my God, I got A check for $110 went to the state of Minnesota and $3.33 of it was for theft, I would never pay my state taxes again. I would be up in arms.
- [28:16]
C
That's actually Joe said that today. He said we should have the ability to never pay state taxes again because of how bad this is. Yeah.
- [28:23]
B
Claw back some of that money. If it's $9 billion, claw it all back and lower our taxes. That's why you don't. Whenever there's a surplus, the only thing you can do with a surplus, the only thing is give it back.
- [28:36]
C
I agree. Harmony Spirits, they're gonna help you get through these tough times.
- [28:40]
B
I buy Harmony with it.
- [28:42]
C
By the way, thank you again to Larry for gifting the holiday four pack that I brought.
- [28:47]
B
Oh, that was great.
- [28:48]
C
How good was that caramel apple rum?
- [28:50]
B
The best part about it, the worst part about it, and the best part about it is you gave it to me with, like four guys standing by us. So we split it four ways. And I thought that was stupid. Reverse. I could have drink that whole thing by myself, but now I'm splitting it with these other people.
- [29:03]
C
So I had it. I tried it first on ice and it was great. It was a little sweet, so I added a little club soda to it. Made it even better.
- [29:12]
B
But if you closed your eyes when you drank that, if you close your eyes, you're like, I'm biting into a caramel apple.
- [29:17]
C
100%.
- [29:18]
B
It's like, oh, my goodness. Like, I could envision the summer with the caramel apple.
- [29:22]
C
So if you're in the area, stop by. If you're like, a lot of people are gonna be traveling. A lot of people are gonna be traveling. Stop in and get one of those fantastic four packs because it's a fantastic thing to bring. You can't go to a party empty handed. No. Right. You didn't.
- [29:36]
B
You came with a bunch of Harmony.
- [29:37]
C
Absolutely. And the BlackBerry lemonade, which I haven't tried yet, but I am going to try it. This. What else did we have there? We had the. Oh my gosh, the gin was fantastic. And also I'm missing. Oh, the pink lemonade was also really good. But stop in. If you also look them up online, it's harmonyspirits.net that's their website.
- [29:57]
B
Ask for it by name at the store and then buy it at the store. It's totally worth it.
- [30:01]
C
Go into your local liquor store, ask for the Harmony brand by name. For sure. But they do such an amazing job and it's a festive time of the year down there in Harmony, Minnesota. I made the stop about a week and a half ago and it's fantastic. Larry and Damon do a wonderful job of updating that menu of craft cocktails in that tasting room. But as Mike mentioned, go into your local liquor store, ask for the Harmony brand by name. That is how they're going to continue.
- [30:24]
B
I bought like 200 bucks worth of stuff at like a good deal. They gave you a deal and you're like, oh my God, I don't know if I could buy this much stuff.
- [30:30]
C
Dude, look right here. I'm rocking my brand new quarter. I know.
- [30:34]
B
Quarter.
- [30:34]
C
This is weird. I'm wearing a quarter zip.
- [30:36]
B
An Under Armour too. That's a good one.
- [30:38]
C
If you, if you don't even drink, just go in there and buy their merch.
- [30:41]
B
I kind of laugh though when you're like, I bought like $200 worth of stuff and they gave me a deal and I got a ton, a ton of army. I'm like, oh my God, what are.
- [30:49]
C
You going to do with it all? Well, I asked. So I brought another four pack for young Matthew Mikulski.
- [30:53]
B
It's his birthday today.
- [30:54]
C
And a bottle of whiskey for him as well. And it's all gone. Oh, it's all gone. They had their holiday party on Friday or Saturday as well.
- [31:03]
B
How was that? Did you get invited to that?
- [31:05]
C
No, no, I don't get invited to the Fukulski party.
- [31:07]
B
So they got mad that they didn't get invited to my party yet. A guy you've worked with for 20 years.
- [31:12]
C
So it's harmonyspirits.net check them out on Facebook too. They have a wonderful Facebook page. The weekly scramble. We will be right back. Holiday party. I have to give you a shout out. First and foremost, you and your beautiful wife Nicole. You guys do such an amazing job. I almost feel like I really shouldn't be here. I feel Underdressed. I don't qualify to be at this party. But anyway, you guys do seriously do such an amazing job, and it's so much fun.
- [31:41]
B
So we had, like 100 people to our house, which I don't normally have people to my house. I'm just going to be real honest. I almost never have a party. I think, Nicole, unless you have a.
- [31:50]
C
Boatload of kids over. Right? Yeah, the girls, friends and stuff. Yeah.
- [31:53]
B
That. I don't really let them do that either.
- [31:56]
C
Okay.
- [31:57]
B
I don't want a bunch of kids at the house. I just don't do it a lot. It's kind of my private thing. And we had this big party. It turned out to be just great. But we hired somebody from. Hire a host, where this girl comes in, or guy or girl comes in to help us.
- [32:11]
C
Yeah.
- [32:12]
B
And I swear to God, if we wouldn't have had her there, this girl, we would have been screwed. Because at about midnight, when people were not gone yet, and we had to, like. I had thought. I had thought if we got to pack up all the food, we gotta, you know, because we order way too much food, we gotta put it away. I don't want it to all go to waste. I want to bring it to the stores tomorrow and, you know, feed everybody at the stores and. And this girl just kept going and working and cleaning and going.
- [32:36]
C
Can I tell you something about her?
- [32:37]
B
Yes.
- [32:38]
C
She kicked ass.
- [32:40]
B
She was very good.
- [32:41]
C
I remember at one point saying to her, I hate. I'm sorry to bother you. I've worked in the service industry my whole life. You kick ass. And she, like, smiled like, I know. I'm serious. You are awesome.
- [32:53]
B
She was really, really great. We don't. They're not advertisers here. Hire a host.
- [32:57]
C
But what's it called? Hire a host.
- [32:59]
B
Yeah. So my buddy Rashid said, hey, when you have a party, you get one of these people, and then you don't have to worry about changing out the garbage cans in the middle of the party or putting more meatballs in the meatball dish. Like it just. Someone did it.
- [33:09]
C
But she was on top of everything.
- [33:11]
B
She was greeting people at the door and then coming over, taking their coats and then doing the meatballs. It was. And Nicole and I could have done it, but that's all we would have been doing.
- [33:20]
C
Right.
- [33:21]
B
Right. And, you know, and I didn't hardly do any of that because I was just hanging out with you guys and hanging out with everybody and having a couple drinks and really relaxing. Luckily, the spray paint that I had spray painted the fireplace, that spray paint mist was out of the air. Like, we got rid of that. So that was a huge, huge, huge dilemma. If you hadn't heard the story, go back a couple of episodes where I decided to spray paint something in the fireplace and I dropped black mist, dust of spray paint through the entire top level of my house, in every room, on every piece of carpet, on every piece of furniture.
- [33:51]
C
I made fun of you last was the last week we mentioned that story. If you had never told me that story, I would have never noticed.
- [33:58]
B
Well, thank God. Thank God. But we did really have a fun time. I'm so glad you made it and I'm so glad everyone made it. And I got to make contacts of people that don't normally get to see each other. And it was really fun. Do I want to go have another party anytime soon? Not really.
- [34:14]
C
About a year from now.
- [34:15]
B
I don't even know that. I think it might be every other year. It seems like it might be an.
- [34:20]
C
Every other year, an even year, kind of a celebration.
- [34:23]
B
I don't know, Maybe, maybe every. Maybe bicentennial. I mean, it just seemed like a long time.
- [34:28]
C
But another shout out that's worth giving too is I never knew Cassettas did catering.
- [34:35]
B
Oh, sure.
- [34:36]
C
Holy crap.
- [34:37]
B
Yeah, they did a great job.
- [34:38]
C
That was amazing. Because, I mean, it's fine. Cassettas is a great. I mean, they've been a sponsor of garagelogic off and on. That food was amazing.
- [34:47]
B
Oh, yeah, they know what they're doing. They came and delivered it. Did I tell you when the woman delivered it?
- [34:52]
C
No.
- [34:52]
B
She comes up to the door and she has two boxes and she hands it to me and I said, oh, thanks. And she goes, no, I got more. And I said, oh, okay. So I go put these two fairly large boxes down. Right. And then I come back and she has a couple more boxes. I said, oh, thank you. She goes, no, no, I have way more. And I said, you can't have way more. Honest to God, reivers, I think. I'm not being facetious. I think she brought 122 foot by 3 foot boxes into the house.
- [35:17]
C
Wow.
- [35:18]
B
And I turned to my wife and I'm like, what are you doing? How much food did you order? Like, my brain was like, how many people are we feeding? 300 people.
- [35:26]
C
I mean, how long are they going to be here?
- [35:28]
B
I was like, what is going on? Like. And I, of course, didn't say anything because I didn't do anything about it. Right, right. I didn't order it. I didn't talk to the people. I didn't plan anything. She did it all. But in my, my little cheapness was thinking, how much was this? How much was. How much is one of these boxes of the 12? And you know, then the dessert company came and dropped dessert off. And then the gluten free company that we ordered food from, the gluten free, gotta go free.
- [35:54]
C
Yeah.
- [35:54]
B
They had come to the house and I thought, I'm looking around and I thinking, huh, I love these people that came to the party. I do. But do I want to do this for them? Like, is this what I want to do?
- [36:06]
C
Does everyone get a to go box to take home?
- [36:08]
B
Honest to God, just at the end we had a couple extra beautiful meat and cheese trays and stuff. And I brought him to work and I'm like, here, let's. Because what's great about bringing him to work is 20 people work that day and they're gone. Right? And they're. And they're good quality and I love to do it for everybody. But I thought, wow, we, I think we. And I can't blame my wife at all. She did literally everything. She hired the people, she did that. The only thing I did is I cleaned up the garage a little bit because we were going to have people where they could go out to the garage if we, we didn't know how big of group it was going to be. I have one of those finished floor garages right. Where it's like, you can walk on it. Like it's, it's a cleaner looking garage. So I thought, okay, let's do that. So I spent a little time mopping up the garage. That was my, that was your job? Spray painting the fireplace and then cleaning some of the fireplace. I really, I was really proud of her. She did a great job. She hasn't moved for two days.
- [36:58]
C
Oh, that's it. You know what? And she's earned it.
- [36:59]
B
Yeah, she's really. She slept for like 15 hours the next day.
- [37:02]
C
I will say this, everything you had was amazing. And I all of a sudden said, oh, there's something on the counter. Right? There's a, there's another area for like there was the meatball, whatever that was that they made. The casetas catering, the bacon wrapped tenderloin.
- [37:21]
B
Those were good.
- [37:22]
C
Holy crap. Were those amazing?
- [37:25]
B
I tried a half a bite of one. That's all I got. That's all I got on.
- [37:29]
C
You might be looking at a guilty party.
- [37:31]
B
Well, no, I mean, I think we had some extras, but I just didn't. During the party. I didn't get a chance. It reminded me a lot of the frat pack party. You didn't get a chance to eat. You just chatted with everybody.
- [37:40]
C
I kind of stood there and went, oh, who brought these?
- [37:43]
B
And I'm gonna have some. As you're loading them into your pockets. You stay pretty late.
- [37:47]
C
Yeah, yeah. Because I knowing that I may or may not have been heading out in the road in the morning and plus two, here's how much of a wimp I am now. I hate driving at night. Yeah, I really do.
- [37:57]
B
And then you're like, I live far enough away. One drink. Like you don't want to have any more than a drink.
- [38:02]
C
Exactly. And because I think, I think I left around 8:30 ish. Somewhere. Somewhere in there. Plus Will was having some buddies come over after the basketball game and so, you know, I gotta keep an eye on that nonsense.
- [38:15]
B
And then maybe knocking pictures off the wall.
- [38:17]
C
Well, not even that. But it's more just like making sure. Does everyone have a ride home?
- [38:21]
B
Sure.
- [38:21]
C
Right. Because if that's the case, then I gotta.
- [38:23]
B
When is he gonna have a boy girl party? When do girls start showing up?
- [38:26]
C
Oh, based upon our conversations this past weekend, that's pretty soon. Might be next summer pretty soon.
- [38:31]
B
Betcha it's faster than that.
- [38:32]
C
No, but from the bottom of my heart, dude, you and your beautiful wife, you guys are amazing people. So thanks for including me. Seriously.
- [38:38]
B
Well, Merry Christmas to you Revers. And you know, we're recording this on the 23rd. So. It's rookie's birthday.
- [38:43]
C
Yep.
- [38:43]
B
So happy birthday to Rookie. Merry Christmas to you. We are gonna have a show. Not on Christmas day because we're not gonna be.
- [38:48]
C
I was thinking maybe Friday.
- [38:50]
B
Maybe Friday. So yeah, if that works for. You know, I hate this time period. I hate this time period because nothing fresh and new comes out. But maybe we will fresh and new.
- [38:57]
C
Really quick because you know, you're scanning radio stations as you're driving across the country. You think it's bad in this market with fill ins. Oh, when you get to your small. No, it's time for your DMX farms home report. And then you hear the. And again. God bless you. I was once a small town radio guy kind of learning the ropes and I'm not even good now. Right, Nice. But then you hear the. It's gonna be 57 and cloudy and I thought, oh this. I wanted to drive to the station, said buddy, here. No, no, no, let me help you. You're okay. Just imagine you're talking to one person.
- [39:38]
B
Do any of them at any point in time when you were listening to them on your drive, did they say, the printer didn't print this, so I can't read the rest of the story? Mike, go. Do you have the world's worst printer here? But what's the difference between a camera and a sock?
- [39:54]
C
Mike, what is the difference between a camera and a sock?
- [39:56]
B
A camera takes photos and a sock takes five puff toes. Not the best. Not the best.
- [40:06]
C
You do know that rookie now has a dad joke book in the other room, right?
- [40:10]
B
Oh, and now I have a whole new thing to grab.
- [40:12]
C
You have a brand new library that's pretty good.
- [40:14]
B
Reavers, you are the best. Happy, happy holidays, everyone. Who's listening? Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas. We love you. Thank you for listening. We really appreciate you. Remember, you can watch it on YouTube, right?
- [40:22]
C
That's right.
- [40:22]
B
I'm waving to everybody on YouTube. Thank you so much, Reivers, you're the best.
- [40:25]
C
Thank you, Michael. Please do us a favor. Rate and review the show wherever you happen to be listening to the Weekly Scramble Podcast. It helps other people find the show. It helps us out as well. And like Mike said, we appreciate each and every single one of you. His name is Mike Fratelloni. My name is Chris Reivers. Thank you so very much for listening to the Weekly Scramble Podcast. We'll talk to you again next time. Merry Christmas. Cheers.