Last weekend was the Fourth of July weekend, and it was a pretty good weekend. I'm going to keep this recap short and sweet this time around.
Friday night we went to Sherlock's with some of Justin's coworkers and had a good time. There was a pop-rock/rap/classics cover band there, who were entertaining to say the least.
Saturday was a day at the Kelcey's lake house. She had invited me and Taylor there, and it was the first time I went to the lake house and actually spent time out on the lake. There were a lot of firsts for me: first time jet-skiing, first time jumping into a lake, and first time swinging off a rope into a lake. Before you ask, yes I had a life jacket on because there is no way I would do any of those things otherwise. Maybe one day I'll stop being such a baby, but until then there are life jackets. When I jumped into the lake with the rope swing, I was a bit nervous (okay, fairly nervous) and let go a bit earlier than I should have. The unfortunate side effect of that was that I wasn't completely clear of some of the underwater rocks, and I slammed the top of my foot into a rock as I splashed in. It hurt, but not terribly bad. It got worse the next day, but it's mostly healed now. The rest of the night was spent indoors, where we had brisket, drank and played games. It was a fun night.
For brevity, I will skip straight to Sunday night, when I went to a house/pool party that was hosted by one of Justin's coworkers. It was part awkward and part fun. It was part awkward because I didn't know most of the people so I had to force myself into conversations so that I wasn't just sitting there by myself or constantly following Justin around. The people there were very friendly though, so once I started getting more comfortable being there it was fun. Unfortunately I didn't get the memo that it was actually going to be a not-really-house-but-mostly-pool party, so I didn't bring swimming trunks because I didn't feel like swimming. Turns out I was the only one there without swimming gear. Eventually, I grabbed a pair of swim trunks from someone, but by the time that happened and I got in the water, almost everyone had gotten out. Maybe I smelled bad. Their neighborhood all pitched in together and bought several hundred dollars worth of fireworks, so the remainder of the night was spent watching fireworks go off about 20 feet away from me. Drove home.
Usually at this point, I just wrap up the blog post because the weekends are really the only eventful part of my week, however something noteworthy happened today. I rode my motorcycle into work today, which went fine all the way up until I turned onto the street that leads to my building. Right as I finished upshifting into third gear, as I was releasing the clutch I heard a snapping sound and my clutch lever lost all springiness. Uh oh, that can't be good. I tried pressing it a few times and sure enough the cable was clearly snapped, and I lost the clutch. I was able to ride my bike all the way into the garage in 3rd gear, but unfortunately stalled out about 5 feet shy of the parking spot. Given that I have no clutch, my bike is, for now, permanently stuck in third gear. Since I have no neutral, my bike was stuck 5 feet away from the parking spot since I couldn't roll it. I got Andy and Nick to come help me lift the rear tire up so we could roll the bike on its front tires into a spot. And there my bike shall stay until I get my new clutch cable shipped to me.
I think that's a hint that I need to pony up the cash to pay for some infrequent maintenance, such as new tires, a new chain and sprockets, new brake pads, and obviously now a new clutch cable.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Friday, July 2, 2010
TICKETMASTER MAKES BABY JESUS CRY
Who knew a $20 ticket would have $30 in fees? Luckily this isn't my ticket purchase but someone else's:
rainy week
It's been quite the rainy week, partially (or maybe completely) thanks to Hurricane Alex. Both kickball and softball were cancelled this week, which is fine because I wasn't feeling it this week, anyways.
What else has been going on? Not too much, honestly.
You know what I miss? Good TV shows. Now that Lost is over (moment of silence please...), I have to lean more heavily on the other shows I watch to get my "fix." OK, I'm not really that obsessed with TV, but I do watch a lot of different TV shows.
My current recommendation for everyone is a little show called Dexter. It's a little different because our protagonist, Dexter, is actually a serial killer. The story dives into his psyche over the seasons, and you learn about him through some great character development, along with a great story that unfolds each season. Believe it or not, I think the show is better than Lost. Nothing beats the "Lost experience", though.
In other news, Maverick needs some more training it seems:
What else has been going on? Not too much, honestly.
You know what I miss? Good TV shows. Now that Lost is over (moment of silence please...), I have to lean more heavily on the other shows I watch to get my "fix." OK, I'm not really that obsessed with TV, but I do watch a lot of different TV shows.
My current recommendation for everyone is a little show called Dexter. It's a little different because our protagonist, Dexter, is actually a serial killer. The story dives into his psyche over the seasons, and you learn about him through some great character development, along with a great story that unfolds each season. Believe it or not, I think the show is better than Lost. Nothing beats the "Lost experience", though.
In other news, Maverick needs some more training it seems:
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
these weekly updates are long
Maybe I should go back to doing semi-daily updates, instead of piling up an entire week's worth into one post. So... lazy...
Last time we spoke (yes I know we're not actually having a conversation right now), I was telling you about how busy my upcoming week was going to be. Well, all that has passed now, and I have some updates for you! Let's get started, shall we?
Wednesday
Wednesday, or better known as kickball day, was a good day. First, my iPhone 4 came in, and a whole day early, too! It's very pretty, and the new high resolution screen is pretty intense. If you aren't used to looking at an older iPhone screen, you might not notice the difference, but it's pretty incredible honestly. The text is very sharp and smooth.
The other good part of the day was our kickball game. What is going on with my eyes in this picture? Click for a larger version:
Despite the picture, I was not the only one possessed by kickball demons that night, as we won 17-4. It was pretty much domination. So much, in fact, that we started to feel bad and really gave up on the last inning, but they still couldn't get many runs. In their defense, not only was it their first day playing kickball as a team, but they had a double-header that night and we were their second game. Oh well, I still felt good about our game, even if it was against a weak opponent. 17 is hard to get, even against a crappier team.
Thursday
Thursday was not as good, at least when it came to softball. The good part was that it was the end of the work week for me, so I hit my weekend at the end of the day. The bad news is that we lost our softball game pretty bad, 15-2. Now we know what it feels like to be on the other side of the coin.
We weren't very good that day, but I think more importantly, the other team was very good. Our offense and defense were about on par with what I would call "beginner" level, and I felt like we played about how a super-social (aka "beginner" league) team should. Note the italics. I say "should" because unfortunately there's really no rhyme or reason to how good or bad teams are in these leagues. The teams that are overly competitive and/or know they're really good generally go into the social leagues, designed for non-beginners. Everyone else goes into super-social, because they don't know how good they are or because they don't want to go up against really good teams every week. That's not really to blame those teams, but rather I think the system kind of sucks; it's not very favorable to true, honest-to-goodness beginner teams. For example, take our kickball team last night, when we won 17-4. I don't think we're the best team at all, and in fact we lost last week 10-4 to a team that I thought was much better. The variance in skill can be huge. In my opinion, what would happen in an ideal league is that the teams have some sort of "tryout" or "scrimmage" at the beginning, and the league places them into their worthy skill level league. Another alternative would be to split the tiers from two into three, so they can have one true "beginner" league, an "intermediate" league, and then their "competitive" league. That way, the teams (like us in kickball) that know they're good but don't want to go up against the best-of-the-best every week can go into the intermediate league, without punishing the beginner teams out there.
I went off on a huge tangent there, but the reason was that I thought the other team was really good. Almost every guy who went up to bat was able to hit it deep into the outfield. To contrast, we had maybe a handful of hits that went into the outfield for us. Their hitting was VERY good, and our fielding was pretty bad. All those deep outfield hits got past our outfielders, so most of the time we were scrambling for the ball while they got the easy run (or runs). We are definitely new to the softball world, and need some work. In the next two weeks, Justin will be MIA so I will have to step up as pitcher. It should be interesting.
Friday
Friday was mostly a relaxation day for me. I played video games, and beyond that I don't even remember anymore. Friday night was initially going to be date night for me and Taylor, but we pushed that to Saturday. I went out with some of the interns from work, instead, because the lone intern from Fort Worth was in town to visit family. We went to Peter Pan's minigolf, which was fun as you'd expect (and the place is BYOB). Afterwards, we took a short walk to P. Terry's for some delicious-as-always burgers. The night ended at about midnight for me, when I got back home and it was dark and quiet (people were either out or asleep).
Saturday
Saturday was world cup soccer day, which didn't end well. It's okay, I got a pretty good buzz out of the beers I was drinking. Of course it would have been a better buzz had we come out with a victory. Too many missed opportunities, so I can't say we deserved to win. The teams that deserve to win are the ones who capitalize on their opportunities, and don't make dumb mistakes.
Saturday night, I took Taylor out to Perry's Steakhouse, which was good, but not great. Everything was great, except our steaks were both overcooked (my medium rare ended up more medium, but Taylor's ended up medium well). Considering the steaks were the main part of the meal, I had to drop the rating from "great" to "good." Everything else was really good, and we ended the night with crème brûlée, which is quickly turning into my favorite dessert. We went back to her apartment and played Just Dance so she could try it out (no comment). Early night again, because she had to get up at 5:30 to get ready for work.
Sunday
Sunday was another fun relaxation day. Since we went to bed early, I somehow managed to wake up on my own at 7:45. That gave me time to eat breakfast, sit around, and catch the Germany-England game at 9am. England got robbed on that second goal, but it doesn't excuse the rest of their piss-poor playing. More video games, then Toy Story 3 that afternoon with my mom and Taylor. I liked it a lot. Pixar movies are always a treat.
The rest of the night I hung out with Taylor. That included listening to music, playing catch, giving her some first lessons on a motorcycle (lesson 1 - learning manual transmissions and starting from first gear), and BSG. Sleep.
Monday
That's today, and I'm tired of writing so that's all. I need to start sharing news articles and other links again, b/c I enjoy doing that. However, I think more people who read are more interested in my recaps, which is why I've trailed off with those recently.
Last time we spoke (yes I know we're not actually having a conversation right now), I was telling you about how busy my upcoming week was going to be. Well, all that has passed now, and I have some updates for you! Let's get started, shall we?
Wednesday
Wednesday, or better known as kickball day, was a good day. First, my iPhone 4 came in, and a whole day early, too! It's very pretty, and the new high resolution screen is pretty intense. If you aren't used to looking at an older iPhone screen, you might not notice the difference, but it's pretty incredible honestly. The text is very sharp and smooth.
The other good part of the day was our kickball game. What is going on with my eyes in this picture? Click for a larger version:
Despite the picture, I was not the only one possessed by kickball demons that night, as we won 17-4. It was pretty much domination. So much, in fact, that we started to feel bad and really gave up on the last inning, but they still couldn't get many runs. In their defense, not only was it their first day playing kickball as a team, but they had a double-header that night and we were their second game. Oh well, I still felt good about our game, even if it was against a weak opponent. 17 is hard to get, even against a crappier team.
Thursday
Thursday was not as good, at least when it came to softball. The good part was that it was the end of the work week for me, so I hit my weekend at the end of the day. The bad news is that we lost our softball game pretty bad, 15-2. Now we know what it feels like to be on the other side of the coin.
We weren't very good that day, but I think more importantly, the other team was very good. Our offense and defense were about on par with what I would call "beginner" level, and I felt like we played about how a super-social (aka "beginner" league) team should. Note the italics. I say "should" because unfortunately there's really no rhyme or reason to how good or bad teams are in these leagues. The teams that are overly competitive and/or know they're really good generally go into the social leagues, designed for non-beginners. Everyone else goes into super-social, because they don't know how good they are or because they don't want to go up against really good teams every week. That's not really to blame those teams, but rather I think the system kind of sucks; it's not very favorable to true, honest-to-goodness beginner teams. For example, take our kickball team last night, when we won 17-4. I don't think we're the best team at all, and in fact we lost last week 10-4 to a team that I thought was much better. The variance in skill can be huge. In my opinion, what would happen in an ideal league is that the teams have some sort of "tryout" or "scrimmage" at the beginning, and the league places them into their worthy skill level league. Another alternative would be to split the tiers from two into three, so they can have one true "beginner" league, an "intermediate" league, and then their "competitive" league. That way, the teams (like us in kickball) that know they're good but don't want to go up against the best-of-the-best every week can go into the intermediate league, without punishing the beginner teams out there.
I went off on a huge tangent there, but the reason was that I thought the other team was really good. Almost every guy who went up to bat was able to hit it deep into the outfield. To contrast, we had maybe a handful of hits that went into the outfield for us. Their hitting was VERY good, and our fielding was pretty bad. All those deep outfield hits got past our outfielders, so most of the time we were scrambling for the ball while they got the easy run (or runs). We are definitely new to the softball world, and need some work. In the next two weeks, Justin will be MIA so I will have to step up as pitcher. It should be interesting.
Friday
Friday was mostly a relaxation day for me. I played video games, and beyond that I don't even remember anymore. Friday night was initially going to be date night for me and Taylor, but we pushed that to Saturday. I went out with some of the interns from work, instead, because the lone intern from Fort Worth was in town to visit family. We went to Peter Pan's minigolf, which was fun as you'd expect (and the place is BYOB). Afterwards, we took a short walk to P. Terry's for some delicious-as-always burgers. The night ended at about midnight for me, when I got back home and it was dark and quiet (people were either out or asleep).
Saturday
Saturday was world cup soccer day, which didn't end well. It's okay, I got a pretty good buzz out of the beers I was drinking. Of course it would have been a better buzz had we come out with a victory. Too many missed opportunities, so I can't say we deserved to win. The teams that deserve to win are the ones who capitalize on their opportunities, and don't make dumb mistakes.
Saturday night, I took Taylor out to Perry's Steakhouse, which was good, but not great. Everything was great, except our steaks were both overcooked (my medium rare ended up more medium, but Taylor's ended up medium well). Considering the steaks were the main part of the meal, I had to drop the rating from "great" to "good." Everything else was really good, and we ended the night with crème brûlée, which is quickly turning into my favorite dessert. We went back to her apartment and played Just Dance so she could try it out (no comment). Early night again, because she had to get up at 5:30 to get ready for work.
Sunday
Sunday was another fun relaxation day. Since we went to bed early, I somehow managed to wake up on my own at 7:45. That gave me time to eat breakfast, sit around, and catch the Germany-England game at 9am. England got robbed on that second goal, but it doesn't excuse the rest of their piss-poor playing. More video games, then Toy Story 3 that afternoon with my mom and Taylor. I liked it a lot. Pixar movies are always a treat.
The rest of the night I hung out with Taylor. That included listening to music, playing catch, giving her some first lessons on a motorcycle (lesson 1 - learning manual transmissions and starting from first gear), and BSG. Sleep.
Monday
That's today, and I'm tired of writing so that's all. I need to start sharing news articles and other links again, b/c I enjoy doing that. However, I think more people who read are more interested in my recaps, which is why I've trailed off with those recently.
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