![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Diamond Bags
May. 23rd, 2011 10:08 pmSome weeks ago, I got an email from my bank proclaiming "Family Fun Day" or something like that. Our local minor league baseball team and corporately-named ballpark was the place, and hamburgers and hot dogs were included in the ticket price, which was already substantially discounted. JD was in- we've been to every major sport together (for this part of the world) except baseball. Threeve and AVR were in, Threeve being a baseball fan and AVR figuring what the hell, I think. So after services Sunday we all piled in Homer and headed out of town to the ballpark.
Eric recommended that I maybe put on a little sunscreen, for which my skin thanks him. I got a pretty severe sunburn on the left side of my body, and that's with a liberal application of spf 45. The Sun was brutal, and I felt like I spent a lot of the time just staving off heat stroke. But fortunately we had access to the building where promo shit goes on; our green wristbands gained us access to the oasis. They didn't skimp out on the grub either. I was worried that since services were making me get a late start that they would've given out all the food, which I imagined to be sad bulk Sam's hot dogs swimming in lakes of hot dog water, wonder bread to put 'em in, and packets of ketchup and mustard. No, these were nice-sized damn good hot dogs; the hamburgers looked pretty substantial (I didn't have any), and there were also big punch bowls of chips, and all the chocolate chip cookies and Blue Bell ice cream treats you could eat, and all the soda, lemonade, and water you could drink. I probably tossed back about 8 cups of ice water, watching the game from the air-conditioned, logo-bearing-pen-littered hideout, before heading back into the furnace to sit with JD, who is like a lizard and never seems to be bothered by the heat.
The home team held their own admirably until the 9th inning, then inexplicably started sucking and things slowed to an excruciating crawl. When we all got up to take another water and a/c break, I suggested we bug out and head home, and everyone agreed. We got home, gulped more water, assessed sunburn damage (everyone but AVR, whitest among us, suffered) and jumped into the pool. Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh.
Eric came home, and we decided to watch Riff Trax shorts and order pizza. I suppose it was a very American sort of day.
Eric recommended that I maybe put on a little sunscreen, for which my skin thanks him. I got a pretty severe sunburn on the left side of my body, and that's with a liberal application of spf 45. The Sun was brutal, and I felt like I spent a lot of the time just staving off heat stroke. But fortunately we had access to the building where promo shit goes on; our green wristbands gained us access to the oasis. They didn't skimp out on the grub either. I was worried that since services were making me get a late start that they would've given out all the food, which I imagined to be sad bulk Sam's hot dogs swimming in lakes of hot dog water, wonder bread to put 'em in, and packets of ketchup and mustard. No, these were nice-sized damn good hot dogs; the hamburgers looked pretty substantial (I didn't have any), and there were also big punch bowls of chips, and all the chocolate chip cookies and Blue Bell ice cream treats you could eat, and all the soda, lemonade, and water you could drink. I probably tossed back about 8 cups of ice water, watching the game from the air-conditioned, logo-bearing-pen-littered hideout, before heading back into the furnace to sit with JD, who is like a lizard and never seems to be bothered by the heat.
The home team held their own admirably until the 9th inning, then inexplicably started sucking and things slowed to an excruciating crawl. When we all got up to take another water and a/c break, I suggested we bug out and head home, and everyone agreed. We got home, gulped more water, assessed sunburn damage (everyone but AVR, whitest among us, suffered) and jumped into the pool. Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh.
Eric came home, and we decided to watch Riff Trax shorts and order pizza. I suppose it was a very American sort of day.
(no subject)
Nov. 25th, 2010 10:38 amIt seems Aggies do this thing called midnight yell practice before every game. They get as many people as they can involved in the many and varied cheers, and so there's coordination that's needed, what with hand signals and such- plus all that brotherhood stuff sport fandom engenders. JD and I almost went to that last night, since it was here in Austin, but crapped out and didn't make it. So he described it to me instead. Boy, Aggies are strange. :) Here's a conversation I had with Brö about it (edited for clarity)...
Me: oh- you know what else? There's a not-impossible chance I might be in San Diego for New Year's
Me: if the Ags win and get in the Holiday Bowl, JD's dad has been known to fly everyone out there to attend
Brö: aw, SNAP
Bröo: trip for Stacy
Me: ya, it's more likely they'll play in Dallas
Brö: Huh, well trip to Dallas then?
Me: I will get to go to yell practice then
Me: yeah
Me: and learn how to yell
Brö: I was going to ask; do you actually want to go to yell practice?
Me: in the sense that it would be an interesting cultural experience, sure
Brö: Isn't it closer to the truth to say that yell practice is a simply another in a long string of semi-terrifying aggie traditions?
Me: not because I objectively want to learn how to yell
Brö: Yeah
Me: I'm like Jane Goodall
Brö: Hahahaha
Brö: You're going to watch the monkeys learn to communicate through shouting!
Brö: Win That Game!
Me: lolol
Brö: Kick That Ball
Brö: etc.
Me: Do That Thing
Brö: With the Touchdown Shit
Me: Stop Doing That Thing That Makes Us Lose
Brö: LOLOL
Brö: Well, I'm sure it'll result in a compelling LJ post.
Me: not unlikely!
Me: oh- you know what else? There's a not-impossible chance I might be in San Diego for New Year's
Me: if the Ags win and get in the Holiday Bowl, JD's dad has been known to fly everyone out there to attend
Brö: aw, SNAP
Bröo: trip for Stacy
Me: ya, it's more likely they'll play in Dallas
Brö: Huh, well trip to Dallas then?
Me: I will get to go to yell practice then
Me: yeah
Me: and learn how to yell
Brö: I was going to ask; do you actually want to go to yell practice?
Me: in the sense that it would be an interesting cultural experience, sure
Brö: Isn't it closer to the truth to say that yell practice is a simply another in a long string of semi-terrifying aggie traditions?
Me: not because I objectively want to learn how to yell
Brö: Yeah
Me: I'm like Jane Goodall
Brö: Hahahaha
Brö: You're going to watch the monkeys learn to communicate through shouting!
Brö: Win That Game!
Me: lolol
Brö: Kick That Ball
Brö: etc.
Me: Do That Thing
Brö: With the Touchdown Shit
Me: Stop Doing That Thing That Makes Us Lose
Brö: LOLOL
Brö: Well, I'm sure it'll result in a compelling LJ post.
Me: not unlikely!
(no subject)
Nov. 24th, 2010 10:30 pmHmm, a whole mess of stuff has happened, and I have been lax in posting.
My birthday definitely had it's good points. I kayaked, and the weather could not have been more perfect. It was the first time I went by myself, but it wasn't too much of a challenge; it's a broad, shallow river so really it's mostly about steering. The trees were turning, and I even saw a very shy deer among them. Dinner that evening was delightful... business was slow and they pulled out a fancy almost-a-throne chair that usually graces one of their semi-private rooms. I think about 16 people showed up. I had delicious gulyash or goulash or whatever, and black forest cake.
The coven-closing went about as well as could be expected. On Sunday, I engaged in life-affirming activities of which I shall speak nae further, but I got a little over two hours of sleep before going into work the next morning. I regret nothing! Going to work on two hours of sleep is a pretty surreal experience, I will say. I was down 40 or so IQ points, had the dexterity of a .10 BAC and you know how you have an internal clock that tells you approximately what time it is? That was offline, so every time I looked at the clock I was completely surprised. It was interesting.
Tomorrow, I am going to the UT-Aggie game here in town. I'm going with a bunch of Aggies, and will be in my Longhorn finery. The weather looks like it could be terrible, though the forecast for rain seems to be shaping up to blow itself out by the evening- then it'll just be cold. UT is scheduled to lose. Well, I can live with this.
I commissioned a ring that was supposed to be ready two weeks ago, but was ready today. When I went to pick it up, it was white gold, though I was expecting yellow. When I mentioned this, he said he could've had it ready 2 weeks ago if he'd known that. Bother. But it sure looked awesome... I can't wait to see it in yellow gold.
Tonight I went back to choir for the first time since last spring. Folks were glad to see me, and they were really hurting for tenors, so it's no wonder. We're right about ready to ramp up and practice the hell out of a couple of pieces for the end of season performance. One's a many-layered Kings Singers bit, and the other is in Latin. Me gusta.
My birthday definitely had it's good points. I kayaked, and the weather could not have been more perfect. It was the first time I went by myself, but it wasn't too much of a challenge; it's a broad, shallow river so really it's mostly about steering. The trees were turning, and I even saw a very shy deer among them. Dinner that evening was delightful... business was slow and they pulled out a fancy almost-a-throne chair that usually graces one of their semi-private rooms. I think about 16 people showed up. I had delicious gulyash or goulash or whatever, and black forest cake.
The coven-closing went about as well as could be expected. On Sunday, I engaged in life-affirming activities of which I shall speak nae further, but I got a little over two hours of sleep before going into work the next morning. I regret nothing! Going to work on two hours of sleep is a pretty surreal experience, I will say. I was down 40 or so IQ points, had the dexterity of a .10 BAC and you know how you have an internal clock that tells you approximately what time it is? That was offline, so every time I looked at the clock I was completely surprised. It was interesting.
Tomorrow, I am going to the UT-Aggie game here in town. I'm going with a bunch of Aggies, and will be in my Longhorn finery. The weather looks like it could be terrible, though the forecast for rain seems to be shaping up to blow itself out by the evening- then it'll just be cold. UT is scheduled to lose. Well, I can live with this.
I commissioned a ring that was supposed to be ready two weeks ago, but was ready today. When I went to pick it up, it was white gold, though I was expecting yellow. When I mentioned this, he said he could've had it ready 2 weeks ago if he'd known that. Bother. But it sure looked awesome... I can't wait to see it in yellow gold.
Tonight I went back to choir for the first time since last spring. Folks were glad to see me, and they were really hurting for tenors, so it's no wonder. We're right about ready to ramp up and practice the hell out of a couple of pieces for the end of season performance. One's a many-layered Kings Singers bit, and the other is in Latin. Me gusta.
(no subject)
Dec. 12th, 2009 02:43 pmYesterday I visited with Content briefly (but man, I can have more conversation with her in 30 minutes than I can with some people in 4 hours) and Ellen for longer. Ellen and I sat in her hot tub until she had to do a conference call. I don't see either of them often enough. Well, damn, I have a car, so I need to get up off my ass and fix that.
Last night JD took me to a hockey game. He'd said that he enjoys watching hockey, and the only experience I had with it was going to see the Austin Ice Bats a few years ago with Eric's family. No one in Eric's family really cared for hockey, and Eric loathes most sports on principal... and apparently the Ice Bats were a terrible team anyway, so for some combination of these reasons I didn't really have the best time. I also seem to recall the score was 0-1 or something terrible like that.
Going to any event with someone who's into whatever that event is makes a lot more sense, and when JD mentioned how live hockey games were much more fun than watching them on TV (opposite of this- baseball. Live baseball is some boring shit, I seem to recall him saying) I asked him if there was any hockey worth watching locally, cringing in anticipation of another Ice Bats game. Well, not only have the Ice Bats ceased to exist, but there's another team in nearby Cedar Park called the Texas Stars that doesn't totally blow.
Does every sports arena plaster ever surface bigger than 2 square inches with advertisements? Aside from severe over-exposure to ads, it was a good time. There were a lot of kids there, and it was really noisy, and cold, but it was all part of the experience. They've evidently bought the rights to 30 seconds of a lot of really cool songs, that they'd play at random moments- Foo Fighters, Muse, a bunch of others that I'd start to sing along with (and the cheerleader eye-candy would jiggle along to) and then it'd be over. They played against those bastards, the... uh, Icehogs. From Rockford, Illinois. Curse you, Icehogs! Well, the Stars were triumphant in a much better than 1-0 victory- it was a 4-2 victory! Content (from New York) says that hockey is sort of like ice soccer. It's not hard to follow, though I'll probably have to watch a few more games to pick up the nuances of the rules. I was six rows from the ice; when the dudes slammed each other into the glass I saw spit flying. Pretty heavy, man.
This may seem like a minor thing, but whoever designed the parking lots around this arena did a lovely job. I'm used to waiting forever in bottlenecks while everyone lines up to get out, but that wasn't a problem here. We were out of there in no time.
I also tried the newest Sonic milkshake, the Holiday Mint Blast. There were pieces of Andes white-chocolate-and-peppermint candy sprinkled throughout which were pink and off-white, thus giving the treat the alternate nickname "Bacon Shake". Mmmmm, tasty.
Last night JD took me to a hockey game. He'd said that he enjoys watching hockey, and the only experience I had with it was going to see the Austin Ice Bats a few years ago with Eric's family. No one in Eric's family really cared for hockey, and Eric loathes most sports on principal... and apparently the Ice Bats were a terrible team anyway, so for some combination of these reasons I didn't really have the best time. I also seem to recall the score was 0-1 or something terrible like that.
Going to any event with someone who's into whatever that event is makes a lot more sense, and when JD mentioned how live hockey games were much more fun than watching them on TV (opposite of this- baseball. Live baseball is some boring shit, I seem to recall him saying) I asked him if there was any hockey worth watching locally, cringing in anticipation of another Ice Bats game. Well, not only have the Ice Bats ceased to exist, but there's another team in nearby Cedar Park called the Texas Stars that doesn't totally blow.
Does every sports arena plaster ever surface bigger than 2 square inches with advertisements? Aside from severe over-exposure to ads, it was a good time. There were a lot of kids there, and it was really noisy, and cold, but it was all part of the experience. They've evidently bought the rights to 30 seconds of a lot of really cool songs, that they'd play at random moments- Foo Fighters, Muse, a bunch of others that I'd start to sing along with (and the cheerleader eye-candy would jiggle along to) and then it'd be over. They played against those bastards, the... uh, Icehogs. From Rockford, Illinois. Curse you, Icehogs! Well, the Stars were triumphant in a much better than 1-0 victory- it was a 4-2 victory! Content (from New York) says that hockey is sort of like ice soccer. It's not hard to follow, though I'll probably have to watch a few more games to pick up the nuances of the rules. I was six rows from the ice; when the dudes slammed each other into the glass I saw spit flying. Pretty heavy, man.
This may seem like a minor thing, but whoever designed the parking lots around this arena did a lovely job. I'm used to waiting forever in bottlenecks while everyone lines up to get out, but that wasn't a problem here. We were out of there in no time.
I also tried the newest Sonic milkshake, the Holiday Mint Blast. There were pieces of Andes white-chocolate-and-peppermint candy sprinkled throughout which were pink and off-white, thus giving the treat the alternate nickname "Bacon Shake". Mmmmm, tasty.
Aggie Game the Second
Nov. 23rd, 2009 07:11 pmSaturday JD and I went to College Station to see the Aggies play against Baylor. We had lunch with JD's brother Todd and his girlfriend beforehand. Todd is a year younger than JD but looks like he's about 12, though he had a delightfully evil sense of humor. When we arrived in College Station the weather defied expectation by sucking, being cold and rainy instead of pleasant and sunny like the weather guy promised. And I was an idiot and had brought nothing but a long-sleeved shirt so I thought, hey, we can just run in somewhere and get a hoodie for twenty bucks and I'll be fine. Well, stupid Aggies had no hoodies where we searched- Aggie onesies, Aggie boxer shorts, Aggie umbrellas (which would have been confiscated), but no Aggie sweatshirts or hoodies. There was an Aggie snuggie, but I would rather freeze my ass off than be seen in an Aggie snuggie, so that's exactly what I did. I popped my head in the campus store and they even had hoodies at 25% off, but they wanted freaking eighty bucks for a freaking hoodie- screw that. It wasn't that cold, and it stopped raining right as the game started, and I figured I shivered off some calories. I had a lot of fun, too. In a desperate attempt to have a stake in the game I remembered that my boss from the job I had ten years ago went to Baylor. Plus they are Baptist, the natural enemy of Wiccans, so go Aggies, who of course love Wiccans! A couple of them do, at any rate. Baylor was defeated quite handily. Take that, boss from ten years ago!
Superbowl poll
Feb. 1st, 2009 09:20 pmMan, we/you guys can sure pick 'em! The only pick that got no votes won the game. To be fair, the winner of the poll was 'Epic apathy', followed by, I'm pleased to say as a product of seventies public education, 'Everybody's a winner!'! Everyone is; well, except for you, 'Everybody's a winner' because you came in second place. And ponies are for closers! That was a hell of a game.
(no subject)
Feb. 1st, 2009 12:08 pmThe one sport I can stand to watch is football. Dad used to coach, and some of my earliest memories are of watching games on TV, and hearing talk about it. But I haven't watched a game in years now. I think I know one person who's going to watch the Bowl, and I suspect he wants the Steelers to win. However, as a Texan, I seem to recall some time back in the seventies when the Steelers did something terrible which prevented the Cowboys from something (maybe kept them out of the Superbowl, fuck, I don't know) so I vaguely remember that I'm supposed to hate the Steelers forever. Obviously, this calls for a poll.
[Poll #1341566]
[Poll #1341566]
