Folks, food, and fun.

Well, I had a good visit from my folks this weekend. We confirmed that they'll be watching the neice and nephew during Thanksgiving week, so I can abduct my brother and sister-in-law to Las Vegas to see UFC56. I'm really excited about the prospect of a Fall vacation to see some fights.

Saturday night's fun included a nice visit to Arthur Bryant's in the Ameristar. How can a barbecue place run out of brisket? The pork was good, but I really wanted beef. I played poker for a while and then went to Jason's house for the party and subsequent side trip to the clubs. I had Adam in tow, who was dressed up like Jethrine Bodine. If you didn't see that episode, just imagine a tall beefy guy in a blonde wig dressed like Daisy Duke. Shocking.  Several club goers pulled out their cameras.  Personally, I wouldn't Nair my legs for a Halloween costume, but I'm still laughing about it now.

I rested and ate Chinese food on Sunday afternoon in front of the TV.  I drifted in and out of sleep during multiple NFL games.  Then, I packed up my gear and drove to OP to play hockey.  I scored two goals!  We beat them 6-4, and I scored the game winning 5th goal.  It was absolutely fun.

I'm planning a trip to Las Vegas to take my brother to see UFC56 on November 19. The trip hinges on whether his kids are going to see their grandparents that weekend. :-) I'm waiting before I book anything, but the plans are made and the days off are scheduled with the various employers. The problem is that's the weekend before Thanksgiving, which is blackout time for the airline deals. Southwest Airlines to the rescue with some reasonably priced direct flights. I can't wait.

Boring week. Good weekend.

The highlight of my week was a show on Tuesday night.  Honky is a pretty good band.

It was more or less a typical on-call week.  I did get some social time when the phone didn't ring, but I missed out on one costume party.  So, I don't have anything to report there.  I did get to attend Club Wars, which is a sort of local battle of the bands.  My brother's band came in third, because, well, they got beat by a solid band that sounded like Tool and has a fan following.  It was not surprising, since the competition is ballot based.

Since there was some kind of military exercise at the air force base, over half of the Bombers team couldn't make it to the game. . . so we forfeited.  I went to play some drop-in hockey at the AMF Ice Chateau.  There were only four guys there, so we played 2-on-2 half-rink where goals are scored by hitting the goal post.  I had fun, but 90 minutes of non-stop skating really sapped me.  I had a stitch in my side and my right lung was burning when we finally stopped.  I drank chocolate milk and ate German Chocolate Cake to replenish those glycogen stores.  The practice was very helpful.  I needed the puck time.  2-on-2 is a passing game where you pass to yourself off the boards or cross-ice a lot.  If you skate with the puck too much, you end up exhausted.  Nearly 2 hours of ice time for $10.  That's a bargain.  I'm surprised more people didn't show up, despite the World Series being on TV.

Asian Bird Fru?

Wilma and Alpha and a low in the Midwest may merge to form the perfect storm?

OZtoberfest.

What a goofy Monday.  I put the trash out, and a pack of neighborhood dogs just loved it.  I had cleaned some items out of the fridge, and they chewed into the trash bags and found every tasty nibble.  Consequently, trash was strewn all over the driveway and a portion of the yard.  Other consequences include the trash men not picking up the stinky remnants or the torn bags and me spending time picking up stinky wet trash and bits of food wrappers which the animals had shredded.  Is it legal to poison stray dogs?  The thought crossed my mind.

I went to work, and the usual on-call dude was given another assignment, so I was asked to volunteer for on-call duty.  Sure!  No split shifts this week!  Aw yayuh!

Through some email box cleanup, I discovered that I had missed OZtoberFEST this past weekend.  I didn't know what it was, until I finally clicked the link.  At first, I thought it might be some sort of Ozzie Ozbourne palooza thingy.  No, it's a Wizard of Oz festival held in Wamego, KS.  That's between Kansas City and Salina, KS.  http://www.oztoberfest.com/  Judy Garland?  Ruby Slippers?  Live musical performance?  Midget actors?  I wonder if the attendees would have been any scarier than those at the Rennaisance Festival.  I imagine a mix of Judy Garland fans of all shapes and persuasions, their children, a theater going crowd, and some small town farm types looking for something to do.  The late L. Frank Baum is probably looking down in shame at the whole thing.  You doubt me?  Check this out:

"Wamego's main street will be closed during the festival. This several blocks-long venue will host numerous activities for OZtoberFest visitors. Such hilarious hijinks as OZ Jeopardy, Stuff a Scarecrow and Throw a Bucket of Water on the Witch will provide much fun for attendees."

I think I would only attend such a thing if it were free, I was in a group, and if it were close to home. . . or if a tornado carried me there and I could click my heels three times for an immediate escape.  Okay, I'd go if they had real winged monkeys.

Weekend recap.

I rested on Friday, because I really needed it after working so many split shifts this week. Saturday, I didn't wake up until late in the morning. I made good use of the day by going to the Rennaisance Festival. The freak density was near maximum. I was impressed by the magnitude of the thing. The music and drama was mediocre, but mildly entertaining. I think the jousting was fun to watch, and some of the handmade items for sale were pretty unique. I bought a mirror ball made with colored mirrors arranged in a mosaic pattern. I'll hang it on the back deck near the windows, so it can reflect the morning sun inside. Shiny! I also bought some belts in a "Læther Shoppe" which were hand made in front of me. Made to measure. Very nice.  A lot of the resident Rennaisance Festival participants wore authentic period garb and spoke in some sort of fake accent, which made me squint one eye.  It wasn't recognizable, just odd.  If you wear puffy sleeves, short pants, and rope sandals to Renn Fest, at least remove the bluetooth earbud.  Thanks to Adam (aka Hoss) for driving me out to Bonner Springs to witness the spectacle.

Later, I tagged along with Hoss to a Mr. Olympia watch party at his personal trainer's house.  I felt small in a room full of bodybuilders, but I made a lot of acquaintences, and I learned a lot about the sport by listening to their criticism of the competitors in the show.  Ronnie Coleman is simply a monstrosity.  He won again, but I couldn't tell a dimes worth of difference in the top five competitors.  They're all freaks by choice and I respect that.  I think that was the theme for the day.

After that, Hoss tagged along with me to the fazed.net gathering.  So many crazy things happened, I wouldn't know where to begin.  The keg floated.  The jello shots were mostly consumed.  I enjoyed socializing on the balcony.  The weather was great.  Hoss took me back to my car, and I went back to the party.  We made a food run to Pancho's, and I had my second Carne Asada Burrito in two days.  Beef, pico, and guac.  Simple and good.  I had more fun than last year, somehow.  They're a fun bunch, though.

On Sunday, I watched TV, ate food, played ice hockey (we won!!), ate food, and watched TV.  Perfect!

Big ants eat spider larvae. I don't touch.

The ants are eating the spider eggs in the back of my mailbox. When I'm checking my mail, I'm not in the frame of mind to clean spider eggs out of the back of the mailbox, so I'm glad the ants are taking care of business. I just have to brush the ants off the envelopes and keep moving. Mailbox cleaning won't make the to-do list unless something takes up permanent residence there, like the wasps whose nest I pulled out of there last spring.

My invisible roommate paid his October rent, so I have to make it to the bank at some point soon.  I literally haven't seen him for two weeks.  I'll notice that his laundry basket will be moved, his lamp will be on or off, his computer mouse will be in a different position, but he's invisible!

I did night work last night for a few hours. I have night work tonight. And Thursday. And Friday. It's officially vampire week for me.  Not being home at night might be contributing to the fact that I never see my roommate.

One win, two losses, a couple of bruises, and a driverless auto race.

I stopped a slap shot with the top of my left knee. I later took a flying fall and landed on my left hip. So, if you see me favoring my right leg a little, that's why. I also got speared in the right side. Hockey is a truly exhilerating game. I don't feel the pain til the adrenaline wears off. I played a heckuva game, as did my teammates, but we lost miserably. Go Bombers! It's going to be a good season, if we work on our passing. 

Formula One has a drivers' cup and a constructors' cup.  With the drivers' cup comes the glory.  With the constructors' cup comes the money.  I recorded the F1 race in Suzuka, Japan in hopes of watching it tonight.  How about a race with only machines and no drivers?  Today, I was following this driverless car race. It looked to me like the Humvee was going to win. http://www.grandchallenge.org  And it did. 

I have a lingering optimism after having an amazing night at the casino last night.  The NASCAR fans were in town and they were well represented at Harrah's.  When I finally was seated in the poker room at a low limit Texas Hold 'Em game, I found that most of the players at my table didn't know what they were doing.  It was like taking candy from babies.  I turned $100 into $440 in a matter of a few hours.  Rich said it was like the perfect storm.  I like to think that my skill had something to do with it. 

Sushi, hockey, and zen.

After a kind of blah day trying to catch up on sleep from the night maintenance work, I had a zen moment. I was on an endorphin high on the way home from the gym and I called an order in to the sushi place. As I arrived home with $27 worth of unagi, maguro, sake, miso soup and edamame, I sat down and turned on the cable box to find a hockey game in progress. I got that feeling that I am right where I'm supposed to be.

At the sushi place, I was greeted by the sushi man's wife, who has been in a tough battle with breast cancer. She smiled really big when she saw me. She was happy to report that she had hair again and that she was in remission. Happy day. :-)

Drink a Katrina, it'll blow you away.

A few hours into my first trip to New Orleans included waking up on a stoop in the French Quarter near dawn a few days before Mardi Gras by a shop keeper cleaning up the red Hurricane vomit from the sidewalk. That was fair warning for me to avoid the red blend of juice, amaretto, grenadine, vodka, gin, and two kinds of rum. Years later, the term 'hurricane cleanup' just invokes a vision of pink chunks being hosed into the gutter. Now, someone smart has applied to trademark the word 'KATRINA' for use as the name of an alcholic beverage. http://www.thesmokinggun.com/graphics/art3/0920051katrina4.gif
I'm guessing it's some sort of really mean Hurricane-like drink. I suppose, if it's successful, the shop keepers in the French Quarter will be cleaning up after many more Katrinas.