Living vicariously through myself

Ok, enough people have now told me to update my blog that I guess I should.

Many of you have correctly guessed the reason it's been so long since this thing got any new writing on it.

Nicole and I have done some interesting things since we started dating. Among them:

-- Going to see the Butler Ballet perform Swan Lake. She really wanted to go and I figured it was something that I should go see at least once so that I'm a little more knowledgeable about it.

-- Attending two Indianapolis Indians games, but totalling less than 9 inning of baseball actually watched. The first time we went with a former student of hers who's now at Butler, and she had to be back to campus to host a prospective student (baseball seen: 6 innings). The second time, it began to rain hard enough before the bottom of the second inning that they pulled out the tarp. After 40 minutes of sitting watching the scoreboard flash old highlights, we left (total baseball seen: 7.5 innings)

-- Spending one Sunday running to breakfast, going to Emmis to play basketball and then playing something like 9 games of ping pong. I didn't think ping pong could cause my legs to give out. I was very wrong. It was during the basketball that Nicole insisted we bet something on the game. So I told her if she ever beat me in a game to 10, she could have a day of any kind of pampering she wanted. I don't anticipate having to pay up on that bet, but you never know.

-- Going to see the sneak preview of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy with Eric Berman. Eric and I have read the books, but Nicole has not. She enjoyed the story even as a newbie and Eric and I liked it because they put in enough small details to make it more or less true to the books. I especially was happy they included Vogon poetry and the whale thinking to itself as it fell after being transformed from a missile. "And what is this thing rushing toward me so fast? It needs a big name. Ground! That's what I'll call it! I wonder if it'll be friends with me.... (THUD)"

And we've got all kinds of things planned:

-- Going to see Ben Folds this Thursday at the Murat Theatre.

-- Perhaps returning to the Murat the following night to see Jon Stewart.

-- And the big one. We've planned a three day, four night trip to Las Vegas the last week of July before she heads off to IU. We got a great deal, and it'll be interesting to go. I'd like to get in one small stakes Texas Hold 'Em game just to see how good the real people are. Probably very different from all the people at the Emmis poker night (which comes up again next Saturday).

I'm also going to a cookout Nicole's family is having next weekend. The proverbial meeting of the family (despite the fact I met her father when we last had poker night). Apparently her mother and grandmother are very interested to meet me. Always interesting to see how you match up to people's preconceived notions of you.


In news not at all relating to my significant other....

I had a good time in Pittsburgh at TRASHionals last month. We got spanked more than once, but we still finished something like 27th out of 36 teams. Considering our average age was much less than most teams, I guess we did about how we should have.

The following weekend, however, was the first time I've ever been on a team that went undefeated through a tournament field. The "Lords of Alacrity" (Eric Berman, Michael Philpy, Dennis Kasey and myself) went 9-0, including wins over a couple of good teams in Matt Larson's Iowa team and Alma and Rob and a slightly depleted but still strong License to IL at DUCK Bowl IV. It was fun to play in a DUCK Bowl instead of having to work it. Hopefully we'll go back next year to defend our title.

As it stands now, Eric and I are looking at trying to field a team for FOGHAT in its first incarnation at NU in October. Alma and Rob, if you read this and would like to collaborate on such an effort, I think that could be a lot of fun. It'd be nice to play near home and at what were my stomping grounds for a year.

Ok, that covers a lot of what's gone on. Now back to laundry.