Wednesday, July 31, 2013

It's Pointless

"Do you feel like a man, when you push her around?, Do you feel better now as she falls to the ground?, Well, I'll tell you my friend, one day this world's going to end, as your lies crumble down, a new life she has found..." -Red Jumpsuit Apparatus- (Face Down)



Good evening everyone.  I could whine some more about how tired I am, but it occurs to me that at this time last year, I was somewhere on the back end of a 20-plus hour drive to Las Vegas after having been awake for a while here in San Marcos, America, so I won't whine (well, not about that anyway)...  First I'm going to shamelessly throw the name Alyssa into today's entry, just to see if this post will top 160 views also (YES, that's 2 days in a row where the total views have been over 160 -164 to be precise - I SHUDDER at the thought of having to work 'Alyssa's Corner' into the rotation, SHUDDER I tell you)...  :)  Second, just for kicks, I considered giving tonight's post the title of "My Last Blog Entry Ever" just to see how many views would have been tallied tonight (yes, I'm really tired), but then I thought of all of the disappointed faces that would have been staring down already opened champagne bottles when the truth was revealed.

Okay, here's what tonight's post title really refers to (and sports people, I PROMISE that you will see a HEALTHY INCREASE in the words dedicated to athletic competition here - namely football, after I get moved into the ATX)...  Which brings us to tonight's topic:  Why even bother with having an NFL Pro Bowl every year?  It's pointless...  First of all, the "competition level" (it's hard to type that phrase even using the quotation marks) has been a joke in recent years.  They've almost always played no defense in this game, but I remember (I think it was the year before last) when a lineman went like sixty yards for a touchdown because no one was "able" to tackle him...  Second, in a game where you're allegedly showcasing the stars of the league, SO MANY players opt out of the game - "Joe All-Star was named to the team this year but is being replaced because he sneezed three weeks ago..."  Second and a half (sue me), along the same lines, let's play the game the week BEFORE the Super Bowl so that members of the two teams that are currently the best in the league won't be in Hawaii - AWESOME idea...  Third, and this is the newest wrinkle (that I just learned about today, and is the reason for this impromptu rant), let's not have kickoffs in the game.  Yeah, you read that right..., no kickoffs in the Pro Bowl.  The ball will be placed at the twenty-five yard line in lieu of having kickoffs, and the Pro Bowl spot of kick returner will be replaced by an extra defensive secondary player being named to the squad (Devin Hester is THRILLED about this by the way)...  The game will still have punts though, with no player named to the teams for the specific purpose of returning them (from the people that brought you "let's play the Pro Bowl before the Super Bowl")...

Okay, that's enough out of me.  Have a good one and I'll see you tomorrow night...

    




Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Could You? (28)

"I seek to cure what's deep inside, frightened of this thing that I've become..., it's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you, there's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do..."
-Toto- (Africa)



Could you please, PLEASE, not say anything to Alyssa about this?...  Good evening everyone.  For most of this year, my average pageviews per day here at Bikini Hill have been sitting at right around 105.  As I begin writing this brief entry for you, 161 people have clicked in to see what's happening here since I published last night's entry...  Yeah..., that's only about a FIFTY PERCENT INCREASE over my normal viewership - I can only IMAGINE what would happen if we had to make 'Alyssa's Corner' a normal part of the blog...  Stories about the Houston Texans, tales from Abilene, interviews with Belle the Cat...  MERP...  :O

Could you please tell us how you stepped up and saved the day?  Sure...  :)  This is from my friend Jenn's facebook page today (and YES, I'm still being REALLY CRIMINAL-LIKE stealing almost all of my blog material as the moving clock to Austin counts down)...:  "Frank (her boyfriend) on baby photos:  How can they caption 'having a good day?'  It's a baby just laying there.  How the hell can it be having a good day?"  The instant I saw this, I replied..., "Have you ever heard of anyone having a bad day just laying around?..."  ;)  And it remains a mystery as to why I've still never performed any stand-up comedy...

Could you now tell us about how someone really stepped up and saved the day?  Yeah..., okay...  :)  This is from my friend Leanne's facebook page from earlier in the week (YES, I'm STILL stealing everything)...:  "So that's not how my cardio was supposed to go..."  You see, evidently Leanne was walking..., well..., CHASING a couple of SIXTY POUND German Shepherds for almost an hour on Sunday because she didn't bring a leash to the house with her.  Since she didn't have a leash, Leanne had to DRAG both of the dogs home.  Now I coached Leanne in softball 100 years ago (you saw it coming that time, right?) when she was a freshman in high school, and it's still very easy for me to picture her as the prototypical speedy leadoff hitter...  Leanne also measures ALL OF 5'3" (which I think she exaggerated for this story)...  :P, and I can just imagine those German Shepherds looking at her like, "yeah..., SHE'S not dragging us back..."  However, this IS the same Leanne that I've bragged about here in the blog before, who has been VERY DEDICATED to a workout regimen and diet that is preparing her for bodybuilding competitions (or superhero crimefighting)...  :)  These are the most recent photos that I've seen of Leanne, which were posted today...


       

Those poor German Shepherds never had a chance...  ;)

I hope that you have a good one and I'll see you again tomorrow night!



Monday, July 29, 2013

Alyssa's Corner

"Black and orange stray cat sitting on a fence..., I ain't got enough dough to pay the rent..., I'm flat broke but I don't care, I strut right by with my tail in the air..." -Stray Cats- (Stray Cat Strut)







Good evening everyone, and heaven help us...  :)  As you all know, I've been SHAMELESS in pilfering material for my posts while I've been commuting from San Marcos to Austin for work.  Although I'm stealing most of this entry from a conversation that I had late last night, I'm sure that some of you will enjoy it (well..., at least ONE OF YOU will enjoy it)...  :)  Pictured above with the one hundred year-old man is the famous Alyssa (pronounced uhh-lee-suhh), and you're just seconds away from reading about why she's giving me a quarter (and note my empathy).  If you type her name into the blog search to the right, your computer will basically explode...  As we chatted about frivolous things on facebook last night (such as her stellar grades in college - no, really..., she DID have stellar grades), Alyssa told me not to get cocky...  Hmmm...  It was at this point that I reminded her about our HUGE BET on the Texans/Patriots playoff game, and I told Alyssa that I had her $1.50 framed in "6 little quarter frames..."  Alyssa's response was, "Guh!  Losing that dollar fifty was rough.  Do you really have them in quarter frames?..."  :)  I told her that I should put her in the blog JUST FOR ASKING THAT, and then realized that might be Alyssa's ploy...  She responded that there should be A SECTION in my blog called "Alyssa's Corner," and "you just talk about Belle (her cat) and me.  Oh!  and my new fish named Peter..."  She was locked into the blog tonight the second that I read the comment about the fish...  :)  When I asked about using her photo in the blog, Alyssa (being shy like myself) replied, "put pictures of me all over that blog..."  :)  She also added that she wanted some pics of Belle too, but I may need more material later this week...  :P  As much as I've picked on Alyssa in the blog since I've known her (and remember that I only pick on people I like), I am going to let you in on something here (I'm about to say something very nice about her that she didn't know was coming)...  :)  At one point early in the spring semester when I was working at Harper's, Alyssa gave me both her mom's name (who is the associate superintendent of a school district) and her aunt's name (who is the superintendent in another district) just in case I decided to return to teaching and coaching this year.  Thank you Alyssa...  :)  It's nice to mix in that curveball as much as we pick on each other...  ;)

I hope that the photo of my kind friend and that heartwarming story make up for the brevity of this post tonight, or maybe you appreciate my conciseness, knowing that things will be back to normal again here very soon...  :)  Have a good one and I'll see you again on Tuesday night...





      




Sunday, July 28, 2013

You Drive Me Crazy

"One foot on the brake, and one on the gas, hey..., well there's too much traffic, I can't pass, no..., so I tried my best, illegal move, a big black and white come and crushed my groove again..." -Sammy Hagar- (I Can't Drive 55)

"Who's gonna tell you when, it's too late?, Who's gonna tell you things, aren't so great?"
 -The Cars- (Drive)

"I can't get..., any rest..., people say..., I'm obsessed..., everything, you say is lies, but to me, there's no surprise..." -Fine Young Cannibals- (She Drives Me Crazy)



Good morning everyone.  I remember the first time that I noticed a theme... (oops..., sorry..., wrong day...).  I thought that I'd take the opportunity on this beautiful Sunday morning when I don't have to drive anywhere to tell you some traffic stories from the past week.  By the way, if you're sitting at home unhappy with the choices that your t.v. is currently offering you (as I was), I just found that the NFL Network is showing 'Training Camp Live' from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. today (you don't even get ONE GUESS as to which channel my t.v. is currently tuned to)...

Okay, so even though I've driving SO EARLY and SO LATE in my effort to avoid traffic stacking up (successfully mostly) between San Marcos and Austin, these are some of the things that I've seen during the past week or so...

  ---  Okay, this one wasn't horrible, but I saw a vanity plate that read 'Tori 09' a few days ago, and thought that I should have one reading 'Coach 100' (the loyal readers will get this one)...

  ---  TWICE during the past week, I've seen drivers behind the wheels of cars whose passenger side mirrors were LITERALLY DANGLING FROM THEIR VEHICLES...  NOTE:  If your car appears to have a major problem (swaying mirrors would be an example of a red flag issue for me), I will give you ALL THE ROOM that you need on our highways...

  ---  I'm returning to San Marcos from Austin a few days ago, and RIGHT BEFORE THE EXIT that I'm about to take (Exit 206 - Aquarena Springs) to leave I-35, a blue BMW that was behind me decides to pass me, and then cut right back in front of me before exiting...  Okay, fine..., you're in a hurry..., whatever...  OH..., but NOOOO..., at the next three (count 'em, THREE) red lights, I have to wait for this car to move ALL THREE TIMES after the light turns to green...  ALL... THREE... TIMES...  I was in a hurry to GET TO SAN MARCOS (Coach has often written about what a great place it is), but now that I'm here, let me text..., EVERYONE ON THE PLANET!...  And yeah, I'm just throwing my hands up from behind my steering wheel the second and third time that I had to wait...

  ---  Okay, so I'm driving into Austin, still on I-35 and south of UT, where the traffic has 3 lanes to maneuver, and this genius decides to use..., ALL OF THEM...  As we're driving about 60 m.p.h. (and I'm in the far right lane, with about a mile left until the M.L.K. exit - Exit 235), this car from the far left lane CUTS ACROSS the MIDDLE LANE, and then MY LANE, and then EXITS..., all in the space of about THREE SECONDS...  AWESOME...  I think that you can find this move in your driver's manual under the heading "Horizontal Exiting..."  MORON...  Oddly enough, I can't remember why I don't like driving in rush hour (and it's NOT EVEN rush hour yet!!!)...

  ---  The following has happened SEVERAL TIMES during the past week, and undoubtedly MILLIONS OF TIMES since vehicles started operating in Austin, but in case you haven't driven in the ATX, you may not know, so...  I'm driving south to return to San Marcos, where I've just left the downtown area (that means that the slow-moving cluster of traffic has just begun to break free), but that DOES NOT MEAN that you're going to be able to reach your destination driving 75 miles per hour the rest of the way, because we have not reached Slaughter Lane (Exit 227) yet...  In case you're not familiar with Austin and Slaughter Lane, Slaughter got its name because that's where traffic goes to DIE...  Okay, I just made that up (actually, I made that up a while back, but anyway)...  I continue to remain alert and cautious while approaching Exit 227, because if you haven't seen the red brake lights starting to back up, YOU WILL...  Meanwhile, every genius on the planet, even as the SEA OF BRAKE LIGHTS becomes visible, decides that FLOORING THEIR GAS PEDAL is the best decision (because you OBVIOUSLY want to be the FIRST ONE to reach the area where the traffic is congested)...  BRILLIANT...  As people begin to tailgate me upon making this approach, I literally lean over to the side to give them a better view through my vehicle, as I'm using my arm to gesture, "CAN'T YOU SEE THAT?!!!"

  ---  Speaking of using my arm to gesture, this reminds me of something that I noticed as I returned home on Friday night.  A car that pulled right up behind me (which is the reason that I noticed this) was being driven by a driver whose hands were in the textbook "10:00 and 2:00" positions on the steering wheel - very nice...  I, ON THE OTHER HAND, was driving with my left hand (well, thumb and forefinger fully separated, controlling the WHOLE VEHICLE) at the 10:00 position, while my right hand was not ANYWHERE on the face of the "driving clock," but was instead on the "right arm rest" (which I've heard others refer to as the space to the left of the passenger seat headrest)...  :D  Okay, so you can deduct points from me for that...  ;)

If you have any Sunday driving to do today, please get there safely and I'll see you again tomorrow...

  



    







Saturday, July 27, 2013

So Much For Last Night

"Some things are worth fighting for, some feelings never die, I'm not asking for another chance, I just wanna know why..." -Robert Tepper- (No Easy Way Out)

"I'm suspicious of people who lie, cheat, and won't eat nachos..." -@AnneeWH- (via twitter)

"And I'd give up forever to touch you, 'cause I know that you feel me somehow, you're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be, and I don't want to go home right now..." -Goo Goo Dolls- (Iris)



Good afternoon everyone.  I apologize for the lack of a post last night (and you KNEW that your night was terrific for some reason)...  Right now I could cry here again about my recent commuting between The University of Texas at Austin and San Marcos, America (although I won't..., but I could).  I could also cry about my lack of sleep, but instead I'll just say that I'm sorry.  I laid down to "rest" last night at about 10:00 p.m., knowing that whenever I woke up, a "Breaking Bad" marathon would be showing on AMC from 11:00 p.m. until 4:00 a.m.  The knowledge of that marathon turned out to be very beneficial when I woke up at 7:00 a.m. this morning...  All that I read about when I fired up my facebook this morning was the storms that hit Austin and San Marcos last night, and I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW that it had rained...  Okay, well let me give you your money's worth since I didn't make an entry last night.


Let's start off with the most recent standings from my fantasy baseball leagues since I have more time to do that now than I will on Monday...


League 1 (25 entry fee - 1st place/125, 2nd place/25)

1)  DraftDodgers                               76.00
2)  Neshanic                                    68.00
3)  Buschleaguers                            65.00
7)  The View From Bikini Hill             49.50


League 2 (40 entry fee - 1st place/300, 2nd place/50)

1)  Breaking Bats                             83.50
2)  4troublemakers                           77.00
3)  Loons XXIV                                 60.00
5)  The Bikini Hill Bobcats                 51.00


League 3 (40 entry fee - 1st place/300, 2nd place/50)

1)  Nappy Heads                              73.00
2)  Pittsburg Crawfords                     65.50
3)  jonnylove7                                  60.00
4)  The Bikini Hill Nine                      59.00
4)  Fishing For Trout                         59.00


I don't have any specific comments on any of these leagues right now because I have been paying ZERO attention to baseball recently.  I watched some of the All-Star Game a little while back, and that's the last baseball that I can remember watching.  Just let me get settled into my new place in Austin, and then I'll break things down for you as I make my incredible comeback and win all three of these leagues...  ;)



So let me tell you more about moving right now, because we all know that I haven't mentioned that enough... (By the way, I'm watching 'Beverly Hills 90210' right now *don't judge me* and Duncan Sheik -NOT Duncan Keith of the Chicago Blackhawks- is performing 'Barely Breathing').  Just thought that you'd enjoy an obscure reference to a semi-recent post right there...  ANYWAY, I was motivated this morning when I woke up from my impromptu NINE HOUR NAP, so I went to Walmart and bought some "moving tupperware."  I'm not actually referring to Tupperware, but to the similar 30-pound capacity containers that are good for..., well..., holding about 30 pounds worth of stuff (or A LOT of potato salad)...  I bought three of these containers, and should now be ready to pack for my move.  These containers cost me $7.97 each, and similar-sized containers cost me about $15.00 before I moved to Las Vegas last August (the price difference being the better handles on the more expensive ones I assume).  Anyway, since I'm only moving 30 miles to the north, I'm really not concerned about the handles interlocking with the lids and sealing these containers shut, so I feel like I made about $20.00 this morning (I was fully prepared to pay the full $45.00 - don't tell Walmart).  In case you're doing the math ("Coach, what happened to the containers that you purchased for your move to Las Vegas last year?), I gave my "tupperware" from last summer to a friend of mine.  Also, in case you're doing the math ("Coach, why don't you just find some cardboard boxes?), I'm moving into a studio apartment where it will be easier to store things in my new purchases than putting them in the drawers and cabinets that I won't have.  And DON'T take this for complaining - a studio apartment on West Campus in the ATX for just over $600.00 a month is a STEAL!  :D  I have been REPEATEDLY hearing, "but Coach, most places on West Campus rent for $900.00 to $1,000.00..."  Yeah, I know...  ;)

Okay, so now I actually have to PACK my stuff into these containers, and move up to Austin.  I'd tell you that I should be worried more, but after making the drives to and from the desert last summer..., well..., not so much.  Dotting the i's and crossing the t's will actually be more tedious and time-consuming than the move itself.  That would involve things like shutting off my cable/internet and utilities services here in San Marcos, setting them up in the ATX, giving my change of address to several interested parties, getting the new driver's license, CLEANING this apartment, blah, blah, BLAH...  I did catch a very weird break with Time Warner in that evidently San Marcos and Austin are in the same region (the first I've heard of this), and I am going to be able to bring my cable box and modem WITH ME up to Austin.  This makes it SEEM LIKE it would be easier to hook up my service at the new place (bad break for you if so, because I wouldn't miss any blog posts)...  Also very weird was that the time frame that they gave me for the tech arriving to hook up the new service was a ONE HOUR WINDOW (as opposed to being the whole morning, or the whole afternoon).

I'm not lying to you when I tell you that I"m getting excited as I look up at my calendar.  Not only am I making my move north, but the football season will be starting a month from tomorrow also.  I have been so busy that I've paid almost no attention to it when it comes to digging into my football magazines, watching the talking heads on t.v., etc...  My PLAN is to dig through my magazines and make some "bold" predictions for you, things that not every person on the planet would expect from this football season, but I just haven't had the time yet.  Football just has so many storylines...  See, if you get me going, I'll want to talk football instead of making my moving preparations - SHAME on you...  But getting back to Johnny Manziel really quick (I mentioned him a few days ago, thus the "getting back"), although Manziel seems like such a head case at the moment, Texas A&M plays EIGHT of the 12 games at home this season.  STOP getting me started...  I can't wait...  :)  Hopefully some of you went to that Bobcat Nation cbssports.com link that I referred you to the other day to get yourselves ready for that pick 'em contest this fall.  SO MUCH going on right now...  :O

I'm going to have to call it quits right here for today, but tomorrow I will be back with some more for you.  Have a great day and I'll see you then!
    








Thursday, July 25, 2013

I Remember The First Time (27)

"Working hard to get my fill, everybody wants a thrill, paying anything to roll the dice, just one more time..." -Journey- (Don't Stop Believing)

"What you do shows who you are..." -Wendy's sign in the Texas Union-

"Call me a joker, call me a fool, right at this moment I'm totally cool, clear as a crystal, sharp as a knife, I feel like I'm in the prime of my life..." -Billy Joel- (I Go To Extremes)



I remember the first time that I made a good read...  Good evening everyone.  Yes, I'm once again being super lazy and pilfering from my friends' facebook statuses since I'm super busy.  This one comes to you from my friend Alyssa on Monday:  "Why am I just now finding out that July is National Ice Cream Month?!  I'm going to celebrate starting now!  Who wants to bring me a dipped cone?  Haha (:"  Okay, that's pretty cute on its own merit, but it also prompted this comment:  "Asking for food encourages creepers to have a reason to stalk you..."  This is where I come in, and make my usual (4.7% of the time) great read...  ;)  "If the creepers are Alyssa's facebook friends already, it's kinda too late, and if they bring her ice cream, she probably won't care..."  Alyssa backed me up with, "Haha, exactly!"  Sharp as a knife right here...  ;)

I remember the first time that a good movie came on that I haven't seen in a while...  By the time that most of you read this (both of you, AHEM...), this information won't do you any good, but 'Dead Poets Society' just started on Turner Classic Movies.  Pushing movies with the word 'poet' in the title and writing a blog - I NEVER would have envisioned that when I was in high school (yes, one hundred years ago - VERY GOOD)...  ;)

I remember the first time that I was sick and tired (well actually, it's more tired)...  Can we FREAKIN fast forward to the point in time where I've moved to Austin already?!  GOODNESS GRACIOUS!!!  This commuting stuff and waking up while the early bird is still hitting his snooze button is BRUTAL...

I remember the first time that I retracted my previous statement because I'm very grateful to have a job and I'm going to stop whining about my good fortune...  AHEM...  ;)

I remember the first time that I really appreciated your patience...  Although I'm doing an entry every day right now, I feel much better when I'm writing only four entries per week that I've actually planned more than most of the entries that you've seen recently (can you even tell the difference?  don't answer that...).  ;)  As this little blog of mine slowly creeps up on 50,000 total views (and can you FREAKIN believe that?!  and yes, you may answer that one), I hope to keep improving the quality of what you find here as the time keeps passing by (Bikini Hill will be celebrating its 2nd birthday on September 28th - who would've believed that? - and that's a bonus question, so answer it only if you want extra credit)...

I remember the second time that somebody working at the Texas Union asked to see my I.D. badge...  And yes, that would have been today...  As I keep looking for places to take naps in this wonderful building on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin to offset my crazy commuting schedule right now, I keep arousing suspicion because (c'mon..., you know this one..., c'mon...) I'm one hundred years old (see, told ya you knew it)...  ;)  My favorite nap place was reserved today, and my other favorite nap place has been closed for renovation, so when I found out that more potential comfortable chairs and couches exist in the Union and I asked how to get to them, I got, "may I see your I.D. please?"  BA HA HA...  :)

I remember the first time that I said goodnight because every other time that I remember something, the topic of sleep seems to work its way into the conversation...  ;)  Have a great Friday and I'll see you tomorrow night!




  








Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Could You? (27)

"Out of the island, into the highway, past the places where you might have turned, you never did notice, but you still hide away, the anger of angels who won't return..."
-Vertical Horizon- (Everything You Want)



Could you sound more like a stalker?  Good evening everyone.  I overheard this line on campus earlier this week:  "I have girlfriends all over campus..., they just don't know it..."  Hmmm...

Could you pass your baby to one of the best receivers in the league?  This story involves my friend Megan, a friend to seagulls everywhere (remember, that new search window on the right side of the blog allows you to search for past entries within the blog)...  ;)  Megan was eating at a Pappadeaux restaurant in H-Town (that's Houston for you lay people) recently, where she had her picture taken with Andre Johnson, wideout for the Houston Texans (well, he had his picture taken with Megan - she's much better looking)...  ;)  Anyway, Megan posted the photo on facebook, and it initiated an informative conversation.  First, Johnson was there with Chad Ochocinco and Jacoby Jones (I believe that's the same Jones of "hey Denver, can you blow the coverage on me by jumping too early, and give us a playoff game on our way to the Super Bowl title?").  Anyway, Megan CLAIMS that she didn't get her photo taken with Ochocinco and Jones because the situation was awkward already, and evidently Ochocinco started laughing when she approached the trio (I think that Ochocinco and Jones were just too shy to ask her to pose with them, and since Megan is a Texans fan anyway, she probably just wanted Johnson's picture).  :)  Oh, and Alyssa..., eat your heart out...  :P

Could you quote Megan directly?  Sure, here ya go...  "I was so scared to even ask for a pic!  I was like you can say no and I totally understand.  Then I apologized like five times..."  :)

Could you go back two "could you's" ago and tell us about the baby Coach?  Oops..., yeah, I can...  This is the part that I wish that I could have seen...  Evidently at some point during dinner, some random mother at Pappadeaux just..., THROWS HER BABY into Johnson's arms for a photo...  :)  Well, I guess if you're going to do that, it might as well be a pass to an All-Pro receiver...

Could you milk Megan's Pappadeaux story for just one more question, since we all know that you're really busy anyway right now Coach?  Sure...  ;)  Megan also answered a comment asking if her boyfriend knew about all of this, to which she replied that he took the photo with her and Johnson, and that she reciprocated the favor by taking a shot with her boyfriend and Johnson, evidently a photo that ole Dre' wasn't too thrilled about posing for.  Megan's exact words were, "His face in (that) pic is funny.  He looks soooo annoyed.  Oh well..., the cost of fame!"

At this point, let me thank Megan for being almost totally responsible for my whole entry tonight, and while I'm busy over the next two weeks, if any of you reading this happen to run into any celebrities while dining out and want me to pass along your exploits, I'll be more than happy to do so...  ;)

Have a good one and I'll see you again on Wednesday night!



    

Monday, July 22, 2013

Time Flies, Yet The Waiting Is The Hardest Part

"You take it on faith, you take it to the heart, the waiting is the hardest part..."
-Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers- (The Waiting)



Good evening everyone.  There's something else that I can tell you about my blog posts in the future right now if you haven't figured it out already - if I'm doing a weekday blog post, it will be AFTER work and not before...  Right now my head feels like a half-scrambled mess with my work schedule/commute and my impending move, but I'm sucking it up for you since I'm a team player...  ;)  Let me start off by apologizing to my friend Scott for trying to publish his second comment to yesterday's blog entry from my phone while I was up in Austin today (Grrouchie already knows where this is going)...  Yeah Scott, my phone went "bat crap crazy" (The Big Bang Theory) and your reply to my comment..., VANISHED!  Sorry my friend...


Okay, now I'm going to give y'all the condensed version of my current fantasy baseball standings (which will be condensed until after I'm settled in to my new place next month).


League 1

1)  DraftDodgers                                           76.50
2)  Buschleaguers                                        65.00
2)  Rocky Roto                                             65.00
6)  The View From Bikini Hill                         51.50


League 2

1)  Breaking Bats                                          84.00
2)  4troublemakers                                        70.50
3)  Loons XXIV                                              60.50
5)  The Bikini Hill Bobcats                              55.00


League 3

1)  Nappy Heads                                          72.00
2)  Pittsburg Crawfords                                 70.00
3)  The Bikini Hill Nine                                  60.00


Sixth, Fifth, and THIRD - what's that you say?  Oh yeah, we're being brief here - way to go me...  ;)


Speaking of sports, now I have something for you football fans, and it's a FREE CONTEST...  For all of my friends out there (both of you), and for all of you who would like to embarrass me in a season-long football pick 'em contest (the rest of the planet), here are the details

      >>>>> Go to the 'Bobcat Nation Sports Bar & Grill' (San Marcos, Texas) facebook page, 'like' the page (because they're cool and you're going to be in the contest), and you'll find the details in the post that they made about an hour ago (it's 10:35 p.m. CST right now on Monday July 22nd).  The photo in the post is a big picture of a football with the words "PICK 'EM" printed on the ball's stripes.  Basically, the contest is being tracked at cbssports.com and will involve picking the weekly winners of college and NFL games during the upcoming season.  There will be weekly prizes and a prize for the season's best guru.  All of you bloggers out there, you better be there for this one, not to mention all of you fans in San Marcos, America...


WOW, I wish that I had more time to talk about everything that is happening in sports right now...  Is Johnny Manziel going to make more headlines on or off the field this year?  Ryan Braun definitely won't be seeing another pitch this season - suspended for the rest of the 2013 schedule (65 remaining games) if you hadn't heard...  SO MUCH going on...

Like I said yesterday, just keep tuning in and I'll have a little something for ya each day, and in a couple of weeks I'll actually be more organized...  :)  Have a good one and I'll see you again on Tuesday night!

    










    

Sunday, July 21, 2013

The Job Story

"When I first met you I couldn't love anyone..., oh oh, but you stole my dreams, and you made me see that I could, walk under the sun and I can still be me and now I can't deny..., nothing lasts forever, but I don't want to leave, and see the teardrops, in your eyes..." -Hootie & The Blowfish- (Goodbye)



Good evening everyone.  Okay, I have a new gameplan for the next couple of weeks...  While I'm commuting to the new job, and then moving and getting settled in, I've decided that I'm going to try to post every day, with those being shorter posts than normal (and you didn't think that you could POSSIBLY find any great news on a Sunday night or Monday morning)...  This was the case when I moved to Las Vegas last August (for only the month of August as it turned out).  These posts will mainly keep you updated on where I'm at (with a few laughs thrown in of course), and after I get moved in, I'll get back to making you suffer through less frequent but longer posts...  Oh, and the football predictions of course - we're just over a month away!

Okay, so I flipped my sleep schedule this summer and lost some weight (which is code for, I repeatedly put off searching for a job for over a month)...  Rewind to a week ago Thursday, when I FINALLY made a few afternoon phone calls to the University of Texas at Austin, where I worked two years ago.  All three calls went to voicemail, which didn't bother me in the least, because I knew that I'd be making the trip up to Austin on Friday.  After stopping by a West Campus restaurant on Friday because I have a friend who knows somebody that works there, I made my way to the Human Resources Department on campus.  After getting squared away on what I needed to do to make sure that my online application and resume were up to date, I decided to stop by my old workplace to see my friends, as the afternoon was wrapping up.  The first person that I saw was my former boss, and after shaking hands and saying hi, he asked me, "are you looking for a job?"  (I was wearing a ballcap, a short-sleeved shirt, shorts, and my famous knee braces, so it's not like I was in "interview mode" - it was about 100 degrees on campus, and my intention was to make the stop at HR)...  Needless to say, I was stunned by the question, and answered, "YEAH..."  Long story short, he made a call back to HR, who then contacted me before I left campus and told me what I needed to do over the weekend (a list of several things, which included permission for a background check).

Skip to Monday, where the list of chores was in my rearview mirror, and I was visiting campus to do some paperwork.  I was told that because I had moved out of state (YES, that ONE MONTH MOVE to Nevada), my background check was going to take longer.  Otherwise, I would have been able to start the job immediately...  I was told that even though the check was being rushed, it could be Thursday or Friday before I heard anything.  I ended up returning home late on Monday night, and being greeted by the famous feline Freia (search her name, I've written about her).  Freia now walks up to my vehicle if she sees me pulling into the parking lot...  :)  Well, she followed me when I unloaded my things and walked up the stairs to my apartment, but she went past my floor and continued to the top when I reached my doorway.  Deciding to give my air conditioning a shot at cooling my apartment after having been gone all day, I thought that my best course of action would be to go and bother Freia...  I went up to the next floor and started petting her when the door across the way from me opened up (OH, and by the way, it's after MIDNIGHT now - OOPS)...  This is when I met my upstairs neighbor Jasmine, and her trio of cats that never go out...  :)  As stressed as I had been recently about finding a new job and planning my move up to Austin, meeting a new friend turned out to be just what I needed, and I ended up chatting with Jasmine for about THREE HOURS (because I didn't have ANYTHING job preparation or moving wise that needed to be done).  AHEM...  :)  Our conversation actually allowed me to RELAX for the first time in a while, as I told Jasmine the story that you just read above, and about how I was in a "holding pattern" while we waited for the background check to come in (they could find out how horribly I write or something ya know)...  ;)  Jasmine herself was taking a break from being productive, as she has been both searching for a job and preparing to graduate in a few weeks, so don't think that she's an awful person - the sabotage of productivity was mutual...  :)

Skip to the next morning, where I wake up at about 10:00 a.m., and receive a phone call 10 minutes later from the HR Department at UT, informing me that my background check was good and that I was "ready to go" and that I would be starting TOMORROW!  Uh oh...  Time to rush back up to Austin and buy myself a campus parking permit...  :P

And that's how I got my first job this time around in the ATX...  Have a great Monday and I'll see you sometime in the next twenty-four hours (definitely..., maybe..., I hope...)...  ;)


                




Saturday, July 20, 2013

I Remember The First Time (26)

"I don't know what's worth fighting for, or why I have to scream, but now I have some clarity, to show you what I mean..." -Linkin Park- (Breaking The Habit)

"What concert costs 45 cents?  50 cent, featuring Nickelback..." -via Nick Kass- (via facebook)

"Then in a moment, my head starts spinning, around in a circle, no end or beginning, and just when I think that, the whole world is turning, I open my eyes and, discover the light that's been burning down..., but this man stands his ground, and when it comes to death, I'll fight for every breath..." -The Outfield- (Taking My Chances)

"You got a Texas I.D.?..." -Texas Union employee- (The University of Texas at Austin)

"I really don't mind, what happens now and then, as long as you'll be my friend at the end..." -Three Doors Down- (Kryptonite)



I remember the first time that I've been using this theme for half a year already...  Time does fly by, so don't waste a minute people (except for reading my blog of course)...  ;)  That horrible concert joke up there (yeah, I'm really sorry)..., well that comes to you via my friend Nick, who used to use the line, "I remember the first time" ALL THE TIME at work, and is the person that I ripped off this theme idea from (so blame him).  Twenty-six weeks ALREADY...  :O

I remember the first time that I did a blog entry that was HEAVILY LOADED with tidbits revolving around the University of Texas at Austin...  Okay..., well you've probably already noticed that I changed the colors of the blog for this special occasion, so let's get started...

I remember the first time that a young person had a really bad idea...  So I was walking on the UT campus last week when I encountered a group of what looked to be about twenty-five middle school students...  I've told you about the squirrels that are on campus once already (and surely will many more times in the future).  Well, one of these squirrels was running around in a small chained off area surrounding a tree when the group of young tourists happened upon it.  One of the students piped-up, "it's got a chicken nugget!"  As I've said before, these squirrels are NOT SHY, and they will actually approach you in many instances for food because they've been fed by the people on campus so often.  Then, as the squirrel started running up the tree (and here's the "typical" middle school student part of the story), out of nowhere, one of the kids exclaimed, "THROW SOMETHING AT IT!"...  :)  Sorry, but I'm just smiling because nobody actually threw anything at the dining squirrel, and the spontaneity of the remark just KILLED ME...  :P

I remember the first time that I was waiting for the bus on West Campus...  This happened about a week ago also, when I was walking near the intersection of 24th Street and San Gabriel for those of you who are familiar with the stretch of land west of the Forty Acres.  I was about to walk to campus when I saw the bus stopped at the traffic light on the Cuatro's (restaurant) side of 24th Street.  I was across the street on the laundry mat side, and I turned and looked behind me to see how far back the next bus stop was.  I almost immediately decided that I wouldn't be able to beat the bus there, so I turned right and started to step down 24th Street toward campus when I heard a horn.  When I looked up, the bus driver was motioning for me to cross to the other side of San Gabriel (which I did), and when the traffic light turned green, the bus crossed 24th and he stopped and picked me up, where there WASN'T EVEN A BUS STOP...  :)  After thanking him, I told him how that was a great read on his part, because he obviously figured out everything that I just told you by watching me (knowing that I wanted the bus, how I didn't think that I could get back to the stop in time, that I had just decided to walk instead, etc...).  VERY NICE gesture...

I remember the first time that this bus driver had a sense of humor...  So when we reached the library on campus, the bus stopped to drop off and pick up.  As we were about to resume the route, more potential passengers approached the bus from the street (a crosswalk runs across the street in front of the bus stop) and from the door side of the bus.  As soon as the pedestrians cleared the crosswalk, the driver put his foot on the gas like he was taking off again.  The three people wanting to board the bus looked on IN TERROR as they realized that they would have to wait for the next bus to come around (and the West Campus route is a BIG..., HUGE..., ENORMOUS rectangle).  Then, just as suddenly as he had tapped the gas pedal, the bus driver opened the door and allowed these late passengers to board...  :)

I remember the first time that I ran into one of my old friends on campus...  Earlier this week I stopped by the Taco Bell at the Texas Union and chatted up my friend Evangelina.  I might have stopped by the Taco Bell once or twice for lunch when I lived in Austin a couple of years ago (yeah, just once or twice)...  :P  Anyway, while I was speaking with Evangelina, I learned that she just celebrated her 34th wedding anniversary and her 32nd year with Taco Bell, including her 6th as the general manager of the location at the Texas Union.  Don't you just hate showoffs???  ;)

I remember the first time that somebody asked me a question...  I was relaxing on the third level of the Texas Union earlier this week (probably eating some Taco Bell) when an university employee asked me, "you got a Texas I.D.?"  I was kind of surprised by the question, but I shot back a "Yeah..."  I didn't even realize it at the time, but the third level of the Texas Union is reserved for students, faculty, and staff of the University of Texas at Austin.  And I just told you that I had an I.D...  C'mon..., think about it..., process it..., you can figure it out...  YES, that's right, I got a job this week at the University of Texas at Austin!!!  :)  You KNEW that I didn't go to the trouble of changing the colors of the blog for no reason (I'm just too lazy)...  ;)  In the very near future (tomorrow?) I envision a blog entry that will give you many more details about how all of this happened, but I am working on the Forty Acres once again, and I have been since Wednesday (and it was SO HARD keeping it a secret)...  :)  I honestly didn't have the time to write a full blog entry until today, and I haven't even made this news "facebook official" or tweeted about it yet.  Actually, it was only last night that I took a victory lap around the Square to let my friends in on the good news.  Anyway, there's the reason that you haven't seen a real blog post from me for the past few days (due to my new work schedule).  Like I said, I will give you more details tomorrow, and at that time we'll figure out my blog schedule for the next couple of weeks.  Have a great day and I'll see you again tomorrow!









        







Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Copout Thursday

"Centuries are what it meant to me, a cemetery where I marry the sea, stranger things could never change my mind, I've got to take it on the otherside..." -Red Hot Chili Peppers- (Otherside)

"I'm learning to live without you now, but I miss you sometimes, the more I know, the less I understand, all the things I knew, I'm learning again..." -Don Henley- (The Heart Of The Matter)

"I hear a thunder in the distance, see a vision of a cross, I feel the pain that was given, on a sad day of loss..." -Creed- (My Own Prison)



Good evening everyone.  This is my early Thursday entry for you, but hold your applause, because as you've probably already noticed, I'm not remembering anything for the first time (now feel free to boo openly and loudly)...  These next few days are going to be very hectic for me (today I actually said to someone, "at this time last week, I was at the river" - go figure...), so I am going to give you my 26th version of 'I Remember The First Time' on Saturday, and then I'll give you another post on Sunday.  And by now you've figured it out..., "Copout Thursday..."  Just give me a little bit of time to get up to Austin and to get settled, and things will be better than ever here ("how could they possibly be worse?" you ask - you're so mean)...  :)  I hope that you have a great Thursday and Friday, and I'll be back to bother you this weekend...  ;)



Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Could You? (26)

"Walking like a newborn baby giraffe in 6 inch stilettos...  Gotta love leg day!!!"
-Leanne Calderon- (via twitter)

"For your kindness I'm in, debt to you, and I never could have come, this far without you, for everything you've done, you know I'm bound, I'm bound to thank you for it..."
-Natalie Merchant- (Kind And Generous)

"You can never trust a drug addict..." -Breaking Bad-

"There's twenty-four reasons, to admit that I'm wrong, with all my excuses, still twenty-four strong..." -Switchfoot- (Twenty-Four)

"Young people don't know anything, especially that they're young..." -Mad Men-



Could you please have some patience with me?  Good evening everyone.  Here I am, following up my super early Monday post with my super, super late Tuesday post...  My posting times may become a little erratic in the next few weeks as I prepare to move, actually move, and then get settled in, so please have some patience with me...  And yeah, I'm bound to thank you for it...  ;)

Could you check your calendars again please?  Can you believe it???  This is the 26th 'Could You' entry, meaning that this is a half-year of this theme.  In case no one has ever told you, time FLIES...

Could you be talking about me?  I visited my former workplace Harper's again over the weekend, and spoke with my friend Justin for a few minutes.  In another conversation investigating "Where's Coach?..., Where's that guy who's always in the hall?..., Where's blah, blah, blah?...," a customer told Justin, "he's always happy..."  My response (predictably) was, "I guess they've never read my blog..."  ;)

Could you tell us about someone who wasn't happy?  Okay, so over the past weekend at the river, some guys (high school students for the most part I would guess) were jumping into the water and doing cannonballs, etc..., to splash the tubers as they passed by.  To be honest, this has not been an unusual occurrence at the river over the past few weeks, and I've just been waiting for an angry splashed tuber to get out and kick the *&#% out of one of these little geniuses...  Anyway, a couple of college-aged girls and a guy went floating by, got splashed, and one of the girls turned toward him and DEMANDED TO KNOW, "WHERE'S YOUR MOM?!"  She also informed this splasher that if he ever soaked them again, that she would kick the &%@*#! %*&@ out of him.  PRICELESS...  :)

Could you tell us some more about the tubers?  So a group of four college-aged girls comes floating by with their tubes roped together, when the young lady who was doing the paddling addresses the group, telling them that she's "The Paddlemaster" (presumably because no one else was helping).  Unfortunately, this "paddlemaster" kept steering the group into EVERY SINGLE DEAD SPOT in the river alongside the basketball court at Sewell...  :P

Could you tell us about a great trip to the outlet malls?  I went to the San Marcos Outlet Malls located along I-35 (if you haven't heard of them, you might be the only one) specifically to buy some jeans.  First I went into Old Navy, where I saw a stack of jeans that I thought that I'd like (which also fit me) marked at $24.99.  There were a couple of pairs in my size, 84 x 34 (hey, losing weight isn't easy)...  ;)  Anyway, I noticed that the first pair had on orange tag on it, pricing the jeans at $12.99.  I then picked up the second pair, and sure enough, they were also marked down to $12.99.  Having found the only pairs in my size, I took them up to the register, where they rang up at $9.99.  Have you ever felt like you won a small lottery?  :)

Have a great day tomorrow, and I'll try to get you a Thursday post sometime around Thursday...  ;)















Sunday, July 14, 2013

Back To Austin

"My son told me he likes to go swimming just to look at the girls!  And he's only two - oh Lord..."
-@b_jai2012- (via twitter)

"I laugh, I love, I hope, I try, I hurt, I need, I fear, I cry, and I know you do the same things too, so we're really not that different, me and you..." -Collin Raye- (Not That Different)

"'The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms' (1953) 2 1/2 stars - Revived by a North Pole atomic blast, a submerged dinosaur swims to New York and goes to Coney Island." -Time Warner Cable t.v. guide movie preview for a 2:30 a.m. movie Friday on TCM-

"You got it, you got it bad, if you miss a day without your friend, your whole life's off track..."
-Usher- (U Got It Bad)

"It's been about a month since I've had a "coke" or an energy drink..." -@coachatx- (via twitter)



Good evening everyone.  This is my super early Monday post.  As a matter of fact, it's so early that it's still Sunday night...  I'm heading back to Austin very early in the morning, so I thought that I'd give you a little something at least.  I'm going to be working hard again to track down a job, so I'll have much more for you later.  Friday was a very eventful day, so the blog won't be lacking for material...  :)

Speaking of Friday, I posted that last quote above (about the cokes) on Wednesday.  Well..., then I went to Austin.  I knew that the temperature was going to reach about 100 degrees on Friday (which it did), so I brought my gallon jug of ice water and a cooler with about a dozen cokes/energy drinks that I had leftover.  Yeah, so long story short, I drank four cokes on Friday, after not having a single soda for a month...  :P  IT... WAS... HOT...

I absolutely LOVED reading the middle "quote" that's up there - I was flipping through the on-screen t.v. guide very early on Friday morning, and I came across those words for 'The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms' - they certainly don't make movies like they used to...  :)  No..., I didn't watch the movie, as I was FINALLY ABLE to fall asleep before my Friday trek to Austin, but I couldn't stop myself from smiling at that preview...

I'm not going to give you the full fantasy baseball update this week because I'm short on time right now and there will only be three full days of games this week due to the All-Star Break, but my teams are currently in 7th (The View From Bikini Hill), 4th (The Bikini Hill Bobcats), and 4th (The Bikini Hill Nine) place right now.

I hope that you have a great Monday and I'll see you again tomorrow!








Friday, July 12, 2013

Spending The Day In Austin

"And I play it off but I'm dreaming of you, and I'll keep my cool but I'm, finding, I try to say goodbye and I choke, I try to walk away and I stumble, though I try to hide it, it's clear, my world crumbles when you are not near..." -Macy Gray- (I Try)

"And all of your weight, all you dream, falls on me, it falls on me, and your beautiful sky, the light you bring, falls on me, it falls on me..." -Fuel- (Falls On Me)

"Your presence still lingers here, and it won't leave me alone, these wounds won't seem to heal, this pain is just too real, there's just too much that time cannot erase..." -Evanescence- (My Immortal)



Good morning everyone.  As advertised, I'm going to be spending the day in Austin, so you are seeing a super early post today.  Not only that, but I'm cheating in the sense that I didn't even write this.  I was told that I could use these words as an "official review" of my blog.  These very kind words were left as a comment on my facebook page, and come from someone who has followed Bikini Hill from its infancy...


"I had to get caught up so I just read "This Starts Now" and "Could You?" back-to-back.  Your blog has always been such a great way for me to relax after a long day at work.  ;)  I especially enjoy hearing the songs in my head to go along with the lyrics you post...  These last two posts are probably my most favorite so far.  I swear you've become an even better writer.  You're so damn witty!  I lol'ed so many times and the "100 years" gets me EVERY time.  Then, when you were blabbering on about fantasy baseball and practically read my mind I almost peed!  To top things off, you then proceeded to teach me something.  I now know what "defensive indifference" is (it actually sounds more like a relationship issue to me).  Given the VERY little I know about sports, I also think DI is stupid (silly?).  I always thought stealing bases was one of the biggest parts of the game.  Why bother if folks are indifferent?  ("Folks" would be the opposing team, right Coach?)" -Miletus Ogden Borne-


Miletus probably didn't expect this review to show up here, but I sincerely appreciate the fact that she even took the time to write it, let alone the kindness of its contents...  I'm sure that Miletus will enjoy TO NO END the fact that I'm posting her comments on a Friday, the day of the week that will be reserved almost solely for football predictions and banter in the coming months.  :)

I hope that you have a great weekend and I'll see you again on Monday!
    







Thursday, July 11, 2013

I Remember The First Time (25)

"Halloween 1996:  I was a tomato.  Why my parents allowed this is beyond me.  #thatkid #ivebeencoolallmylife" -@GiselieMo- (via twitter)

"Know what you're thinkin', 'cause I've been there myself, I've been kicked so many times, I don't know nothin' else..." -Night Ranger- (Sentimental Street)

"If you call me sweetheart, baby, babe, or baby girl, chances are that I probably won't talk to you again... #MyNameIsAlyssa #HatePetNames" -@Uhh_lee_suhh- (via twitter)

"Maybe redemption has stories to tell, maybe forgiveness is right where you fell, where can you run to escape from yourself?" -Switchfoot- (Dare You To Move)

"I'm just really thankful for ten minute slow snail moving trains... #myfavorite #takeyourtime #ilikewaiting" -@PaigeHutch3- (via twitter)



I remember the first time that I was almost killed at the river (and no jokes here my friends, this is a true story)...  So yesterday I'm at the river, hanging out at the ladder where I've been pushing tubers, assisting swimmers in reaching the ladder, and helping to save lives...  I was the only person in the water in that area, and I was looking up the river toward Bikini Hill when I heard a small "plunk..."  This noise sounded like somebody had thrown a small rock into the river, and that it probably entered the water at least five yards from me.  If I had been prudent, I would have climbed the ladder to find the guilty party, but I assumed that it was a one time thing...  A couple of beats later, I heard a BIG "WOOOOOSH...," and again, I didn't see what hit the water, but this time it sounded like it landed only a couple of yards away from me, at the MOST...  I INSTANTLY went up the ladder, saying "HEY!"  I was greeted by an apology from Frisbee Dan, who said that he didn't know that anybody was in the water.  My SNAP REPLY was that he couldn't just throw stuff into the water without looking.  Fast forward to about twenty minutes later, when I was walking on the back edge of the basketball court toward Bikini Hill, and a couple of kids stopped me.  They brought up what had happened earlier, and said that they had no idea that he was going to throw this huge rock into the water.  Then I asked them exactly how big the rock was...  One of them held up their hands, to show me that this..., BOULDER was about 15 inches long and 9 inches wide, indicating that this was a "Coach would have had a REALLY BAD DAY if it would have hit him in the head" type of rock...  This guy said that they had no idea that Frisbee Dan was going to throw the second rock into the water, and that when he realized what was going on, he started going, "whoa..., Whoa..., WHOA!...," all to no avail...  Again people, before you jump or decide to throw boulders into the river, please check to see if anyone is in the water first...

I remember the first time that I had a better story to tell from the river yesterday...  This kid MIGHT HAVE BEEN about ten years old...  This guy comes floating over toward the ladder yesterday when he EXCLAIMS, "HEY..., THERE'S CRAWFISH IN THIS THING!"  :)

I remember the first time that I plugged some new blogs here..., again...  :)  Okay, in the past week or so, I have now added three blogs to my link list over to the right, so let me point them out.  'Honu Honi' is Julie Pierce's (hey, you two are using your full names now on your blogs and on twitter, so I realized that I can too...) new blog at http://mauihonuhoni.blogspot.com/  Julie has been giving a day-by-day account of her move to Maui, and she is only now just beginning the second week of her blog, so you can still catch up.  Her husband Scott (the person at fault for me having a blog) has also started a new blog called 'My Maui Life' (guess where he's going to be moving also) located at http://lahainahaole.blogspot.com/  Scott is packing up the rest of what is in Las Vegas, and he will be joining his wife in paradise shortly.  The newest new blog that I'm touting today is being written by Alison (yes, famous Alison of 'she is the outgoing Vice President of the Student Body at Texas State University' Alison).  :)  Alison's blog, 'Stories From My Suitcase' can be found at http://sibleytravels.blogspot.com/  Alison's first "real-world" job finds her working as a Collegiate Leadership Consultant for her sorority, which will have her traveling all over the country to college campuses this year (tough gig, right?).  Alison just barely completed her first blog entry last night, so it won't take you long to catch up here either...  :)  You will always be able to find all of these links over to the right also, so you won't have to keep returning to this specific page of my blog.

I remember the first time that I not only plugged new blogs, but also stole a complete paragraph from one of them while doing so...  Job hunting is personally a very relevant topic to me right now, and here are some encouraging words on the subject that Julie wrote:  "If there is one thing I learned in Vegas, it's that everybody is hiring, all the time... for the right person.  Just because someone says they aren't hiring doesn't mean they won't give you a job.  If they believe you are a good fit for their business, you will get hired."  Very timely words Mrs. Pierce, very timely...  ;)

I remember the first time that I ripped off somebody's blog that I plugged in the past...  So recently on Lucki Duck's blog 'Small Potatoes Poker and Sports Betting' http://smallpotatospoker.blogspot.com/, he posted a photo of a receipt from a Dairy Queen that one of his friends had forwarded to him.  The last item on the receipt was "Free Water,", and the charge was obviously..., ummm..., are you serious???, TWENTY-FIVE CENTS...  Again people, you can't make this stuff up...  :)

I remember the first time that somebody made me feel like I was a hundred years old...  So when I was up at the Veranda recently, I ran into my friend Caroline.  Because I'm the clever person that I am, I started singing, "Sweet Caroline..., DUN DUN DUN..."  Then I said to her that she must get that all the time, to which Caroline replied, "no one ever sings that to me..."  PUNK...  :)

I remember the first time that I knew somebody who knew somebody that's famous...  A few years ago, I remember my friend Lacy having a facebook conversation with this guy named Chris Davis.  Well..., Davis was playing for the Texas Rangers at the time, and very recently he was the leading vote-getter in the American League for the Major League All-Star Game.  I think that Davis finished as the AL leader in votes, but I won't promise you that he did...  Not only did Lacy go to high school with Davis, but she also went to school with Josh Scobee, who is the placekicker for the Jacksonville Jaguars (yeah, it's not as glamorous as playing for the Orioles is right now, but you do what you can)...  :)  Okay, so really quick, besides me, who is the most famous person that you know?  ;)

I remember the first time that I segued in this blog..., EVER...  So, you brought up football Coach - WHEN is the football season going to start?  I did a little bit of investigating last night, and this season's first college football game will be played on Thursday, August 29th, when South Carolina hosts North Carolina.  This season's first NFL matchup will take place on Thursday, September 5th, when the Denver Broncos host the Baltimore Ravens.  As I have for the last two seasons, I will be making weekly predictions on games once the season begins, and I also plan on giving some other random football predictions before that time.  Stay tuned...  :)

I hope that you have a great day and I'll see you again tomorrow!


        



    

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Could You? (25)

"@coachatx just said, "I felt special when those two girls came and said hi to me, and didn't say hi to you Tim"..." -@MrHawkins11- (via twitter)

"The sign, that I couldn't read, or a light, that I couldn't see, some things, you have to believe, but others are puzzles, puzzling me..." -Coldplay- (Speed Of Sound)

"I don't know what a carb is, but it sounds good.  I want one..." -Ebonie Landrum- (via facebook)

"Tell me what, is this thing, that I feel, like I'm missing, and why can't I let it go?"
-Stacie Orrico- (More To Life)

"Ahhhh..., they were just playing the Super Mario theme song in Starbucks!!"
-@PaigeHutch3- (via twitter)



Could you talk about someone who is almost as shameless about trying to get into the blog as Alyssa and Gabby Coach?  Sure I can, and good morning everyone...  Oh, and by the way Alyssa and Melanie, I still use that Bobcat "tumbler" EVERY DAY (it's the biggest cup that I have..., you know...).  :)  Okay, so back to the shameless people...  I was talking to Texas State's recently graduated football star Tim again this past weekend at Veranda.  I brought up the topic of all of the positions that he played on offense for the Bobcats (Tim's versatility at the skill positions was discussed in a recent post here), and Tim said that after starting out as a wide receiver, he was put in at running back after an injury to one of the starters.  The coaches basically told him that he was just as good as anyone else that the team had at the position (that sounds like a RINGING ENDORSEMENT I told Tim).  :)  Anyway, the same thing happened later on after the starting quarterback was injured.  Alright..., now everything that I just typed..., none of it was going to be in the blog today if that was the whole story.  I basically told Tim, "I wish that I would have known all of that when I wrote about you before - I could have put it in the blog..."  Now as we're speaking, girls are just COMING OUT OF THE WOODWORK to say hi to Tim (he played every offensive skill position on the football team - WHO WOULD'VE THOUGHT that football players would be popular?)...  :)  I actually asked Tim if he had like 50,000 friends on facebook.  He then told me that he did get requests ALL THE TIME, and that he probably had like 500 that he hadn't acted on yet (which I honestly believed).  Then Tim SHOWED ME on his phone, scrolling through SCREEN AFTER SCREEN of requests that he had received and hadn't taken action on - and you LAUGHED when I said that I was good at reading people/situations...  PFFFTTT!!!  ;)  Now if you read the opening tweet of this entry, you should already know that the best part of this story occurred when two of my friends, Natalie and Kate, came up to me and said hi, and they DIDN'T say hi to Tim..., didn't even know him AT ALL I don't think...  :)  And sure enough, as soon as he tweeted about that with my "name" in it, BAM!, Tim's in the blog again...  :P  Congratulations again to all three of these recent graduates - both Natalie and Kate have moved on to Houston to begin their new careers, and Tim currently has his sights set on staying here in the San Marcos, America area, which is obviously a good move (non-move???).  ;)

Could you find a way to work Gabby's name into another segment, while including Maureen and addressing a serious subject?  Wow, you people ask for A LOT...  Okay, this was something that I meant to mention in yesterday's entry.  So I assisted in saving the woman from drowning on Sunday, and about fifteen minutes later, I walked over to Bikini Hill to get a drink of my ice water.  Then I got back into the river and noticed that there were two lifeguards sitting and chatting by the second set of steps leading into the river (the first set being the steps closest to the bridge/street).  I stood up (the water is like three feet deep there) and asked them if they were being employed by the park, of if they were working a special function, etc... (it wasn't obvious like it was when Gabby and Maureen had their 200 "Cat Campers" there on a slow day - instead, this was a busy Sunday, and the group being watched MAY HAVE been comprised of 20 people).  That's when I interjected that since both of them were sitting there, that one of them might want to think about watching the area with the deeper water, and I informed them that not much earlier we had saved a couple of people from drowning...  They told me that there was another lifeguard "over there" (he was actually located at the next set of steps, which is maybe twenty yards from where this pair was sitting).  This guard's location left him about another FIFTY YARDS from where we saved the mother and child who flipped the tube, and a footbridge crossing the river probably obstructed the view of all of these lifeguards, based on where they were positioned (I'm also assuming this because none of them came to assist when the tube flipped, and probably were unaware that it had happened).  Well anyway, the two guards that I spoke with just resumed chatting...  Yeah..., let's guard the water that's 3 feet deep, and not worry about the water that's 10 feet deep with the stronger currents.  Very disappointing...

Could you mention something else that you forgot to address yesterday?  Sure...  :)  When I told the story about seeing my friend Alvin for the first time in twenty-seven years, I neglected to mention the fact that we went to high school in New Hampshire - that's NEW HAMPSHIRE...  So when we saw each other again for the first time in over a quarter of a century in TEXAS...  Well, that probably would have added something to it, huh?  ;)

Could you vent a little more Coach, and tell us about something that you find completely stupid (that would be "silly" for you youngsters out there, right Amy?).  :)  This topic happens to have even greater relevance to me now that I play fantasy baseball...  For you baseball fans out there, WHO is the genius that came up "defensive indifference?"  This is one of my biggest baseball pet peeves, so I may have blogged about this before...  For those of you who are unaware of what I'm talking about (Miletus :) ), defensive indifference occurs when a baserunner steals a base, but he IS NOT CREDITED with the steal because the defense did not try to throw him out.  It's obvious that the defense does not want the runner to have the extra base, but because they don't have a chance of throwing the runner out, they're concentrating on the batter, WHATEVER..., they don't make an attempt.  This rule makes about as much sense as when a girl breaks up with a guy (or vice versa), and the guy is like, "Well, she didn't really break up with me...  I didn't really like her anyway, or it never would have worked out in the long run, or (insert her alleged character flaws here)..."  YES, she DID break up with you, and IT IS a stolen base!  Oh, and YES, this rule DID cost one of my fantasy players a stolen base a few nights ago, which is the reason that you just suffered through that paragraph...  :)

Could you be more dramatic?  This year's Main Event of the World Series of Poker is currently underway, so I thought that I would include this little bit of insight...  I was watching the telecast of last year's Main Event a few nights ago, and Lon McEachern is just always SO HYPED UP about the hands that are being played out.  Lon is kind of like the Fox News of poker...  There was as open-ended "Broadway draw" (the player had 10 J Q K, and needed an ace or a 9 to make a straight and win the hand).  When the river was turned over, Lon exclaimed, "it's the SIX OF CLUBS!!!"  Of course, that river was a TOTAL BLANK - I'm sorry, I just think it's funny...  :)

I hope that you have a great day and I'll see you again on Thursday!










       

Monday, July 8, 2013

This Starts Now

"Here I am..., talking while you don't hear a word I say, knowing you're watching me from far away, somewhere that I've never been..." -Billy Joel- (State Of Grace)

"I'm sorry that I hurt you..., it's something I must live with every day..., and all the pain I put you through..., I wish that I could take it all away..." -Hoobastank- (The Reason)

"'Cause I can't take anymore of this, I want to come apart, or dig myself a little hole, inside your precious heart..." -Staind- (Epiphany)



Good morning everyone.  Today's post title is the answer to "this stops now," which is what I said when I saw my scale register 240 pounds on May 18th...  :O  "This" actually started a while back, and I don't know if I can pinpoint an exact moment (although if I'm going to be using 'This Starts Now' as a post title, I might want to figure that out) that this started.  Hey, it's Monday..., gimme a break...  ;)  <<<<<  This weekend someone told me that I like the "winky faces" - sue me...  ;) ;) ;)  Anyway, the job hunt will be all-consuming now, as will my upcoming move.  In the past month since leaving Harper's, I have successfully lost over ten pounds and flipped my sleep schedule.  I also said goodbye to my dad as he headed north after a long run on the outskirts of the Alamo City.  Now I have phone calls to make and LOTS of classified ads to read, so let's get to it...  Here we go...

As luck would have it, I probably have almost enough to write about for the whole week, due to the fact that this weekend was more eventful than I would have anticipated.  Yesterday I woke up SUPER EARLY for no reason (if you're new to the blog, "for no reason" means that I didn't have to get up, I didn't set an alarm, etc...), so I went and bought some groceries.  I went back to sleep at about 9:30 a.m. and set my alarm for just before noon, knowing that my friend was going to be calling in the early afternoon.  Shortly after noon, Alvin did indeed call, and said that his group was just entering San Marcos (insert EEEEEEEKKK!!! or YIKES!!! here, both words that I don't normally use)...  I was expecting a call when they were about to DEPART from the ATX, but I'm adaptable...  ;) <<<<< (Obligatory winky face...)  Anyway, I met up with Alvin, Amy, and the two precious youngsters that they had in tow at Grins.  Now Alvin is a high school classmate of mine, and I hadn't seen him in... (c'mon..., take a shot at this..., you know what I'm going to say..., that's right...) one hundred years...  Alvin was nice enough to buy lunch for all of us (which is not near punishment enough for the fact that this whole group lives in... (c'mon, take a shot at it..., you can guess it..., that's right...) Las Vegas...  I better have a REALLY GREAT YEAR up in Austin since it seems that I'm the only one who doesn't live out in Las Vegas or at least visit the desert every other month (I might be exaggerating)...  :)  I really enjoyed catching up with this group as I ate a "light lunch" (half an order of 'Nachomoles' and two of the kids' quesadillas that I managed to steal)...  ;) <<<<< (Gratuitous winky face and NO, I did not really steal their food - it seems that two young ladies had a "pre-lunch" of yogurt on the Square)...  OH, I forgot to tell you, when Alvin called me from the Square, he suggested that we eat at this place called 'Harper's Public House'...  I told him that Harper's doesn't serve food, and that I had worked there until recently (as you know, this was a DEAD GIVEAWAY that he hadn't read the blog before)...  :)

So after a great visit, they dropped me off at my apartment (Grins was like a five-minute walk for me), and I quickly prepared for my trip to..., THE RIVER (which is the reason that I ate the light lunch, after learning how soon we'd be meeting)...  As you probably guessed, I would have written about this reunion today anyway (it really was the first time that we had seen each other in twenty-seven years), but then something happened at the river yesterday that's worth mentioning.  Oh, and by the way, Alvin is my first high school classmate that can testify as to how rough life is on Bikini Hill...  :)  #thestruggle  Anyway, as I hung out at "the ladder," a group of about ten tubers reached the turn by the basketball court where the water gets deeper (it goes from about 3 feet to over 10 feet deep) when a tube with a mother and her young daughter (I would put her on being about 3 years old) flipped over.  The two of them weren't wearing life jackets, and as it turns out, neither of them could swim...  Coincidentally, someone asked me a few days ago if I was a lifeguard when I was escaping the sun in the river...  Well, the bright side of my AC unit having its problems battling the late afternoon heat is that I was there to help save these two.  I was about twenty yards away when I started, and immediately went for the little girl (which almost everyone did as it turns out), and it was only when I got closer that I realized that the mother couldn't swim either.  There was a guy helping to keep the mother afloat when I got to them, but the problem with where she ended up was that she wasn't in the current, so we actually had to pull her to the current, at which point the water helped us in getting her to the ladder.  Afterward the mother said that they didn't realize that the water got that deep...  Needless to say, this was the end of the tubing trip for the father and his family, and he was nice enough to seek me out after all of the commotion has passed to shake my hand and say thank you.

Now in some happier river news, I met a few more Rattlers on Saturday.  The Rattlers are the mascot of the local high school here, where I taught and coached... (c'mon..., you know the answer to this one..., that's right...) one hundred years ago...  Now the first time that Elena and Marissa crossed paths with me, they wouldn't have found their way into the blog, but I did notice that when Marissa reached the ladder, she kind of paused, almost like she had..., choked or something???  The thing was, she wasn't making any choking noises, and when she had composed herself, all she said was, "that was attractive..."  This made me laugh out loud, and my guess was that she was just worried about how her hair looked...  Now the next time that I saw this pair..., ha ha ha...  As these two ladies hit that same spot where the tube flipped yesterday, OUT OF NOWHERE, a snorkel POPPED UP out of the water, right in Marissa's face!!!  The way that she reacted, you'd have thought that it was a snake, and I don't blame her for being alarmed.  NOTE:  In addition to the non-swimmers needing life jackets, the snorkelers need to be aware of their surroundings - one popped up from beneath the surface of the water yesterday and got hit in the head by the paddle of someone passing by in a kayak...  On a related note, maybe in the near future we'll discuss the wisdom of trying to navigate kayaks and canoes through the river at Sewell Park during a predictably busy Fourth of July Weekend...  Okay, so back to Elena and Marissa...  So what clinched me asking their permission to put their adventures in the blog today was their next trip down the river, when one of them (I forget which one) claimed that a fish had swam between their legs, to which the other responded, "WELL GET OUT THEN!"  :)  Now when I asked these two if I could use their story in the blog, they actually made me feel bad for a second when they told me, "yeah, someone put us in their blog last year..."  Knowing that they were local high school students, I asked them if they knew the twins (Victoria and Trinity from last week's 'Sisters' post, which they did), quickly summarized the story that I had written about those two, and then told Elena and Marissa that I coached at the high school a hundred years ago (you already knew that it was coming that time)...  Since these two had already been put in somebody's blog last year when visiting Bikini Hill, I didn't want them to think that it was like some kind of scam of something..., like they were going to be obligated to buy..., I don't know..., ALUMINUM SIDING in the future, or become a part of some devious pyramid scheme...  :)  Thankfully I'll be moving to Austin soon, before TWO THOUSAND San Marcos High School students want to be in the blog...  :)


Weekly fantasy baseball results you ask?  Here ya go...


League 1 (25 entry fee - 1st place/125, 2nd place/25)

1)  DraftDodgers                                        74.50
2)  Neshanic                                             69.00
3)  Buschleaguers                                     62.50
7)  The View From Bikini Hill                      51.00 (7th AND over 50 points?!)  ;)


League 2 (40 entry fee - 1st place/300, 2nd place/50)

1)  Breaking Bats                                      85.00 (PACE YOURSELF dude...)  :)
2)  4troublemakes                                     71.50
3)  Loons XXIV                                          59.00
4)  The Bikini Hill Bobcats                         54.50 (4th - must be a typo...)


League 3 (40 entry fee - 1st place/300, 2nd place/50)

1)  Pittsburg Crawfords                              72.50
2)  jonnylove7                                           64.00
3)  Nappy Heads                                       62.00
5)  Fishing For Trout                                  56.50
5)  The Bikini Hill Nine                               56.50 (there's hope...)


I know that you're all waiting to hear how many pitching victories I got from the Bikini Hill Nine last week, after my pitchers had an uncanny EIGHTEEN starts...  The answer is nine, which I'll take...  :)  My teams are heading in the right direction, so much so that I actually had trouble deciding which player to drop yesterday when I had a player return from the disabled list.  WHAT am I going to do when everyone on The View From Bikini Hill (still six players on the DL) becomes healthy?!

I hope that you have a great day and I'll see you again tomorrow!









                                        




Friday, July 5, 2013

Goodbye

"And all this could be, such a dream, so it seems, I was never much good at goodbye..."
-Night Ranger- (Goodbye)

"I will remember you, will you remember me, don't let your life pass you by, weep not for the memories..." -Sarah McLachlan- (I Will Remember You)

"It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right, I hope you had the time of your life..."
-Green Day- (Time Of Your Life)



Good morning everyone.  Let me start off by saying that I wouldn't be able to do this post the justice that it deserves even if I sat here at my keyboard for the next week...  Even though I was only 10 years old at the time, I still vividly remember the move from Virginia to Texas after my dad was transferred from Quantico to Randolph Air Force Base in 1979.  I still remember the TORRENTIAL RAIN that we drove through in Houston as I rode co-pilot with my mom, following and trying not to lose the car that my dad was driving with my brother serving as his co-pilot.  We didn't lose them, but that rain was HEAVY (looking online just now, I learned that the name of the tropical storm responsible for this rain was Claudette - 42 inches of rain recorded in Alvin in a 24-hour period)...  I remember the Motel 6 on Loop 410 in San Antonio where my family lived while we were waiting for base housing on Randolph, and endlessly checking the vending machines for the surprising amount of loose change that I was able to find...  I also remember being thankful that this hotel had a SWIMMING POOL, because it was HOT.  I can tell you that this move took place in late July and early August.  I'm only positive about the time frame because I just looked up when New York Yankees catcher Thurman Munson died in a plane crash (August 2nd, 1979).  I was a huge baseball fan when I was younger and I still remember that happening during our move.  This was in 1979...

Not long after we arrived, my dad found a second job as a bartender in Universal City, at a bar which is located about half a mile off the front gate of Randolph.  My dad retired from the Air Force in 1984, and he just worked his last shift as the manager of the Pawn Pub on WEDNESDAY...  Yes..., Wednesday..., July 3rd, 2013...  On Tuesday while I was driving to U.C. to meet my dad at the Pawn, I realized that he was 34 years old when he was transferred to Randolph, which coincidentally happens to be the number of years that he worked at the Pub - 34 years.  I know, WOW...  I cannot even begin to tell you how many people are going to miss him.  If I had a dollar for every time that someone at the Pawn has come up to me and introduced themself because they found out that I was "Billy's son," or told me how much they thought of him, or bought me a drink because I'm his son, or told me that I look like him (and you have to have sympathy for anyone who looks like me), well, I'd have a lot of dollars...  I heard someone refer to my dad as "the historian" the other day.  My dad's memory is UNCANNY, and his ability to remember names and people makes me completely envious (and is something that I MUST get better at doing).  Like I said, I could sit here for a week and not even put a dent in mentioning the seemingly endless number of friendships that my dad has cultivated over the years, or the lives that he has influenced.  And the stories that I wish I knew...  When I told the story yesterday about Mr. Hollis and my dad being part of the group of 19 golfers in Las Vegas that was out on the course with the winds gusting up to 70 miles an hour, all while the decision to CLOSE McCarran International Airport had been made...  Yeah, I WISH I knew all of the stories...  :)

As I write this, my dad is driving up I-35 North with a full truck, making the trip to Missouri.  To say that things won't be the same here is the understatement of all time...  I'm sure that I speak for everyone who knows him when I say that we're already looking forward to Thanksgiving, which is when Dad's first visit home is supposed to take place.  Of course you have to remember that everything in life in fluid - Sunday, the day of Dad's going away party (and thank you everyone, it was OUTSTANDING), was also the day of his last shift, as was MONDAY, and WEDNESDAY...  :)  Have a safe trip Dad, and we'll see you soon...





    

Thursday, July 4, 2013

I Remember The First Time (24)

"You end up like a dog that's been beat too much, til you spend half your life just covering up..."
-Bruce Springsteen- (Born In The U.S.A.)

"Living In America..., eye to eye, station to station, living in America..., hand in hand, across the nation, living in America..., I got to have a celebration..., ROCK MY SOUL..."
-James Brown- (Living In America)

"Let freedom ring..., let the white dove sing..., let the whole world know that today is a day of reckoning..." -Martina McBride- (Let Freedom Ring)

"And they were singing, bye bye Miss American Pie, drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry, them good old boys were drinking whiskey and rye, singing this'll be the day that I die, this'll be the day that I die..." -Don McLean- (American Pie)

"And I gladly STAND UP, next to you, and defend her still today, 'cause there ain't no doubt, I love this land, God Bless the U.S.A..." -Lee Greenwood- (Proud To Be An American)



I remember the first time that I was curious...  Good morning everyone, and Happy Independence Day!  So yesterday after I posted a facebook status, it came up on my wall with that 'promote' tab as one of the options (Like, Share, Promote, etc...).  Out of curiosity, I clicked on 'promote'...  In case you've never done this yourself, you can get your facebook status put in a prominent place on your the walls of your friends for ONLY..., wait for it..., wait for it..., $6.99!  PFFFFTTT!!!  I don't know about you, but I don't have anything to say that is that important (which you already know, since you're reading my blog)...  ;)

I remember the first time that I talked about facebook again...  When I went to my personal page on facebook last night, it encouraged me to 'Complete Your Profile Places' (after signing up for facebook, I filled out EVERYTHING that I could, and later on the people at facebook decided to WIPE ALL OF THAT OUT, so I've refused to retype most of that information).  Anyway, the first prompt was 'Which City Do You Live In?'  This prompt was followed by possible choices, which was followed by the number of friends that I have who live in each place.  IN ORDER, my choices were:  San Marcos, Texas; Austin, Texas; and Las Vegas, Nevada...  I guess that I did a pretty good job when I renamed the blog, huh?...  ;)

I remember the first time that my attitude completely changed...  I went to H-E-B last night to pick up a few things because I didn't know if they would be open today, and the store was PACKED just before 9:00 p.m.  If you know me at all, you know that I HATE shopping at night for this reason.  EVERY FOOL WITH A CART was cutting in front of me, or SUDDENLY STOPPING for no reason...  As I was walking back to the front of the store, I walked past a "split aisle..."  Yes, I'll explain...  :)  There's half an aisle of goods, then a gap where you can see into the next aisle, and then more goods.  When I hit the gap, I thought that I saw somebody that I knew in front of me, but her back was turned toward me as she talked on her phone.  The odds that it was her were low, because I had seen on facebook when I woke up from a nap just before leaving to shop that she had been out with a friend an hour earlier.  From behind her (the other side of the goods from me) I heard a little girl calling out to her, so after a few more steps I turned back toward the voice.  From only having seen this cute little girl's photo on facebook previously, I realized that the person that I had seen was indeed my friend Monica, and that the girl was her daughter.  I walked over and gave Monica a hug, and while she resumed her phone conversation, I had NO SUCCESS in getting her handsome two year-old son to shake my hand...  After a few seconds, her beautiful five year-old girl comes down the aisle to ask Monica if she could get something (we were in the toy aisle - what are the odds?)...  :)  Monica said yes, and her girl went back to where she had been looking at toys.  When Monica got off of the phone, she grabbed a kid's fishing pole for her son while we talked, and in his excitement, he called out his sister's name, and said, "look..., a fishing pole!"  His older sister, who was still sorting through toys to find what she wanted to take home, shot back, "I don't wanna see it!...," and then turned back to the shelf of toys...  :)  I have a feeling that these two could keep me going all day long, and isn't it amazing how your attitude can change, just like that?...  ;)

I remember the first time that the rest of my stories switched to tales that I heard at my dad's bar this week...  As I have said already, my dad was working his last shifts at a bar during the past week, a bar that he has worked at for the past 34 years.  Tomorrow I will be writing a little bit about this...  In the meantime, I have a few stories for you...  Regarding ALL OF THE LEFTOVERS that I took home from his going away party, Steve (one of the bartenders who came in to work that shift) made this comment upon arriving at work:  "I was gonna have lunch and I thought..., WHY?...  :)

I remember the first time I realized where my sense of humor comes from...  The bar was getting busy before my dad's party began, so I answered an incoming call, and then handed the phone to my dad.  Debbie (the caller) was asking if the bar had any bowls.  This was Dad's response:  "Don't I ALWAYS have bowls?  I haven't quit yet baby..."  :)

I remember the first time that I mowed a lawn...  Our friend Steve (Mr. Hollis, a different Steve) was telling a story about mowing the grass at the house that he once rented from my dad (the house that I lived in when I was in the seventh grade, a fact which has no bearing on this story whatsoever...).  He might have been about five yards from the house when he suddenly heard a CRASH, and quickly realized that the mower had SHOT A ROCK through the sliding glass door, causing the whole thing to LOUDLY SHATTER!  Steve proceeded to go and pick up two replacement panes of glass.  He picked up a pane for the one that had shattered, and another that had never been there since he moved in.  The way that he told the story about it taking him AN HOUR to carry the glass from the front of the house to the back porch is HILARIOUS!  :)  He was moving the glass BY HIMSELF, and you know how heavy and awkward those doors are to carry, right?...  The best part is that he went to my dad's bar after installing the glass, where they proceeded to haggle over who should pay for the panes of glass (over SEVERAL drinks)...  :)  Okay, I won't keep you in suspense - each of them ended up paying for one of them, ALTHOUGH I thought that since Steve had installed them...  ANYWAY...  :)

I remember the first time that I never golfed during a hurricane...  The story that made me laugh the most over the past few days at the bar was the tale about the time that Steve (from the mowing story) and my dad were among a group of people who went out to Las Vegas to golf and gamble for a few days.  One day at Angel Park, they were part of a group of nineteen people that was out golfing on a windy day.  Okay..., windy...  When they returned to the casino that they were staying at, they learned that the winds had been gusting up to SEVENTY MILES AN HOUR!...  Okay..., windy...  They also learned after the round that McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas HAD BEEN CLOSED due to the high winds...  Now just sit back and imagine how much money the city loses when those passengers can't land and gamble away their money, yet the winds were strong enough that they decided to..., SHUT DOWN THE AIRPORT!!!  :O  Steve said that they were using DRIVERS on par three's and that they were NOT EVEN COMING CLOSE to hitting the greens...  :P

I hope that you have a VERY SAFE and HAPPY 4th of July, and I'll see you again tomorrow!