Not in Pleasant Valley
Dear lord, another old song reference? (You might get it if you realize I'm writing this on Sunday.) Sorry. Need to come up with something new... um... Yeah, I'll turn on my Yahoo music station and see what it plays.
12 inch remix of Obsession by Animotion (1996, though the original song is from 1985)
Birds Fly (Whisper to a Scream) by Icicle Works (1988)
Lack of Communication by Ratt (1984)
Great... But hey - they're from the 80's, not the 60's or 70's!!
Anyway, where I was going with this is: I've been pretty bored all day. I'm not feeling altogether well at the moment (though I think I am healthier today than I was last night). The Bronco's game isn't until this evening. There are no games going on with my OrcSports teams today. People aren't responding to email, aren't posting much on the message boards, and the newsgroups are pretty quiet. TV sucks today. The kids have chores to do and aren't overly enthusiastic about it.
Can I just have a do-over on today? I promise I'll be more productive if I can just have another shot at it!
No, you can't have a refund for the time it took you to read this post. :-p
Labels: entertainment
I am an orc! I am an iiiiiisland!
If I keep up these old song references, you are not going to believe me when I say I'm 37. On the other hand, I'm only going to be 37 for another few weeks.
This picture was taken on September 10th at the Denver AIDS walk. My kids and I walked in costume again this year. Since I got sponsorship from players of my game (OrcSports.com), I decided my costume this year would be an orc. I didn't quite get the reaction I thought I would. I got several comments on how modern dental work could help me with that underbite, several people calling me a viking, some that asked me, "what's in your wallet?" and three spontaneous hugs. HUGS?!?
Overall, I would say the experience at the walk was fun, but at the same time disappointing. We were hoping more people from the organization we were representing (IFGS) would show up and walk with us, but it turned into a family team instead. Maybe next year I should try to get an OrcSports team together instead.
We did end up raising a couple hundred dollars for AIDS related research, which is good. Thanks to all who sponsored my kids and me.
Labels: charity, entertainment, orcsports
Night moves
I woke last night to the sound of thunder
How far off I sat and wondered
Started hummin' a song from 1962...
-- Bob Seger, Night Moves
I probably couldn't come up with a song from 1962, though I would probably recognize one if I heard it. But that's not what I'm writing about. I have no idea why, but last night around 4:15 AM I was suddenly wide awake. I really didn't need this since I didn't go to bed until around midnight. I lay in bed listening to my wife's breathing, to the cars on the nearby main street, glancing at the clock, and wondering just why I was awake now. Nothing seemed out-of-place. No other odd noises alerted me to anything going on, inside the house or outside. No clue.
Some time around 5:00, I blinked and suddenly it was 6:30. I woke up again to see sunlight streaming in the window and hear my wife feeding the cats in the kitchen - the start of just another day. I remember having had a dream about being back at my mom's house, when the family would all come to visit. The house would be full of conversations about politics and kids, remodeling and whatever else came up. Fun times! It put me into an odd, sort of melancholy mood, but I think I've gotten over it now. Mostly.
Labels: philosophy
The camping trip that wasn't
Shortly before Labor Day weekend, we decided we would like to go camping. We haven't actually gone camping apart from IFGS games... ever, I think. We know of some land north of Drake that we can use (being part owners and all). So Friday night, I got the sleeping bags out to air out a bit, and got a few other things ready. On Saturday, it was a bit rainy, so I loaded up the back seat of the truck with our gear from the garage - sleeping bags, tent, propane stove, blankets, clothes, pillows (can't forget pillows), hiking boots, chainsaw, etc.
Then we got a call from a guy who was going to meet us up there. Apparently, it had been raining all night and didn't look to be letting up any time soon. My wife and I talked about it a bit, and decided that we just wouldn't camp. So I took the tents, sleeping bags, etc., OUT of the truck and put them on the porch. Now we have just a few things for the day - some water, the chainsaw, a change of clothes just in case, etc. I loaded in some stuff for the day trip and put a cooler in the kitchen so we could put in something for lunch/dinner for later. I filled a thermos with hot water and got some hot chocolate mix ready.
Then we talked about it some more and decided that since our friend was going to try to go up on Sunday instead, that we would try to go up on Sunday instead as well. So I unloaded the stuff I put in the truck for the day trip and, rather than leave everything on the porch, I put everything back in the garage or wherever it came from.
On Sunday, for whatever reason, we just didn't go anywhere. Ditto for Monday. It was a bit frustrating, and now the weather is unlikely to cooperate much with camping-oriented plans. We'll have to try again next year.
Labels: entertainment
Tribute
1964 The Tribute. I think that's the name of the band we saw at Red Rocks. They're a Beatles band that plays stuff from the earlier Beatles invasion. They dress like the Beatles, they sound like the Beatles, they hold instruments like the Beatles. All in all, from what I could see, they were pretty good.
I say, "from what I could see," because the couple in front of us spent a lot of time on their feet. The girl was dancing almost non-stop, and the guy felt compelled, I suppose, to stand up next to her while she danced, doing his best "wall" imitation. Given that Red Rocks is not the most stadium-like of venues -- and good thing, too since they make you gain a couple hundred feet in altitude to get to your seat as it is -- so seeing past them was a real pain in the ass. During the intermission, my wife and I moved up a row, but that didn't help. They were still in our line of sight. No amount of asking, yelling or anything could get them to sit for any amount of time. At one point, the guy to our right proved Murphy's Law. He yelled at them to sit down, and a moment later, "Paul" told everyone in the audience to stand up!
At the end of the show, the "wall" turned around and demanded the guy next to us apologize to his wife for telling her to sit down. Well, this guy didn't want anything to do with him or his woman, so tried to ignore him. When it became evident that he wasn't going to go away, I entered the conversation and told him to go ... um... whiz up a rope, or something like that. Really, who needs that kind of stress?
So what is the etiquette for going to concerts and standing versus sitting? Most of the crowd sat for most of the performance, except for these two and a handful of others. There was occasional standing up, but for the most part, people kept their seats and allowed everyone to see the show. Were these two just buttholes or was it me?
Labels: entertainment
