Reversible belt (40)
Saturday my Men's Nationals team (The Big Table) competed in the New England Regional B tournament. We came out of pool play tied for 2nd and then made it to the finals! We lost to a team that is playing BB, so technically, we are the best B team in New England! That means we get $250 for beer money :) I was hitting really well all day. A guy from the winning team even said I was our best hitter and they had to adjust around me.
Sunday I played in a reverse co-ed (women's net) tournament for the RCO B- Champs. We went 7-1 in pool play to clinch 1st place. We lost the first game of the semis from being cold and sitting too long. We made some adjustments and I turned on some defense and hitting, and we won the semis and then won the finals! We got some nice sweatshirt hoodies. I have not won a tournament in so long, it felt good!
6:00 Charlie's Kitchen, dinner (10 Eliot St)
7:30 OM (92 Winthrop St)
8:00 John Harvard's (33 Dunster St)
9:00 Shay's (58 JFK St)
10:00 Tommy Doyle's (96 Winthrop St)
11:00 Whitney's (37 JFK St)
midnight Hong Kong (1238 Mass Ave)
Well, I figured-out what I pay on a monthly basis:
Condo fee = $248
Electricity = $78
Gas = $62
Cable/Internet/Phone = $133
That is a lot!!!
Several of us rented a huge, beautiful home in Hermosa Beach, CA to celebrate New Year's and the Rose Bowl trip. Joe, Elena, Rob, Theresia, Beth, and myself (with special guest appearances from Uncle Lar). This house was amazing with three bedrooms, leather couches, a pool table, large TV, and a hot tub on the roof! The granite island in the kitchen was bigger than my bed. Joe and Elena used to live in Hermosa so they showed us around and we had a blast. It was the best New Year's ever! Parking at the Rose Bowl is not very efficient with 1-lane of traffic but we eventually got on the golf course (yes, we parked ON the course). We had a quick tailgate as traffic slowed us down. After some munchies, we had a 4 beer walk to the Rose Bowl (well, I had 4 M lites). Along the way, we negotiated the lanyard and ticket holder guy from $10 to $5, that was fun.
It is a well-designed stadium and looks beautiful. The B2 bomber flyover was silent until it kicked on the engines, that was amazing! The 1st quarter looked like it was going to be a good, close game. Then, Penn State had all kinds of penalties, which is unusual, and breakdowns in the secondary, to allow a huge 2nd quarter for USC. Their fans, players, and even coaches were getting so cocky. I have lost respect for Pete Carroll because he hoisted a ball in the air and was jumping up and down, leading his team. That is a lack of class, in my opinion. When I coach, I never act like that. He seems like a politician, very polished in his speeches but on the field, he shows his true cocky colors. Most of the fans seemed cool and respectful. One young guy right in front of us was obnoxious, wearing $300 designer sunglasses, and I really did want to knock him out. Penn State made a solid comeback in the 2nd half but it was not enough. We had a long walk back in the dark (those damn balloons are hard to see). Back at the van we drank some more to let traffic thin out.
Friday night we decided to do a bar tour of Hermosa. Man, it was awesome! We went to some of Joe's and Elena's old favorite pubs. Two of them were Boston/New England bars and I rubbed it in Theresia's face (silly NY fan). We all gave the mechanical bull a shot, which they kick the guys off pretty quickly. The ladies made great efforts! The tour was a great success and so was the entire vacation in California. Perfect!
Saturday August 16 at 1:00 pm, we will begin at the Barking Crab. This is the first time my bar tours have extended into Irish-Boston. We will tour Southie (aka South Boston), hitting a popular Good Will Hunting bar: L Street Tavern. I expect over 40 people.
I decided to pull the trigger and ditch the dual 21" CRT setup. I bought the Samsung 2693HM. It is 25.5" diagonally with a resolution of 1920x1200. This is 20 pounds and impressive! It will look nice on my new Ikea desk in a couple weeks!
Sunday I went to IKEA, the Swedish superstore! I came out with two great nightstands where there is a lid to store stuff in addition to a door with shelves. I also got a bench for the bathroom and three wicker baskets to organize stuff. I can put reading materials on the bench :) I found two floor lamps for $7 each, what a deal!
Part Deux will be my trip with my brother's minivan to get my new office desk. I figured-out the pieces I need and measured the office. I am good to go! It will have a corner table top and a large rectangle, forming a nice L-shaped desk. The frames are intelligently designed such that the legs will be out of the way when I am working, so I do not need to worry about hurting myself. The next phase will be to select a comfortable office chair and shelving for hanging stuff above the desk.
Well, I got one pair of tickets this year! Michigan was too full for my low donation level, boo 
Gate B
SEU
Row 80
Seat 27 & 29
$61.00 each
While playing grass doubles volleyball, my foot slipped-out from underneath me. I let it rest, then it happened again. There is pain behind the heel and in front of the achilles tendon. I went to the doctor with an article in my hand, describing a possible diagnosis; it is right-on. Now I need X-rays and a MRI to confirm the real issue. The bone is the Posterior talar process (lateral tubercle).
Foot Fractures Frequently Misdiagnosed as Ankle Sprains
As it turns-out, I only have a muscle/tendon strain and maybe a slightly bruised bone. Nothing to worry about. I just need to rest and take anti-inflammatory drugs. Ice now and then.
Life has been busy, to say the least! I am very focused on training for volleyball and am seeing great progress. Nationals was in Atlanta, which is not a great city. Panhandlers are all over the place and the city is very spread-out. We made the most of it.
At the end of last year, I had to spend a lot of money on geeky stuff! I built my own computer (quad-core Intel overclocked to 3.4 GHz, 4 GB RAM overclocked to 1,135 MHz), bought a Lenovo ThinkPad T61 laptop (which is a great, solid machine). My desktop is running Kubuntu Linux and the laptop is running Ubuntu Linux. I am not wasting these multi-core computers on Windows XP, since it does not support multiple processors (unless you buy the more expensive 64-bit version, which is no where near as robust as regular XP or Linux).