Misplaced items and a city that won't stay dead
So I was a touch forgetful in recalling my texas experience. Two minor things I would like to note. We were on a road that was under construction and there was a large hole on the other side where there once was a lane with 4 construction workers in it. Three of the four were wearing white cowboy hats as opposed to the more traditional hardhat. That was a welcome to texas moment. The other was my attendance at my young cousin's football practice, he's 9, and watching the 6 dads direct their sons in the fundamentals of life's most important game. The next morning we went to one of his contests. It was a thriller and I say that in all sincerity. They were down by two scores but came back to win with a pass and a snazzy reverse play that really fooled the other team. Apparently they had only been scored on once all season prior to this game. The quarterback/safety on the other team was an animal. He was quite fast and a sure tackler. By the carnage he was wrecking he was like an urlacher or ray lewis out there, though smaller in stature, so it was actually a little jarring when he made a tackle near me and I could see that he was a sandy haired kid with freckles.
Onto Pheonix:
We arrived friday and went to a nice mexican cantina in Scottsdale for the rehearsal dinner. We had a bit of a medical emergency when my aunt bit her tongue and the blood wouldn't stop oozing out for some time. Also when we finished supping my uncle noticed a powerful little sports car pulled up next to the cantina: a ferrari. However, what made it especially interesting was the fact that the hood on the aft mounted engine was clear, so you could see directly into the inner workings of the V22 or whatever it was. The wedding went well. Since it was at a baseball park I was hopeful that they would incorporate more baseball things into the ceremony. I was picturing my uncle signalling to the bullpen for the right-hander and having my cousin driven in on the cart. Or unshelled peanuts being available during the wedding with the options of throwing the shells at the wedding party as they left, I imagine its better for the birds than rice; not so sadly, the wedding incorporated none of these elements. My brother and I did manage to tear up the dance floor though that evening and drew rave reviews. I should also mention that earlier that day I watched the 45+ world series, San Jose won. I think the highlight was when they announced an attendance of 48: that includes those of us who were helping set up for the wedding.
In other news my dad's cat is now on the feline version of Prozac. Apparently the cat is depressed; I thought that was funny until I wrote the previous clause, now I think its just sad, rest assured though I will not fall into the trap of taking prozac myself to deal with a depressed cat on prozac, that would be nutty. The other item of animal news is that when I got to my mom's house I saw a rather realistic looking 'coon tail in the carhouse. Apparently my stepdad has taken to collecting the 'coon tails and the attached fur that he finds in the woods behind my house, or the street outside, and has some future plans for them that may or may not involve a hat; I never realized that he had a bit of a habberdasher in him. (it should be noted that my mother strenuously objects to the whole project)
Well I went back to Chicago after being in pheonix for 2 days, hung out with jesus as promised and played some beer die. Brunch with Nadine and friend the next morning, still love salonica's. Went up to kings and caught up on Lost and AD, bryan informed me that they are cancelling AD: I have given up on the american people. Went with Bryan, Rachael McCarthy, Akira, and Eleanor to a spanish place and then to Darwin's for drinks. Eleanor who was a member of SuperSnatch when Akira and Rachael were still students was and presumably still is one of the most polite and considerate people I've met in a while. Was a good time, went back and played some scattegories with tony, bryan, and rachael; that was good fun. Tony also gave me some warm apparel he apparently has no further need for. One of the items had a hole in the sleeve, this will come up later.
So I took Amtrak back to MN with a delay in arrival of only 75 min, not bad for Amtrak. I decided that this time I would try to get more of the train experience and so I had dinner in the dining car, the beef pot pie was pretty good. I ate with a gentleman in a catholic seminary and a couple headed to the Mayo clinic to make sure the husband's cancer was still in remission. Apparently the Mayo clinic helped him when other's thought he was terminal; he was very keen on the Mayo. We discussed religion primarily. Afterwards I watched batman begins in the observation car.
Upon my arrival in the twin cities I was picked up by a friend and we were supposed to meet another friend at a bar called nye's. Nye's was a very cool mix of polka, las vegas karaoke lounge (if such a thing still exists or ever did), and college basement party. Quite the range of clientele as well with every thing from college students to evening dressed ladies and gentlemen, to men in suits. We did not find my friend.
Lastly last night those of us still here went to a local bar called the Vanishing Point where we played pool and danced, I did more of the latter than the former. I should note that is when I discovered that I had sewn the seam on the wrong side of the shirt Tony had given me so now the underside of that sleeve looks somewhat ridiculous. I was somewhat embarrassed but others were impressed that I had tried to sew anything. I danced a lot, worked on a little break dancing, lost a dance off, danced more, and in general had a good time.
Today it was in the high 30s, raining, and I worked outside. It wasn't too bad though as we kept warm by putting in a new firebreak which required a lot of sawing, axe swinging, chainsawing, hauling out stumps with a truck, digging out and cutting up stumps, and apparently breaking a lot of axes. We broke 1 maul,1 double headed axe, and two firemen axes. At the end we were trying to dislodge a particularly large stump and I suggested those swingin' give it some oomph; the oomph cost us a maul and one of the fire axes, but on the plus side you can now wiggle the stump, which was honestly quite the achievement though it might seem small.
That's it for tonight, except that I ate potato-leek soup while watching jack nicholson and art garfunkel act, sadly for art his acting didn't amount to much when he parted with nicholson. Wasn't a bad movie, was called Carnal Knowledge. Well that's it for now, sorry it took a while to add anything. Was good to see everyone, and enjoy winter's opening salvo when it hits you in a day or so, its snowing here right now.
Onto Pheonix:
We arrived friday and went to a nice mexican cantina in Scottsdale for the rehearsal dinner. We had a bit of a medical emergency when my aunt bit her tongue and the blood wouldn't stop oozing out for some time. Also when we finished supping my uncle noticed a powerful little sports car pulled up next to the cantina: a ferrari. However, what made it especially interesting was the fact that the hood on the aft mounted engine was clear, so you could see directly into the inner workings of the V22 or whatever it was. The wedding went well. Since it was at a baseball park I was hopeful that they would incorporate more baseball things into the ceremony. I was picturing my uncle signalling to the bullpen for the right-hander and having my cousin driven in on the cart. Or unshelled peanuts being available during the wedding with the options of throwing the shells at the wedding party as they left, I imagine its better for the birds than rice; not so sadly, the wedding incorporated none of these elements. My brother and I did manage to tear up the dance floor though that evening and drew rave reviews. I should also mention that earlier that day I watched the 45+ world series, San Jose won. I think the highlight was when they announced an attendance of 48: that includes those of us who were helping set up for the wedding.
In other news my dad's cat is now on the feline version of Prozac. Apparently the cat is depressed; I thought that was funny until I wrote the previous clause, now I think its just sad, rest assured though I will not fall into the trap of taking prozac myself to deal with a depressed cat on prozac, that would be nutty. The other item of animal news is that when I got to my mom's house I saw a rather realistic looking 'coon tail in the carhouse. Apparently my stepdad has taken to collecting the 'coon tails and the attached fur that he finds in the woods behind my house, or the street outside, and has some future plans for them that may or may not involve a hat; I never realized that he had a bit of a habberdasher in him. (it should be noted that my mother strenuously objects to the whole project)
Well I went back to Chicago after being in pheonix for 2 days, hung out with jesus as promised and played some beer die. Brunch with Nadine and friend the next morning, still love salonica's. Went up to kings and caught up on Lost and AD, bryan informed me that they are cancelling AD: I have given up on the american people. Went with Bryan, Rachael McCarthy, Akira, and Eleanor to a spanish place and then to Darwin's for drinks. Eleanor who was a member of SuperSnatch when Akira and Rachael were still students was and presumably still is one of the most polite and considerate people I've met in a while. Was a good time, went back and played some scattegories with tony, bryan, and rachael; that was good fun. Tony also gave me some warm apparel he apparently has no further need for. One of the items had a hole in the sleeve, this will come up later.
So I took Amtrak back to MN with a delay in arrival of only 75 min, not bad for Amtrak. I decided that this time I would try to get more of the train experience and so I had dinner in the dining car, the beef pot pie was pretty good. I ate with a gentleman in a catholic seminary and a couple headed to the Mayo clinic to make sure the husband's cancer was still in remission. Apparently the Mayo clinic helped him when other's thought he was terminal; he was very keen on the Mayo. We discussed religion primarily. Afterwards I watched batman begins in the observation car.
Upon my arrival in the twin cities I was picked up by a friend and we were supposed to meet another friend at a bar called nye's. Nye's was a very cool mix of polka, las vegas karaoke lounge (if such a thing still exists or ever did), and college basement party. Quite the range of clientele as well with every thing from college students to evening dressed ladies and gentlemen, to men in suits. We did not find my friend.
Lastly last night those of us still here went to a local bar called the Vanishing Point where we played pool and danced, I did more of the latter than the former. I should note that is when I discovered that I had sewn the seam on the wrong side of the shirt Tony had given me so now the underside of that sleeve looks somewhat ridiculous. I was somewhat embarrassed but others were impressed that I had tried to sew anything. I danced a lot, worked on a little break dancing, lost a dance off, danced more, and in general had a good time.
Today it was in the high 30s, raining, and I worked outside. It wasn't too bad though as we kept warm by putting in a new firebreak which required a lot of sawing, axe swinging, chainsawing, hauling out stumps with a truck, digging out and cutting up stumps, and apparently breaking a lot of axes. We broke 1 maul,1 double headed axe, and two firemen axes. At the end we were trying to dislodge a particularly large stump and I suggested those swingin' give it some oomph; the oomph cost us a maul and one of the fire axes, but on the plus side you can now wiggle the stump, which was honestly quite the achievement though it might seem small.
That's it for tonight, except that I ate potato-leek soup while watching jack nicholson and art garfunkel act, sadly for art his acting didn't amount to much when he parted with nicholson. Wasn't a bad movie, was called Carnal Knowledge. Well that's it for now, sorry it took a while to add anything. Was good to see everyone, and enjoy winter's opening salvo when it hits you in a day or so, its snowing here right now.
posted by Joe Little at 7:53 AM
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