Talk amongst yourselves

Comment away if you want to entertain youselves.

I'll be in CT for one day between now and Tuesday. Two days in Philly and two days in upstate NY for Redneck's wedding. To top if off, I have to leave NY at 7AM the morning after the wedding since I need to work on the 4th. :(

At least this is the last time I will be married to my job for the first two weeks of the quarter. I will not be doing two different jobs anymore after mid-July. Yay!

Fire the Grounds Crew, Please

It was a beautiful day today. Sunny. About 80 degrees. A little humid. Yet, our softball game rained out. Yes, for the second time this year, we "rained out" on a beautiful, sunny day. Why, you ask? Well, the grounds crew was too fucking incompetent to clear out one large puddle behind third base during the day after the rain from yesterday.

Ever since my company sold the land our buildings are on and allowed developers to build a top notch golf course a couple years ago, we've received no help from our grounds crew when the fields needed to be cleaned up. Therefore, one day of heavy rain will cause games to be cancelled for two additional days. The other team actually went out the the fields with a rake during the middle of the day to try and clear it up, but they were unsuccessful. Grr...

I guess when your league fees do not cover the cost of a real grounds crew, you get what you pay for. P&C's record against mother nature has dropped to 6-5 on the season heading into the July 4th break. However, we are alone in first place with a 5-1 record against other teams!

Pictures from the new apartment

The place is slowly coming together. I didn't pretty up the place for the pictures. What you see is how it looks.

The living room is basically done with the exception of putting pictures (and the sacred Michigan flag) on the walls.

The bedroom is much improved today, but there is still work to be done.

However, the walk-in closet is a disaster zone! Most of the stuff on the floor in here is the pictures that I will be hanging up on the walls, so it will clear out soon.

I'm thinking that all will be well by Saturday. The place is definitely small though, especially compared to the massiveness that is 1.S.D.. There is not much open/free space in the new apartment.

Now if only I can get the A/C fixed. It just blows luke-warm air. Boo urns. Hopefully I will remember to call that in tomorrow.

Goodbye 1.S.D.

I don't normally get too nostalgic about things. However, I must admit that it was hard to close the door and walk out of 1.S.D. this evening. Yeah I still have the keys and I need to move a couple things out of there over the next few days, but it's no longer my apartment. Of all the places I have lived in since heading off to college several years ago, 1.S.D. was definitely my favorite place. The apartment was quite nice, if you can overlook the fact that things broke often and the heating bill was >$300 each month in the winter. However, the maintenance staff worked quickly, especially when the tank of the upstairs toilet cracked in the middle of the night and flooded the bathroom. The five-minute commute to work could not be beat. The only thing that really sucked about the place was the location/things to do in Bloomfield. That's probably the best thing about my new place.

My roommates at 1.S.D. (FlyingV, then TheCrazyCanuck) were not total slobs, unlike one of my roommates at the "shit-brown" house during my senior year of college (which is probably my second-favorite place that I have lived, even though it was a disgusting dump). In fact, I was the messy roommate, and I don't think I am that bad (though TheCrazyCanuck might disagree).

I haven't lived without a roommate in a couple years. I am counting on UNICorn and K-Pal to fill in most evenings since they live in the same apartment complex now. Don't let me down! :)

The new place is still a warzone since I have not completely unpacked yet. Give me another day or two and it will finally feel like a nice place to live. Hopefully.

Not So Friendly World Cup

All my teams are sucking at the World Cup this year. First, the US proved that it will never be able to play the game with the big fish. Then today, the Dutch fell in an ugly, nasty game to Portugal. Granted I missed most of the game since I was pissing my money away in my annual poker tournament, but I did read about it afterwards and boy was it a nasty game. Now I am left rooting for Ghana and England. Afterwards, I could not care less.

As for the annual poker tournament, only 19 people showed up this year. Not quite the turnout I am used to (I usually get around 25-30), but it was still a decent showing. I came in a disappointing 10th, which is sadly better than everyone who played that reads this blog except for TheCrazyCanuck (who finished 2nd...congrats!). I should probably stop now before FlyingV complains about a bad beat I put on him to knock him out of the tournament in 19th place.

Tomorrow is the official move date. Although I am taking the day off work, it will not be a relaxing day between getting all my furniture over to Manchester and emptying/cleaning out the apartment here in Bloomfield. However, I don't expect to be away for long since the internet should be all set up at my new place, though I have not tested it yet.

Manchester. Yay.

I got the keys to my new apartment today. I spent some time moving some small stuff into the apartment today. I am staying here in Bloomfield until Monday morning when I am moving the rest of my furniture. Some random thoughts:

• Moving was much easier when I could fit everything I owned into my car (plus a couple extra boxes in my dad's car). Oh, to be a poor college student and own nothing again.
• Living near a mall could be the end of me. I am walking distance from both the mall and a bunch of the nearby stores (including Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Best Buy). I spent a some time this afternoon shopping for cool things that I want in my new place. This could become a bad habit, or a very fun habit depending on how you look at it.
• Why again did I decide to have my annual poker tournament this weekend? Yes, it is easier to fit 20-25 people into my one-bedroom apartment before I have moved in any furniture, but it's one thing I wish I didn't have to worry about this weekend. I better win.
• I'm really excited to live in a nice town for a change. Bloomfield is convenient (can't beat a 2 mile drive to work), but there is much more to do in Manchester.

Pole Position!

Since I was planning to duck out of work for two hours this morning for the US soccer game, I decided to get into the office early. The game ended up being a frustrating two wasteful hours away from the office, but I digress.

I woke up much earlier than normal today (but not before the 5AM sunrise). As I was heading downstairs and off to work today, TheCrazyCanuck opened her bedroom door to head to the bathroom. She gets up much earlier than I do each day, and is often out the door in the morning before I wake up. She screamed in terror when she opened her door and saw me since she didn't know I was planning to be up early. She then commented "Good thing I was wearing clothes". (Note: TheCrazyCanuck later clarified that she does not in fact sleep naked)

I drove into the top level of the garage at work and noticed a handful of cars in the office. Not sure who gets in that early, but whatever. Despite a few cars parked in the garage already, I noticed that one of the two "pole position" spots in the front row of the garage was available. JACKPOT! I've never seen that spot open on a normal workday. I parked in the spot with great pride.

Anyone care to guess how early I got in the office this morning to get that spot? I'll provide one hint. When I got in early on the day of the first US World Cup game over a week ago, the two pole position spots were taken.

Yeah, I am a little tired now.

Don't look now!

Just what the internet needs. Another sports blog. At least these guys already have one groupie.

I can't wait for the inaugural RCI!

2 Fast, indeed

I hit a home run in the softball game today! Yes, that's right. Me. I used my blinding speed to leg out a home run! Woo hoo! Too bad I sucked in the field. We took a 21-7 lead into the bottom of the sixth and hung on to win 21-17. So frustrating, but at least it's a 'W'.

Moving is fun, but not for me

I made a list of every place I need to contact regarding my upcoming move to Manchester. My list is 25 lines long (cable, phone, US Mail, CT DMV, IRS, etc). Did I mention before that I hate moving? At least I can take care of many of the items on the internet.

The packing went well today. Only a week until I will be fully settled in my new apartment. Woo hoo!

Shoutout to The Swinging Bunts for getting win #2 today. Way to beat down the actuarial interns! However, I am disappointed that you got obliterated in the all-important smack-talk battle. How could you let them trash you all mercilessly without any comeback of your own?

Redneck Cup

I am very upset that Carolina won the Stanley Cup tonight. Canada has not had a team win the Stanley Cup since I was in 7th grade. 7th grade! That's a looooong time. Also, Carolina does not deserve an NHL franchise. Neither does Tampa, Miami, or Atlanta for that matter. Carolina should be playing hockey in Hartford, where their fans actually understand the game. If they were still here, I could have fulfilled one of my lifelong dreams tonight by attending the hockey game that decided who won the Stanley Cup. Instead, I am just left to ranting an complaining.

At least I am happy for former Michigan Wolverine and Detroit Red Wing Aaron "Whatever he hits, he destroys" Ward. Yay for him.

It's late. No more ranting tonight.

Coach's Corner with TheCrazyCanuck

I don't really have any funny stories to pass along from the Philly trip this weekend, but I am going to pass along a story from TheCrazyCanuck's trip back to Canada this weekend.

TheCrazyCanuck went home this weekend for her brother's wedding near Toronto. One the flight back from Toronto to Hartford, she wakes up from a short nap and notices two well-known Canadian celebrities in the airport terminal, who just sat down right next to her in the terminal. Who are the biggest celebrities in Canada these days? That should be a no-brainer. Ron MacLean and Don Cherry. They were on their way from Edmonton to North Carolina for Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals (though they were not flyng through Hartford).

So what do you think my roommate said to Ron MacLean and Don Cherry once they sat down next to her? "My roommate is going to get a kick out of this". She talked to them for a few minutes, but they were constantly interrupted by autograph seekers. Eventually, TheCrazyCanuck asked them for an autograph on the back of her boarding pass. Hilarious. Way to go, roommate!! Thanks for thinking of me.

Road trip. Again.

Another weekend. Another road trip. This time, FlyingV and I (and maybe BuckeyeBoy) are going to Philadelphia. It's going to be a short trip. We're leaving around noon tomorrow and getting back early Sunday afternoon. A friend of ours is leaving Philadelphia and going back to grad school, so we are going to her goodbye party.

I don't promise to have any good stories this time, but you never know. Enjoy the weekend everyone!

Bored

I don't really have anything exciting to write about today. Instead, I decided to do a little research through my sitemeter after Mpls Ju posted on her blog about a recent Google search phrase that returned her blog.

I guess my blog is a little more proper than most, because no one hit my site by googling anything dirty or raunchy (not that the word Mpls Ju was referring to was dirty, but still). I have gotten multiple hits recently from someone searching for Jolly's Piano Bar. While I agree that Jolly's is a cool piano bar in Philadelphia, you will not be able to find out any information about the bar here. Thanks for stopping by, though.

The two most common searches are for "The world according to gary ginew" and "Akellah and the Bee". Apparently K-Pal has not added this site to her "Favorites" list yet and prefers to Google search for it each time she visits! :) I also think the Akellah and the Bee search is especially funny since I misspelled the title of a movie whose main topic is a girl competing in a spelling bee.

Yeah, I guess I have nothing tonight. Back to packing for the upcoming move I guess. Well, I could be entertained tonight if Mouse would share her NYC pictures with me, but apparently one must do more than buy her drinks all night to see the pictures.

Where Have I Been?

Am I the only (CT) person who did not realize that PhillyPhanatic needed 15 stitches after yesterday's softball game? He hit his chin sliding on the base path at one point and had a small cut. It didn't look bad, and he kept playing.

I'm sitting here watching hockey with TheCrazyCanuck and PistonsBaller and they start talking about his injury. They were stunned that I had not heard already. As was I. Am I that far out of the gossip loop? Wow. You all need to do a better job keeping me informed.

Other than that, I have nothing today. Other than a frustrating day of work, I spent two hours packing up some of my stuff in preparation for my move in less than two weeks. I hate moving.

Softball Showdown

P&C just completed a hard fought two game series against The Swarm. Because of all the rainouts in May, we set the make-up game to be the day before we were supposed to play for the second time. Both teams came into the first game with a 2-0 record, but The Swarm was far more impressive in their two games, winning both by a combined margin of 52-1.

Of the two other "powerhouses" in the league, The Swarm is far more fun to play against. They are competitive, but nice. They also joke around a bit during the game with us and each other, which adds to the fun of playing the game. They are my favorite team to play against in this league.

Both games were nail biters, as is the custom when we play each other. To spoil the long story below, each team won once.

On Monday, we fell behind quickly in the first inning thanks to some early jitters. However, we received a controversial call in our favor to get out of the jam. With runners on first and second and one out, one of their players hit a ground ball to our shortstop (PhillyPhanatic). The guy on second stuck his foot out (to avoid the ball), but the ump ruled that he interfered with PhillyPhanatic by trying to kick the ball. PhillyPhanatic finished the double play by tossing the ball to second, and we escaped the top of the first down only 3-0.

Runs were hard to come by for both teams after that, thanks to some great defense. We went into the bottom of the sixth inning down 5-3, but rallied to tie the game, thanks in part to Hawkeye managing to score from first base on a ground ball single to left field. Talk about aggressive base running! After a great 1-2-3 defensive inning in the top of the seventh, Nells led off the bottom of the seventh with a clutch single over the third baseman's head. WhiteIverson followed up with another single. The next girl up struck out, which brought PhillyPhanatic up to bat with one out and the chance to be a hero. He walked on four straight pitches. Amazingly, it was the first time a player on our team walked all season. At this point, the ump tells PhillyPhanatic to go to first. Hawkeye and I immediately jump in and claim that he should get second base since he walked on four straight pitches, per league rules. The ump dismisses the argument, but we appealed to the other team's pitcher (who happens to be the commissioner of the league). Thankfully, the commissioner always keeps a copy of the rules handy at games, so we found the rule that states that a guy gets second base if he walks on four straight pitches, regardless of the number of outs. Therefore, PhillyPhanatic got second, WhiteIverson moved to third, and Nells walked home to end the game. A 6-5 victory, courtesy of a walk. Quite anti-climatic, but it would make Homer Simpson proud.

P&C did not have as strong of a lineup for today's game. We were missing Tricky on Tuesday, in addition to her twin sister who was unable to make either game this week since she is on her honeymoon. We like to have a solid girl play first base, but we needed Hawkeye to pitch and our other strong girl at the game only likes to play outfield.

We put our worst guy at first. However, if our team's first rule wasn't that "everyone who shows up plays", we would not let this guy play. We thought we needed additional guys this year since we lost a couple before the season started and the timing of my (potential) move to Philadelphia was not yet determined. Therefore we added a guy off the league's "free agent list" who said he was decent and had played before. Sadly, this guy is worse than every other guy on the team and four of our girls. He can't play any position in the field nor can he hit the ball. We put him at first and held our breath that he would catch the ball. Thankfully, he did ok given the expectations. However, he did drop a few throws early in the game and was not nearly as good as Tricky.

The bats were silent today for P&C. The guys hit poorly, including our best players. On at least two occasions, we had a guy up to bat with two outs or fewer and at least one runner in scoring position, yet we failed to bring the runner(s) home. Amazingly, we still led 5-4 going into the bottom of the sixth inning. Unfortunately, everything fell apart that inning defensively (helped by some timely hitting by the other team, of course). We gave up 4 runs in the sixth and ended up losing 8-5 after failing to score any runs in the seventh despite getting runners on second and third base with no outs to start the inning.

Oh well, it was a fun two game series. Both teams are probably quite happy with a split. I hope we get to play them again in the playoffs.

My hitting during the two games was back on track after a recent slump. I hit 3-4 with two doubles, and a triple. However, I only scored one run since I did not get timely hitting behind be in the batting order. I also made three bad errors at third base over the two games.

We have three more games before the July 4th break. All three games are against poor teams and will probably be mercy wins, so we should hit the holiday break with a 6-1 record.

Drama in NYC

Thanks to Mouse's encouragement, I am going to take a shot at providing a complete recap from the drunken shenanigans that was the 2006 CrazyChica Reunion Friends' Night.

FlyingV and I drove down into NYC on Saturday afternoon. We brought along a couple of the summer interns since two of them wanted to go to the city last weekend and needed a ride. Given my bitter experience from my summer internship in CT back in 2000 because of my lack of driveability, I am always willing to help out the carless interns when it is convenient for me. Besides, one of the interns is from Michigan, so I had to show my Wolverine pride.

Once we got to the city, FlyingV and I had to kill several hours since the CrazyChicas were on a boat tour somewhere in NYC. We walked over to Times Square and Central Park. Believe it or not, I had never been to Central Park despite several trips to NYC over the past few years.

After hanging out for a while in Central Park, FlyingV and I went shopping. We walked into some stores hoping not to be asked to leave (given our less than rich attire). I did end up buying a sweet new shirt that I ended up wearing out that night. Believe it or not, it was NOT from Banana Republic. Good luck guessing where I bought this shirt. It's a hot shirt.

We finally met up with Skitzo, Mo, Mpls Ju, Mouse, and GB (the other friend crashing the party) for dinner around 8PM. We ate at this awesome Italian place around 14th and Avenue B. I need to go back there sometime. Great wine, great sangria, and great lasagna. Oh my!

Then, the shenanigans began. We met up with Mpls Ju's sister, who lives in NYC, and went out for some more drinking near NYU. We were supposed to go to a club, but apparently Mpls Ju's sister didn't think I could handle a NYC club. I took extreme offense to this, especially since I was aptly dressed for a night at the club. Well, I guess the official reason for going to a bar was that Mpls Ju's sister could not get us all on the list, but I want to complain anyway about the lack of respect that I received.

We drank to the point of CrazyChica drama over the next couple hours. Along the way, Mouse was taking pictures. By pictures, I mean that the camera was flashing about once every seven seconds. I didn't bring my camera, so I have nothing to post. Check out her blog if you want the illustrated version of this story. I'm sure she will post something soon.

At some point in the night, a few of us made our way to the dance floor. You know I've had way too much to drink when I am making a lame-ass attempt to bust a move.

At one point I was dancing with Skitzo. However, by dancing, I mean that I was forcefully holding her up while she danced with me because she had zero sense of balance since she was so drunk. On several occasions while we were dancing, she bumped in to people standing around us or nearly fell into them. It was quite taxing to keep her from falling, but it was still quite funny.

Sometime around 3AM I had a super random encounter with two people that I used to work with. Given that NYC is just a little bigger than the bustling metropolis that is 'New England's Rising Star' (Hartford), you don't expect to run into anyone you know at a random bar. I only chatted with them for a few minutes since we were all hammered and they were on their way out.

The shit hit the fan in terms of drama at this point. Mouse took a break from her 1+ hour "dance" with FlyingV to dance with Skitzo. However, Mouse did not realize that Skitzo was having balance issues. At some point, Skitzo fell forward and dragged Mouse down to the ground with her. I'm not sure what happened during the fall, but Mouse had a nasty gash over her left eye and a huge bump on her head. The bouncers quickly came over to check on Mouse to make sure she was ok. The bouncers kicked us all out of the bar once it was confirmed that Mouse was alive. Skitzo had no idea that she played a big role in Mouse's injury. All she could say the rest of the night was "My butt hurts" or "I'm hungry, and my butt hurts".

We made our way back to the hotel. My memory of the rest of the night is hazy since I passed out very quickly, but I was in and out of my alcohol-induced sleep for the next couple hours. I remember a pizza guy coming over and telling Mouse that she needed to go to the hospital to get stitches for the cut over her still-bleeding eye. I also remember the pizza guy giving her directions to a hospital that was not nearby because "The Jewish hospital was much better than the one that was close by". I do believe the same pizza guy stuck around a while to hit on the girls, but I am not 100% about that since I was half asleep in the corner. Mouse and Mpls Ju (the sensible one in the group) went with GB to the hospital, but apparently the directions were terrible.

Sometime around 5:30AM (or some other ridiculously early hour after the sun had risen), Mouse and Mpls Ju returned. Mouse was a little irritated, so she woke everyone up and loudly described her ER experience. I was half awake for this story and remember little, except that she got two stitches, had a hot ER doctor, and that she came over to me and yelled at me to look at her eye and try to get me to understand that she had just spent some time in the ER. I guess we all deserve some blame for not going to the hospital with her, but I simply shrugged and fell back asleep. I'm a great friend when I'm drunk. Seriously.

I was horribly hung over on Sunday. A nice greasy breakfast helped a little, but the drive back to CT sucked. I did not feel better until this morning. I hate hangovers. I should have drunk some water before going to sleep.

I wish I had kept a list of quotes that night, because there were definitely a bunch of hilarious comments that I can't remember anymore. Maybe Mouse will remember some of them when she posts her recollection from Saturday.

I just want to take this time to thank the CrazyChicas for letting FlyingV and I crash your reunion and crash your hotel room. It was a blast and the first time I had gotten drunk since the Bucknell road trip.

P&C update coming tomorrow

I realize that I have not written anything about today's make-up softball game against The Swarm. I'm waiting until after our game against The Swarm tomorrow evening and then I will post something about the two game series. Just to give you something to look forward to, the game today was tied going into the seventh inning and had a bizarre ending. Drama!

Drained

As usual, a night out with the CrazyChicas in NYC was a blast loaded with random stories and vast drunkenness (and even a rare appearance by yours truly on the dance floor). I am a little too tired to try to remember the stories from last night, so I'll put something up later, or just link everyone to whatever Mouse writes about last night on her blog. You all missed out, except for FlyingV of course. Thankfully, I got a nice long nap in this afternoon, so I am not as tired/hung over as I was earlier today.

I am going in to work shortly after 6AM tomorrow since I am hosting a World Cup party promptly at noon for the US game. A small group of soccer nuts are coming over for a 2.5 hour lunch break to watch the game at my place since I live about 5 minutes from the office. I am psyched for the game, especially since this is the US's most important game of the preliminary round.

Party Crashers

FlyingV and I are heading to NYC this weekend to crash the CrazyChica annual reunion (the CrazyChicas are Mpls Ju, Mouse, skitzo, and mo...all college roommates). Hopefully we will be back tomorrow with good stories!

Anger Management

(Apologies in advance for a somewhat sappy post)

I've been pretty upset with friend of mine lately (person/reasons will not be discussed here). As a result, I had not been particularly nice to this person for a while. I guess my normal mechanism for dealing with anger is total avoidance or giving a cold shoulder, which does nothing to resolve the situation and probably only upsets or confuses the other person.

A few days ago, I finally decided to reach out to the friend that I had been upset with and have a talk. I wasn't going to feel any less angry in the near future if I did not talk about the situation with the friend involved. We had a good, calm discussion about why I was upset/disappointed. I feel much better about now if for no reason other than my friend understands why I've been mad and empathized with my concerns. It remains to be seen if the talk will change anything.

There have been other times in my past where I have gotten really upset with a friend for some reason (sometimes a very stupid reason) and I gave my typical cold shoulder reaction while I stubbornly waited for the other person to address the situation. Unfortunately, the normal result was a badly damaged or possibly a completely ruined friendship. My anger almost always passes over time, but my inability to talk frankly about the situation that made me upset has occasionally cost the friendship in the process. I am really glad that I sucked it up and had this talk with my friend recently so that I did not repeat past mistakes.

Traveling Gets Old

I spent the past two days visiting one of our claims offices with a couple other finance geeks. The trip started with another brutally early flight on Wednesday (4AM alarm for me yesterday). I had to catch my self from nodding off in a couple of the afternoon meetings on Wednesday. I was so tired that I crashed at 9PM last night. Best night of sleep I have had on a work night in months.

I was supposed to get back at 11:30 tonight. However, my manager asked to cut our schedule thirty minutes short so that I could catch the 4PM flight back to Hartford. How nice of him (since I had no problems getting back late). I barely caught the 4PM flight! I would have been exhausted if I got back super late tonight and had to go into work early tomorrow.

The trip was actually quite interesting. I have tons of respect for the job that the people do in the claims office. I thought it was pretty simple to process and pay a life/accident claim, but these people do a lot of work on each claim and have to be ridiculously organized. I also learned how we process various claims from start to finish. I also got to sit in a couple staff meetings where a few people (including an in house doctor and lawyer) debated how to proceed on a couple particularly difficult claims. I'd love to discuss one of them specifically here since it was very interesting, but that would not be appropriate for this blog.

No plans to travel for work until later this month when I make the obligatory monthly trip to Philadelphia. I need some time to just chill out here anyway. All the travelling over the past three weeks has really worn me out.

Welcome to G#1, my newest reader. Don't ask why he gets to be referenced as #1. I think I am still bitter about that after all these years. I can't believe that I never told him about this site until now. Sorry G!

Call it a Push

I should quit my job, move to Vegas, and become a professional odds maker. My spread of P&C -5 could not have been more perfect.

Pitchers & Catchers 7
Swinging Bunts 2

It was a hard fought defensive battle by both teams. Runs and hits were hard to come by today. Our aggressive base running was definitely the difference. Though the Swinging Bunts hurt their cause by striking out seven times today. Seriously, how do you strike out seven times in a seven inning slow pitch softball game? Of course, it's not like I hit well today either...

Despite all the competitiveness between the teams and the trash talk e-mails at work today, it was a fun time. The post game pizza party was a good idea as well.

Here are a few game pictures. Thanks to PistonsBaller for taking tons of pictures at the game!

The fans were on our bench at the beginning. They just felt sorry for FlyingV! :)

UNICorn leads the game off with a hit.

My only good play of the entire game. It saved two runs and ended the second inning!

Maverick can't quite reach the bad throw and Hawkeye is safe!

The "web gem" of the game. A nice diving catch by Hawkeye in foul territory to end the third inning.

Still Going...

Nothing outlasts the Energizer.

It keeps going and going and going...

(Okay, so these were two different plays, but he rarely ever stops running after a hit!)

Bring it, Bitches

Tomorrow is the highly anticipated first meeting of the softball season between P&C and the maize and blue clad Swinging Bunts. The trash talk has slowly picked up over the past few days. FlyingV has been keeping a tight lip on his lineup for the big game, just in case it might actually give him an edge.

Thanks to an extremely rainy spring, P&C has racked up a disgraceful 1-4 record against Mother Nature. However, we are 1-0 against other teams in the softball league. The Swinging Bunts have built a respectable 1-2 record with a pair of close losses. Their 4-2 loss to The Assholes last week was a truly impressive defensive display, and evidence that the "big inning" that plagued FlyingV's team in 2005 is no longer a problem. Also, with K-Pal back in CT and ready to her 2006 debut with the Swinging Bunts after an all-star 2005 campaign and Maverick making her final appearance before moving away next week, they will truly be a formidable opponent for P&C tomorrow.

If you compare common opponents, P&C would be a 25-run favorite in tomorrow's game (P&C beat Bloomfield's Best 24-1 and the Swinging Bunts lost to BB 11-9). However, I know better than to set the game spread that high. I have a history of being terrible wrong when I make such an outlandish prediction (case in point, Gary v. Touchdown Jesus in 2004). Also, since there are more players from the Swinging Bunts that read this blog than from P&C, I should probably be a little careful with my prediction!

So what is my official prediction? P&C 10, Swinging Bunts 5. 'V' will not be a magic number tomorrow, despite the constant presence of the number 5.

I am setting the betting line at P&C -5. Go ahead and place your bets with UNICorn.

It should definitely be an exciting game full of trash talk and fun times. Hopefully I will have pictures to post tomorrow.

The Fun Never Stops

It's been a crazy few days. Given my recent travels, I haven't had much of a chance to post anything. Hopefully the idle time did not bore you all too much.

A few of us went to Northern Pennsylvania yesterday for a wedding involving two players from the P&C softball team. The wedding was very close to the lovely town of Forty Fort, PA. Seriously, what kind of name is Forty Fort?

It was a very nice ceremony/reception. The food at the reception was excessive and awesome. There was so much food during the cocktail hour that I was full before eating my dinner.

I wasn't really into the wedding as much as I would like to have been for a couple reasons. One reason was that I was exhausted from the long week I had just gone through. The other reason is that I have been a quite annoyed/irritated with a few things lately that I do not wish to discuss here. Don't worry though, I am not irritated with any of my regular commenters. You all rule.

Now it's time to get some much needed rest before I do more traveling to Pittsburgh for work later this week.

However, I still took some pictures from the wedding, which I have posted below. Somehow I did not manage to get a picture of the groom last night. My bad.


















Stay away from the stuffed peppers! They were super spicy and made multiple brave guests cry, including yours truly.

Table 12 causing trouble off in the distance. This was before the all out "mint war" that the rowdy guests at table 12 started during dinner.
















Yes, hell has frozen over. That is PhillyPhanatic on the dance floor. Possibly for the first time ever? I guess he needs some practice before his big day in November.

















The bride and groom did not choose to have a dollar dance this year, to the dismay of the bride. A few of us improvised and planned one behind the groom's back during one of the slow songs. Here is P-Man using the "mouth-to-mouth" strategy for passing the dollar to the lovely bride.


















In the on deck circle in this year of many weddings, Redneck and KK.