When it rains it pours.

So I've been busy... Here's a little recap:

Friday

Friday was work, like normal. Lunch was out at Ruby Tuesdays.. I had a big meal, and it was good. Then there was work... which was fine. yada yada yada. Afterwards, I headed on home and did some cleaning, and played a little Zelda, until Kristin showed up. She was driving around a snazzy new Saturn Ion, which I must say was quite slick. She then took me out to dinner at Damons, where I devoured a cow, and we hung out for a few hours. She let me drive the car back, and I was again impressed, and then she had to take off. Shortly thereafter I got the call, and I headed off to Mulligans, and met up with Joel, Adam, Tuuk, Jplant, Mark, Dan, Dave, etc., etc.. etc.. and Steve! Yeah, Steve was out from Boston this weekend, and it was great seeing him again. We had quite the group again, and did a lot of standing around for a while, until we grabbed a table. I've come to realize that when it comes to talking to girls, I've got pretty much nothing. There's a lot of mumbles and blank looks while I try to think of something that isn't completely asinine to say. So.... yeah. damnit. I'm also not good at reading if a girl is actually interested in me, or just polite, and more or less stuck where she's sitting. Either way, I had a good time at Mulligans.

Later on, most of the group headed off to what can best be described as a "hippie party". Some of us stayed behind for a while and talked, then headed off to meet them. I think the best word to describe that whole experience is "awkward". Here we were, a sizable group of people, in a house of some people we didn't know, easy outnumbering every other group much of the time, and rarely intermingling. I could never really tell if the conversations between our group and the hippie group were pleasant conversations, or hostile ones. For my part, I saw and talked to Jordan for a short period of time, and felt good for having branched out from my usual group to talk with someone from "the other side". But much of the time, it was like watching some complex self-preservation group dynamic all taking place in fast motion. That sentence didn't make sense, but maybe this picture will help:

It's kinda like how I picture white blood cells and antibodies and stuff working. You've got a foreign element showing up, and so some of the cells head off to check it out, and deal with it, while the rest of the body remains well and strong. Anyway, it was an experience, and I got to spend a little bit more time with Steve, and JHo was there. It was pretty late by the time we took off, and I had to get up early the next morning.

Saturday

Saturday was my friend Jeff Bandstra's bachelor party day, so Sven and I headed off to the Chicago area early Saturday morning. We made it in plenty of time, and so we hung out at my parents place for a while, and talked with them. In case I've not mentioned it before, my parents rule. I think my self deprecating/morose sense of humor used to kinda frighten my mom, but now she seems to laugh along as well, so it's all good. After a while, Jeff and Josh ("peej") showed up, and it was off to golf. Golfing seems to be the bachelor party activity of choice, and I'm all for that. I took some pictures [The Pictures Have Been Added] of the entire thing that cover the story pretty well, but in a nutshell: I suck at golf, but I had a really good time. After golf we headed out for a giant meal (another party tradition, I believe), and I got myself a giant Prime Rib (sure I had had one the night before, but man, them things are good!. Oh yeah, just as an FYI, anytime in the past two or three paragraphs, when there's any sort of punctuation, you can add "beer was consumed". So we had a huge meal, then headed off to our friend Al's place for a bonfire..................... It was a good time. In case you weren't sure, ice makes wonderful projectiles. Sven and I finally took off around midnight or so, and the drive home was tiring, but made more enjoyable by our inevitable games of "If you had to pick...". Entries in this trips game included "If you had to pick your favorite 5 TV shows of all time", "If you had to pick the 5 most distinct/memorable/unique characters from a TV show", "if you had to pick movie sequels that were better than the original", and "if you had to pick movies that never had sequels made, but should have".. It amazes me that we've not yet run out of questions, cause we've been on a lot of trips together, Sven and I, and we've played a lot of those kinda games. Once I was home I was pleased, and exhausted, so I fell asleep.

Sunday

I did some cleaning on Sunday, but the fun started in mid afternoon, when I went out and bought a softball bat, and headed to GR to play some softball with Joel, Jplant, Tuuk, Adam, and Mark. It was a good time, and we played for quite a while. Afterwards we headed to Joel and Adam's house, where we ordered some pizzas, and sat around eating and drinking on the porch. We were later joined by Adam& Joel's neighbor/house-mate girl, Jenny, who provided more free drinks, and a fair amount of entertainment for the rest of the evening. Wow... Once again, I made it home late, and fell asleep after some more time wasted pretending to be productive.

Monday

Started up work again with renewed vigor. I'm realizing how close to June we're getting, and I want to have a significant project completed before I go on my trip, so it's time I got my shit in gear... which is easier said than done. Anyway, I wrote out a full plan of attack, and thus far that's helped out quite a bit. I will say that I love the fact that I'm coding again, and coding in perl and php at the same time is pretty interesting. I'm no longer in the panicky "I hope this works or I'm fubar" stage, and now I'm in the "Okay, what's the best way to do this part" stage. (if you couldn't tell, the latter is a much better stage to be in.). So that's work. Afterwards, it was softball practice again...

Perhaps you're familiar with the quote from Pulp Fiction: "Pride only hurts, it never helps.". Whether or not that's completely true, it certainly must be at least partially true, cause I can recall far too many times in my past where I've done things purely out of pride, and they've done 0 good, and a lot of bad. I was kinda worn out from a full day of gold Saturday, and a full day of softball Sunday, but I just love baseball/softball, so if and when I get a chance to play, I'm going to play all out, every single time. Well, within a few minutes of practice starting, I was throwing to first (admittedly far too hard) and I heard and felt a pop in my elbow, and it hurt like hell. So rather than, oh I don't know, taking it kinda easy the rest of practice, I just kept going, and it continued to hurt like hell the entire time. By the end of practice, I was kinda worried I had done something bad to my arm, but when I woke up this morning it was fine, so good deal. I've learned no lesson, and will likely find a way to get myself killed sometime soon. Anyway, practice was excellent, I still love softball, and I have a feeling I'm once again going to rely on running as fast as I can 100% of the time to make up for my lack of hitting power. My brother, Jeff, and nephew Steven showed up to watch the practice, and it was great seeing them. And Steve was there, and took some pictures which I hope to get my hands on sometime in the future.

After practice we (Jplant, Tuuk, Adam, Joel, Steve, and Myself) headed to Max & Ermas for dinner. The food was good, but we've been starting to lag behind in the "attractive female server" department. I blame Jplant.. I'm convinced he jinxed us.

Tuesday

Today was good. Work went well. Afterwards I finally got some long overdue laundry done (our machine had been broken, and the piles of clothes in my room were approaching safety hazard heights. Then it was off to Max & Ermas with Swac and Mandace. Annie was our server, and we like her. She asked about Tressa, and did a good job of displaying that charm and friendliness that initially attracted me to the restaurant in the first place. (Charm and Friendliness --> She's a hottie who made conversation with me that didn't begin with "When my boyfriend gets here.." or end with "...and so I think you should leave now.") So I'll have to remember Tuesdays as being good going-out-to-dinner days.

So that was my week, now some random ranting:

I cut my hair last Thursday, and I cut it too short. So on Saturday, when I was out golfing, the top of my head got burned, and it still hurts.

I got an email at work the other day that said essentially this [all in caps, of course]: "YOUR WEBSITE SHOULD HAVE THIS [fairly obscure piece of information] BECAUSE I NEED IT FOR MY HOMEWORK. PEOPLE ONLY COME TO YOUR SITE FOR THIS [fairly obscure piece of information]. IF YOU DO HAVE IT, IT SHOULD BE MORE OBVIOUS.". I wish this was the first time I'd gotten something like this... What struck me as funny was the line "People only come to your site for this". One would think the name BibleGateway would imply that people might come to the site in order to read the Bible. But what do I know? I just work here...

So I don't know if I missed an announcement or what, but apparently, drivers are no longer letting people go ahead of them, ever. Example 1: You're at a stop light, and need to get over one lane quickly to get to the on-ramp to the highway. You have your blinker on while waiting, and when the light turns green, the cars in front and along side you speed along, as expected. The car behind you, in the lane you wish to merge into (after clearing the intersection) gets a late jump, and will then slam the accelerator when he or she sees you (at least a full car-length ahead of him or her) starting to merge over. Example 2: You're on the on ramp to get onto the highway. There's a pickup truck in the entrance lane (slow lane), and there is no one in the fast lane. Apparently the rule is now that the truck is to match your speed the entire time, and force you to slam on the brakes and whip behind him when your lane runs out. Example 3: The famous one. Two cars traveling the exact same speed (63 in a 70, lets say.) will stay along-side each other for miles while the lineup behind the fast lane car grows exponentially. Opportunities for the car to move to the other lane are casually ignored, forcing 1 or 2 lucky souls toward the front of the line to make the daring zig-zag dash around the cars, and on toward freedom. Now I've long ago come to accept the fact that 98% of women won't let you in front of them, or ever wave people through. They just don't. Many never even notice, completely oblivious to anything but the cell phone conversation that seems to necessitate the use of both of their hands. [one to hold the phone, the other to gesture wildly] Plenty of other women drivers are just bitches. Guys, on the other hand, seem to see it all as a competition, and the idea of just letting someone "win" is abhorrent to them. For my part, so long as you haven't been a complete dickhead, I'll let you go ahead. If you've just done something that only a jackass would do, then you'll have to wait, otherwise, go for it. And then give me my damn thank you wave. I've earned it. If you're not sure if it deserves one or not, give it anyway.. It's not that hard to do, and the person will appreciate it. And if they don't, who cares? You're in front of them now anyway. Oh, and if you're driving a Pontiac, just do us all a favor and drive yourself into a ditch. Oh yeah, and cops, you get the finger too.

Have I alienated everyone yet? No? I hate children and the elderly! That should take care of it. Anyway, yeah, that's that. It's around 3:30, so I should sleep. Stay tuned as this site continues its transformation from Better Off Dead to Misery.