East meets West

Neil coming from NYC, Aaron from Seattle, and me staying put in the Lou and having it all come to me. Who could ask for more? The guys stayed from Saturday night until Wednesday, and it was definitely a good time. We hadn't all hung out together in a couple of years, and they both got to spend more time with Kia.

One of the first orders of business was to get our hands on some sort of video game system. Blockbuster was a bust, so we went to the local Family Video, which came through. We took home a Playstation 2 and two games -- Soul Calibur 2 & NHL 2005. We thought it would have been appropriate if they hockey players in NHL 2005 had refused to play when you turned on the game, sort of a "lockout"version. But alas, they did play. There was even a mode where you could play one-on-one against another player, and both of your heads were GIGANTIC. This was a feature -- big heads. And it could be on or off. We always had it on. I mean, come on -- BIG HEADS.

Aaron visited his relatives in Eureka, MO, site of my most recent adventures. Fortunately, he returned to us unscathed and having seen zero (0) bobcats.

We attempted to get some culture and go to the Art Museum in Forest Park. Unfortunately, we couldn't find a place to park, so we'll have to save culture for another day.

Some advice: never EVER purchase coffee beer. Yes, coffee beer. It exists. Don't get it. It will make you sad. It's too bad, too, because it's made by a local St. Louis microbrewery, but they just missed the boat on this one. Two good things that just don't go well together.

There was also the requisite bowling, which turned out to be much harder than bowling ever should be. The first night we tried to go, we went to 2 or 3 different places, all of which had waits of 20 minutes or more. To bowl. So instead we played some games in the game room of one of the places. Aaron spent a good deal of time playing a Japanese fishing video game, complete with fishing rod controller, which periodically would scream "FISH!" at him to encourage him. Neil rode a motorbike and shot stuff. I played a soccer game, complete with real soccer ball. But the next time we tried to bowl, it was much more successful, except for the sarcastic dude behind the counter. We played 3 or 4 games, I think we all won once. Then a fight almost broke out between the guy behind the counter and a customer, so we left.

After the Budweiser Brewery tour, Neil was able to score an extra free sample. Here's to Neil for sticking it to The Man.

The guys also had their favorite dogs. Aaron liked Teak, probably owing to how spastic he is (Teak, not Aaron). Neil liked Moose, since he thought they were both relatively comatose.

Maybe we'll hang out again before I get married. Reunion, anyone?

Aww, hell no!

The Fleet Center in Boston was this close to being called "Derek Jeter Center" for an extraordinarily long period of 24 hours.

Visitation

Christina visited me last week with her friend Ali, stopping through on the way from California to Boston. We hadn't seen each other in quite a while (neither of us could pin down when the last time we saw each other was). This is something I've wanted to do, travel cross country in a car, stopping and seeing people I know, seeing the scenery and everything between the two coasts. But it's never happened. Maybe some day.

And on Saturday, Aaron and Neil arrive for some good old fashioned gettin' down. What that entails, who knows. As long as it's better than the toga party we attempted to have freshman year, I'll be happy.

Eureka! And other tidbits

Lots of things to cover here, let's get to it.

-Pats. Super Bowl. DYNASTY! That word is being thrown around a lot, but I think in this case it's appropriate. I mean, you just KNEW they were going to win, didn't you? At least I did. That caused a bit of a problem with Kia, since she's a huge Donovan McNabb fan, but I think she'll get over it. They just know how to get it done in the big games, and they make it interesting in the process. Three Super Bowl wins by a total of nine points. That's excitement. Teddy Bruschi put it well when he said they play well in "hat and t-shirt games," when they get hats and t-shirts for winning. I like the idea that these huge well-paid athelets are playing for hats and t-shirts. I also think it's great that his name is pronounced "brewski," as in "Pass me another brewski." The only way his name could be better for a football player would be if it was "Teddy Cheese Fries" or "Teddy Pork Rinds."

-"Sideways": I finally saw it. Great film. I'm really surprised that Paul Giamatti got passed over for a best actor nomination. I have also had a craving for red wine since I saw it. Is that weird?

-My IM basketball season got cut short, a lot shorter than most of us thought it would be. We lost on Thursday night in the second round of the playoffs. We weren't really on our game, but managed to go to overtime (who goes to overtime in an intramural basketball game??), and we eventually lost. The team who beat us was the same law school team who has beaten us in the IM flag football championship the past two years in a row. So this makes three (3) times that this same group of future lawyers has removed our psych department team from the playoffs. As Pedro would say, "I just tip my hat and call this law school team my daddy."

-Kia is taking an architecture class, which looks really interesting and challenging, but also pretty complicated. I guess designing buildings is a pretty complicated business. Anyway, one of their projects this semester is to design an actual house for actual clients who will use one of the designs to build a new house on a plot of land they bought. And one of Kia's assignments was to go look at the plot, to get a better idea of what it's like. So yesterday, we decide to take a trip out to Eureka, Missouri, WAAAAYYYY out in the middle of nowhere. It's beautiful, very quiet, sort of picturesque, a place you might want to go camping. So we get to the site, and Kia's checking it out, and we have the dogs with us and they're tearing around the forest, and then she's seen enough so we get back in the car. And it won't start. And Kia tries again, and it won't start. This is where it starts to feel like a movie: out in the middle of nowhere, car won't start, and it's starting to get dark. So we call AAA, and they send a tow truck. Of course, these roads aren't really marked, it's all undeveloped land, and there's no way anyone could find us. So we're sitting there for a while, and the tow guy keeps calling because he can't find us. So we take the dogs and start walking all the way back to the main road. And meanwhile it's getting darker and darker, and we can see less and less. Finally, we get to the main road and find the tow truck. He takes Kia back up to the car, and I wait with the dogs in the dark. While they're gone, I hear some strange noises, rustling, odd howls, and Teak keeps growling at something. Eventually, they get back, with the car on the tow truck, and we all get in. That's when the tow truck guy tells us that there are wolves and bobcats (BOBCATS??) around here. So that's probably what I heard. I've never seen a bobcat. I don't know that I care to. I'm hoping Teak and Moose would have protected me, but I'm not so confident they would have. The moral of the story: no more trips to Eureka.

I've always wanted to name a SPORTS ARENA

FleetCenter in Boston is auctioning off the chance to name the arena for 24 hours. Any name ideas? I was thinking of "The New Boston Gaaaahhhhden." What, not original enough?

Go clubbin'

So it's late, and I stumble on my high school's website. Trying to see what's going on there these days, I find a list of all of the current registered clubs. Some of the more memorable ones:

-And Now for Something Completely Different Club
-Beatboxing Club
-Diabolo Club (sounds evil...)
-Hackey Sack Club
-Helping Hands (is that like the "Happy Hands" club from Napoleon??? PLEASE say it is)
-Historical Swordsmanship Club (whaaaaaa??)
-Metal Club (would that be the musical genre or the element?)
-Out Together and Sober (when I was there, all the biggest drinkers were in this club)
-Red Sox Club (I approve)

Plus six (6) different science teams. Who needs six science teams???