Live With The Nerds
Don't Be One
January 2004
Last night was an interesting Sonics game, my normal seats are in row
19, but I had Deby's seats in row 3 (and her husband was there in row
5) about half way through the 3rd quarter the usher asked if I wanted
to participate in a competition. Wasn't going to, but how often do
you get onto the NBA court? besides Miyo was egging me on.
There were 5 of us for the competition, and they said that I had to
go first, but wait, they couldn't change the script, so I wouldn't be
announced, "I think you're just screwing with me now", but they
insisted it was on the up and up .. "Are you sure I'm not going to
get hurt or a pie in the face?" no they said, only Squatch (the
mascot) does that .. and what do I see when I get to the court?
Squatch .. "No really he won't touch you, he'll try and distract you
but he won't touch you really" .. yeah right,
I joked with the guy that the ball they gave me was too slippery
.. as if that mattered.
Anyway the competition
was to dribble the length of the floor (94 feet) and make a layup ...
in 5 seconds or less. Yeah, I'm laughing now cuz although I play lots
of basketball, and I'm pretty good dribbling, for the last few years
its been a running joke that I can't make a layup, no matter how much
time I have, or wide open I may be. So off I go, on the court between
quarters, Squatch annoying me, both teams having their huddles (on
the court), speedy I am with the ball, I get down there and of course
I'm going too fast, slowing down I hear them say "1" and I'm a bit
too far, going a bit too fast with a slippery ball so I'm starting to
laugh as I fumble the ball up there poorly and miss the layup badly.
Well maybe not so badly, none of the others even made it past the 3
point line before the time expired, even though one guy hucked it up
and made it... At least I got a free t-shirt oh and the guy who made
a basket? he got free tickets to a future Sonics game .. like I
needed those ;) I'm sure I was entertaining to the folks who
recognized me.
So the bulk of this week has been adventures with Caroline, she was
working in Portland when I had my meeting so we had dinner at
downtown at the SauceBox after doing a bit of shopping (Nike Outlets)
Then afterwork today I met her at Southcenter for a short but
expensive shopping spree .. just a few knick-knacks oh and a 42"
plasma screen tv (that I have to pick up in San Mateo) good thing the
stocks relatively up .. won't Elena be surprised .. That on top of
the new faucet, fire alarms and blinds that I put in while she was
away at class ...
Tonight we had dinner with my dad and sister (and miki) for chinese
new years, then we went back to Kat's for a small games party .. my
sister had recommended SceneIt which was pretty fun. Caro's staying
at Kats for the weekend so we can take in a Sonics game and do a bit
of shopping before playing some rev-coed 4's at Sound Mind & Body.
Seattle was fun, but I got snowed in, and then had 3 flights cancelled out from
under me .. finally got home, but have been on the go ever since. At least I managed
to finish up
Ken & Dana's Wedding pictures .. good timing too since they're moving to
Indonesia in a month or so. I'm almost done with my cousin's Jon's wedding
which means the only large set of pictures that I haven't finished are the
Europe trip from 2002, and the ones we took this past Christmas ..
On the health front, my left ankle is still getting sore, but I can't have surgery until
May since work's kinda busy, and I do have all those Sonics trips scheduled (no air travel
for 6 weeks after surgery). Then of course I managed to hurt my right ankle, just soreness
over the bone spur, had x-rays and there was not significant change so its just the
amount of pain I can stand. Then my left thumb is still pretty weak, sore on and off
even though I wear a brace now to protect it. Going to try and play some with the brace
as I'm now committed to setting for Tj's team at the San Jose tourny in Feb.
At least I should be in pretty good shape, the weight is still down (been bouncing
around 200lbs due to holiday cheating) hopefully I can get to my target weight in
a month or two.
Soon Gilbert's going to have a sibling, we got approved for the cherry-head conure
adoption, so now we're just having some tests run, and we'll probably drive back
down to LA in Feb to pick it up. We've named him Crichton, hopefully its a he, but
we won't know till we run tests back up here. Good think Elena's going to be home
to work with him, since he's still pretty wild. Even still, Elena's going to be
a bit busy with classes and starting of her business. So far she's still making her
plans and recipes but it should be getting going in the next couple of months.
Travel weekend, made it to Seattle just fine, then had to prep
old-blue (the toyota) for the trip to Portland .. poor car, I've had
it since it was new and now it's got almost 270K miles on it. Now its
leaking oil and there's a crack on the top of the radiator (the
plastic part) oh well duct tape should cure most of that.
It made the trip up and back, but it took 2 quarts of oil down
and only one on the way back strange .. but it didn't overheat ..
Oh the Sirius satallite radio rocks, my car speakers had never
sounded so good. When my sister gets a new car I think I'll
take her old one and donate old blue.
You'd think I'd start the year off more promptly, but travel does kinda interfere with
writing in the journal. First I was in and out of Seattle (and soon to be there again)
and now Elena's off at her classes in Florida for 2 weeks. That means I'm taking care
of Gilbert and Fila alone .. kinda challenging that is. Turns out that we don't
have a single weekend in town togeather, in fact I think the total number of
days we're together this month is maybe 10 or so.
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