June 1999

• 6/30/99
  Finally got my car, and it's clean too, it may be my imagination but my car seems to handle a bit more nimbly -- maybe my spotty gas milage will improve too. Confirmed today that Duane is too injured to play with us in Seattle, now we have only a few days to find another middle (or at the very least another outside hitter)
• 6/29/99
  Latest news is that the CV joint attached to my right rear axel is bad, and the part won't be in till tomorrow -- so now I'm car-less for another day, I really should have brought my motorcycle down. Current theory is that Kevin was too heavy for my car (just kidding ;)
• 6/28/99
  Managed to take my car in to the shop, and the *thunk* actually showed up for the mechanic on the test drive !! The bad news is that it appears to be a bad drive train part (right axel separation??) and while they were tracking it down they also found a broken shock casing on the right rear which needs to be replaced too (both sides) ugh, and I'm still due for new rear tires too, its going to be an expensive month.
• 6/27/99
  Played a reverse tourny (BB) with Amber (A size, B skills, but improving). It was close to 90 degrees and there was lots of cheezy play during pool, even by the "nice" teams, I thought it was very strange until I was informed (after pool play) that (normally) only the top 2 teams in each pool advance to the tournament portion. Luckily since there was only 1 pool (of 5) in BB (out of 12 entries !!!) they only eliminated the 5th team, and we at least got another match in, for a total of 5 games to 15, but that was probably enough since I was beat from the heat, all in all it was fun to be out there again, Amber was very easy to play with and pretty entertaining even though we didn't do all that well (1-5). The opens (AA?) were about what I would expect, big huge hitting women, however mostly large, but not especially fast men (i.e. Jeramy, Tony & Ed would probably amaze these folks as none of the guys appeared to hit leading sets). The drop off to A was surprising, I don't think there was a single tall woman and no real dominating guys, I think I'll have to try and get Miki to play with me there. It was a relatively small tourny, with 9 nets (2 AA/Open, 1 pool of A on 2 nets, 1 BB, & 3 B) and it was slighty unorganized, no captains meeting, net assignment changes with no notification etc. odd since this was an AVA event and I had heard that the NCVA tournys were the poorly run ones.
• 6/26/99
  Kevin came by for a visit this past weekend, so I took him to play (and I use the term loosly at this gym) volleyball, it was fairly entertaining. While carting around Sat with Kevin, I started hearing a *clunk* in the right rear of my car, thought it was just something rolling around in the trunk, but after securing everything it still happened, mostly on breaking. Multitudes of tests were to no avail, and my mechanics couldn't look at it till monday. So I made Kevin drive around (in his rented convertible sebring !!) while we checked out some of the local outdoor vball gathering sites.
• 6/22/99
  At long last, I finally remembered to scan in my HS reunion picture (and I can already hear Barri saying "about time" ;) typically, I missed the actual event, so I'm not in the picture.
• 6/21/99
  The whirlwind Seattle tour, luckily it was only my band that was loose, not the crown, but they still needed to adjust my teeth even more, so maybe next time the braces will be coming off. The wedding was fun, and entertaining, and yes, I wore a suit, but I don't think anyone got any pictures of me ;) Finally got to meet Scot Thompson's girlfriend Julie, she was very entertaining to say the least. Tried to arrange a vball outing to Greenlake but only Christi North, Jim and Melissa showed up. Now I know who the reliable ones are ;) Ended up seeing Amazon at the Omnidome instead. There were more than a few discussions about past decisions with different folks, interesting how being gone changes ones perspectives.
• 6/16/99
  Scot Thompson visited tues on his way back home, I registered for 2 outdoor tournys, and I still have to figure out if I can fit in my suit for Cindy & Scot Peterson's wedding on Saturday, too bad I'm missing a (mandatory) company sponsored lobster fest picnic on friday, but orthodontic work calls. Braces were supposed to come off on this trip, but may not, as one of my crowns came loose (only held in by the wire) when I was in Houston, it doesn't hurt, but it may have affected how much my teeth have progressed from the last vist.
• 6/14/99
  Sunburned, tired, and very sandy, what can you expect from 2 days at Hermosa Beach watching the AVP?? yes, raccoon eyes. It was a great weekend, met Scot down there, got to visit with Kathy & Charlie (my cousin & her husband) and play with the (slobbering) Fox & Scully, who are such bundles of energy. Also got to spend time with Lori McKenzie, (even if she ditched me on day 2 ;) and that was pretty fun, ran into lots of volleyball folks, some of them were pretty cute, hopefully Lori will get some good play out of those new contacts.
• 6/10/99
  Scot Thompson was in town on his roadtrip to LA, so we caught lunch & dinner, will be seeing him next when he picks me up at LAX to go to Hermosa. Got a (small) raise, and a pro-rated section of my target bonus, this is an amazing company, most places won't even consider you for a merit until after a year, but since they were doing everything in April they included me, even with only about 2 months worth of work.
• 6/8/99
  Had a very entertaining weekend. Dinnered with Domino Spice & Kevin friday and managed to swing by and see the Rodin sculpture garden at Stanford. Mel & Stacia, now better known as "Pip & Flip the Yukatan Twins" finally arrived late Saturday night (after an exciting set of detours in SF) as part of their Thelma & Louise World Tour (well 4 states at least). Sunday Melissa proceeded to power walk us from Pier 39 to Ghirardelli Square, to the top of ombard Street, through Chinatown, luckily Stacia opted out of the oit Tower visit, otherwise we might never have made it back to the car ;) We all went to see The Love Letter to mixed reviews, I thought it was disjoint in many places, but both M&S (the twins not the tires) thought it was very cute. Monday I had to work, so they had a "Cal-Train" adventure, followed by more of the Missy speed-walk SF race and now they're off to Reno/Vegas to cause yet more trouble before Stacia relocates to Arizona. Gee, I hope Cameo is still there when I get home, they were spoiling her rotton (Fila was acting a bit more aloof/neglected than usual) and threatened to take her with them. All in all a grand time. Next weekend it's off to visit Kathy & Charlie, and see the AVP in Hermosa with Scot Thompson & Lori McKenzie *whee*.
• 6/1/99
  It was the whirlwind weekend with Kat, saw 2 movies, Star Wars (very fun) & Notting Hill (pretty darn hilarious) got to a winery (ask Kat for a taste of what she bought) saw Half Moon Bay (lots of shopping) visited with Ian, met his new girlfriend (tall chinese woman) tried a new dim-sum place (yum!) shopping mania at Gilroy (only got 2/3rds the way through it) played outdoor vball with Miki, Daren & Tina (sunburned already! but the new net works good) and saw part of the USAV Nationals tourny (there are huge hitters there) Open divisions were playing the new rules (25 pt rally, 3 of 5 matches, and Libero) and there were plenty of ex-National Team players to watch pound. Saw Alan Chin & Rick (NAGVA) and both managed to get their USAV National Referee Certification, congrats to both. All in all a very good weekend.
  Forgot to mention, walked in to Nationals yesterday to see the AA play, and who do I spy but Debra Jasper playing middle for a Colorado team, Nick was there with little Nicolas (15 months, and what a little dancer he was) it was nice to see them, unfortunately their teams didn't do very well and were out by the time the day ended.
  Next up, Melissa & Stacia (from McCaw WDD) are visiting during their "Thelma & Louise" road trip.