good morning boys and girls. if you smell something burning, its either me burning the candle at both ends or my ass dragging behind me. you take your pick. we missed volleyball tuesday night due to the inclimate weather here in CLT, but bryan called me tuesday afternoon and asked me if i would still be interested in doing wednesday nights. sure i would. but as yesterday came around, i was a little nervous about running the show at the new facility. at the latta on tuesdays, i am only watching one court for four matches. quick math will tell you that its only eight teams to get organized. piece of cake for a guy like me. but last night down at the sports warehouse 2, i was looking at four courts for four matches. again with the high end algebra, that is 32 teams to get organized. have them completely fill out their team roster, make sure everybody’s account balance is paid before stepping on the court, make sure they know all the basic rules, and that they are in the right spot at the right time. great googily moogily. let the chaos and hilarity begin! after i had come to terms witht he fact that i was going to be running at least 20 minutes behind schedule, i was fine. and i got introduced to the owner of the leagues last night, alan. nice guy, and its obvious he wants all his leagues run as tight as possible. and i don’t have a problem with that in the least. there were a lot of old faces there from past leagues. a couple of the teams had migrated from the tuesday night that i play in, and a couple of them were wednesday night regulars that i had met when i covered for ron last season. so there was a fair amount of ball busting going on. good times. one of the jackasses that i was happy to lose on tuesday nights though was now on the wednesday nights. and the first words out of his mouth las tnight were “you are wrong.” to which i wanted the first words coming out my mouth to be “kiss my ass.” but it came out “hey steve, how you doing?” this guy was the biggest pain in the ass when we played against each other. and we got into an argument over what consistutes an illegal attack. so he went online and found some rule book that he thought supported his point, printed out a copy, underlined key phrases, and thought enough of me to bring it with him to give me a copy last night. not knowing that i was working the wednesday night leagues now that i think about it. if there is anything else this guy can do with his free time, let me know. a couple of his teammates apologized behind his back for him, and poor jan had to play with him last night as a sub. i feel for her. bryan showed up later and was happy with the job that i did thus far. which i appreciate. he just doesn’t want me getting burnt out with two nights in a row. hey, stamina is my middle name. actually its kenneth. spelled or pronounced nothing like stamina. oh well. the night was an overall success and i am looking forward to having it run like clockwork next week when all the rosters and moneys are taken care of. just a heads up, you all might not hear from me until after the super bowl (when carolina wins), because i am moving down the street this weekend. so i have a lot of packing and unpacking to do this weekend. but sunday will be a raging super bowl party at AD’s. just to switch gears here for a second, i have been too busy this week and have forgotten to mention the passing of a dear family friend this past saturday. Lou DeLano. Lou was one of the kindest souls anybody in this world could ever have the privilege to meet. It wasn’t until this past year that I realized that we shared the same birthday. And while mine was for 28 years on the planet, his was for an amazing 99. Lou and his wife Edie, that past a few years ago, were lifelong friends of the Allen side of my family. The Delano’s kept a keen eye on Jas and I in church at First Baptist when we were growing up and were terrific friends of my mom and grandparents. Truly a sweet couple. He was a snappy dresser and never forgot a thing. One of my biggest hang ups growing up was that people couldn’t tell my brother and I apart. That was never a problem with Lou. He never skipped a beat. With a firm handshake and a smile that could light up a room he would ask how things were at Slippery Rock or down here in Charlotte. He was a kindred spirit. Lou past on Saturday afternoon in, what I am told, was a peaceful manner. Rest in Peace Lou. Lou Delano 1905-2004.

its been absolutely ugly down here the last couple of days. i know it doesn’t compare to any of the weather up north. i am not even trying to compare. but you throw a bunch of these southerns out on slick roads and the hilarity will ensue. yesterday, cookie rode in to work with me. we made it in by 8:30. but it was still late enough to take abuse from falcone, who gets up at the butt crack of dawn. whatever. we were definitely working the skeleton crew yesterday, even more so today. the genius idea of the day award for yesterday goes to AD. he decided that walking to mickey d’s for lunch was a much better idea. now granted it is only a block or so away. but, hello?! freezing rain and wind? of course, there were the three of us that dumb enough to follow. speaks volumes about myself and the company i keep. and we got back from lunch just in time to get the announcement that the office was closing at 2pm. i have to say, i don’t get that whole “let out of school early” rush anymore. that is a shame. but it was a perfect opportunity to go home and start on some of my packing for the big move this weekend. from my apartment building to one about six buildings away. man, that is going to be tough. but i think i have enlisted the help of pretty much the whole crew. namely those with pickup trucks. and will the thrill came over yesterday with his odd shaped melon. “would you look at the size of that thing? its like sputnik. spherical, but quite pointy in places.” so we cut some hair off of that dome. brought back the old college nostalgia of the one guy with clippers on your dorm floor. not many guys back then had the in between hair cut. it was either able to be shaved in spots, or it was long. and speaking of the nostalgia thing, the weather has made me available for the AOL IM thing again. so i had a chance to catch up with a couple of the Fraternity brothers in the las couple of days. brook, who is down at one of those professional athlete training type facilities in FL. says he has seen a lot of the leading NFL prospects for next year. i was nice to catch up with him. and i chatted with his little bro in the Fraternity last night, salter. salt has one last semester at the rock before he joins the rest of us in the real world. and he gave me the new website address for the chapter, so i updated that on the links page. man, if you look at the pics, they are all just kids. kids i tell you. i can still remember, although not very vividly, a time when i was in high school and college people we so old. then you get in the working world, and people close to retirement age are the only ones who come close being called older. its all relative. anyway. i got a lot of stuff packed up last night and look forward to getting more done tonight. it should make for an easy move. today was a little bit more slick out there. i got up a little later. cookie was not as anxious to go to work today, so she opted for staying at home. after getting out of the apartment complex, i thought it was going to be a breeze. that was until i made it about half way up the little turning hill on bannington road. that was when i saw a guy in a mustang spinning his wheels and drifting backward toward me. the guy actually motioned for me to go around him. i guess not only was he an incompetitent driver, but also unbelievably stupid. the two people in back of me saw him drifting backward at the same time i did, so the crisis, at least for us, was averted. then i had to listen to bird’s whole “dedication to the team” speech. not quite as inspirational as MLK’s “i have a dream,” or as welcome to my ears as he might have thought it to be. whatever. if it weren’t for the muzak in this joint, you could hear a mouse fart at the other end of the building. and volleyball got canceled for the evening, so it looks like more packing. giddy up.

friday was an okay day at work. we broke up the day with a little lunch at amggiano’s. while sitting there, we enjoyed taking in the local sights, including a little celeb sighting. nascar buff, will the thrill, spotted driver jeff burton walking into the cheesecake factory. then we all spotted carolina panthers wide receiver musin muhammed walking into the mall. then after work, i got the invite to go to dixie’s tavern with the crew from vollebyall, hosted by amber. with kev as a wing man and the rest of the VB teams in their usual form, it was a great time. and ron was working behind the bar, so i got to catch up with him following his brown recluse spider bit surgery. it looks as though he is recovering well from that one. and with the beer flowing like ater and after a couple of shots, the night just flew by. so with what seemed like a long week, i was ready to go home. since i have been uptown a little bit more as of late, i am really getting good at navigating the city. so i head down park road back toward south park. but the road was closed at fairview so i had to take sharon the rest of the way. when i turned onto sharon, i got behind a guy that really didn’t seem to know what he was doing. swerving and stuff. and i got rid of him just after the Y. and just in time for the CMPD to pass me coming the other way. damn vascar system. as soon as he passed me, the brake lights went on and he threw a U. my heart sunk into my stomach. but i tried to stay as calm as possible. tun signal followed by the hazard lights and pulled off to the side of the road. i don’t know anybody that doesn’t almost vomit while seeing police lights behind them. “can i see your license and registration? do you know why i stopped you?” “i may have been going a little fast.” “i clocked you going 51. do you know what the speed limit is?” “yeah, it’s 35.” “so, where you coming from tonight jared?” “uptown.” “where uptown?” “uh, dixie’s tavern.” “have you had anything to drink tonight jared?” “uh, like four beers.” (slight, and only, fabrication.) “and what time did you start drinking?” “around seven.” “you on your way home? marquis, right?” “yes sir. its been a long week, and i am ready for bed.” “alright, let me check this out and i will be right back.” don’t ask me how, but he let me off with 44 in a 35. other than hitting the lottery, i don’t think anything luckier could happen to me. i didn’t dodge a bullet, i dodged a cannon ball. so, needless to say, i am on the wagon for a little while after that sobering experience. no puns intended saturday, i was looking forward to recovery as well as a little disc golf, my new found hobby. no dice really on the sleeping in. cookie started getting packed up and had the girls over to help on her first moving trip to GA. tommy g., will the thrill, abson and i hit the disc landing store to by some new discs and some much needed advice from the owner of the shop. i got myself a mid-range driver and a putter. the mid-range rubbed my finger the wrong way when i threw it sidearm, but it was good for regular backhand throws. so i had to borrow a driver from tommy, who was tearing up the course with his new driver. i didn’t fair so well, but i can blame it on the new discs. last night, i just hung out. will cam over and we watched the gatti fight. he is the best thing in boxing right now as far as i am concerned. not only were is three fights with mickey ward the fights of the year the last three years, but his resurgence to the top is entertaining as all hell. he has made an excellent transition from an all out brawler to a world class boxer with the help of buddy mcgirt. and it was a really good fight against an italian contender named braco. the italian got a little ballsy at times, but gatti controlled the tempo of the fight the whole time. just a pleasure to watch. today, i am enjoying the gorgeous weather here in charlotte. a nice freezing mix of snow, sleet, and rain. it was a wonderful day for PJs and lounging. hopefully this week will go quick. super bowl baby.

of course almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. quoits, too, but more people play horseshoes i guess. just not in the yerg family. for those of you who don’t know, quoits is kinda like horseshoes, but instead of a shoe, you have a ring. its half the distance and the pin is only three inches high so that you can still get a ringer. its a good game. anyway…. wednesday night was boring, just lounged it. don’t get me wrong. it was a much needed rest. my scrawny butt has been dragging lately. yesterday we were all scrambling around trying to get ready for this worldquest 2004 competition. if i didn’t mention it earlier, the worlquest competition is like a global trivia game for organizations here in charlotte. jones international has put together a team for awhile, and one year they even placed in the top four. but you have to understand the other organizations that send teams are no slouches. along with duke energy, bank of america, wachovia, lufthansa, and a number of other large local companies, you also had the local college teams, the top notch high school teams, and the people who think that global trivia is a hobby. those people are just sick. and since nobody on the floor here really wants to compete in this, it turned into mostly the young bucks going this year. abson, who is from malawi in africa, tommy g., who spent three years in the peace corp, falcone, who has at least been overseas, jose, who is from one of the south american countries, eric, who is an expeditor and does the global shipping thing daily, john, who is an estimator that has travelled to many of the sites prior to bidding, and myself, a guy from pennsylvania. one of these kids is doing there own thing, one of these kids just isn’t the same, one of these kids is doing there own thing, now its time to play that game….(sesame street jingle) that’s right. i am a little under qualified for this competition. but i am a team player and i love general trivia. you know, like “what is the national animal of canada?”-type stuff. first, we knew it was going to be a rough night when we got there. we were trying to find a place to park on the street for free. but we had to wait until 6pm, because you could get towed before 6pm. meanwhile, there is a parking garage at the hilton for a maximum of three bucks. it was twenty of six when we got there. so the decision was made to wait in the car for the twenty minutes. thank god tommy finally broke down and said that twenty minutes was worth the three bucks to him, so we threw it in the garage. the cool thing was that lesley was there for the duke energy team. it was a nice change seeing each other in non-volleyball clothes. she apparently got recruited last minute like our group. and of course, going into this thing knowing that we were going to get housed, it was time to hit the bar. cash bar. if your company shelled out 5k for a table, don’t you think it would be an open bar? not only was it a cash bar, but a beer was six bucks. right. and they had some lasagna and veggies for dinner. first round was flags. let the slaughter begin. we got four out of the ten i think. the next few rounds were a blur, but we weren’t getting any better. and the humor as a defense mechanism kicked in for all of us. the greek militant group that has been causing problems? (like i knew they had problems in greece in the first place?) maybe the taliban. we put down the blue man group first. and then there were sometimes when we didn’t know whether to take ach other seriously. the name of the revolution in slovakia? john looked at me with a smile and said, “the velvet revolution.” i thought it was funny, so i wrote it down. turns out he was right. but i was holding onto the sixth and final round. general trivia, which the program described as anything, “food, sports, music, etc.” that is putting a pitch in my wheel house. one last chance to go down swinging at least. no dice. no sports. no food. no music. just more political history crap from other countries. it was an intellectually humbling night. but we all got a free keychain/clock/caribeener/compass from lufthansa. and tommy won a gift certificate to maggiano’s. eric won a girft certificate to the seveth street market. and i won a years subscription to charlotte magazine. and we all had a good time. even if we did get our asses handed to us by a bunch of high school kids. we could still legally drink a few over priced beers to dull the pain. oh and the national animal of canada is the beaver.

i wish i was still in bed right now. of course, who reading this doesn’t wish that? and i think the weekend is still too far away to use as a motivator to get myself out of bed in the morning. usually by thursday i can say to myself,”get you ass out of bed, you can sleep in in two days.” three days doesn’t hold the same reward on wednesday. yesterday, i was informed by my good friend lorrie, who is also one of my best vendors, that i am supposed to settle down and be in a long term relationship. and as we all know, its just that easy. like deciding to change from boxers to briefs (like any man in his right mind would do that). i think today i will find the girl i am going to marry. right. and i don’t really think that the whole “of the age to married” thing holds water anymore. hell, for our grandparents that was around the age of twenty. and women are more independent now than they were then. and nobody, man or woman, really is somewhat stable with their career by the age of 27ish. unless they dated throughout college and/or high school, good luck finding a person that is certain enough of what they want and know they are ready to get married. am i sick of being the only “unattached” person at family gatherings? yes. does seeing all my friends who are in relationships get a little old? yes. did going to roughly 16 weddings in the last four years by myself make me think? yes. is it anything that i am going to rush into or keep myself awake at night over? no. maybe sometimes i am a little picky when i don’t need to be or deserve to be. maybe i get a little seinfeld-ish from time to time with the shortcomings of people i have dated. but i only want to get married once. sue me. anyway. so last night was the first night of the new league for volleyball. the first night is always the most hectic. you have to nake sure the rosters are completely filled out, check all the balances due, explain all the rules to the people who should already know them, etc. kev and the rest of the notorious DIG took the floor first to defend their title. that was a cake walk for them. as was our first match that followed against what used to be make ends meat, and are now can we have your coupon. you see, everytime you win your match you get a free bucket of beer for dixie’s afterward. its a nice little incentive. the night went pretty smooth and there a couple of new teams that are going to be fun at least. i still have to keep in the back of my mind that it is a recreational league. but if we drop a game to anybody but the DIG, i will be surprised. especially since we lost to of the more competitive teams in the league to the wednesday night league. i got a couple of good phone calls last night as well. first of which was my boy zack out in cali. (i put my pants on like everyone else, one leg at a time. only difference is, once i get them on, i make gold records.) he is holding down the west coast with dickie dunn. rich apparently turned 30 this past weekend. happy belated to him. they went down to hollywood to celebrate and both were suffering the two day hangover. i think they all become two day hangovers after thirty from what i hear. and zack got a great year end review, which means he may be heading back to the east coast in the a couple of months. it all depends on where people accept their retirement packages i guess. i got my fingers crossed for you brother. i think he would be happy in either the burgh or down here in NC. hoping for NC. (i need more cowbell!) the second call was my new nominee for luckiest damn person in my family ( a position formerly held by my brother, who could fall into shit and come up smelling like roses everytime). my sister. not only did she get the unanimous vote from my brother and i to go to italy over what would be her spring break, but now her and her boyfriend conor have gotten the invitation to work on his family’s vineyard out in california for the summer. i think it may be in the napa valley or something. last year for his family reunion they did puerto rico. she studied in austria already. hell, she will probably get offered a ride on the space shuttle next week. “want to go to the moon linds? i know a guy who has a condo there?” little tird. meanwhile, my travel experience is this: north - toronto for fraternity convention, south - daytona for spring break, west - road trip with mcconnell to paduca, kentucky for two days for his work, and east - ocean city, maryland. i don’t even have a passport, let alone have stamps on one. oh well, i am happy for her. and the last call of the evening was my step mom, sal. it was really good catching up with her. dating, new apartment, linds, the family, the dogs, all the good stuff. it was nice before i hit the sack last night. and today i am just pounding out another day at work. bad start to that though. my security key didn’t work on the elevator. so i was trapped in there for a little while. then falcone came down and got me. i had to ask fitz if it was his subtle way of firing me. no luck on that one.

needless to say, my skinny little butt was dragging yesterday. and it is feeling like a little more of the same today. i have been keeping myself really busy as of late, and i guess its taking its toll. what with volleyball, wiffleball, disc golf, playoff football, going away parties, and work in the last week, a guy can get a little tuckered, right? and just when the busy week is over, another one starts. last night, i zonked on the couch after eating some harper’s to go turkey, corn bread stuffing, and red skinned mashed potatoes. ah triptophan. but my little nap just gave me the energy i needed in order to stay up and watch american chopper. nothing like watching the tuetels go at it while building bikes for the discovery channel. mikey, the younger less experienced of the sons, is a freaking riot. last night he put a kick stand on all by himself. which was no small achievement for him. and he was proud of it. “whats a bike without a kickstand? its a bike that is laying on the ground is what that is. and thats no good.” he cracks me the hell up. anyway, today at work i guess i am just going to keep digging out from the mess that is my desk and tackle whatever fire drills come up. there is always something. tonight is the first night of the new league for volleyball. a chance to start a new. we have to come back after dropping the finals last week. usually we have a week off in between the finals and the next league, but bryan wanted to get it cranked right back up. not that i mind. it keeps a little dough going in my pocket and i don’t get sluggish from not playing. i don’t know if i mentioned or not, but thursday a couple of us from work have to go uptown to the hilton to represent our division at the worldquest 2004. and yes, it should be as fun as it sounds. its a ton of companies getting together and doing global trivia. countries, mountains, rivers, bridges, flags, current events, you know, stuff i have absolutely no clue whatsoever about. i am pretty good at the general trivia stuff. movies, music, science, literature, sports, stuff like that. but if you asked me what the capitol of ghana is, you are going to be hearing some crickets chirping. and it seems as though its the young bucks in the office turn to represent. so i have that to look forward to. its going to be a good week. oh yeah, and the panthers beat the eagles on sunday in order to go to the super bowl. its just a friendly reminder.

first though, a weekend recap. cookily’s party on friday had a wonderful turn out over at the fairview grill. there were easily thirty of our co-workers there. enough to make me think, “i hope this many people show up when i get fired.” not that cookie is getting fired, but you get my drift. it was a good time and i think that the cummulative amount of alcohol consumed could easily kill a herd of buffalo. and much like one of those vh1 red carpet BS episodes, it was the premiere, at least for me, of one of the latest couples in the circle of friends. the premiere of little cookie and will the thrill. i wish them the best of luck and, at the very least, hope they enjoy themselves. but it was an early night for me. i ended up getting bored drinking. so i flew home solo and curled up to watch a little animal house. a true classic. saturday was just a relaxed kind of day for me. i was saving up in case i went uptown for the game today. but i did get back out on the disc golf course with tommy g. and the thrill, which is always a good time. i think i am really starting to enjoy the sport. and who knows, maybe with a little practice i could get good at it. we diecided not to score the back nine separate from the front nine, and i scored a two over par for the course. not bad for a second time playing i think. then last night i just pissed around with the playstation 2 that i inheretted from gainer as he resides overseas. HOW ABOUT THEM PANTHERS?! first we had to get the colts-pats game out of the way. i was really hoping for a colts-panthers super bowl, but it just wasn’t in the cards. ty law and adam vinitieri beat the colts for crying out loud. they had a shot at the end, but couldn’t pull it out. so i lost ten bucks to jas on that one. but i had the chance to break even if (when) the panthers pulled out the W. what a game? the eagles didn’t even score a touchdown! 4 interceptions and five sacks! did you people see foster’s TD run?! not only was it an awesome second effort, but the third effort that got him into the end zone! musin muhammed with the touchdown catch! and ricky manning jr. with three picks. he has gambled a lot throughout the season and he cashed in on all of it tonight. broke even with jas. called mom to ask how she enjoyed the game (rub it in, since jim is a die hard eagles fan). of course she had to say it was a late hit that took mcnabb out of the game. blah blah blah. CAROLINA IS GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL!

is there a more beautiful word in the english language for the 9 to 5 person? friday. a close second is payday. the trump card of course is when the two coincide. today is such a day. gloryosky bosko! yesterday’s freak occurrence of the day carried into today, so its valid for both days. yesterday morning pop called me to give me a heads up that i could expect a call from my sister, lindsay, asking for permission to go to italy to finish up her senior thesis part of her honors program stint at IUP. look at that sentence again. i was to give my sister permission to go? i did find out that my brother and i were sharing the responsibilty for making the decision, but i perplexed to this very moment why it fell on our shoulders. the weird thing was that when linds did call me, i felt very parental about the whole thing. i expressed my concerns with her travelling with the status of the world as it is. told her i thought it was kind of odd since she is no longer in the art program to do her honors fling there instead of with pre-optometry. inquired where the money was going to come from and how she would repay it. but she had good answers for all my concerns. there were no honors programs for pre-optometry. the rents and g-rents would spot her the cash until the summer when she could work. plus she has been studying italian for the last three semesters. and its not like italy is a hot bed for terrorist activity. so i gave her my blessing. not what dad wanted. oh well. i dropped the ball on my first parental experience. with humans that is. killing the chia pet i got for xmas one year, the multiple bonsai trees, and a palm tree don’t count. i understand dad’s concerns. and letting his little girl go overseas is basically holding your breath for the two weeks. but she is 21 and it is a once (or twice since she went to austria already) in a lifetime opportunity. not to mention its better than writing a 40 page paper. and jas agreed with me. anyway. even though i had an extremely relaxing and wonderful evening last night, i still feel a little sluggish today. of course this is going to pale in comparison to how bad my ass will be dragging tomorrow after going to cookie’s going away party tonight after work. and apparently its a dual party since yelena, our other admin assistant in purchasing gave notice this morning. i guess bird and i are going to have to lighten up on whoever replaces them. so everybody right now at work is basically clock watching and waiting for beer’o'clock to roll around. the emails are pouring in from the jackasses up north about the philly/carolina game on sunday. keep them coming. diggity, snuffy, jimbo… eagles are going down. that ends my smack talk. have a good weekend all. go panthers!

it was another really productive day at work yesterday. its almost starting to feel like the load that has been on my shoulders the last eight months or so is really starting to get lighter. of course, now that i have said that, i will probably get slammed again with work. inundated as it were. it seemed yesterday that if there was a really stupid way to cut one of my hands, i did it. it started first thing in the morning by cutting my right middle finger on my windshield wiper while scraping my windows. that one bled for a while. then in the afternoon, i was carrying around a rolled up piece of regular 8.5″x11″ paper and gave myself one hell of a paper cut in between my thumb and fore finger. a little lemon juice and i would have been in heaven. and then last night, while playing wiffleball, the edge of my pinky caught my signet ring while swinging the bat and ripped my pinky. that made me the first injury of the wiffle ball night. none of them were life threatening, but annoying. on a more serious note, my buddy ron, who runs one of the other nights of volleyball dodged a major bullet this past week. it seems that while he was home for the holidays in both new york and pittsburgh, that he got bit on the left hand by a brown recluse spider. now, i don’t know if any of you have every gotten that disgusting email with the day by day progress of a brown recluse bite, but i can tell you its not for those with a weak stomach. i almost launched lunch by the day fourteen picture. and apparently one in four people die from it. pretty scary stuff. but he got the proper medical attention it seems and is on his road to recovery. best of luck to him on that one. back to the less serious. last night was the big wiffleball tournament. that statement alone makes me laugh. shem, another CSC employee, was running the show down at the charlotte sports warehouse and did a hell of a job. he did all the research with the governing bodies of organized wiffleball online and was even out there hitting balls in order to format a decent game for a good time. it was a sort of baseball format. the pitcher was every base for outs though, in the sense that if a feilder threw it to him before the runner reached the base, it was an out. but he had to stay inside the circle that is around half field of the indoor soccer field we were playing on. pretty basic. and the first round consisted of two inning games. we put together a decent team i thought. lesley from my team in volleyball (actually i found out last night that i just captain the team, but its really her team. good to know), kevin from notorious DIG, chris from slammers, and kevin’s friend teresa that i met this past weekend. team name: rough helmet. so we got to play first in this round robin style tourney. we played this team that approached the game like they were on just another stop in there professional wiffleball league. they weren’t even drinking. that should have been a sign. we got first at bats, and i had the dubious honor of being the first strike out victim….looking. shem said i put the wiff in wiffleball. funny. and he got to go back to that well one more time later on in the evening, which sucked. chris was our pitcher and ended up striking out 7 people on the night i think. he also the first to leave some skin on the astro turf by making a great diving catch. les played left in the first two games, then switched with me to right field. and kevin played center and backed me up in left, which was necessary after a couple of beers. we almost had a few collisions though. and teresa was our all-star catcher. it really was a riot playing. i mean, even if you were getting spanked, you were still playing wiffleball and drinking beer, so it didn’t matter. chris was our big hitter for the night. he probably hit around .800. kevin definitely held his own. and lesley and teresa did really good, too. lets just say i was an entertaining batter. i jacked a couple that were easy fly balls and hit a couple that were easy outs to the pitcher. i hit the pitcher on one that left a decent welt. and my only hit of the night was an rbi single to left. oh well. we lost to the pro team and tied our other two games in the round robin part of the night. that gave us the pro team again in the first round of the playoff and we got housed. but that meant we could just sit, drink the rest of our beer, and heckle the other teams. then we took our consolation ticket for a bucket of beer at dd peckers and had a couple of rounds. jan joined us and we played their little trivia game until about 11:30. we won one of the rounds of trivia and got another free round of beers. it was just a great night.

so after too many damn meetings and an annoying afternoon trying to get a quote from a vendor, i finally made my way to volleyball tonight. bryan, my boss and teammate, was there pretty early. apparently some dude stole some money out of the office the night before. and he had returned for seconds tonight. so they spotted him and called the police. but he jet pretty quick. and then a little more controversy hit when the ninth seed team, still setting showed up with only one original member. bryan called into the office and got the roster, but we let them play because nobody protested. and they quickly dispatched the irish car bombs. so then we had our match against the stray cats, who we have had problems with in the past. they have a guy on there who tries to enforce rules that aren’t right and ignores the one that are. all i have to say on that one, is know what you are talking about before you stop a game to bring something up. how shitty is my memory? four hours later i cannot remember whether we lost the first game or the second game. either way it was a good match. we were making a bunch of errors but got away with it. beat them in three. then notorious DIG had to play the new and improved still setting. jim called them in on a roster check. turned out bryan let them sign up three teams for there orginization, they had all signed one of the rosters, but none of the original members were still with the organization. so we let them play after a long delay. odd thing was that they had lost the fifth guy who was the only original member left. wierd. but in two close games DIG pulled out a win. we were hoping for a third game obviously, so we could get them tired instead of warmed up. no luck and that pretty much summed up the rest of the night for us. no luck. the first game was tight for awhile but we won. 25-17 i think. the second game we all started a little more relaxed since we are all friends. that apparently didn’t work for us because they jumped out to a 13-1 lead. that hurt. but we rallied back. we weren’t always covering and we were just making weird plays that weren’t effective. myself included. i played like a big box of poo. not even warm poo. dropped the second game. i think that is when the frustration started to set in. i was getting lucky now and again clipping the lines on hits, but mostly i was dinking because i didn’t have the confidence. and our passing was leading to rough setting. at times we seemed satisfied to just get it over. that is a hard way to win volleyball games. the third game we gave them another big lead. one thing after another. if you read the sports guy’s column on espn.com’s page 2, this was definitely a gut punch game. nothing was going right. we battled back and it was knotted at 23. then a sideout for them. a quick point. and it was over. i have to give credit to kev, jim, amy, and the rest of the notorious DIG. they played well. and if anybody in the league was going to beat us for the championship, i am glad it was them. just wasn’t our night. i hate losing. and i hate having to say that we will get them next season. and i hate that people that left the team before this season will be able to say that we just couldn’t do it without them. but mainly i hate losing. so no four championships in a row. there are worse things in life though. but i stopped at the grocery store on the way home. got some grub and some beer. checked my mail. nudey magazine day. and the wonderful people of playboy put jaime pressly in this month. thank you. checked the email and i got a message from goat diggity, no doubt. a Fraternity brother i hadn’t heard from in awhile. thinks i am an ass clown for doing this. he maybe right. who knows. good to hear from you though dan. tomorrow night is the epitomy of cool though. round robin, 5 on 5, BYOB, coed, wiffleball tournament. i know you are all jealous. but now it is time for one of the best things in the world. hot shower. cold beer. my little slice of heaven before i go to bed. ‘night all.