Dana and Devon at the Great Wall

Went out for Chinese food with my uncle Dana and his twin sons on Monday. I drove up to Augusta with Manda and Greg, her boyfriend, and we met Dana at the Big Apple on 201.

I'd never met Dana's youngest kids before. I grew up with his first group of children- Adam, Sherry and Pete. He later married a woman with 3 children, adopted them, and then a few years later had the twins. Oddly, he named one of the twins Dana Jr. This is strange for two reasons: Not only is the child a twin, but it's his 5th child, 8th if you count the 'dopties.

Anyway, we crammed into Dana's truck and drove up to the Great Wall Buffet up near the Civic center. I try to stay clear of buffets, especially Chinese, but Dana said he ate there several times a week so I just had small portions and kept it simple: chicken teriyaki, crab rangoon, pork fried rice, sesame chicken- your staple American Chinese foods. I felt only moderately sick a few hours later.

The kids were very cute and friendly. Devon was more talkative and outgoing, but Dana was quick to please. They both spoke extensively about quarter tattoos and their tree house. When I asked Devon who was older, he said he was. I asked him by how much and he thought long and hard about it and said 3 months. He meant minutes.

After the meal Manda was reading the horoscopes to the boys and Devon said that Robert, probably a friend of his father's, was a Rat, according to the astrology chart. Devon later found out that Horses should marry Rats, but he made sure we didn't connect the dots by loudly declaring, "I'm not going to marry Robert!"

I talked to Dana Jr. on the ride back to the Big Apple and told him all about the rocks he'd gotten out of the quarter machines. I made up origins and stories behind the different rocks and told him he should find the best rock in his driveway and encase it in one of the extra plastic bubbles and stash it away somewhere. He asked if I could help him but Manda had to drive back to Mass so we saw them off.

These Shoes

found a blue sticky note on my car yesterday.
It read: Take a look at these shoes and tell me what you think.
Would it not have been easier for the note writer to have this conversation in person? Why didn't the note writer just wait till they saw whomever again and ask, "What did you think of those shoes?" because with or without the note, that's how it's gonna go down.

Thanks Again, Wade

Another day, another Giants game. This one, according to Dirk and Wade, was the best game of the year. The Giants scored 2 runs in the bottom of the 10th after a Jeff Kent home run in the top of the inning, to pick up the win. It was a night of several squandered opportunities but eventually the Giants won it with a walk off hit by Rowand. He's the guy who stands in the batters box like he's doing a pli'e. Wade gave us a ride home after the game, which sure as hell beats standing at the bus stop for 20 minutes then huddling with the crazies for half an hour on the bus while it meanders through Chinatown. Wade drove a BMW and we talked about the 2002 World Series and art museums.

Cold Showers

As part of my training for the 2009 Maine Summer Olympics, I will only be taking cold showers for the next year. I've been reading up on the benefits of using cold water in the shower. Not only is it good for your pores, but it improves your immune system and helps the circulation of blood. And of course it's one of those stereotypical tough-guy-training requirements, like drinking raw eggs from a glass and chasing a chicken around the yard. Ideally, it will help me acquire Olympic immortality. Citius, Altius, Fortius!

Thanks Wade

I wasn't planning on going to the game last night but Breanne said she was in the mood so we took the bus downtown to try and scalp a pair of tickets. When buying from scalpers, Breanne always goes off to do something else. She isn't good with scalpers. They make her nervous, and regardless of what the scalper suggests up front, she'll look at me and say, "that sounds like a good deal." Not that she's terribly green, but I know that we look it- particularly when we're together. Suckers. So I go off on my own, try to look tough, and try my best to haggle.
The first scalper I spoke to wanted 50 bucks apiece for two 36.00 tickets, which he assured me was the best I was going to get on a Friday night with the rival Dodgers in town. I told him I wouldn't pay more than 60 for the pair and he laughed in my face, called me a goofball (seriously), and said to stop wasting his time. While I was walking away he reiterated, "Don't waste my time, goofball!"
I talked to a few more scalpers.
Then I ran into a guy selling two view box seats, he was asking 60 dollars for a pair. They would have been 52 at the box office, but impossible to get for a Friday night. I offered him 40 bucks and again, I was laughed at, so I started walking away. Before I made it three steps he called me back, and in a tone of surrender, said he'd give them to me for 40. When I pulled the cash out of my pocket he saw that I had two twenties and a few tens and he said, "how about we make it 50, you've got enough," but the deal was done. I had saved 12 dollars off the box price and landed two good seats in the view box.
When we got inside, the seats were even better than I'd anticipated. We were up above home plate and had a perfect view of the Dodgers dugout. There was a brick wall behind us that kept us from getting battered by the bay wind, and allowed us to stand up without being in any one's way. The seats were perfect. But this was just the beginning of our good luck.
When Manny came up to bat in the 1st inning, I stood up to get a photograph and Breanne gave a solo standing ovation. Like most anywhere Ramirez has gone in his brief National League tenure, he was met with a chorus of boos from the San Francisco crowd. Multiple fans in our small section jeered and hollered negative things.
After Manny lined out to end the inning, the man to my right asked me if I was a Boston fan or a Dodgers fan. He was older, probably around 60, Chinese, with a Giants cap and jacket and headphones in his ears. We started talking, mostly about Manny and Bonds and their infamy. I found out that he had been a season ticket holder for the last 6 seasons, and, since his retirement, he made it to about 60 games a year. I told him a little bit about the games I'd been to, and we chatted off and on as the game progressed. Sometime in the middle innings, he handed me a business card with his name at the top, Wade Hong, and it had his email at the bottom and . He told me that along with a few of the other season ticket holders in the section, he had started an online email group to find buyers for games they couldn't attend. They sell them cheaper than the box office, and they're posted for all the games remaining in the season. I thanked him and promised he'd hear from me soon.
Later in the game, Wade said he was getting up to go sit with some friends a few sections over. We said goodbye and thanks again. A couple innings later, a wiry man with big teeth and thick glasses came over and stuck a pair of tickets in my face.
"You won the lottery," he said. I didn't know what he was talking about. "They're from Wade," he said. I looked over to where Wade was sitting and he waved over to us.
After the last out, I walked over and thanked him and he said they were from Woody too. I don't know who Woody is, and I barely know Wade, but all and all it was a prosperous and fun night. We'll be sitting next to Wade at 6:05 tonight when Hiroki Kuroda takes the mound against the Giants.

On a side note, Manny went 0-5, reaching base only once via an error, thus ending his NL/Dodgers hit streak.

Taking it off here boss

I like Paul Newman. He's created some of the most memorable screen characters- Butch Cassidy, Cool Hand Luke, Fast Eddie Felson. I recently saw The Sting and thought it was excellent. His Lemonade is tasty and so are his dressings. But the wrapper on the Fig Newman's is so loud I can't put them away without waking up Breanne.

Anesthetist

Breanne's going back to school to be an anesthetist. This is a difficult word to say if you haven't practiced it. Some people go as far as to say anesthesiologist but I don't even try to roll that one out. I was listening to Ricky Gervais' Podcast and they were talking about anesthetists and it made me think of the times I've been put under. I had two surgeries as a teenager to have tumors removed. The only reason I had two was they didn't finish the job the first time. Before the first surgery, I recall lying on my back, intubated, and the nurse telling me they were going to knock me out and I should start counting down from 100. I don't remember getting very far. The next time I had the surgery, a few years later, I went through the whole process again. I decided to see how long I could count down before passing out. I made it to the mid-60's, which is maybe my proudest living moment.

The Book Thief

Just finished reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It's an interesting little story, takes place in Nazi Germany, and the narrator is Death. I liked it though I picked a poor time to read it. I'd just read If Not Now, When? by Primo Levi, and it puts any wartime book to shame. I could see The Book Thief becoming a required reading for high school students. It's not terribly long and it gives the reader a good idea of what it was like for non-Jewish civilians during the second World War.

Word Challenge

I have officially retired from Word Challenge. I got to the point where I could play forever without time running out. Today I had to stop a game on account of neck pain. I will not be coming out of retirement. This is the second Facebook game I've retired from in the last week. I'll now have more time for raising children and inventing vaccines.

Word Challenge High Score: 293013

Trivia Night 7/31/08

With the help of my parents, we fell within a point of a top three finish. That's two weeks in a row we've dropped in at fourth, respectable, but not as good as I expected with my dad playing. He's a smart guy with an incredible ability to retain information. And unlike Breanne and me, he reads the paper and actually follows world news- though there were few newspapery questions this last week.

My parents did help out, though they also constantly second guessed themselves. Anyone who has ever played bar trivia or trivial pursuit or hollered along to Jeopardy! knows that you should just stick with your first instinct. More often than not it's the better one, if not the right one. That was the story of the game for us this last Thursday, as we probably changed 5 or 6 answers from right to wrong.

One round that my dad really helped out in was the picture match up round. Given a list of movies, you had to match up the actor/actress from a long list. My dad rattled these off effortlessly, linking up Jane Russel and other old starlets and stars to films of the 40's and 50's. We missed only 2 of 10, which was actually my fault for claiming to know the male lead in Shakespeare in Love. I did see it in the theatre but I only really remembered Gwenyth Paltrow.

I pulled out some obscure ones in the music round but I also confused Bon Jovi for Guns 'n' Roses, something I can only blame on my poor hearing and high blood alcohol level. I did name Louis Primo and though I recognized Blood, Sweat & Tears, went along with my mom's insistence that it was Three Dog Night. I recognized Midnight Oil immediately as I only had 6 cassettes in the van when I lived in Portland and three of them were the Oil.

We hovered around 4th place the whole night and didn't make up any ground in the last round, which is worth double points. Next week we're going to invite two people we met playing disc golf. Hopefully they're brainy.

Major Trivial Failures of the night

1. Confused Guns'r'Roses with Bon Jovi. Sorry Axl.

2. Failed to identify Oingo Boingo (more of a success than a failure)

3. Drank too much and forgot I had to walk a mile and a half.

4. Drank too much and can't remember any of the questions and so can't even come up with 5 trivial failures.