IT'S BEEN A MINUTE

I THINK I ENTERTAINED EVERYONE WATCHING

So much has happened since my last post, I can't mention it all in this entry. 

Let's start with my softball team, which lost a heartbreaker in the playoffs. Just one or two plays away. 

The highlight was when a dude crushed a ball to left center, and I was in left. I took off on a mad dash and had a beat on the ball. (FYI, I'm so distracted writing this I actually typed phone instead of ball at first at the end of the last sentence. Read that back.)

I realized I needed to dive to catch the ball, but as I went to lift off the ground to extend for the ball, I ran into a deep puddle. I ended up sliding through this puddle for about 10 feet. 

The ball splashed into the pond at the same time. My glove couldn't have been more than a foot from the ball. Ugh. I popped up and threw the ball back to keep it at a triple. 

Would have been the best co-ed softball catch of all the times. 

THE PAST COUPLE WEEKS IN PICS

Joe took me to the opening of Yulman Stadium on Sept. 6. Football is back Uptown. 

As I entered campus and began looking for Joe, Tulane coach Curtis Johnson just walked right by me in the street. Like that would ever happen at an LSU game. 

Stadium was pretty bad ass. 

Joe's seats are so close it's virtually guaranteed he will end up on the field punching a ref at some point. In fact, he was pretty dang close on this day after a dreadful call, where it was clearly a fumble but an incomplete pass was called. 

Tulane lost and it was hot as shit, but it was still a good time. I'm glad I went, even though it was also Nicole's birthday. 

I surprised her with a trip to Hammond. Bert and Kelly came along. This is the gals in front of their old house in Hammond during their SLU days. 

Nicole has talked quite frequently about her favorite restaurant ever, Tommy's Pizza in Hammond. 

So I took her there for her birthday. I didn't tell her where we were going, and she had guesses. She wasn't even close. She was totally surprised! 

There's Nicole eating her pizza. Yum. Kelly then drove us all around Hammond, including campus, and Kelly and Nicole argued about if places where there or not when they lived there seven years ago. 

A successful birthday all in all. 

Last Monday, Paul and I went to Lafayette for Raw. WWE gave us second row seats. 

The Cajundome barely has any workers in the building. So Paul and I roamed around the blocked off seats and peaked backstage. We found this construction helmet in a part of the building that should have been roped off. 

That's a great joke. I'll let you figure that one out. 

The second row was amazing, and we were on TV several times. Look how close I got to Stardust. 

I also got a wrestler's attention by doing a little known chant. He responded by looking at me and then doing the chant along with me. I'm such a nerd, I know. 

There's Paul's stupid face on TV behind a pissed off John Cena. 

All in all a good trip to Cajun country. 

OTHER STUFF

I had dinner for the first time with Nicole's parents Wednesday night. Texas Roadhouse on the West Bank. Gene Ducote was not there. But another enjoyable evening. 

The Saints season is three weeks old. I'm depressed. They don't look so hot. Meanwhile, I've been killing it with Saints stats. I've posted the links on Facebook. The latest on Colston is off the hook. 

A disturbing exchange I overheard at Fox and Hound between two gentleman in support of Adrian Peterson and Ray Rice. 

Man 1: "Man, you can't tell no one what they can and can't do to their kids."

Man 2: "Yeah. And women and children have too many rights in this country."

My response: Ahhhhhhhhhhhh. 

And there's this pic from my car Monday night. 

LIGHTNING NEVER STRIKES TWICE

CAN I HAVE THE LANGUAGE OF ORIGIN?

Nicole and I recently gathered a bunch of VHS tapes to convert to DVD. One of the ones I'm having done has some Tina-shot classic videos from 1991 and 1992. 

I suggested we watch it, and when I hit play, the video was at the start of a Spelling Bee. Exciting as I won the first grade Bee on the word sheep. 

However, as the contestants dwindled, I realized that this was the 1992 Bee when I started a lifelong string of second places. Finishing behind Holly Masson is a lowlight of my academic career, and now I was reliving it. 

I've never forgotten the word I lost on, but what I didn't remember is that I actually misspelled five words in the second grade Bee. That's right, I got five words wrong in one Spelling Bee. 

When it got down to two, Holly butchered "disappear." All I needed to do was spell disappear, and I would make it back-to-back Bee titles. I implored my past self, "Two Ps." Alas, I spelled it disapear. Then came volcano and experiment. Got those wrong, too. 

Finally, lightning came. Me: "L-I-G-H-T-I-N-G." Holly added the "n" for the win. 

But I got the last laugh because on Monday night, I came across and fixed a misspelling in a story about nasty weather. The misspelled word? Lightning. It was spelled lightening. 

THE TINA CURSING CORNER

My mom has been reminiscing about her wedding day. She changed during the reception into a going away outfit. "I never liked it. You lose thirty minutes of the fucking reception. Changing out of the fucking thing. It's bullshit."

I forgot the context, but there was this gem. "Miami was built on drugs. Miami can thank cocaine for all those fucking skyscrapers."

A Ramsey's jewelry add says there's no need for negotiation because its prices are so fair. "Shit. There's a 200 dollar markup."

BACK, BACK, BACK ...

Last Wednessay, I played two softball games. In a previous post, I bragged about my sterling defense. This time, my bat did the talking. 

My final stat line: 6-for-6 with three walks. In the first game -- a 10-9 extra inning victory -- I went 2-for-2 with three walks, as the pitcher was afraid of me. 

It was the second game -- in which I was helping out a shorthanded team -- that was the real highlight. Among my four hits were two doubles and my first softball home run. 

On an inside pitch that crossed the plate at my thighs, I crushed the ball down the left-field line. There is no fence at this field, but the ball cleared the left fielder by some 15 feet.

When I was rounding second, he was still running down the ball. I jogged home. 

I finished the regular season in this league  15-for-20 with four walks. Hopefully, I didn't just jinx myself into an 0-for-3 playoff showing this Wednesday. 

THE 90TH YAT-TOGETHER

On Aug. 20, we had our eighth anniversary monthly dinner. I brought along Nicole to meet everyone. It seemed to go well. Here are the pictures. 

That bronze tanner was my anniversary gift to my fellow 2006 Loyola graduates. Past anniversary presents include gold medals, candy and a roll of pennies. 

One of the eight-year choices is bronze, and I thought it would be funny to get them some tanner. They seemed to enjoy it. I'm waiting on the selfies with it in use. 

For the dinner, we went to Ignatius. Iggy founded Loyola, so this makes sense. And here he refuses to share his drinks with me. "No," he said. "Mine."

For dessert, we went to District for donuts. They were about to close and ended up giving us a shit ton of free donuts.