November 1999
11/30/99 10:25am
Man, I've got my work cut out for me today - lots of news and pictures to post. The only bad part is - I don't have my Halloween pictures back yet. They're sitting in Walgreen's right now waiting to be picked up....then I just need to scan and post (which is easier said than done because I don't have a scanner yet).
OK - so what kinda goodies do I have? Go to the Quake Stuff page and check out pictures from OPERATION COUNTERSOBER! Special thanks to Angulimala for helping me organize, and 'regular' thanks to BigRob, Ram, Crackbaby, Subbie, Annon, Nelson and Mark for showing up and helping me drink beer, eat pizza and kill terrorists.
ALSO - for the family oriented folks who happen to stop by and read this....here's a run-down of the Thanksgiving weekend. Jacqui and I drove to her grandparents in Prarieville, Louisiana Thursday - Thanksgiving morning. We left around 8:00am and got there at 12:30. It was a beautiful sunny day and the roads were empty. I made good time and avoided any tickets - a good drive. :-) Jacqui's sister, Julie, and her mom and step-dad were already there - and we all stuffed ourselves with great food. To keep this from being a LONG boring post - we basically alternated between Jacqui's grandparents and Jacqui's Dad's house - eating and eating and eating. The drive home Saturday sucked. Traffic was horrible - it took like 7 hours. Of course, the one good thing about traffic is - no tickets.
11/15/99 10:58am
OK - this Saturday the 20th is OPERATION COUNTERSOBER. Here's the list of confirmed attendees as it stands today - Angulimala, BigRob, Ram, Crackbaby, SuperTech, Grendel, Grond, lull, Frgmstr, subbie, hlobell...and there are a couple other people (ResDog, Jim, Alex) who have expressed interest. It should be fun!
Go check out the Quake Stuff page!! I've updated it with some recent matches and various Quake related stuff.
On a personal note (ain't this entire site personal?)....this past Saturday night was my Aunt Mary and Uncle David's 50th wedding anniversary. Congratulations! They celebrated the event at the Petroleum Club. It was nice to see the extended family for something other than a funeral.
11/10/99 9:57am
Another weekend has come and gone - and we're one weekend closer to OPERATION COUNTERSOBER - more on that later. But first - let me tell ya about this past weekend. Friday night we had dinner at the Cadillac Bar. I've GOT to have my weekly Tex-Mex fix. Saturday Jacqui and I attended an all day 'couples workshop'. Ten solid hours of learning how to 'Keep me While Loving You'...and other vital communication skills for couples. Joy Joy.... OK - I really expected to be miserable and hate every minute - but it actually wasn't as bad as I thought. Of course, I'm not anxious to do it again or anything crazy like that - but it wasn't THAT terrible.
The weekend was a sampling of extremes - we went from being 'healthy' all day Saturday - to drinking and smoking on the porch Saturday night. Jacqui had been 5 or six days without a cigarette - and after the ten hour workshop - she needed a smoke. On Sunday we continued the party - we meet Julie and Ken at LaStrada for brunch. If you have never been to LaStrada (the one inside the loop) for Sunday brunch you're really missing a wild party. It's more like a club than a restaurant. The music is loud and the crowd is in party mode - big time. And you'd be hard pressed to find a more interesting crowd....lots of sights. We were drinking mimosa's....by the pitcher. In fact - we never sat down...we were there from noon(ish) till around 2:00...and never even got a nibble of food. You know people were drinking because I even got 'hit on' by a cute 25 year old. She was celebrating her birthday....and ...well....anyway....you get the idea.
We left LaStrada and were going to go get some food - but some of the party folks talked us into going to Daiquiri Factory instead. ....a couple Jell-O Shots later and ....well.....I remember being groped by a lesbian (why would a lesbian do that - cause she was TRASHED). OK - so from there we go to Chuy's...Margarita's and more Tex-Mex....and finally home. It took me all day Monday before I felt like a human again.
OK - so what is OPERATION COUNTERSOBER? Is it a mission to live my entire life like I did that Sunday at LaStrada? No - it's a LAN PARTY! Yep - it's that time again kiddies - time to pack up your PC and head to SunKing's house for the fraggin festivities. Saturday, November 20, 1999 - perhaps the last LAN Party of the century (for me anyway). Angulimala is helping me organize this one - and that's who came up with the name (it's a pun on the Half-life mod Counter Strike)....anyway - we're expecting a full house - and it should be a really fun crowd. I'm all tingly with anticipation.
11/03/99 10:30am
Halloween weekend has come and gone (don't worry - I'll post the pics as soon as I get 'em). I had a really good weekend - Jacqui and I drove to Louisiana Friday, Oct 29th. Jacqui's grandparents are learning to use the PC. Now, learning to do anything once you're around 80 years old is impressive - learning to use a PC for the first time at that age is downright awesome. We spent Friday night eating like Kings - and messing with the local small town ISP which wouldn't connect (send Eatel hate mail here). We ended up signing up with Mindspring - which actually worked out really well because they have that idiot proof 'AOL' type interface....perfect for people in their 80's and kids who need a baby sitter.
Saturday, we left the grandparents and met up with Bradford & Julie. We had a few before dinner drinks (beer for me)...and then they fixed us audile sausage and red pepper bisque, spinach and cheese stuffed mushrooms, potatoes and grilled rack of lamb. Ahhh Yeah Baby - It was excellent! Then we all got into our costumes and 'hit the town'. I can't remember the names of the places we went - the first bar was your typical disco. I'd say about 40% of everyone had on a costume....saw some pretty funny ones (the guy in the baby carriage had some courage). from there we went to ...another bar....which was a little less crowded - but with $1.00 beers it could have been empty and I'd still be happy. After that we went to a jazz bar....were the ONLY ones in costume until a few more Halloween partyers showed up. The final bar we went to was the Shoney's breakfast bar. Yummy.....greasy bacon and sausage.
The funniest thing happened on the way home from Shoney's. In fact - several 'weird' things happened that night - but this one had me laughing so hard I had tears. OK - so - Shoney's is like....10 miles away from Bradford and Julie's house. Jacqui is driving (friends don't let friends drive drunk)...and it's a pretty quiet drive....in fact, Bradford and Julie were falling asleep in the back seat. Well, as we are pulling in their driveway we heard this loud SHHHHHCCCCRRRRRIIIIIPPPPPPHHHHHH!! I thought "Oh my God - Jacqui is scraping the car up against something...Julie also thought Jacqui was driving through the shrubs .....and Bradford just screams "My ARM - Ouch! The seatbelt is crushing me!". It turns out that some of Bradford's costume must have been hanging out the door - and got caught under the wheel just as we were pulling in the driveway. It yanked part of his costume right through the door (which was closed) and ripped it right off his body - which gave him a good scrunching. Once we figured out what happened we couldn't stop laughing. I did get a picture of the incident - I'll post it as soon as I can.
So that brings us to Sunday, October 31. We had a nice breakfast, then made the roadie back home to Houston. (only bad part of the weekend - I got a ticket for going 85 in a 70). Sunday evening was the 'real' Halloween. I did my usual - decorate the porch and dress up as the Grim Reaper to scare the kiddies. I can judge the success of the evening by how many kids I make cry. It was funny - even Jacqui (between telling me to 'be nice') laughed at some of the kids. Next time we will ration candy better - we ran out before 8:00pm and had to turn kids away - but it sure was fun while it lasted.