School Sports

Sometimes I'll be in a conversation with another guy and a football (or other sport) reference will arise, like "I remember when I played football in high-school..." I nod knowingly, but fraudulently. I played only geek sports in school. I don't get to live vicariously through my kids.

In middle-school, I was on a bowling league. Had my own ball and everything. I rocked the lanes, man. There's no way my daughter is going to take up bowling unless we could get her a leopard-print ball.

Then in high-school, there was a pool table at our apartment complex and I played religiously. I played at the apartment complex, in billiard halls, wherever I could go. Bought my own cue. Got pretty good. Again, not something that I can work into a conversation with other guys. Pool is NOT a contact sport. There's no gruff Billiards Coach for the Billiards Team. So, as you can imagine, this aspect of my youth has become dormant.

Until last night.

Met up with a friend and decided to have a beer at the local tavern. He offered to buy a game of pool.

I smoked him.

Unhappy (and just a wee-tiny-bit competitive), he threw two more quarters down.

Smoked him again.

Now unable to face his family unless he can redeem himself, we played another game - and he won this one. However, being beaten two out of three wasn't satisfactory. He needed to even the score.

Two more quarters. "I *will* gloat if I win this game," I told him.

Smoked him a third time. Three out of four. Yesss.

Twenty years after putting down my cue and forgetting my rather embarrassing sports past, I was finally able to relive my glory days.

Visitor Map

Had a conversation with Hot Mama tonight about whether I had a hit counter on the site or not... mentioned that I did. Here's a map detailing the country the hits come from.

Granted, 99.9% of these hits aren't really page views because they only last a few seconds. But it's still fun to think that maybe *some* of the people behind these hits might have actually looked at the pages.

Or not.

Anyway, Hot Mama, here's the map:

Winnemucca, NV

'cause I just need some time
to drop below that line
'cause it seems like the only place I know
where nothing's in decline
'cause there's nothing to do but rise

So sings Willy Vlautin of Richmond Fontaine in the song "Winner's Casino" on their album Winnemucca.

It's weird where the web will take you.

Tonight I was cleaning up my iTunes library, removing albums I don't listen to, creating playlists, and generally tidying up when I was reminded of this song. Wondering whether Winner's Casino actually exists, I Googled it and found the website.

While checking out the room descriptions I found that the Villa King Suite is described as featuring "a comfortable King size bed on the ground floor, with a table and 2 chairs."

For fun, check out http://www.winnemucca.nv.us/ and turn your speakers up. Enjoy the gunfire as you move your mouse over the menu bar. And if you're as interested in visiting Winnemucca as I am, you can download the free 40 page visitor guide... broken up into TEN pdf files.

I hope the web designer gets a raise for that piece of art called a website.

It's Christmas!

Christmas... fun as a kid, then not so fun when you're in your twenties and your friends are lame and you don't have any money to buy them anything anyway and you're holding out hope that your parents will come through with a little money or some socks, and then it's fun again as a parent.

"Watching their expressions..." and all that.

I'm happy to be in that position, to just sit back and totally dig the kids getting into their presents, to become aware that I'm involuntarily grinning.

Good times...

An Open Letter

Dear Mr. Shopping Cart Wheel Designer,

Judging from this very informative website, the "wire basket trolley", also known as a shopping cart, has been in existence since the late 1930's.

Given that you've had approximately 70 years to perfect the design of the wheels used on shopping carts, I'm having trouble understanding why they can't perform their task properly.

For example, last night I had the "U-Turn Cart" which, unless you apply Herculean force to one side of the shopping cart handle, will only go in circles. This is not useful unless you happen to be in a circular grocery store, but as most stores have arranged themselves using the aisle format it becomes frustrating rather quickly.

You may be thinking to yourself, "Why didn't you just grab another cart?"

I did. After replacing the "U-Turn Cart", I grabbed the oft-discussed "Wobbly Wheel Cart". This cart is unique in that the wheel-wobbles per second increase with the forward speed of the cart.

Bicycle wheels don't get wobbly or force you to ride only in circles.

I'm hoping that at some point in my lifetime I'll be able to say, "Golly, I remember when shopping cart wheels used to vibrate like..." and then my wife will admonish me.