More and more of my entries are getting into multiple parts
Floyd Landis--wow.
I try not to take joy in the misery of others, but hearing T.O. pulled a hammie a part of me is pleased. I mean the man got over a broken leg miraculously, so it's be no means a problem, but still... yeah.
Oh, I've got to icon drop. Normally I don't thief icons, but I had to take this on from ironychan because it's flippin' GREAT.
Four weeks until College Football begins!! :-D
Now then. Vacation part II (Electric Boogaloo)
Saturday was the surprise party for Cheré (Megan's stepmom), which was the reason we had snuck into town in the first place. It was actually out in Marriottsville, at Megan's uncle's house, which is west of B-more and puts us back on the track home. It was a good time and Cheré was thoroughly surprised. I also got in the pool there for the first time in a good long time, despite there being a pool right here in our apartment complex. We didn't leave up out of there until after 9, so we got back home at about 4 in the morning.
The next day it was essentially get back up and get back on the road. We were going to NightBEAT, a DCI show down in Charlotte. We had to be there early because we were volunteering. The call went out for volunteers a few months ago, and I thought, what the hell, and volunteered. We were on parking lot duty, assisting iwth parking in the corps and VIP lot. Upon reporting, we actually assisted with the tying of some banners in the hall where they were feeding volunteers or Marines or something (the USMC Drum and Bugle Corps and Silent Drill Platoon were the featured performers at the show, so there were alot of Marines there) and then it was out to the lot. It was wicked hot, but surprisingly not bad. I flashed back to the fact that time was, I was doing two-a-days on hot asphalt with a pair of metal plates in my hands or a rack of drums on my back. So it really wasn't that bad, considering. But it wasn't as glamorous as I think I had fantasized--I envisioned the volunteer position being the opportunity to fellowship with other dedicated band dorks, rub elbows with corps members, and get up-close-and-personal with lot cadences. In reality, I was out in the lot with a guy who's been doing this for years, but mostly because his brother in law works for Crown, and of course Megan, who was only there becuase I dragged her. So there wasn't quite the dork quotient I was hoping for, and there were limited warmups on the opposite side of the lot from me.
**insert: In what I think is a great nod to the importance of marching bands in college football, Coach Rod (Rich Rodriguez at WVU) has a maneuver he calls "Instruments up"--it's basically when an opponent stacks the box with a Cover 0 against him. It's his belief that when that happens, "either their band or our band is going to play. We hope it's our band." I thought that was cool. Even though WVU is a Big East foe and the team to beat, I respect their gangsta. I truly believe they could challenge for the National championship this year. But dammit, if there's gonna be a spoiler, let it be 11/25 in Morgantown! Back to your regularly scheduled post**
The show was amazing. I particularly loved the Blue Devils' show--I can see why they went undefeated for as long as they did. Speaking of which, having just signed up for a College Football pick 'em on Yahoo!, I think there should be a DCI pick 'em week in and week out. Anyway, as much as I enjoyed it, I decided then that I wasn't going to go to the show in Salem the next day as I had planned. After all, I had been pretty much traveling for my entire vacation so I figured I'd chill on that noise for a little. I came away with a few new band dork shirts though--the NightBEAT shirt I got for volunteering (ha! Megan's got a band dork shirt now too) and another "Cymbals" shirt I got from the Blue Devils merch truck that I had been eyeballing at my last show. You would think that as I move temporally farther from my marching days, the dorktitude would wane, but nah, none of that.
Sunday night was also when my parents got into town, although they stayed in a hotel that night and we caught up on Monday morning. It was their plan to come up then, but I hadn't done the math before that it meant they were going to be there during my vacation time. Which actually worked well, since I had the time off anyway. We basically chilled around here in Greensboro, and I took them by my work and they got to see it and meet some of my coworkers. Twas good times, but after my 3 day work week, I'm glad to have a weekend again. And by "weekend" I mean "Saturday", since there's student staff training tomorrow I've got to be in for. and from there the grind begins--next week rolls into Welcome Week, taking next weekend from me as well. Such is the life of a programmer!
Anyway, I'm gonna go and get a little shopping on. It's tax free weekend here in NC. We have the same thing up in DE. we call it EVERY DAY.
I try not to take joy in the misery of others, but hearing T.O. pulled a hammie a part of me is pleased. I mean the man got over a broken leg miraculously, so it's be no means a problem, but still... yeah.
Oh, I've got to icon drop. Normally I don't thief icons, but I had to take this on from ironychan because it's flippin' GREAT.
Four weeks until College Football begins!! :-D
Now then. Vacation part II (Electric Boogaloo)
Saturday was the surprise party for Cheré (Megan's stepmom), which was the reason we had snuck into town in the first place. It was actually out in Marriottsville, at Megan's uncle's house, which is west of B-more and puts us back on the track home. It was a good time and Cheré was thoroughly surprised. I also got in the pool there for the first time in a good long time, despite there being a pool right here in our apartment complex. We didn't leave up out of there until after 9, so we got back home at about 4 in the morning.
The next day it was essentially get back up and get back on the road. We were going to NightBEAT, a DCI show down in Charlotte. We had to be there early because we were volunteering. The call went out for volunteers a few months ago, and I thought, what the hell, and volunteered. We were on parking lot duty, assisting iwth parking in the corps and VIP lot. Upon reporting, we actually assisted with the tying of some banners in the hall where they were feeding volunteers or Marines or something (the USMC Drum and Bugle Corps and Silent Drill Platoon were the featured performers at the show, so there were alot of Marines there) and then it was out to the lot. It was wicked hot, but surprisingly not bad. I flashed back to the fact that time was, I was doing two-a-days on hot asphalt with a pair of metal plates in my hands or a rack of drums on my back. So it really wasn't that bad, considering. But it wasn't as glamorous as I think I had fantasized--I envisioned the volunteer position being the opportunity to fellowship with other dedicated band dorks, rub elbows with corps members, and get up-close-and-personal with lot cadences. In reality, I was out in the lot with a guy who's been doing this for years, but mostly because his brother in law works for Crown, and of course Megan, who was only there becuase I dragged her. So there wasn't quite the dork quotient I was hoping for, and there were limited warmups on the opposite side of the lot from me.
**insert: In what I think is a great nod to the importance of marching bands in college football, Coach Rod (Rich Rodriguez at WVU) has a maneuver he calls "Instruments up"--it's basically when an opponent stacks the box with a Cover 0 against him. It's his belief that when that happens, "either their band or our band is going to play. We hope it's our band." I thought that was cool. Even though WVU is a Big East foe and the team to beat, I respect their gangsta. I truly believe they could challenge for the National championship this year. But dammit, if there's gonna be a spoiler, let it be 11/25 in Morgantown! Back to your regularly scheduled post**
The show was amazing. I particularly loved the Blue Devils' show--I can see why they went undefeated for as long as they did. Speaking of which, having just signed up for a College Football pick 'em on Yahoo!, I think there should be a DCI pick 'em week in and week out. Anyway, as much as I enjoyed it, I decided then that I wasn't going to go to the show in Salem the next day as I had planned. After all, I had been pretty much traveling for my entire vacation so I figured I'd chill on that noise for a little. I came away with a few new band dork shirts though--the NightBEAT shirt I got for volunteering (ha! Megan's got a band dork shirt now too) and another "Cymbals" shirt I got from the Blue Devils merch truck that I had been eyeballing at my last show. You would think that as I move temporally farther from my marching days, the dorktitude would wane, but nah, none of that.
Sunday night was also when my parents got into town, although they stayed in a hotel that night and we caught up on Monday morning. It was their plan to come up then, but I hadn't done the math before that it meant they were going to be there during my vacation time. Which actually worked well, since I had the time off anyway. We basically chilled around here in Greensboro, and I took them by my work and they got to see it and meet some of my coworkers. Twas good times, but after my 3 day work week, I'm glad to have a weekend again. And by "weekend" I mean "Saturday", since there's student staff training tomorrow I've got to be in for. and from there the grind begins--next week rolls into Welcome Week, taking next weekend from me as well. Such is the life of a programmer!
Anyway, I'm gonna go and get a little shopping on. It's tax free weekend here in NC. We have the same thing up in DE. we call it EVERY DAY.