(Be honest, you can tell what this song is before you even read anything, can’t you?)

Well, I’m fresh out of good ideas so your stuck with my ridiculous opinions and then me trying to prove them. Today? “Bennie and the Jets” is Elton John’s best song.

(GASP!!!!!)

I know, it’s blasphemy not to say “Your Song” or “Tiny Dancer” or “Rocket Man”… well guess what people? I’m sayin’ it. Now, I didn’t always used to think this way. Don’t get me wrong… I used to be a “Levon” man myself… with a little “Your Song”/”Tiny Dancer” thrown in… sure, they’re great. And with great lyrics no less. Like “Hold my clothes and tie me down, sir!” Oh… wait, what’s that? Those aren’t the real words? It’s nothing like that at all? Well, how am I supposed to know? It sounds close enough. It also sounds like something Elton might say… just sayin’.

Alright, so now you’re thinking to yourself… “So what makes ‘Bennie’ so good?” Well, I’ll tell ya. First of all, it starts off with a crowd cheering–it’s not a live song. No, it’s a studio track recorded in France (thank you wikipedia). They decided after recording the song that it was SO weird, they needed to add fake crowd noises to make it more normal. That’s how weird this song is. Then it goes into this piano march thing… It’s easily some of the best piano-ing I’ve heard from Sir Elton. It’s even got a funk R&B going on… who knew a Brit had such rhythm? (You know, aside form Keith Moon, grandpa from the Rolling Stones and dare I say Mick Fleetwood. I guess an entire nation shouldn’t be shame because of one man [i.e. Ringo Starr]) In fact! It was Elton’s first #1 on the R&B chart… so stick that in your pipe and smoke it. The best part of the whole song comes at about the 2:40ish mark when he just lets loose on a little piano solo. To use a hackneyed cliche, it’s like each key was replaced with Ella Fitzgerald’s voice and the piano ceased to be a piano at all, but rather a skat-singing-vocalizing agent. What, you’ve never heard that phrase before? Get out more.

Moving on to the lyrics… There are some beauties in here. Of course, Elton doesn’t write his own lyrics which is LAME CITY, but what can you do? Nobody else seems to mind, so whatever. So I guess he’s talking to his friends here… “Candy and Ronnie.” I think it’s safe to say we all have friends named Candy and Ronnie. Also, did you realize Bennie is a girl? At least I think she is… ’cause he says “Oh, but they’re weird and they’re wonderful/Oh, Bennie, she’s really keen.” Keen… what an English word. I think the only people who use that word stateside are Kretchmar’s on their boxes. Anyway, I’m pretty sure I’m just going to keep thinking of Bennie as a guy (so does that make it Benny?)… It helps me sleep at night.

Well, I guess that’s it. I was tired of reading/studying, so I thought I’d bother all of you. Feel free to comment on your own favorite Elton John song and tell me why I’m wrong so I can mock you publically.

It’s funny to think that someone who looks so normal could sing a song that’s so odd… Look at him!! Gives me the willies.

Does anyone notice that I change the subhead for this site every semester? Just checking.

Anyway, hello cubbies. I hope you’ve all been doing well. I feel like it’s been a long time since I’ve done one of my ridiculous/pointless posts about nothing… unfortunately, this is not one of those either. Last weekend Ma and Pa Bechdel flew down to Austin for a little weekend visit. It was a really nice weekend and we got to see more of Texas than just Austin, which is always nice. They arrived in Austin at around noonish and I met them at the airport. They had to be at the Pittsburgh airport by 5-something a.m. and so they woke up around 3 a.m. Coincidently, I went to bed at 2 a.m. the night before… Meaning that as I was ending my Wednesday, they were beginning their Thursday. Sounds about right. Unfortunately, I had to compromise and meet them halfway somewhere for the rest of the weekend in terms of sleep. I survived.

So, after class on Friday, we met up with my mom’s cousin Suzie and her husband Andy who live in nearby New Braunfels and headed west. We went to the Johnson Ranch in Stonewall, TX. It’s right next to Johnson City, where LBJ grew up. Anyway, the ranch has the “Texas White House” (similar to the ranch in Crawford for our current President, I guess) and a bunch of cattle and sheep and all that good stuff. There’s also a big landing strip cutting through the land. I forget if they said Airforce One ever landed there or not… On the ranch they also have the house that LBJ was born in, as well as his one-room schoolhouse he attended growing up. They have these bus-like things that take you around all the land, so we also got to see the majority of the Johnson land.

This is the fence that surrounds LBJ’s childhood home and the bell in their backyard. Andy is standing in the barn behind the house.

After we left the ranch, we kept going west to a little place just outside of Fredericksburg, TX. There was this “Wildseed Farm” that had a bunch of wildflowers from all around Texas and pots to hold them in and even this little butterfly sanctuary thing. It was pretty cool. There were also HUGE fields of poppies and bluebonnets surrounding the place. I have a bunch of pictures (from both of these places, actually) but only posted a few. I can show you all more when I come home. Anyway, this place was pretty awesome.

I liked both of these, so I decided to just put them together in one picture. Same flower, different angles.

Saturday was a kind of “Around Austin” day… We had breakfast at Kerby Lane and then headed down to Zilker Park so I could show them where ACL is held. It’s our little version of Central Park, you could say. It’s on the southwest side of the city and not exactly downtown, but, eh… close enough. From there we headed to Whole Foods. Ma and Pa had never been to one before and it was quite the experience. I’ve been told the one in Austin is the largest anywhere in the world, and that very well could be. The place is a palace! There’s like 3 levels of parking below the building itself, not to mention the parking lot outside. Anyway, we toured through the produce, meat, seafood, bakery and dessert sections… finally we got a few slices of pizza (and whatever mom got…?) and ate outside. It wasn’t the sunniest day, but it was still warm. We headed over to Book People, the bookstore next door. It’s like three-floorss tall with a place to eat/drink and sometime I know you can get massages and stuff on the steps. Pretty classy joint… Not your typical Borders. Anyway, from there we went to the LBJ museum which is right here on campus. After this weekend, if LBJ ever picked his nose and I didn’t hear about it, I’ll be shocked. After that we headed up to Round Rock, which is a town just north (think Robinson, in relation to Pittsburgh, I guess) to go check out the outlets up there. We came back to Austin for dinner at the ever-elusive Hula Hut. We’ve tried to go to this place before, only to face 1.5-2 hour waits… We finally got in this time… Still not sure it’s ever worth that amount of waiting time, but it was really good all the same.

On Sunday we got up and headed out early. We were northbound on our way to Arlington, just a few miles outside Dallas. We went to go see the Texas Rangers play the Oakland Athletics (check one more ballpark off the list!). It was a pretty good game… The A’s led for most of it and the bullpen ended up losing it for them. Still a pretty good game. The park was pretty nice… it’s no PNC Park, but it wasn’t bad either. It kind of reminded me a little of Jacob’s field… If I’m not mistaken, they were built around the same time? The area surrounding the park is really interesting… I’m used to seeing ballparks in the middle of cities. This is not really the case here… There’s a big pond (probably dubbed a massive lake in Texas) and all kinds of open grass around it. It’s really pretty and there’s a Six Flags next door. Anyway, on our way home we stopped at Rudy’s for some Texas BBQ… the weekend wouldn’t be complete without it.

And that was pretty much it! It was a lot of fun and a nice break in the semester. Only 2 and a half weeks until I’m home and (as Kevin put it) Jeety de Mayo! Woop woop! Exciting stuff… Except that I’m at the point in the semester now where things get a little crazy. Hopefully they don’t get too bad–we’ll see. Adios, amigos!

Hey kiddies. Hope all is well and everyone is getting over the ridiculousness that was yesterday. Unbelievable. I watched TV just about all day yesterday and by around 5 p.m. I just had to turn it off… Blah. It’s ridiculous to think of something like this happening, so I won’t dwell on this too long, but I will say this: there’s an enormous community of people who need your prayers and support right now, so I encourage you to not be so quick to change the channel and tune out everything that’s happened. It’s easy to do and I’ve caught myself doing it, but unless you realize the magnitude of what took place, you’ll never come close to understanding the devastation that they’re going through. Okay, off my soapbox.

Anyway, awkwardly transitioning into something a little less bleak, let’s talk about dumb stuff. Lately I’ve been thinking about things I want to do before I die… not that I’m planning on that happening anytime soon, I’m just saying… sometimes it’s good to plot these things out. Of course hardly any of these things are serious as in “my life would be a void” without doing them, but more along the lines of “this would be pretty cool.”

And to be honest, I’ve been pretty fortunate so far in terms of “the big ones.” There’s almost no major artist who I’m a big fan of that I haven’t seen perform live: Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham (I swear there are others), U2, Tom Petty, Van Morrison, Coldplay, John Mayer, Sheryl Crow… I’m sure there are others. But still, that’s a pretty impressive list (considering over half this list is knock knock knockin’ on heaven’s door, if you know what I mean). I also got to see Jerry Seinfeld from the front row this year, so that was a pretty major check off the list.

I attempted to rank my list but I found that to be rather difficult and weird, considering the wide variety of things on it. But I guess going with that musical vein, I’ll start there.

Fleetwood Mac peform at least x2: I figure there’s going to be maybe one more major tour for these guys if we’re lucky. It’s hard to tell what’s going on with them, considering Stevie and Lindsey basically just snipe at each other in the press and don’t really talk. Basically I think Stevie knows that Lindsey wants to reunite, so she’s being difficult. This is the way witches are, though. Look at the one in that Oz movie. Imagine that woman in the recording studio… always complaining there’s not enough bright red smoke floating around the place. Such a diva. So my point is, when they go around this last time, I’m willing to do a little traveling and a little shelling out of the bucks to see them.

The Boss: Bruce Springsteen’s just about the only major act that I’ve not seen that I would like to. I realize tickets are incredibly difficult to get, but it would be pretty cool. Of course, he’s probably going to have to do what he did last time, and play the largest piece of open land that cities have to offer. Last go around he played PNC park, which I’m sure was amazing.

The Late Show: This is probably the most urgent of anything on this list, considering Dave could decide to stop doing his show at any point, now that he’s a dad and 60! haha, but I’d really like to go to taping of David Letterman. I’ve been a faithful viewer since at least 4th grade, which actually pre-dates my Fleetwood Mac affinity, so that’s saying something! Anyway, that would be about the coolest thing ever… I’d like to feel exactly how cold it is in that studio. They way they talk about it, you’d think Paul would have icicles forming on his glasses. Dave’s far and away the best late night talk show host and I think a pretty interesting guy on top of that, so this one rises to the top of the list!

Look at that mug! Well, I think that concludes the “old people I want to see before they die” section. And let me also mention that it goes without saying that I’d want to see U2 about as many times as humanly possible. They put on the best live show of anyone I’ve ever seen (or um, anyone who EXISTS on Earth), but apparently I’m so superstitious in hopes of another tour (and my ability to get tickets!) that I don’t want to jinx it by putting it on my list… I wonder if mentioning it ruins it, too? Hmm…

Well, if that was the old people section, I guess this is probably the travel section? Well, you’ll see. I will title it: “Oh, the places you intend to go and hopefully one day might actually go.” True story: that was the working title of the great Dr. Seuess book. True story: That last true story was a lie.

The California Tour, take 2: The summer after my freshman year in high school, my parents and I took a trip to Cali. (”I’m going… -oing, -oing… back, -ack, -ack, to Cali, -ali, -ali”) We flew into Los Angeles and spent a few days seeing all the landmarks. We went to Hollywood and saw the walk of fame and the Chinese Theater and all that junk. And Chavez Ravine to see Dodger’s stadium. I remember being stuck in traffic in West Hollywood (known as Boys’ Town… I’ll let you figure out why) and seeing some of the other “landmarks.” Luckily I avoided trips through Compton and Englewood (”Caaaalifornia Loooooove!”), unlike when my dad and brothers traveled out west. But anyway! We drove up sort of the eastern side of the state to San Francisco through Yosemite national park. That was a day. Something like 14 hours in the back of a Chevy Malibu. We saw the sights in SF (”Keep it gay!”) and Oakland, even took in an A’s game, and drove back down the coast this time. At one point, we were driving through Malibu… IN a Malibu. I think that ripped a tear at the vortex of the universe. Or was a not-so-uncommon coincidence. Long story even longer, it was a fun trip. We didn’t get to San Diego which would have been cool, but hey, you can’t do it all. But what I’m proposing is that I do it all next time I go. I’ll probably be 80, but better late than never. California will be an island at that point, so I’ll have something new to look at. (If you knew all the songs in the parentheses in this paragraph, you get a gold star friend.)

Boston, Seattle and non-NJ beach: So this is just a random grouping of some places I’d like to go. I’ve heard Boston is awesome and I think my whole family has been there except me. Some of them on “Bell Tour,” so I’m not complaining, but still… It would be nice to see. (I’m told “Bell Tour” was fun… there’s no scientific proof to back this up.) Seattle just seems like a cool city. The Toronto of the west or something. I actually made that up right now. Someone let me know if it’s true. And finally, I’ve only been to beaches in New Jersey. Actually beach (singular) in NJ. Some day, it would be nice to go somewhere where the water’s a little warmer. I love Stone Harbor, no complaints there. Just… you know. Before I die, I’d like to go somewhere else once or twice.

Busch Stadium, et al.: No, I have no special desire to go to Busch Stadium (home of the St. Louis Cardinals), but what I’m trying to say is… I think I’m going to make it a goal to go to every baseball park in this country (and that one in Canada) before I die. I’ve gotten a good start, but there’s a long road to hoe. (CENSORS!) I think it’s definitely possible, though.

So that’s it. That’s the list I’ve come up with. Please feel free to let me know if I’ve made any major omissions or if someone I’ve mentioned is already dead. That could throw a wrench into some of these plans. Anyway, “One fine day…” (Yeah, that’s right. I just quoted the Chiffons. Got a problem with that? Ohhhhh!)

If you’ve never been to Hollywood, this is how everyone lives. “Hollywood Squares” was actually the first reality show on television, not “The Real World.”

Alright, so there are some things that are annoying me and you’re going to hear about them. One is minor, one is medium and one is major. Regardless, they all need to go away because I said so.

First: backpacks with wheels. No. Well, before we get to no, let’s answer “why?” Have you seen these? They’re backpacks that double as rollerboards. And so, when people are done with class, they put their notebooks and such into their BACKpack and then proceed to drag it around like it’s their red wagon from childhood. You look like fools, people. Now, I have no problem with the traditional rollerboard as a suitcase or whatever. It makes sense… yay for the wheel, all that stuff. But do we really need wheels on our backpacks? The answer is no. They cease to become backpacks when we drag them around on the ground. Now, maybe you’ll say “Golly, but what if you have lots of stuff in your backpack? Putting all of that on your back might hurt your… posture or something.” To that, I say… if you have so much crap that you NEED to carry it around with you everywhere you go, maybe backpacks aren’t your biggest problem right now. Alright, I’ve run out of coherent thoughts on this subject, so we’re moving on.

The NFL schedule, or at least the Monday Night Football schedule was released yesterday. STOP THE PRESSES!!! We better cover this ad nauseum on ESPN because it’s soooo important that we know who’s playing whom on the second Sunday in November. Honestly, know your place football. This is not your time, so go away. Don’t get me wrong, I like football as much as the next guy, but guess what? It’s April. EARLY April. So, back off. You know what, I’ll even give you the month of August so you can pee yourself over preseason football (the dumbest and most overhyped sporting event in the history of sport). So take August, but back up off baseball season, turds. Honestly, since when is announcing the football SCHEDULE a noteworthy event? It’s bad enough that ESPN has been dedicating at least 10-15 minutes every hour to the NFL draft, for goodness sake. If you actually sit down and watch that… I’m calling the men in white coats for you. It’s fine to read about who was taken early and who your team drafted… But to actually sit and watch that process take place is just a hair away from pure lunacy. By the way, “Oh my gosh guys, I can’t wait until Joey Porter comes back to Pittsburgh with Miami! I mean wow, that’s going to be crrraaaazy! He’s going to play his position for Miami, just like he played for Pittsburgh, but this time, AGAINST them! My mind is exploding with anticipation.”

I’m sure we all have our problems with Bush, but honestly… beats the alternative. This picture says it all.

Finally, by far most annoying thing I have to discuss. I had a test today in Journalism and they generally take 20-25 minutes, so I was back in my dorm room by 10 a.m. I was flipping through the channels and for some reason stopped on The View. I don’t know why I ever do this. It just makes my blood pressure rise and I invariably begin yelling things at the TV. Now, I don’t mind Joy and I like Elizabeth. But oh… my… LORD! I know a lot of people say some bad things about Rosie O’Donnell and sometimes they’re just mean, but wow… She’s actually really dumb. She’s able to cover this up though by pretty sneaky means. I’ll tell you what I’m talking about.

So they’re talking about the Don Imus situation. For those of you unfamiliar, he’s a shock jock who got into trouble for calling the Rutger’s Women’s basketball team “ho’s.” Now, Rosie is actually skilled at one thing and this is what she uses to cover up her idiocy: she’s able to shift the conversation to whatever it is she wants to talk about and no one calls her on it! Today there was no Barbara, so it was Rosie, Joy, Elizabeth and some MORON from the new Tarentino movie (I think? I missed the beginning, but I’m pretty sure that’s where she was from). I think he next role is going to be Rosie O’Donnell’s pet dog. I swear, she just repeated everything Rosie said but moved the words around to make it sound like it was an original thought (think Paula Abdul). Anyway, I’m wandering from my original topic. Unfortunately I wasn’t taking notes for the whole conversation (I actually DID start taking notes once my brain began to boil and I realized I needed to let this out on Jeety’s Joint… I’m not ashamed to admit that. haha, maybe I should be, but there’s no way I would have been able to remember all the insane things that were said.) Anyway, Rosie’s calling for Imus to be fired, as are… a lot of people, actually. And because Rosie isn’t black, in shape or a woman (hahahahaha!!! sorry, low blow), she felt the need to shift the conversation into a completely ridiculous hypothetical. She said, “Well, all I know is that if Imus had been talking about fat, lesbian women, there’s no way he would be getting press for this. No one would want him fired.” WHAT? How does that relate to anything in reality? I think she brings up the Donald Trump thing every day. If she’s upset with people calling her fat, umm… There are a few options. Stop eating cheeseburgers. Take a walk. I read an article on The Onion that had the headline: “Anna Nicole Smith Finally Reaches Target Weight,” so that’s an option, too. Harsh? Maybe. True? Yes.

Anyway, after being the one who brought up Imus in the first place, Rosie then rails against the media for focusing on the Imus situation, instead of Iraq. So after marginalizing the black community by switching to her fat/lesbian hypothetical, she decides that the topic of race relations in this country is not even worth our time for consideration. Unreal! That’s what I’m saying about being stupid… She doesn’t realize that her words actually have meaning and intelligent people can see what she’s really saying, whether she means it or not. So then she starts yelling things over everyone else at the table about how Attorney General Alberto Gonzales needs to be fired! I believe in democracy! I believe in free speech! The woman’s practically a demagogue and of course the audience just eats that crap up, because who’s going to argue against democracy and free speech? But in reality what she’s calling for is the overthrow of the administration. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a fan of a lot of what Bush has done, but honestly, what is she accomplishing? She lists all the people she wants fired and punished with no ACTUAL ideas for betterment.

And then they began in on John McCain at which point I was actually throwing things at the TV. Rosie said that no one is questioning the war (what planet is she from???) and Elizabeth, finding this to be a ridiculous claim, says that John McCain has questioned from day one the way that the war has been conducted. And unbelievably (to me, at least) the whole table groaned! I swear to you right now that this will be the decline of our country: When Elizabeth said he questioned the war and its tactics, all three of the other women at the table said, “Oh, but he’s losing in the polls.” WHAT??? First of all, he’s in second place behind Rudy Guilliani, yet when paired up against EITHER Obama or Hillary, he STILL wins, so you can shove it. Secondly, what does that have to do with ANYTHING? He’s losing in the polls, so that means his opinions aren’t important? I watched an interview on Sunday with John McCain. They asked him about his comments that you could walk around freely in Baghdad and he admitted that he mispoke and made a mistake. Then he offered that it wasn’t the first time and likely wouldn’t be the last. America, in search of the ideal candidate, puts people like this down because “well, if they made a mistake once, they might again, so let’s find somebody who’s not done anything at all.” I would contend that that is… bad. Or, very bad. So, Rosie & Co. wouldn’t admit that McCain has been a critic of the war, changed the subject to him losing in the polls and then changed the subject again by shouting that we’re illegally occupying Iraq. Listen up my peeps, if we’re able to be so easily distracted from the real issues by people like Rosie O’Donnell, we’re in big trouble.

Okay! End of political rant. Sorry about that, had to be done though. Sadly, I was planning on taking a nap with the extra time I had after my test, but… the freakin’ Rosie O’Donnell wouldn’t let me sleep. Every time after I watch that show I say I’ll never do it again. But I actually think it’s good to know watch what dumb people are saying so that you are prepared to back up what you believe when you have these conversations in person. She can blab all she wants on TV because (and this is the nice part) most people know she’s certifiable. Or at least an obnoxiously loud, simple person.

Okay, NOW it’s the end of the rant. If you made it this far, I give you props. Listening to me whine about annoying things must be really great for all of you. Hopefully you can relate. If not, please direct all your hatemail to: somewhere in Texas.

We caught a rare moment here where Rosie apoligizes to Barbara for smelling like cheese.

(note: I have no idea whose child this is, but it’s hilarious.)

Hello kiddies and happy Easter!! I hope all of you are having a wonderful day, stuffing yourself with chocolate bunnies and ham. Maybe not one right after the other, but at some point during the day. Although that might be interesting… you know, they make honey-glazed hams or whatever… how about chocolate-glazed? Mmmm.

Yeah, that’s disgusting. Anyway, since I couldn’t be with you all today, I thought I’d share with you my Easter so far. I woke up this morning at about 9:20… 20 minutes later than I should have. I got up, got dressed and ran over to Jester to fetch a cup of joe before heading to the bus stop. Yesterday the temperature barely got out of the 30s and later in the day, it was sleeting. Unreal. So, waiting for the bus this morning was a little chilly. I had to take the bus to church because everyone (EVERYONE) went home this weekend. I didn’t mind having a weekend to relax, though. Anyway, the bus took me down to Cesar Chavez and Congress and I walked the rest of the way to Austin High.

Church started at 10:45. The bus dropped me off at 10:04. I had 40 minutes to get to the high school and I got there in about 20. Pleeeeenty of time to get a seat for church, right? Well… not so fast. First of all, it’s Easter, so all the Chreasters (i.e. those who wander their way into church on Christmas and Easter) were taking up a large perecentage of the seats. Also, this church, which meets in the gym of Austin High School (if that wasn’t clear from earlier), normally has three services on Sunday: 10:45, 5:00 and 7:00. A couple weeks ago the 5:00 p.m. service had 1,200 people, so multiply that times three and you have one crowded gym. But, with lots of people going home this weekend, it wasn’t quite so bad. Still, there was about a 60-70 foot line to get into the gym when I got there, 20 minutes early. Also important to note is that our worship leader, Chris Tomlin, was back in town from his US tour. (Yeah, if you’ve not heard of him… he’s actually quite famous.) He tends to draw a bit of a larger crowd on Sundays that he’s here, too. So with all of that, I actually ended up getting an available seat. I have no idea how many people were there, but they used the entire gym (normally they cut it off and use about 3/4 of it) and had more chairs in there than I had ever seen before. The bleachers were packed and you could barely walk in the aisles because of all the people who had to sit on the floor. It was a scene…

Dude’s got gold records. Craaaazy.

Anyway, church was really, really good. Tomlin hasn’t been in town since probably September or so, so it was cool having him back and the preacher Matt Carter (he’s 33 years old, and I don’t think any of the elders are over 40–young church, in other words) gave a really good sermon. I ended up walking the whole way back and I’m glad I did. I walked along the trail on Town Lake–I had never been down that far on the trail and it’s so pretty there. I saw a swan!! haha, unreal.

Anyway, I don’t have a lot of homework this weekend and that means one thing: more time for my recent obsession. What could this be, you ask? My eldest, and ever-so-kind, brother Kevin recently bought a month of mlb.tv. If you don’t know what this is, basically it’s the ability to watch every Major League Baseball game from the comfort of your computer desk chair. At my fingertips, I can watch all the Pirates, A’s, Indians, WHOEVER I want, all the time. Of course, it is limited to your local channels, so I can’t watch the Houston Astros or Texas Rangers–but they’re on TV anyway, so who cares? haha, it’s glorious!

You might not think this is a big deal, but it really is. Let’s be honest, other than Letterman, there’s nothing good to watch late at night. But guess what? There’s west coast baseball! One of the first nights I watched, I saw Mike Piazza (yeah, it would have been nice if it wasn’t someone who’s done extensive Pert Plus commercials, but you take what you can get) hit a homerun to push the A’s over the Angels. Now, there are two reasons why this is awesome. First, I got to SEE the excitement happen. I’m sitting there, watching a 3-3 game and POW! Homerun! Not a walk-off, but still… top of the 9th ain’t bad. The other reason this is awesome is because I got to hear it through the local Fox Sport Net broadcasters. While I love Jon Miller and Joe Morgan on ESPN, the majority of national broadcasters leave something to be desired and the local guys can just let loose. It’s really exciting and these two things are something you just don’t get from watching the highlights on ESPN the next day–you really don’t, and that’s by far the best thing about this deal. Last night I saw the Padres sqeak past the Rockies in similar fashion–bottom of the 9th blast into left field to score the runner on second. What a game!

Alright, I’m sure I’m boring some of you, so I’ll digress. I’ll stop because of that and… well, I’m watching the Pirates beat up on the Reds right now and the A’s game just started. It’s all about priorities, people. Anyway, I hope you’re all having a great day and someone start the countdown: 5+ weeks until I’m home for summer! Woo-woo!

Ah, the familiar sights of baseball season! O, how I’ve missed thee! Play ball!

Hello and happy April! We’re finally here… baseball season is upon us, the weather is starting to change (I hear… somewhat… well, as much as it can for you barbarians in the north)… and April showers will soon bring May flowers, such as myself. Things are lookin’ up!

Well, I don’t know what most of you people were doing this past weekend, but let me tell you… I was on an adventure in the wild West, my friends. Okay, so we weren’t exactly chasing Indians and starting up boom towns, but I’m sure if something like that was done much in the last hundred years, we probably would have. On Friday, I left Austin (and civilization) and drove for about 3 hours with my roommate Eliot, along with 4 other people, and headed for “West Texas”… “The Hill Country”… whatever it’s called. Eliot’s family has a ranch that’s been in the family something like a hundred years in a town called Concan. Concan consists of, from what I could tell, a general store, a restaurant, and a rock. I’ll admit that maybe I didn’t see “everything” there is to see, but… I got a general sense, and that’s enough to make broad, sweeping generalizations. Also, it’s pretty.

Anyway, we arrived Friday evening at about 7-something. Black clouds were looming all around–black clouds. Not dark gray. They were also traveling in two different directions. In my experience with storms (tempestas for you Latin lovers out there. And not the Enrique Eglesias Latin lovers, either), when clouds are black and swirlinging in multipled directions… you run. So we drove through the gates of Meyer Ranch (and yes, it says that with a big M on the gate… awesome), we saw cattle on our left and two deer running right in front of us. No joke. It was like we drove off the road and right into freakin Animal Planet. Amazing. Anyway, we brought in our bags and groceries and stuff (uh, the nearest WalMart/grocery store is about 35-40 minutes away), and the storm just let loose… Texas-style. haha

That night we made fajitas from this take out place. Fajitas were also the meal for lunch the next day and let me address them directly now. Chicken and beef fajitas: you were delicious. Thank you for your tasty treat-ness. Anyway, everyone slept in the same room in this enclosed porch (you couldn’t even tell it was a porch, so, one of those), but there weren’t enough beds, so I slept in the next room. But because the house used to end where the head of my bed was, there were two windows that opened into the room where everyone was, so I opened one of them: problem solved. I’m a problem solver, what can I say? I’m not gunna fight it.

The next day we woke up and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It was a little cooler (and by that I mean mid-60s), so we made pancakes and then went out exploring the grounds of Meyer Ranch. They have about 200 acres, which I thought was a ton until Eliot told me that the neighboring raches are more in the 1000-acre range. Still, it’s a lot. Anyway, we traveled down to the part of the ranch that’s on the Frio River. To you or me, it’s a glorified stream, but because of the rain the night before, it was moving pretty good and had a nice brown color. Gorgeous.

After playing around there for a while, we headed back and ate fajitas: round 2 (see above: if you actually had to “see above” make a doctor’s appointment because you have short term memory loss. Because you have short term memory loss.) (< ---A joke within a joke. Just to clarify...). It was about 2 p.m. and it had warmed up pretty well, so we decided to go tubing along the Frio. For those of you unfamiliar, tubing is the act of... sitting in a tube and floating downstream for 4-5 hours. So down we went, along this big stream... floating and floating... and floating. It was pretty cold at first, but by the end, I was happier to be in the water than out. Of course we didn't really finish until 7 or so, and the shadows were getting kind of chilly. But along this river were all kinds of rapids and rocks (my tailbone is still recovering... I took a couple shots HARD in the back... the kind of sudden hit where all you can do is laugh. Maybe that means I'm insane or have some sort of central nervous system problem, but maybe someone knows what I'm talking about. (You know, like when you put your hand in a fire and giggle for hours afterward... no? Okay, I made that one up.) At one point there was about a 3-foot waterfall... that was awesome. I didn't flip there, but earlier I got caught in a particularly tricky rapid that pushed me under. Several of my fellow tubers said it was there that they saw their lives flash before their eyes. I think only one person didn't lose her tube there. ("Lose her tube"... that should be an expression. "Yeah, and when she saw her grade, she totally lost her tube." Just wait, it'll catch on.)

Anyway, that was an awesome experience. I have all kinds of scrapes, scabs and bruises, but I would definitely do it again. I'm not real sure what that says about my mental health, but the fun really did outweigh the pain. That night we grilled chicken and burgers that were delicious. We got back kind of late, and everyone showered so by the time we ate it was like 9:30 p.m. Apparently tubing was more strenuous than you would think, because by 11 p.m. or so people were heading to bed. The next morning we had pancakes again, packed up and took one last little walk around before heading back to Austin.

It was an awesome weekend… I literally went to bed each night to the sound of coyotes howling. How “western” is that?? It was crazy. I’m not sure I’ve ever been quite in the middle of nowhere like I was this weekend. But finally I’ve had my token “Texan Experience!” I recommend it… I’m practically the Marlboro man.

These last few pictures are some of the “wildlife” found out there… haha, okay, maybe sheep aren’t exactly wild, but they’re not really roaming around the streets of Beaver, either. Tons of butterflies everywhere! And I found a little lizard friend, too. He wasn’t too keen on having his picture taken, so this was the best one I got.