It's good to once again be back in Dallas. In the 4 hours since I've been home, there have been two highlights:
1) Dinner was superb. We had scallops drenched in a white wine sauce, cantaloupe wrapped in prosciutto on a bed of lettuce, and fried rice. I was pleasantly full after all that, which was complimented by my D'Albola Pino Grigio 2001.
2) The first e-mail I received today was from my friend Connie, alerting me to a softball game this Wednesday at 10:10 PM. I'll be playing every Wednesday this month for the Dallas A&M Club team which I started playing with back in 2000. These are some of my favorite people, playing one of my favorite sports, so I couldn't be happier with this arrangement.
Friday
Now I suppose I need to recap the weekend, which was a big bundle of fun in Austin, Texas (the Capitol). Friday afternoon was sort of frantic, because I didn't get done with my research stuff until 1:45. I missed the UT shuttle bus, so I decided to walk the 2.5 miles to my car in 100 degree heat, because the next shuttle wouldn't be there for probably an hour or so. While doing this, Ryan updated me on the schedule for departing Houston. He expected to leave work around 4:30 or so arriving in Houston by 5. I told him I'd be late (around 5ish), and he wondered if I meant like 6 or 6:30, to which I said would be impossible. I then drove my sweat-soaked ass to the oil change place, then to the hair-cutting place. While all this was going on, the vascular surgery fellow with whom I'm doing my research called and said all the files I copied from Hermann Hospital were missing, and I needed to straighten that out. Well, that was weird, because I put them back exactly where I found them which was in a cabinet marked "DR. SAFI/DR. VILLA". So I told him I'd do my best. By the time my errands were complete, it was pushing 4 o'clock. This meant that I had to shower, pack, and go back to school to find the files in an hour. Well, I packed and showered (all taking way too long), and upon leaving the shower I found 3 people in my living room. They were Denise, Brent, and Colleen. Denise is an Aggie and excellent person to be around. Brent is a Boeing colleague of Ryan's, and Colleen is his high school sweetheart from near Madison, Wisconsin. So I got dressed and took care of last-minute plant watering and such. Thinking there was no way I could get to school and take care of the file thing, I e-mailed Dr. Villa to tell him I couldn't do it. Of course, it turns out that Ryan had to stay at work late (he's in the middle of a big project with his Japanese colleagues and didn't get home until 6 or so) and I would have had time to take care of the school stuff. Actually I thought it was quite ironic that he jokingly asked if I would be ready by 6 or 6:30, when it turns out he was the one having to scramble. So for once I was actually early for something, which was nice. Plus Dr. Villa can handle the file thing, as I had most of the stuff ready to go and the data prepared. We plan to submit an abstract by the end of August, so I'm excited at that prospect. (What's an abstract? It's how scientists summarize their research project and pose their hypothesis, which is the scientific question the research aims to answer.)
Then Todd and April arrived. Let us discuss Todd and April. Todd is an upper-level supervisor at Boeing. He was Ryan's boss for a few years and now has switched departments. He's your typical mid 30's cool boss guy. He's totally grounded, very ambitious, but he certainly knows how to party. So he's on my cool list. April also works at Boeing, but in a different department. She is a SERIOUS partier. April is very cool and very sarcastic. She's very sweet most of the time, but she also has that mean streak which keeps things interesting. And did I mention that she likes to PARTY. Man does she like to party. So it seems April was promoted at Boeing, so Todd brought nice champagne, and we all drank to her success. Then we allowed Ryan to finish his packing and we headed to Austin. Upon arriving it was straight to Larry's to drop stuff off then off to the South Austin Trudy's. Shout out to Mary and Sarah who camped out for an hour and got our table for us. The funny thing was, by the time the whole group sat down, there weren't any chairs left for Mary and Sarah, because they were getting the check. So I sat with said hot ladies, and we drank Mexican martinis and ate fajitas. Then it was straight to 6th Street for a stop at Cheers, The Library (I think), and somewhere else. Fun was had by all. Then I went home with Mary and Sarah. I met Sarah's dog Lacy (who is very hyper), and we eventually fell asleep around 4 or 5ish.
Saturday
We got up around 9:30 and proceeded to Larry's. I popped a beer down the hatch and we all caravanned to New Braunfels for some toobing. There were a few little snafus getting there, as our car drove to the Comal first. And as it seems, the other cars got a bit lost as well. But we all ended up at "Rockin R" toob company where we hopped in the river and began our trek. The river was great. We had a large group of 17, so "the peleton" as I called it (after the large pack of bikes in the Tour de France), started down the river with three coolers full of ice cold beer and two bags of Franzia wine. We floated and drank, floated and drank, floated and drank (you get the idea). We met lots of people, used lots of sunscreen, and drank lots of beer and Franzia. The beer selection was superb this year including Red Dog, Milwaukee's Best, Budweiser, Miller Light, Coors, Coors Light, Schaffer Light, Steel Reserve (replacing the ever popular Sportz beer), Schlitz, Colt 45, and Pabst Blue Ribbon. Of course in addition is the "bladder of Franzia" which is the boxed wine you buy at the store, but we take away the box and leave the silver bladder. We had two of those lovelies. And so that was the toobing beverage service. On the river, this dude Josh was hitting on Sarah, and Sarah was sort of hitting on Josh. Todd and April seemed to be rather friendly and that was about it. There was a cool tree swing that we used to take a break and jump into the river. And I don't recall seeing any snakes which is always a plus. Upon completing the journey, one of our party (who will remain nameless) was a bit too tipsy, and the jerk New Braunfels cop sort of gave her a hard time (which she did not fail to remind us of the rest of the evening), but I offered to take control of the situation and everything was fine. We left New Braunfels and proceeded to the Cici's all you can eat pizza bonanza, where we ate several pizzas each. After that it was time to go home and shower.
Back at Sarah's house, it was decided by all that there would be no further partying that evening. So Sarah and I headed over to Randall's to pick up the essentials:
1. Non-fat Coffee-Mate
2. Already made cookie dough for baking
3. Berry-flavored Propel water by Gatorade
Then we headed back to the house for Propel water, cookies, and fresh-ground coffee with non-fat Coffee Mate. In addition we decided to watch the movie Along Came Polly with Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston. The film had its funny moments including some nice bathroom humor with Alec Baldwin which had me laughing out loud. It was a good rental, but not the greatest I've ever seen. The main event of the evening was Sarah's 35-year old boyfriend Justin. Apparently this guy works at the Horseshoe Bay resort. He was in Austin that night and the night before engaged in some drinking. The previous night he called while intoxicated and actually apologized to Mary for appearing like an ass. Little did he know how badly he would trump the previous night's performance. I think he probably called the house around 15 times during the movie. Then he actually showed up at Sarah's house after circling around in a cab, because he forgot where she lived. His visit caused Sarah to miss the last fourth of the movie while talking to him. To recap at 11:30 PM:
Drunk Dials to Sarah's cell phone: 10
Drunk Dials to Sarah's home phone: 5
Visits to Sarah's place: 1
So then we stayed up a bit more talking about whatever and enjoying conversation. A few hours past and then the calls started again. One after another. There would be a string on the cell phone, then a string on the home phone. I think there were text messages mixed in there too. Then things quieted down, and we fell asleep until we were awoken by a knock at the door. What time was it? It was 5 AM. He knocked, no answer. He knocked again, no answer. He knocked on Sarah's window, no answer. The dog started barking. Then Sarah finally got up to answer. Luckily Justin brought a Calvin Klein model standing through the sunroof of the car still out in the street. After that we all fell asleep, good times had by all. To recap at 5 AM:
Drunk dials to Sarah's cell phone: 20
Text messages to Sarah's cell phone: ??
Drunk Dials to Sarah's home phone: 10
Visits to Sarah's house: 2
Sunday
Sunday morning was rather uneventful. We slept in, got up, and headed over to a nice breakfast place called Kerbey Lane Café.. The three of us started with very spicy Bloody Mary's. I had eggs Benedict, Mary had a similar dish without the Béarnaise sauce, and Sarah had a spinach and ham omelet, along with blackberry pancakes. Everyone was very happy. I got in the car and drove to Dallas, without event.
As an aside, I need to comment about Sarah and Mary. Let's start with Sarah. I've known this girl for a pretty long time, but the extent of our visits are usually no more than 10 minutes when I'm meeting Mary for something. I think she has really grown up in the last few years, and she is now graduating from UT in a few weeks. She really reminds me of my sister in so many ways. I was very pleased to spend the weekend with her and sort of get to know her on a better level. As for Mary, we all know how I feel about Mary. She's perhaps the nicest girl I know in the world, besides perhaps my mother. I don't think I've ever had a bad time with her in 10 years. She parties hard and without fail. She's definitely top 3 girls to hang out with and probably my favorite girl friend of everyone from high school, or really from everyone I know.
1) Dinner was superb. We had scallops drenched in a white wine sauce, cantaloupe wrapped in prosciutto on a bed of lettuce, and fried rice. I was pleasantly full after all that, which was complimented by my D'Albola Pino Grigio 2001.
2) The first e-mail I received today was from my friend Connie, alerting me to a softball game this Wednesday at 10:10 PM. I'll be playing every Wednesday this month for the Dallas A&M Club team which I started playing with back in 2000. These are some of my favorite people, playing one of my favorite sports, so I couldn't be happier with this arrangement.
Friday
Now I suppose I need to recap the weekend, which was a big bundle of fun in Austin, Texas (the Capitol). Friday afternoon was sort of frantic, because I didn't get done with my research stuff until 1:45. I missed the UT shuttle bus, so I decided to walk the 2.5 miles to my car in 100 degree heat, because the next shuttle wouldn't be there for probably an hour or so. While doing this, Ryan updated me on the schedule for departing Houston. He expected to leave work around 4:30 or so arriving in Houston by 5. I told him I'd be late (around 5ish), and he wondered if I meant like 6 or 6:30, to which I said would be impossible. I then drove my sweat-soaked ass to the oil change place, then to the hair-cutting place. While all this was going on, the vascular surgery fellow with whom I'm doing my research called and said all the files I copied from Hermann Hospital were missing, and I needed to straighten that out. Well, that was weird, because I put them back exactly where I found them which was in a cabinet marked "DR. SAFI/DR. VILLA". So I told him I'd do my best. By the time my errands were complete, it was pushing 4 o'clock. This meant that I had to shower, pack, and go back to school to find the files in an hour. Well, I packed and showered (all taking way too long), and upon leaving the shower I found 3 people in my living room. They were Denise, Brent, and Colleen. Denise is an Aggie and excellent person to be around. Brent is a Boeing colleague of Ryan's, and Colleen is his high school sweetheart from near Madison, Wisconsin. So I got dressed and took care of last-minute plant watering and such. Thinking there was no way I could get to school and take care of the file thing, I e-mailed Dr. Villa to tell him I couldn't do it. Of course, it turns out that Ryan had to stay at work late (he's in the middle of a big project with his Japanese colleagues and didn't get home until 6 or so) and I would have had time to take care of the school stuff. Actually I thought it was quite ironic that he jokingly asked if I would be ready by 6 or 6:30, when it turns out he was the one having to scramble. So for once I was actually early for something, which was nice. Plus Dr. Villa can handle the file thing, as I had most of the stuff ready to go and the data prepared. We plan to submit an abstract by the end of August, so I'm excited at that prospect. (What's an abstract? It's how scientists summarize their research project and pose their hypothesis, which is the scientific question the research aims to answer.)
Then Todd and April arrived. Let us discuss Todd and April. Todd is an upper-level supervisor at Boeing. He was Ryan's boss for a few years and now has switched departments. He's your typical mid 30's cool boss guy. He's totally grounded, very ambitious, but he certainly knows how to party. So he's on my cool list. April also works at Boeing, but in a different department. She is a SERIOUS partier. April is very cool and very sarcastic. She's very sweet most of the time, but she also has that mean streak which keeps things interesting. And did I mention that she likes to PARTY. Man does she like to party. So it seems April was promoted at Boeing, so Todd brought nice champagne, and we all drank to her success. Then we allowed Ryan to finish his packing and we headed to Austin. Upon arriving it was straight to Larry's to drop stuff off then off to the South Austin Trudy's. Shout out to Mary and Sarah who camped out for an hour and got our table for us. The funny thing was, by the time the whole group sat down, there weren't any chairs left for Mary and Sarah, because they were getting the check. So I sat with said hot ladies, and we drank Mexican martinis and ate fajitas. Then it was straight to 6th Street for a stop at Cheers, The Library (I think), and somewhere else. Fun was had by all. Then I went home with Mary and Sarah. I met Sarah's dog Lacy (who is very hyper), and we eventually fell asleep around 4 or 5ish.
Saturday
We got up around 9:30 and proceeded to Larry's. I popped a beer down the hatch and we all caravanned to New Braunfels for some toobing. There were a few little snafus getting there, as our car drove to the Comal first. And as it seems, the other cars got a bit lost as well. But we all ended up at "Rockin R" toob company where we hopped in the river and began our trek. The river was great. We had a large group of 17, so "the peleton" as I called it (after the large pack of bikes in the Tour de France), started down the river with three coolers full of ice cold beer and two bags of Franzia wine. We floated and drank, floated and drank, floated and drank (you get the idea). We met lots of people, used lots of sunscreen, and drank lots of beer and Franzia. The beer selection was superb this year including Red Dog, Milwaukee's Best, Budweiser, Miller Light, Coors, Coors Light, Schaffer Light, Steel Reserve (replacing the ever popular Sportz beer), Schlitz, Colt 45, and Pabst Blue Ribbon. Of course in addition is the "bladder of Franzia" which is the boxed wine you buy at the store, but we take away the box and leave the silver bladder. We had two of those lovelies. And so that was the toobing beverage service. On the river, this dude Josh was hitting on Sarah, and Sarah was sort of hitting on Josh. Todd and April seemed to be rather friendly and that was about it. There was a cool tree swing that we used to take a break and jump into the river. And I don't recall seeing any snakes which is always a plus. Upon completing the journey, one of our party (who will remain nameless) was a bit too tipsy, and the jerk New Braunfels cop sort of gave her a hard time (which she did not fail to remind us of the rest of the evening), but I offered to take control of the situation and everything was fine. We left New Braunfels and proceeded to the Cici's all you can eat pizza bonanza, where we ate several pizzas each. After that it was time to go home and shower.
Back at Sarah's house, it was decided by all that there would be no further partying that evening. So Sarah and I headed over to Randall's to pick up the essentials:
1. Non-fat Coffee-Mate
2. Already made cookie dough for baking
3. Berry-flavored Propel water by Gatorade
Then we headed back to the house for Propel water, cookies, and fresh-ground coffee with non-fat Coffee Mate. In addition we decided to watch the movie Along Came Polly with Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston. The film had its funny moments including some nice bathroom humor with Alec Baldwin which had me laughing out loud. It was a good rental, but not the greatest I've ever seen. The main event of the evening was Sarah's 35-year old boyfriend Justin. Apparently this guy works at the Horseshoe Bay resort. He was in Austin that night and the night before engaged in some drinking. The previous night he called while intoxicated and actually apologized to Mary for appearing like an ass. Little did he know how badly he would trump the previous night's performance. I think he probably called the house around 15 times during the movie. Then he actually showed up at Sarah's house after circling around in a cab, because he forgot where she lived. His visit caused Sarah to miss the last fourth of the movie while talking to him. To recap at 11:30 PM:
Drunk Dials to Sarah's cell phone: 10
Drunk Dials to Sarah's home phone: 5
Visits to Sarah's place: 1
So then we stayed up a bit more talking about whatever and enjoying conversation. A few hours past and then the calls started again. One after another. There would be a string on the cell phone, then a string on the home phone. I think there were text messages mixed in there too. Then things quieted down, and we fell asleep until we were awoken by a knock at the door. What time was it? It was 5 AM. He knocked, no answer. He knocked again, no answer. He knocked on Sarah's window, no answer. The dog started barking. Then Sarah finally got up to answer. Luckily Justin brought a Calvin Klein model standing through the sunroof of the car still out in the street. After that we all fell asleep, good times had by all. To recap at 5 AM:
Drunk dials to Sarah's cell phone: 20
Text messages to Sarah's cell phone: ??
Drunk Dials to Sarah's home phone: 10
Visits to Sarah's house: 2
Sunday
Sunday morning was rather uneventful. We slept in, got up, and headed over to a nice breakfast place called Kerbey Lane Café.. The three of us started with very spicy Bloody Mary's. I had eggs Benedict, Mary had a similar dish without the Béarnaise sauce, and Sarah had a spinach and ham omelet, along with blackberry pancakes. Everyone was very happy. I got in the car and drove to Dallas, without event.
As an aside, I need to comment about Sarah and Mary. Let's start with Sarah. I've known this girl for a pretty long time, but the extent of our visits are usually no more than 10 minutes when I'm meeting Mary for something. I think she has really grown up in the last few years, and she is now graduating from UT in a few weeks. She really reminds me of my sister in so many ways. I was very pleased to spend the weekend with her and sort of get to know her on a better level. As for Mary, we all know how I feel about Mary. She's perhaps the nicest girl I know in the world, besides perhaps my mother. I don't think I've ever had a bad time with her in 10 years. She parties hard and without fail. She's definitely top 3 girls to hang out with and probably my favorite girl friend of everyone from high school, or really from everyone I know.
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