I'd snap him off with 97 suited and BUSTO him.

A2ss IIRC

So last night at the poker table, I'm in between these two nerdy guys, around 30 or so. They are both playing some computer game on their iPads and animatedly discussing various strategies on how to beat the game.

On an on and I'm stuck in the middle. One of them says, "this is all I did in college!" The other guy laughs and is like, "me too!"

I chime in with, "THAT'S what you did in college?"
They laughed and said, "yeah, what did u do?"

I replied, "had sex with girls."

The whole table cracks up and this really old man who hadn't said a word the whole night, points at me and says, "he wins."



Yeah, I stole it from Joey on Friends, but still...

Being the next John Cole might not be the best decision anyway, Wookie (and Busto). I do enjoy working for department members and helping where I can, but I spend many more hours at work now. Still, teaching is gratifying, especially when you get the chance to see former students succeed.

Grats, Busto and good choice.

Awesome Dom!

Congrats Busting

Go get em Wookie

Sent from Outer Space

Here is a trip report I started writing on the sixth, but wasn't able to finish until now.

I'm currently sitting in the Denver airport waiting to take a red-eye back to Boston. It was scheduled to leave now (11:10pm). However, the current projection is 1:45am. The good news is I have my laptop, there is free wifi and we managed to find a quiet area with a bench and an unused outlet. Why am I in Denver? Since I have some time to kill, I will tell you.

My girlfriend (J) used to work with a girl (C) who is now getting her Ph.D. at Colorado University in Boulder. J and C have kept in contact since C left the job a year ago. C has always been telling J to come visit. J is in the process of switching jobs, so this weekend was a good time to take a short vacation. I was invited to come along. I was hesitant at first, as it would mean not being in Boston for the 4th. I decided it would be a worth while when I was told that the school mascot (Ralphie the Buffalo) would be at the fire works.

J and I flew out Wednesday night and C drove us to her home in Boulder. After sleeping in some, we decide that we should go on a hike. Since we arrived at C’s place rather late, it was dark out and I couldn’t see much scenery. This translated into a very surprising moment when we walked out to the parking lot to see that the mountains are very close by. There is a trail-head walking distance from the apartment, but C had picked out a hike that began a short car ride away. This hike would take us up to the top of the Flatirons. It took us about 90 minutes to climb almost 1400 feet. It should also be noted that the trail-head is over 5000 feet above sea level, which is much higher than J and I are used to in Boston.

After the hike we grabbed some lunch and then headed to Roundhouse Spirits, a local distillery that focuses on Gin. However, the reason we went is because the make a barrel aged gin that has flavors of whiskey, thus it is known as Ginskey. The distillery has a small bar in it where they serve all of the products that make. After getting samples of each of their products, I ordered a drink with the Ginskey, root beer, maple syrup and lemon juice. Sadly, the guy behind the bar needs to take a little more care with his cocktails. I had to immediately stir my drink in order to get more than one flavor. And even then the lemon juice was over powering the other components. The bar also provided cheezy poofs as snacks. However, they were served in a carafe, which is not ideal and required a lot of shaking to get the poofs out for eating.

We then went home, cleaned up and got ready for a night of drinking and games with a number of C’s friends from Boulder. Catchphrase, Celebrity and Cards Against Humanity were the games of choice and good times were had by all.

We slept in on Friday morning as the day’s festivities would not be starting until the afternoon. One of C’s friends (D) had just moved into an apartment complex that had a rooftop pool, so the plan was to hangout there during the day while drinking and grilling. J, C and I brought over some food and whatever alcohol was left over from the previous night. As we arrived, D had just pulled in with a new grill that we would use for cooking. While we were successful in assembling the grill, the gas line for the grill and the pipe out to the porch did not have the same connectors. Instead of risking a gas leak near an open flame, we decided to pack up and head over to the pool area and use one of the communal grills. Once there we began drinking, eating and relaxing in the hot tub.

At some point, the decision was made to stay and watch the fireworks from roof pool instead of heading to campus where the fireworks were being launched. While this did mean more time in the hot tub, it did mean that I did not get to meat Ralphie the Buffalo (whom, I’m told, is actually a she). Eventually the time for fireworks came. We were able to see parts of a few other shows in the distance before the Boulder show started. The show was nice, but the view from the pool was not ideal. A building blocked our view of some of the lower explosions and we were too far away to feel the explosions. However, I will attribute some of this to being spoiled by years of seeing Boston’s 4th of July fireworks up close, which is consistently voted as one of the best in the country. (Though, if there was a year to miss the Boston show, this was it. Hurricane Aurthur forced Boston’s show to be moved to the 3rd. And from what I heard it was very windy and there was some rain.)

As the night wound down, it be came apparent that C was quite drunk. The good news is that when she is drunk, C gets very focused. This involved excessive planning about how everyone would be getting home (I was driving everyone in her car) and great directions back to her apartment (even with accurate distances to turns). Upon waking up the next morning, C was not so happy. She was severely hungover and did not want to get out of bed. J and I went into town to grab some food and walk along the public mall.

This brings us back to the airport waiting to fly back to Boston. Boarding started at about 1:30am and we got to our seats without any problem. J and I had gambled with our seat assignment by leaving the center seat empty between us. The gamble paid off and nobody had taken the seat between us. Once on the plane, we got to wait some more. It turns out that the fuel gauge for one of the wings did not work and they had to manually measure the amount of fuel. This is important because it would be bad if we didn’t have enough to make it back to Boston. Long story short, I can’t sleep on planes and I was very tired when we did in fact make it back to Boston.

Last night Fishette and I are sitting on the deck watching a thunderstorm head our way. Lots of lightening, most of it staying up in the clouds but some obviously hitting ground as well. Then something I haven't experienced before. Lightening flashes fairly close in the sky and I can feel the heat from it. It was pretty noticeable since it had cooled off pretty nicely. I ask Fishette if she felt it too and she hadn't been paying attention and thus did not. Not long after that same thing happens only the lightening is close the the heat more noticeable. I look at Fishette and she says, Ya, she felt that one.

We decide it is time to go in the house.

Maybe I have just never paid that much attention or something but I really cannot remember ever distinctly feel the heat from lightening before.

Is been on the big island of Hawaii for a week fishing and not catching, playing with turtles and getting checked out by a tiger shark all from a kayak. Done some sightseeing on land as well. Happy summer loungafari!

Me neither. It's hot, but I'm not sure how close you have to be.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_injuries

Fish going through the change?


Cjr,
take pics!!!!
if we can't be there, next best thing.

Oh yeah?! Well, uhh, I sat on the balcony with the wife and played a game of Pandemic. We won a game we had no business winning.

I'm going to Hawaii, too! But I keep reading about plane crashes in the news. WTF? We went for 10 yrs with no crashes and now all of a sudden there are crashes almost daily. Even Ativan is not going to help me get through this 12 hr flight.

There shouldn't be any places between here and there where some ******* is going to willy nilly shoot down passenger jets.

Unconfirmed reports that Raul Casto's daughter was on this latest on in Mali?? The could be interesting if it was brought down by a hostile act.

well what the hell with these hostile acts? I'm sick of this ****. I can't even enjoy planning my trip to Hawaii. I'm just nervous as hell.

I'm not sure what you mean about 10 years without crashes? There has been at least one comercial airline crash every year since 2000 that involved a death.* While there have been 4 incidents in the last month, there were the same number of incidents this year as had happened at this point last year.

*It goes back further, that I just when I stopped looking. Using the list linked below, there is at least one documented commercial incident every year since 1933. And only 4 years between then and 1919 without a documented incident.

Source

All that being said, flying is actually very safe. Much, much safer than driving. If you want to trade, I'll take your vacation to Hawaii and you can do programming in Boston.

I went on holiday last week to Cornwall, had pasties, ale and cream tea.


Here's some pictures I took at the Eden Project (where they research preserving ecosystems within biodomes).

and here's some from the "lost gardens of Heligan" - the inspiration for the Eden Project

Did you run into Pauly Shore or Stephen Baldwin?

katy,

What island are you going to? Mrs. Rhymes and I have decided we will just go to Hawaii every year. Each time has been awesome.

No.....

Go by sailboat. Fish, lay in the sun, drink beer and piss in the ocean. You don't need to get there in one day you know. Take your time.

Like in a Bing Crosby and Bob Hope movie.

"The Road to Maui."

It's a short road.