Day 44

44 Magnum that is. Ok, that was just dumb, sorry about that.

So, as anticipated, last night was very awesome. Let me explain a little about what went down. It was the 5th annual Llywelyns softball game. The 3 St. Louis area locations all get together for a no-holds barred drinking contest. Oh, and they play softball.

I'm gonna guess there were maybe 60-70 people there total. I know there were 3 kegs and well over 300 jello shots, plus who knows what else. All that was gone before the night was over, these are some drinkin' fools. But, like I said, there was some softball playing going on in between keg stands.

They played a round robin format, so each location played the other two. First up; Webster vs. West End. West End wins it 6-2. Next up; Webster vs. Soulard. Our team had spent a little time drinking in preperation, and were therefore totally unprepared to play. We lost 3-0. (I did have a single, but got doubled off on a line drive).

So, we played West End next. They win, they win the tournament. We win, its a 3-way tie. I am very proud to say that I got the scoring started in the second inning with a lead-off home run. Not out of the park, but I saw they had two girls in right field, so I picked on them. I did hit it pretty good though, I must say. We did not stop scoring, putting up 6 in the 2nd. By the bottom of the 4th, we put up 10 and won by 10-run rule, 10-0.

Now, a conundrum. Each team had won a game and lost a game. We scored more than either team, but had also been shut out. The owners decided on a one inning round robin play off. We stayed on the field to play the West End. They didn't score. I actually led off for us with a double, and was hit in by a gound out and single. We won, 1-0.

Then we play Webster for the Championship. We bat first, putting up a 4 spot. We then continued our solid defensive play to win 4-1.

Soulard won the Championship for the 3rd straight year!!!

So, all this is quite awesome. If you don't believe me, hang out with 60 or 70 totally wasted people while being completely sober and you'll see, its a good time.

I think the most awesome was my uniform. Our bar manager, Sean, was our team captain (and he gave several very rousing and inspiring pep talks). He named me the assistant coach, a position I took seriously. I got to thinking, what does a coach look like? Well, a coach wears coaches shorts, obviously. And long socks. And a 3/4 sleeve shirt. And has a fantastic mustache. I looked good. My two favorite quotes relating to my outfit were from my nephew Ahren, who is 3, who said, "Uncle Ben, you look silly." Then I knew I had nailed it. The other quote comes from the GM of all 3 St. Louis Llywelyns, Tom, who said, "There is no way I would let you anywhere near my kids." Bingo.

I will post a picture of my outfit, as soon as one of the many people who took my photograph sends me a copy, which will hopefully be today sometime.

In the meantime, enjoy the 'stache in this picture, my picture of the day:


Thanks for reading, see you tomorrow!

Day 36

The start of week 6. Only 46 more to go after this (unless I write this for more than a year, we'll see).

Yes, anyone that want a Llywelyns cup can just ave one. You don't have to give me anything. Just let me know.

Anything else uniquely St. Louis?

It is hot today. I know this because I have spent a decent portion of the day on the exterior of the world. I'll start in the middle somewhere, because that suits my purpose better.

So, my parents have a huge yard. On a hill. I mean, it's almost an acre. And all on a hill. And all of the grass was pretty tall. Dangit. At least my parents have a 42" walk-behind (where you get to ride one of those little platforms on wheels things), so that certainly helped the cause, but those things are way harder to control than you might think. I know, you're saying, "I've seen hundreds of I am sure legal immigrants riding those things all over, it looks easy." Well, it's not incredibly tough, but it is tiring and can be a little tricky. So, I mowed the lawn. I almost made the lawnmower the awesomosity, but really, a lawnmower, just not that awesome.

After that I helped my dad replace some incredibly hard to reach spark plugs in his van. Soooo fun. Let me tell you. Well, after we got all those in, we tried to start the van. The alarm (of which he hasn't used in years and doesn't even have the remote for anymore) start shrieking. That is annoying (I eventually stuffed some rags in it because it kept going off). Now neither of us are experts when it comes to anything vehicular (see post where my brother helped fix my truck), so we can't figure out how to disarm this thing. Worse than that is that it has a starter kill feature. So the truck won't start. And we can't disable the alarm. Aarrrghhh!

After crawling in some very awkward positions to look at all the wiring under the steering column (and after we disconnected some stuff like the backup battery for the alarm), I found some fuses connected to wires going to a black box that looked like an alarm brain. I pulled one of those fuses just for fun and...presto, van starts. Woohoo!

Then I showered and here I sit. A/C feels so good about now.

Now, I skipped over this morning, because it includes today's awesomosity. You see, I have a good friend Ben Shepard (he and his wife Erin were previously mentioned on the blog for coming to watch my short film premiere, which you can see again at the Tivoli in November). Ben and I try to get together somewhat regularly to just talk about life, have some accountability, and just build our friendship. Ben works at SLU (dorm director or something, he lives on campus), and I live in South City, so the Central West End is a decent place to meet. We met at the Coffee Cartel this morning, and that is what is awesome today. For one reason, check out their TV commercial here. You can also look at their webcam (courtest of Fox 2) on their website here.

I think my personal favorite thing about the Cartel is that they have normal sizes. They even have the cups on the ledge by the register with the sizes written on them; small, medium, large; 12oz, 16 oz, 20oz; little, middle, biggest; etc. But then to beat it all, they have all the not sizes that other national coffee chains use such as grande, venti, etc. crossed out. (I'm the guy that always orders a medium or large at Starbucks, then when they say whatever Italian word that correlates to what I say, I reply, "sure".)

They have a huge patio, they have live music on weekends. People tell me they have decent food. They have FREE wi-fi (unlike some national chains). They are open 24 hours. They are not full of themselves. It's just a cool place, and I recommend it to anyone that has not been there before.

After that, I got home and noticed my parents outdoor cat, who had been getting pretty fat, was not so fat anymore. After a little searching and some help from my mother to get them situated nicely, here is what I found:

Awwww

Yes, she had 5 kittens last night. No, we are not keeping them. Does anyone want a kitten in about 6 weeks to go with the Llywelyns cup?

Here is a picture of me all sweaty and dirty in front of my parents huge lawnmower:


See you all tomorrow! Have a fantabulous Monday!