Not A Fan Of Zeus

What are the odds of being struck by lightning? Well, I personally beat the odds, but my house did not fair as well. On Sunday around 10:30pm, I was watching the season premiere of the Amazing Race, which I Tivo’d to avoid all commercials. At the time I was ironing some dress shirts and yelling at the TV for the Amazing Race teams not knowing how to maneuver through downtown Seattle. A thunderstorm was passing through, and I never thought twice to shut things down. But even if I did, there was now way of stopping of what happened in a split second. As I was ironing, a bright flash filled the rooms of 709 Creekmont, immediately followed by a boom louder than any of Mills’ farts. Of course the thunder was drowned out by me screaming an expletive as I was being shocked through my iron. It was close, real close. Lights briefly went out, but all things came back on except the TV. So I restarted it just to make sure, but when I did, nothing came on. (OH NO!). I tested several combinations with my TV, DVR and audio receiver. Thankfully it was just my audio receiver that went haywire. I exchanged that with Costco yesterday because they have 1 year warranties on their products (thank goodness). My worries didn’t end there…

My cable modem was out for the night, and I figured maybe it’ll magically get restored the next day. Nope, I guessed wrong. The next day when I went to check my computer (which was turned off during the storm) in which was connected to the cable modem, the computer didn’t boot up. I think the video card is at fault, but can’t really tell without functioning computer speakers, which also blew out. Great, now I’m out a home theater system and a computer. I’ve wanted to buy a new computer for some time, but not on these terms.

Thinking this is the end of my worries, last night after exchanging my home theater at Costco, I decide it’s time to do some house chores. I’ll wash a set of laundry and start the dishwasher. Simple, yes. Functioning, NO. The washer doesn’t drain properly, but thankfully doesn’t overflow. And the dishwasher continually goes through the wash cycle. Frustrating.

What else can go wrong? I’m hoping nothing. But hope can’t really beat the odds of lightning, can it?

My House Is Now Equipped For Laziness

I have lived in my new house for 10 months now. And until recently, I lived with minimal furnishings. In a 2300 sq. ft. home all I had was one bed and one recliner. Yup, wasted space. Living without a television was tough, though it forced me to read more for entertainment.

With the start of the NFL season approaching and the bitter taste of the Seahawks loss in the Super Bowl still fresh in the mouths of many Seattleites (current and former), I couldn't do without a TV any longer. This Wednesday I'm getting DirecTV installed to accompany my month old Samsung HDTV because of the NFL Sunday Ticket programming package. The lone recliner in my house wasn't going to suffice. This past Friday I had a leather couch, a chair and an ottoman delivered. I love my new furniture.

And in my furnishing spree, I also bought a new bed, which was delivered yesterday I still need a coffee and dining table. Being that I spend at least a third of my life sleeping, it was about time I invested in a quality bed. Last night's sleep was some of the best I've had in a long time. Prior to the new bed I was having shoulder problems due to me rolling over on my side and not having the proper support. It's all remedied now.

Well, it's time for me to go back to relaxing.

A Cup of J5

CLaw, DKYan and myself caught the Jurrasic 5 (aka J5) concert at Stubb’s yesterday. The opening act, X-Clan, was rather weak. The only thing I enjoyed about their act was laughing at the “Flag Guy”, who paraded around the stage waving this red-black-green liberation flag through the entire duration. If I knew that’s what it took to get into the business, I would have practiced 4 hours a day in my youth.

Jurrasic 5 is definitely in my top 5 music groups of all time. And they did not disappoint last night busting out all my favorites such as “Quality Control”, “Freedom”, “What’s Golden” and “Improvise”. DJ Nu-Mark is a bad-A. He was cutting it up with sick beats, and between J5’s sets he did a solo act on what looked like modified Fisher-Price toys rigged to synthesizers. The crowd was going crazy for Chali 2na because his signature deep voice is the one that stands out amongst the group. I thought the best lyrical skills of the night came from Marc 7even.

As a group they are just unrivaled for talent. Hip-hop is not everyone’s cup of tea, but if you are ever thirsty, Jurassic 5 throws one helluva tea party.

Softball Skills (or lack thereof)

For all the softball ball mishaps I've been a part of, I've usually been on the non-receiving side. Karma has come back to haunt me. Here's a story of my demise.

I was asked by Ti to sub with a few others for her co-ed softball team last night, and being that I haven't participated in any active team sport (other than basketball) in months, I was more than happy to sub. But when we got to fields, subs weren't needed at all. However, the captain was much too nice and found a way to get us in the lineup. In the later innings, the captain made defensive adjustments and put me in at shortstop. With runners on 1st and 2nd, and a ball was finally hit my way, and I go down on one knee and make the throw to 3rd from the ground for the force out. A little shaky on the pickup, but I'm starting to build confidence. We get a force at 1st for the second out (I can't recall the details). So, with 2 outs now, a guy comes up to the plate. And he takes a rip at the 1st pitch and blasts it 150 feet straight into the black sky of the night...

Now this is where Cabelly takes his tumble. In my Austin sporting career, I've only played a few games at night outdoors: 2 soccer games and 2 softball games (including this one). Not to make excuses, but I've only started wearing contacts for 2 years now, and when I do it's usually for sporting purposes during the day. At night, my contacts seem to fail me.

...so the ball is coming out of the sky and finally reaches the lights again where it's spinning fast. I'm on the edge of the infield just into the grass trying to find my footing. I'm waving everyone off and yelling loudly for the ball, "I GOT IT, I GOT IT!" Oh, I got it alright. To make a last second adjustment to the flight of the ball in which I could barely make out because of my eyesight and poor contacts, I take one more step backwards, and somehow find a hole in the grass to lose my footing. With the glove just above my face and now off balance, the ball barely nicks my glove and nails me right on the side of the chin. SOFTball, my ass. I go down like Tyson versus Buster Douglas. I felt like the biggest dumbass on the planet that I laid on the grass staring up into the night sky wondering, "Could this be anymore embarassing?" I was less worried about my chin, and more concerned about my image.

I am notoriusly susceptible to brusing, but so far my chin has just been swollen and just looks like half of Jay Leno's. Not money. This morning I just got back from a follow appointment with the eye doctor, and he gave me another trial pair of contacts to be better suited for night time vision after I tell him the story of last night. "One day too late, Doc."

In a 22-2 ass handing of a loss, the game will probably be a little more memorable for my blunder than the score. But for a bitter sweet ending, I ended up getting the 3rd out of the inning with a solid throw to first on a grounder. Chin up, Jase.

Crossing the Wake

I went wakeboarding again this past Saturday with the Mastersons (Mike, Tara and Austin) and JLaw plus one. It was a windy day and traffic was average causing some rough conditions, but I pretty much lucked out on my runs getting nearly calm water. I usually try to set a goal each time I go out, and my goal this time around was to cross the wake on both sides. Last time out, I was only able to get over the walk going heel-side, and struggled mightily at that.

On a side note, I was surprisingly successful in “getting up” every time for the day, where my rate of success was barely 50% in previous trips. It’s much easier to practice other things when you don’t have to waste energy trying to get up.

In previous trips I thought I had face planted a few times. I was wrong because I redefined my interpretation of such not once, but twice. The first one rattled me so much that I think it knocked some sense into me instead of out. On the following run, I finally figured it out and crossed the wake on both sides a few times consecutively. The advices of Mike and JLaw in letting the boat pull me into the wake also helped. But I got cocky from crossing the wake a few times that I got ballsy and attempted a jump. The next thing I know, my face ate lake. That second one hurt, and I was done for the day.

I am determined to get air the next time out. But I am sure I’ll encounter a few face plants along the way.

I Have A Date

I met this girl on my birthday at Red Fez last Thursday. To make a long story short, my former classmate from UDub (Chief) knew a girl amongst a group of 10 UT MBA students, whom were all girls. The two of them basically played matchmaker. But after 3 chances to get her number, I was still to chicken to ask for it. Finally, my ride home (JLaw) said, “You get digits, or you are walking home.” Well that was motivation enough for me to get her number.

Last night I called her to see if she wanted to go out to dinner. I was so nervous because usually I don’t ask random strangers on first dates. Usually, I get set up through friends of friends or have known the girl for some time. After drinking a beer to settle me down, I finally called her thinking I probably would just get voicemail because she wouldn’t recognize the area code of my number. To my surprise, not only did she pick up, but she remembered exactly who I was. I was definitely relieved, and I sensed she was just as nervous talking to me as I was to her. Bottom-line…I now have a date tomorrow. Stay tuned…

But first thing’s first, tonight I’m going to the Spurs-Kings Game 5 in San Antonio with JLaw.

First Time Wakeboarding

The weather was amazing yesterday in Austin. My friend Bob invited a few of us to go wakeboarding on Lake Austin. I tried water skiing once, and I was never able to get up. Being my first time wakeboarding, I was naturally terrible. I was able to get up after 3 tries, but I couldn't manage to stay balanced for more than a few seconds. After sucking in a bunch of Lake Austin water, I called it quits after 8 attempts.

We spent half the day wakeboarding. We spent the second half of the day on calmer waters in a cove of Lake Austin. It's amazing how 85 degree weather draws people to the water. And it's only April! While in that cove, another friend of ours made some great cocktails with some sort of booze he brought back from Brazil and combined it with fresh kiwis and strawberries. I blew up this huge inflatable raft shaped like a dragon and floated around on that while Bob tossed the football to me. And while we were tossing the football around in the lake, a brown Labrador retriever swam up to the boat, named Taco from its id tag. Since he was getting tired from swimming we brought him onboard Bob's boat to get rest because we had no idea where he came from. We speculate he was attracted to the football we were tossing around. No other boat claimed him, and with the aid of cellphones and the internet we were able to figure out where Taco lived. Unfortunately, the owner wasn't home. We dropped Taco off at a near by home where another good Samaritan help Taco home on land.

We felt so good about our deeds that we boated up to Hula Hut, which is my favorite restaurant in Austin. Even though we had to wait 1.5 hours to get a table, it was worth it. While waiting for our table we decided to throw the football around some more. As foolish as we were, we kept throwing the ball around the boat dock. Bob handed the ball off to some random girl and she played catch with us. To catch all of us guys off guard she long snapped the ball to Bob...no one paid any attention to the ball. Splash! Rob ended up swimming after the ball. This time he was the good Samaritan.

What a great April Sunday!

The Amazing Race 9 Starts TONIGHT!

Long time, no post. I have been fairly busy at work to not post anything. Oddly enough, I'm on the internet all day, but no time to post anything. Excuses.

Outside of "24", I don't watch much television. Then again, I don't own a television (I have to remedy that soon). But there is one show I am a fan of, and that is The Amazing Race. I'm just hooked on that show. Tonight is the 2 hour season premire. Just checked out the teams online, and my preshow pick is on Lake & Michelle. I'll make my official pick after the first episode.