Dog days of Summer kickin it in

Hey all,

Its that time of year - 90s with that lovely humidity with thunderstorms every night! YEEPPIE! I cant wait for the daily power outage at 5pm later tonight! Usually what happens is that the power glitches and knocks off my router just enough for the vonage phone to get out of sync - then it cannot resync nicely and blinks all night long until someone calls the house and goes to my cell phone.. oh well.

As promised: THE GAMING TABLE OF YESTERDAYS!:

From left to right: Benji (?), Carlos M, Eric S (blue & white), then its Bruce (black shirt), Brian C, myself (in the red) then Dave C (hidden), Carlos Y(green shirt) and finally Joe D (blue/white plaid).

This is the dining room in my dads old house; the table is 4'x8' and the bench was on the left side. The chair at the hutch end was where the GM would sit - usually me or Joe D. The table was originally a train table for my trains when I was a kid, but since the 9th grade, i took it from the living room into the dining room - mainly because my dad wanted us to play in the non-TV room.. Least to say, it was used almost nightly and always on weekends. It was so busy there at times, I got a OPEN/ CLOSED sign for the bedroom window - that way people could drive by and see if things were going on or not...

This weekend was good: Saturday we got some paint for the baby's room and we painted some patches on the wall to see what we like and don't like.. Then decided on Green and Brown.. I'm not sold on the brown yet, but we will see- maybe a shade lighter than the poop brown that it is now (thou it might have advantages with new born babies and poop...EWW!) Saturday ended with a Star Wars Ep1 and Ep2 DVDs.

Sunday was good too- I was able to get garbage out of the file cabinet and now I'm down to the rest of the last drawer; Tonight I get to empty it out and move it into the truck. Then tomorrow Kent will take from me for some $$$ and its a gonner! The file cabinet in question is one of those 5 drawer monsters..It does fit into the back of my truck, so I hope it fits in Kents Jeep!

Anyways, After the cabinet, we had lunch and Dave and Allie came by along with Amy; We play some Puerto Rico and Pit, then grilled some burgers (Not Joe burgers, just regular ones..) Whats a Joe Burger?? Well, you gotta just try it. I basically take about 8 oz of the good beef, mix in some spices and grill it up to leave the middle cooked and the juices hot and fresh. Then put it on an Arnold's bun and BAM- Joe burger. My next burger batch will include pineapples and BBQ sauce.. anyways, we played PR where Dave won with his builder plan - I tried the shipper route, but that turned to crap.

STEELERS: Who else DID NOT get Steelers tickets this year!! (raises hand) I swear, the bes deal in town was the mail a way tickets; Most people didnt know about them and only the loyalist fans could remember when to send in their money and requests. It kept the scalpers at bay and I was able to at least get to some games; I would make the trip across the PA Turnpike and make a weekend out of visiting the best city in the US of A. Now that the box office moved the ticket sales to ticketmaster, its going to be IMPOSSIBLE to get a single game in, let alone find seats at a good price. I guess paying a few hundred for 2 nose bleeders might be worth it, but we will see with the new coach..

PAINTBALL: I ordered the new vest,
knowing that I got $30 for my old one. The new one is similar to the other one but a tad different..Its OD Green and has no tank holder on the back, but it does have a zipper in the front, which is sweet; easy off and on.. Also, it has all the pouches that I could use and has the bladder for the water bladder on the back :) Next up is better camo: MARPAT camo which the Marines use...

SCHOOL: Start tomorrow - I got ECE Lab 1; Not sure on the class stuff et, but I will check it out later today.. I'm glad to get into the class as its near impossible to get the night lab classes and they only start once a year..

XBOX: The CPers stopped playing the shooters and now moved onto Shadowrun and FM2; Every now and then I catch em on R6 Vegas, but everyone seems to be doing their thing. It's not a bad thing, as I know summertime is vacations, lazy days with family and house projects, so I'm not going to put too much into it. I just wish my CA buddies would get off their asses and get online so I can kick their butts at Catan or R6 Vegas..

BOARDGAMING: My buddy Dan is planning a game weekend in WI; The problem is that we are in the midst of a baby room renovation and my time is limited to getting stuff done. I think that by the time the end of July comes around we should be ready to go for carpet, so we will see about the trip. I would rather visit my sister and dad in CA, but the tickets are too much now! They cost almost $425 for a round trip..and up!

Anyways, I'm still waiting for some pics from the party last weekend, so I will put em up as soon as i get em. Also, look from some progress pics of the baby's room too!

Cheers - And enjoy the heat!
JS