Two Movies in One Day

One thing I try to do while Elissa is out of town is see all the thriller/violent movies that she wouldn’t watch were she in Fort Collins. To that end, after Eric’s party, we went to see Fracture with Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling.

Congratulations to Eric! (The graduating part)

Eric graduated! (Brian, you owe me ten bucks). In celebration, he had a tremendous pool party on a very cloudly, slightly chiily day. There were probably 15 feet of sandwiches (I think we should measure the goodness of a gathering by feet of sandwich. If someone has a relative at the International Standards and Measurements Office, drop me a line). Any way, everything was going great until Keith and I (pictured)

Gobblet … And Other Nerdy Ways I Spend Fridays

Later Friday night Blake came by and I showed him how to play the wii. He picked it up right away and crushed me in tennis. We will never play wii again.

We decided to go to a movie that started in an hour. But, in the ensuing hour of watching TV, we ditched that idea deciding it demanded way too much work. Blake also confided that he felt that a movie in a theater was often too much commitment. However, at home he watches the whole of terrible movies like Anaconda, just because he has the option of breaking it off at any time. This is a real commitment issue and I wish him luck as he moves five states away to try living with his girlfriend in Alabama.

Friday Folly at New Belgium

On Friday my office closed down at 1pm in honor of summer generally and Memorial Day Weekend specifically. Brian, his brother, his mom, her sister from Pennsylvania all had the good sense to visit New Belgium brewery in the afternoon and had the further good sense to invite me along—If you think my writing’s funny, you should catch my live act

Going to New Belgium caused me to have to leave this message on my personal trainer Brad’s voicemail: “Hey Bradford, I know you had me down for Friday at 6:30pm, but c’mon. Who were we kidding?! I was thinking a better idea would be to do a little drinking. I’ll give you a call and we can reschedule.”

New Belgium has a special place in my heart.

Brian’s in Town

Last night his flight was scheduled at 6:00pm, but due to tornadoes, baseball sized hail, and wussy pilots, the plane didn’t wheels-down till after 10:00. Maybe closer to 11:00pm. In any event, this is the second time Brian has been terribly delayed this year, and thus I have speculated that he is somehow part of the Sosland curse. It was good to see him, he is refereshingly well-informed. In this picture he regails us with stories of Cargill and Demand Inelasticity. In the background you can see a couple of old women cursing at each other. Sadly, that argument devolved into fisticuffs.

Marshall’s Stay: Sunday

Sunday, Elissa packed for her 12 hour trip with Marshall back to Dallas. Marshall and I played a lot of chess. I’m going to geek out here, so if you care little for chess, then sufficed to say they left and I am playing bachelor for two weeks!

Chess Geekage:

So Marshall and I played about 4 games. And I lost every one. Which brings the grand total of lifetime wins against Marshall when there is no timer involved to zero. I did learn some things, though.

Marshall’s Stay: Saturday

Saturday rolled around and I was fine, bright-eyed and bushy-browed. That was good, because we had reservations to go rafting on the Poudre. Rafting was awesome as always. The water level was close to four feet (five feet is a little high), and despite the fact that it rained, the wet suits and splash jackets kept us as dry as can be expected. We did 12 miles of class IV and III rapids, and to continue my life-long streak, I stayed in the boat. We only had one casualty.

Marshall’s Stay: Friday

In the morning, Collin was being a pest, so we took him down to the softball fields down behind where we live. At the softball field, after we had worn the little guy down with fetch, a group of school children sauntered up to us and to my surprise Marshall began a full-on lecture about the physics of motion, Newton’s first law, and how our human conformation aided us in projecting objects. I snapped a quick photo of Marshall demonstrating how a wider base aids in stability. Honestly, I think it was a little over those girls’ heads.

Marshall’s Stay: Thursday

While I slaved over comma splices at work, Marshall and Elissa toured New Belgium brewery (A source of tremendous pride for someone that lives in Fort Collins). Elissa bought me a hooded sweatshirt made of of a cool, 1/2 fleece material. Then they indulged in one of New Belgium’s nightly, free tastings.

Marshall at the tasting. If he looks happy, its because he is surrounded by 8 beautiful gourds of God’s own nectar.

Marshall’s Stay: Wednesday

We had Marshall, Elissa’s brother, over last week. He goes to school at Rice in Houston, TX where he majors in Philosophy, or Political Science, or Ceramics, or some pre-law program. He will be taking the LSATs soon, although please don’t misinterpret this to mean that he has law on the brain … He’s just keeping his options open.