Let's see...where did I leave off?
Ah yes, we're up to last Friday and the start of a nice long weekend. We spent Friday night watching the Pirates do what they do best...lose. Randy, Elizabeth, Katie, and baby and Susie were there since the Warner's invited all of us. It was a fireworks night. Since I work til 6:30 and the game starts at 7:05 it was a little tight making it there on time. However, we got downtown with no problem, parked with no problem and started to head towards the bridge across the river to the stadium. However, there was a large crowd at the end of the bridge. Turns out the Pirates had decided to have a big gun salute for the armed forces. So in their infinite wisdom and excessive planning, they shut down the most highly traveled pedestrian walkway into the stadium from about 15 minutes til gametime til after the game had started. The majority of the crowd just got pissed off and walked down to the next bridge and went across. No wonder the Pirates haven't had a winning season in 13 years. If their event staff can't even coordinate start of game activities, it's no wonder management can't put together a group of guys that can hit and catch the ball. I'm sure the Mac is glad he no longer has to deal with that group of misfits.
Anyway, the game, or rather the company at the game, was good. Of course the Notre Dame fans in the rows in front of us had us all shaking all heads trying to figure out if we were like that when we were younger. Susie said that we were young once, but even though I had to admit that, I had to clarify with the fact that I was never stupid.
The fireworks were really good though.
Saturday we headed to a hospital near our house because I made the mistake of picking up the phone to answer a call from what I thought was the Central Blood Bank. It turns out that I was targeted for a conspiracy to steal my book. We got to the "blood drive" and I went through all the check-in crap, the finger stick, the interview. Then they set me up in the chair and began taking my blood. That went smoothly. Once they saw that I was reading a novel while my blood was being siphoned, that's when the conspiracy began. They finished with the blood and they put that little cotton ball over the area where the needle was and told me to put my finger on it and hold my arm straight up. Well, the little cotton ball had just enough ether on it to do the trick. I got out of the chair and walked over to the table where the nice volunteer asked what I wanted to drink. I looked her straight in the eye, said, "Orange Juice" and then the ether took effect. I spun and fell onto the ground. The next thing I knew there was a crowd around me and one of the "nurses" was placing a damp cloth on my head. They kept asking if I felt fine. I told them that I didn't feel any different than the last time I asked. No nausea, no dizziness. Turns out this was just a diversion to get my book out of the room. While they had me propped in a chair drinking gatorade someone walked off with it. By the time I noticed it was missing, it was too late. Now of course Terri, being calmed by the notion of non-conspiracy america, will simply blame me passing out on lack of sleep and the fact that I didn't eat anything before I gave blood. But I'm telling you, they wanted my college discussion copy of this. I couldn't believe it. I was about 2/3 of the way through when they grabbed it.
We then met up with Tom to do some shopping for his niece and father. So, I swung by Half Price Books and picked up another copy, but it wasn't a discussion copy and it didn't have my bookmark. I've had that bookmark since about 1998. It was sad that a book about a futuristic society that has broken down to the point where females are not permitted to read is the very book that they targeted to steal.
After lunch and shopping with Tom, we headed back to the house to hang out. We ended up watching the first half of the Pitt/Notre Dame game. Boy, even Tom was sorry we did. The new era of Pitt didn't really open with a bang like everyone thought it would. Hopefully Craig's alma mater will fare better than Pitt did. (And let's not get confused, I am not now, nor was I ever an alumnus of Pitt)
Sunday we headed to church and found out that Katrina's devastation touched more lives than we had suspected. At last count, there were several extended family members missing. Hopefully God has a plan that will be easily accepted regardless of the outcome. After church we headed over to my uncles' house for a little Labor day get together with my parents. Gage had fun running around exploring the house again and playing on their grand piano that my uncle bob had fully restored. His current project is a double keyboard harpsichord. I have no doubt he'll be able to produce a finished product that even collectors will have to look at twice just to make sure of it's authenticity.
And, I think I'll end there for tonight. I have more for Monday-Wednesday including some random links and articles, but again it's getting late. I started this post almost 3 hours ago. (You get interrupted a lot in my house) And, I still have a 1/2 hour of exercise left tonight.