The Boys are Back in Town

Or at least I am.

As I stated in some posts last week, I was visiting my parents in Alexandria, VA. They moved there last year from Southeastern Minnesota and seem to be doing all right for themselves. It's actually kind of weird. Since they had kids (me, to be exact), my mom didn't work full-time. Now that's not to say that raising me wasn't a full-time job, but she wasn't going to some shitty office and logging 40+ hours behind some desk for the man. She was a stay-at-home mom. Once my younger brother went off to school, she started substitute teaching in the area, but she hadn't gone back to full-time teaching until they moved to Virginia. When they moved, she decided to take up teaching full-time in the classroom, and she's taken to it pretty well, all things considered. Granted, teaching kindergarten in a district where almost all of her students don't speak English as their first language (she has one little white girl in a class of 19 kids) is bound to have its ups and downs, but she's making due. It's kind of funny because my dad has actually taken a job that is much more relaxing than his old one, so they've kind of switched job-related stress levels.

Now, here comes the weird part. Anyone who knew me as I was growing up knew that my parents were never cutting edge technology-wise, and that was intentional. Excepting two years in which they didn't have a choice, we never had cable. My parents didn't get an answering machine until after I was in college (so, 1999 or so). They never had cell phones when they lived in La Crescent. Well, suffice it to say, I was what some might term 'shocked' to find my parents living the high life with their cell phones and their digital cable and their *gasp* high-speed internet with a wireless router (which now works thanks entirely to my patient brother-in-law). To top it off, my parents go out on the town all the time, living the high life in the big city. Honestly, it's nice but pretty weird that my parents have become these urban people who go to downtown to get a drink now that they're approaching 60 years old. Nonetheless, it was nice to see the family, who I rarely see as a result of my brilliant decision to move to Austin, Texas.

Speaking of Austin, I got back into town yesterday after a harrowing connection in St. Louis in which my plane from the Baltimore-Washington Airport arrived at the gate 15 minutes before my flight from St. Louis was to depart. I had to wait for valet service on my bag as well, so I was coming perilously close to spending a fair portion of time in the St. Louis Airport. Apparently, they have an Applebee's, (as became evident when the people in front of me pulled out some awful fried something-or-other, which then stank up the entire area surrounding them--and engrossing my seat, which calls to mind another plane situation in which I got a migraine because the woman in front of me was wearing an obscene amount of perfume--people: if you're going to be travelling in an enclosed space for an extended period of time, show your neighbors some respect and don't bring shit that stinks into that space--and yes, Funyuns stink, dickhead) so I could have spent my time there, I guess...

But I did get back, so all is well. The old lady and I then made dinner to celebrate the tradition of Zombie Jesus. Smothered Pork Chops, Potatoes (the 'e' is only in the plural spelling, Mr. Vice President) Au Gratin, and Baked Asparagus and Brussel Sprouts were the main courses with a beautiful Strawberry Shortcake for dessert.

Then, we hauled ass cleaning up, and I partook in another live fantasy draft at the homestead. I ended up with a shitload of players I don't really like (at least for head-to-head fantasy purposes, if not disliking them straight-up) but had to take, like Beltran, Bossman Junior, Aramis Ramirez, Adam Dunn, Kazmir, Carlos Zambrano, A.J. Burnett, B.J. Ryan, and Brad Lidge. This year worked out better than last year, as we moved it to someone's house rather than having it in a bar, which had led to having to track down the less involved from their secondary post at the dart board...

One more draft to go, this one with weird statistical categories to spice things up a bit.

Before I leave this post to history to decide its worth, I'd be remiss if I didn't wish one of my favorite songwriters, Patterson Hood, a happy birthday, so Happy Birthday, Patterson Hood!


And since he was mentioned earlier in this post, here's the former Vice President...

getting a can of Texas whoop-ass busted out all over him.

And lastly, I'd like to wish Kazuo Matsui a swift recovery. We miss you, buddy.