June 2005

Jun162005

In a Lonely Place

I went to work this morning and arrived at about 10. There were plenty of reports to keep me occupied throughout the day. Dad was out of the office for the better part of the afternoon. He met with a realtor regarding a new location for the Mid-City office. There are plenty of good reasons for us to move out of the Tulane Ave. location nice to see some serious consideration to the matter. Dad and I left the office around 6:30 to head home. Later in the evening I watched In a Lonely Place.

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Jun152005

Wednesday Off

I got up at a half-decent hour, in spite of being up rather late last night. I had Wednesday off today as I wasn’t needed at the office today I seldom am on Wednesdays. I brought some reports home to do today although I never got around to them. I didn’t do anything of circumstance today. I was at home. I watched TV, browsed eBay, maybe did some laundry. That’s about it.

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Jun142005

In Town for 12 Hours

I got up at 8:30 this morning but could have slept a good deal longer. Dad and I left the house around 11 this morning. Before wandering into work, we went to Bravo’s on St. Charles for lunch and to see the radio broadcast of the Rick Jones coach’s call-in show. We sat at the bar this time so we could better hear the Tulane baseball coach and the host of the show. We both had the lasagna for lunch, although we both got half orders with salad this time. This was the last edition of the show as the team will be traveling to Nebraska tomorrow for the college world series. After we left the restaurant we made a quick stop at the New Orleans Center so I could drop off a textbook to Ms. Snell that’s I said I’d return quite some time ago. We got to work at 1:30. Aside from a couple little things, I was largely unoccupied all afternoon. Dad left the office later in the afternoon to retrieve Andrew from Uncle Larry and Aunt Dionne in Metairie. Dad and I finally left the office at 7 PM. We had leftover red beans for dinner. Late in the evening I took a cab downtown to meet Khadijah at the train station. She arrived in town at 11:20 from family in Texas. She was to take a plane to her sister in Virginia at noon tomorrow. With some time to spend we went to the Sheraton on Canal and had a couple drinks and talked for a good while. At 3:30 she took a cab to a friend’s house in Kenner and I got a cab home myself.

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Jun132005

Omaha Bound!

Dad and I went to work this morning, more or less. There was no electricity in the building so the mid city clinic couldn’t see patients. Deidra was out front to ‘greet’ patients. We left around 11 to go to the ballgame. After we parked, Dad went to get some thing to eat while I waited by the car. We walked in after we finished eating with time to spare before the game started. With both Rice and Tulane with a win in the three game series, today’s game decided who would go to the College World Series. Unlike yesterday’s pitcher’s duel, today’s match was more of a slug-fest. A third attendance record was set in as many days with a turnout of 4,708, the largest crowd ever at Turchin Stadium, a fitting end before the upcoming renovation of the stadium. Tulane was the visiting team again as decided by a coin toss and were at bat first. They took the opportunity to set the offensive tone early with two runs in the top of the first. The score was tied at the end of three after Rice scored one run in both the second and third inning. The score remained tied until Rice scored in the sixth. Tulane rallied late, again, with four runs in the eighth to retake the lead. Rice came right back in the bottom of the eighth with three runs to tie the game again. It was quite a roller coaster ride for the fans. In the top of the ninth, Tulane scored three runs to retake the lead. Three quick outs in the bottom of the ninth ended the game and Tulane won the game 9-6 and a birth in the College World Series. Much like the end of the regional tournament, there was a good deal of celebration by the fans and players alike. After the game, Dad, Jeff, myself and whoever went to Robert’s for a drink. I made a complete fool of myself playing pool with some kid and later playing a game with Jeff. Pool has always been one of my favorite games although I so seldom play it and have no discernable talent although I did manage to beat Jeff, who obviously learned a thing or two about the game while away at school. We went home after our game. We had trouble getting out as a camera crew was in the bar getting some pictures of the crowd, which became rather ‘enthusiastic’ when the camera was on. When we got home we had to clean ourselves up as we were going right back out again. There was a company dinner this evening at Houston’s for Stephanie’s birthday. In keeping with tradition, we were an hour late in getting started. Mom, Dad, Jeff, myself, Stephanie, her boyfriend, Deidra, Bianca and her husband were there. We all agreed to meet at seven. We were seated at eight. For some reason, they wouldn’t move any tables so our party of nine sat at two adjacent tables, which was rather awkward. I had grilled redfish in a lemon butter sauce with coleslaw, probably the healthiest thing I’ve ever ordered in a restaurant. We went home after dinner. I didn’t do much in the evening and got to bed at a decent hour.

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Jun122005

No Tomorrow

We still went to church this morning, although game two of the super regional started at noon today. A win today would force a game 3 tomorrow and a loss would mark the end of the line for Tulane’s baseball season. I stayed with Dad while he taught his Sunday school class. We changed and left a bit early while his assistant finished up the class. We arrived at the stadium just after the game started. There was occasional cloud cover today, but less than yesterday I think. Unlike yesterday’s game that was just hard to watch, this one was quite the nail-biter. There was no scoring until the top of the seventh when Tulane managed to load the bases for a third time. Tulane walked in a run for a one point lead but left the bases loaded again. While a lead was nice, it was pretty fragile. Tulane bought a good insurance policy in the top of the ninth with six runs. The bottom of the ninth passed quickly and Tulane won the game 7-0. Tulane really looked sharp this afternoon, Micah Owings in particular. His pitching performance was nothing short of amazing. Owings pitched his first entire game in 90 degree heat and allowed only three hits in nine innings. I could go on about his showing but I’ll let it suffice to say that Owings shouldn’t have to buy a drink for a long time to come. After the game, Dad, myself and someone we’d met at the regional tournament went over to Robert’s bar for a drink. I don’t think we were there too long. This evening, it was decided that game three would take place at noon tomorrow, most likely on ESPN’s whim. Frankly it’s rather disgraceful that the #1 national seed has to play three straight games in as many days in the searing heat. Later in the evening I watched Raging Bull before getting to bed at a decent hour.

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Jun112005

New Orleans Super-Regional Baseball Tournament

Dad and I went to see Tulane play Rice in the NCAA Super regional tournament at noon today. If I recall correctly, we brought some food with us to eat before making our way in the stadium. It was rather hot today, no surprise I guess as it is summer time now. This was the first time I’d been out in the heat this year for a circumstantial length of time. There was on and off cloud cover and strong wind during the game, likely a side-effect of the first named storm of this year’s hurricane season, Arlene, which made landfall on the Mississippi coast this afternoon. The field didn’t look too great, also no surprise after the punishment it took after last week with all the rain. Rice was quick to take the wind out of Tulane’s sails. They scored three unanswered runs in both the first and second innings. By the end of the second, Rice had ten hits and a six run lead. At the end of four, the score was 7-1. The short of it is Rice played a lot better than Tulane, who made some costly mental errors. Tulane pitcher Brian Bogusevic, who pitched the first four innings, just didn’t have it today. Brandon Gomes came in for him in the fifth and performed rather well, and allowed no more runs. Tulane started a comeback with four runs in the 7th, but there was no more scoring after that for a final of 9-5. It was certainly a disheartening loss, but Tulane managed to make it look half decent at least. After the game, Dad, myself and whoever, someone we’d met at the regional tournament, went over to Robert’s bar for a drink. We were there for quite some time. After being there a while, I got something to eat at the Frostop. Jeff met us up there after work a while later. I think we got home around seven.

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Jun102005

Friday

Jeff rode with Dad and I on the way to work this morning. We stopped uptown to drop him off at one of Loyola’s libraries, where he works. There were no reports to type today, just a good deal of filing related stuff. I also worked on some patient status request sheets. I don’t really remember the evening, although I think I may have watched season two of Chapelle’s Show on DVD while folding some clothes.

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Jun092005

At Home

I wasn’t needed at the office so I was off today. I did have a couple reports to do at home today. I spent a good part of the day looking at Vaios on the net and wasting my time in other fashions. Andrew and I ordered a pizza for lunch. I watched season 2 of Chapelle’s Show on DVD this evening.

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Jun072005

The Phantom of the Opera

After being up late last night, it was nice to be in no hurry to get up this morning. I got up at ten, got myself ready and cooked some sausage for red beans tonight before leaving the house with Dad for 11:30. Before making it to work this afternoon, we went to Bravo’s Italian Kitchen for lunch on St. Charles, where the Coach’s call-in show with Tulane baseball coach Rick Jones was being broadcast at noon. He and the host discussed last night’s win and the upcoming super-regional tournament versus Rice. I had the lasagna for lunch. I thought I was just getting a half order but I received a rather intimidating dish instead. It was quite good and I managed to finish it with a little help. After we finished eating we stuck around for the end of the radio show. We finally arrived at work around 1:30 after a stop at the uptown post office. There was some dictation remaining from yesterday but it was no trouble. There was very little work for the rest of the day. Dad and I made our way out of the office around six. We stopped for French bread on the way home. Instead of having the red beans we cooked today for dinner, we ate the leftover black-eyed peas at Mom’s behest. Later in the evening I watched The Phantom of the Opera. I have an acute distaste for musicals on-screen as I find musical interludes just don’t work in movies like they do on stage. However, this particular musical is exceptionally lush and polished and was reasonably enjoyable.

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Jun062005

Regional Champions

About at quickly as I was jobless, I was back at work this morning. I arrived at about 10 and worked for a few hours on the dictation that had been piling up somewhat. I worked on it until Dad and I left the office shortly before six this evening. We went to see Tulane play Alabama this evening for the New Orleans regional championship. They were originally rescheduled to play at one this afternoon but the game was delayed even further after heavy rain this afternoon. Before heading into the stadium, we stopped for something to eat. We decided to try a little south-western place on Calhoun called Kokopelli’s. I had some soft tacos and Dad had something else. We got into the stadium with plenty of time to spare before the first pitch at seven. Earlier in the day, the Tulane grounds crew was rather busy trying to dry the field. It was largely underwater earlier this afternoon and they went to great effort to make the field playable. In addition to pushing water off the outfield, they brought a helicopter in to hover over the field in an attempt to dry the field somewhat. The field was still quite wet at game time, but it was a small miracle that the field was playable at all after some 3-5 inches of rainfall, which caused a bit of havoc across the city. There was considerable street flooding. There was no running water through most of the east bank for a while this afternoon after lightning knocked out a pumping station. Anyway, the game started at seven against all odds. Alabama scored one in the top of the first but Tulane immediately answered with three to set the tone. Alabama scored 2 in the third and Tulane scored 3. Alabama scored another run in the fifth to bring the score to 5-4, startlingly reminiscent of Saturday’s game. During the fifth inning, it started drizzling. As time went on, it grew into a light rain. There was also lightning to the south. Had this been a regular season game I’m sure we wouldn’t have been playing. Greg Dini hit a home run in the seventh for two insurance runs. Just after that at 9:45, there was a lightning strike nearby and the officials pulled everyone off the field as the NCAA is very serious about lightning. Actually it was pretty surprising that they had no done so earlier. The light show had been going on at a distance for some time. Earlier in the game, there was an announcement made stating “no flash photography is allowed in the stadium,” which was rather amusing. The game entered a weather delay and the stadium was cleared. Dad and I went to Bruno’s to wait for the game to start again, if at all. The lightning stopped although the rain persisted. The game resumed an hour later at about 10:45. The original record crowd of 4, 127 looked to be about halved but there was just as much enthusiasm. There was no scoring in the eighth or ninth inning, although it was rather exciting none the less. Tulane held the lead of 7-4 from before the delay and Tulane won the regional championship. The team jogged a victory lap around the field, greeting the fans on the rails. It was quite a sight. I was up for a while after getting home shortly before midnight. Kristopher needed some help with his website so I remained online for a while. I watched Reservoir Dogs this evening. I’ve been under the impression that Tarantino was a flash in the pan. I saw the opening scene in film class last semester, which contains some rather amusing and sharp dialog, so I decided to give the movie a viewing. Unfortunately, the opening scene in the restaurant was the only entertaining part of the movie. The rest was just a bunch of ridiculous violence that amounts to nothing. This movie sucks.

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Jun052005

Postponed

Dad and I went out to see Tulane play Alabama for the regional championship this evening. The game was to start at 6:30 but we got their closer to one or two o’clock for the loser’s bracket game between ULL and Alabama. Again I wasn’t interested in sitting in the sun and stayed near the car. The sky looked rather threatening through most of the day but we figured there was a decent chance Tulane would play this evening. There were a couple folks I hung around for some of the afternoon who came for the Tulane game. While Dad was in the stadium watching the 2:30 game, I eventually went to Robert’s bar on Calhoun to watch the rest of the 1st game on TV. It started raining before seven and the game was in a rain delay. Dad joined me at the bar afterward. The game was still in a rain delay when we left shortly before nine to go to the Boot. As we arrived the announcement was made that the game would be postponed until tomorrow at 1 PM. This was disappointing in that Tulane would lose the advantage of an challenging an exhausted Alabama pitching staff, which played earlier today in the stifling heat. Since we were already at the Boot we stopped for a drink before heading home. Later in the evening I finished watching Shaft, which was surprisingly not entertaining, even dull up until the end.

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Jun042005

Tulane vs. Alabama

Dad and I went out again this afternoon to the regional baseball tournament. We had to stop at Dad’s mid city office on the way to pick up a couple things like the mail. While were on the highway, shortly after crossing the bridge, a minivan attempted to merge into our lane and nearly took the front end off our car. Dad was exceptionally quick to react, although he was pretty pissed and the unbelievably oblivious woman behind the wheel of the van. We packed chairs and food today and found a spot on the Claiborne Ave. neutral ground, where fans are uniquely allowed to park for the tournament. Southern University and ULL played at 2:30 this afternoon. We didn’t really go to that game as there was no motivation to endure the heat and direct sunlight. Dad did go into the stadium to see a few innings. I just sat with the car in the shade and watched the game on my handheld TV. The game of circumstance started on time at 6:30. Tulane had a five run lead after four and a half, highlighted by the three-run homer by Michael Owings. Alabama finally answered in the bottom of the fifth with three runs. They scored a solo home run in the seventh and things got interesting, a little tense even. Tulane bought some insurance with two runs in the eighth and three in the ninth to seal the deal for a final score of 7-4. After the game, Dad and I went to the Boot for a while. It wasn’t too busy when we arrived at about 10:30 but it was pretty crowded by the time we left to go home around 11:30.

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Jun032005

New Orleans Regional NCAA Baseball Tournament

Dad and I went to see Tulane’s baseball team play this afternoon in the regional tournament they are hosting this weekend. They played Southern University at 2:30 this afternoon. It was exceptionally hot today. This was the 1st time this year I’d been out in the heat for any mentionable length of time. Tulane handled southern without too much trouble. Tulane scored five runs in the second and fifth inning, as well as six more in the eighth. Southern got a few runs in with more frequency, but couldn’t come close to matching Tulane’s three big innings. The final was 17-7. After the game, we went to the Boot for something to eat. On the way out someone gave us some grandstand tickets for this evening’s game, Alabama vs. ULL, the winner of which would decide Tulane’s opponent tomorrow. We went back to Turchin Stadium after eating, the 6:30 game was already underway when we arrived. It was considerably cooler with the sun setting. Alabama scored four runs in the 1st, the most action we saw while we were there. We left about halfway through the game as things looked decided. Alabama won 7-5. Later in the evening after getting home I watched the better part of Shaft, although I was too tired to finish.

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Jun022005

Jeff's Birthday

The family, including myself, went out for a while to celebrate on Jeff’s birthday. We just went to dinner and a movie. As we left the house a bit late, we just had dinner at Chevy’s, a stone’s throw from the movie theater. After dinner we say a 7:10 showing of Revenge of the Sith, which Jeff hadn’t seen yet. This was my second viewing. I can’t say I felt I caught anything I missed the first time. Actually I was surprised at the things I’d forgotten already but not too surprising I guess.

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June 2005

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