Friday, 26 August 2005
6:30pm

B

ah, another lapse in updates, I'm terrible, I know. Welp, let's see. I'm pretty well settled in up here in Downey, and having a pretty good time so far. We've got a swimming pool here. I decided I shouold probably use it and get my ass back into shape. So three days ago I bought some goggles and started swimming in the mornings. I was pretty sore and had a pretty hard time yesterday, but this morning was a lot easier. Hopefully I can get some semblance of cardiovascular strength back... of course, I wouldn't mind getting my six-pack back either... it's probably been about 7 years since I last saw that. I figure in the winter when it's too cold for swimming I'll switch to running. I guess my dad's been paying for a 24-Hour Fitness gym membership and never uses it. My mom was asking if I want to use it but honestly... I don't think I'd ever get any exercise if I had to go somewhere else to do it, haha.

My uncle's company has a number of season tickets to the Dugout Club at Dodger Stadium, and I guess they just give them to whoever whenever nobody needs or wants them. My sister and I ended up getting 4 of these tickets for last night's game. My sister ended up bringing a dude from her church, and I brought my old friend Zac who is a huge baseball fan... it also was by a huge coincidence, his birthday! Man, let me say, this was a pretty awesome experience despite the rather poor quality of the two teams that were playing!
There's a club area with a pretty phat buffet with a wide selection of gourmet salads, meats, even sausages. The food is all free. There's also free soft drinks, coffee and hot tea. And desserts including cakes and pastries and ice cream products like ice cream sandwiches and Haagen Daaz ice cream. And all the peanuts you can eat. There's also a station where you can get regular old Dodger Dogs, but with a really nice spread of condiments, including like 3 kinds of mustard, a bowl of fresh simmering chili (with fresh grated cheddar cheese if you want, none of the crap that comes out of pumps here!).
And the view from the seats was just ridiculous. I'm pretty sure the pitcher's mound was farther from home plate than we were sitting. And there was waiter service out there. They'd bring out all the free stuff from inside to your seats, although anything boozy cost extra. It was pretty darned awesome to experience how the big ballaz get to experience a sporting event. Though I do have to note that the crownd back there was disappiontingly sedated. I guess when you're rich enough to hang out back there you can afford to hire someone to stand up and cheer for you when something exciting happens, haha. I'm definitely not used to being one of the loudest people in my section, but I'd have to say that last night I was.
I'm crossing my fingers because I might be able to get my hands on some tickets like these for a game in September when my San Diego Padres will be in town!

Earlier this month was the annual RBP meet in Las Vegas. It was a lot smaller this year than in years past, but that was actually kind of nice because it was a much more manageable group and we were able to get some more activities done. The highlight of the trip for me when we filled the X-Scream ride with RBPers. This ride basically tips you out over the edge of the Stratosphere Tower, dangling you 900 feet above the street below. It was quite an amazing adrenaline rush, and also probably one of the top 5 stupidest things I've ever done in my whole life, haha. I don't think I'll be getting on this ride again, haha.
Pics for all this stuff can be found at the good old giant repository of pics. I was hoping to have a self portrait of me giving the thumbs up for this Vegas section of this update, but I don't have one, so you'll just have to settle for this non-thumbs up one at Hoover Dam. Oh well, maybe next time :)