cyclone

probably one of the coolest cloud formations i've ever seen, and i was able to capture it thanks to my new camera...

i am soooo taguchi

when i came home for lunch today, william told me i had a package. i was expecting it to be another installment of stella videos...but lo and behold, as promised, josh had found me a so taguchi shirt. now i'll look like i actually belong at a cardinals game, should we acquire more tickets this season.

ps- i've decided that my next large purchace will be a digital camera...(it was between that and an ipod, but i think the ipod can wait). i hate relying on other people's cameras, and i never get the pictures back from them anyway...and i wish i could put up a cute picture of me in this shirt, but alas.... does anyone have any suggestions as to what i should get? i want something small, slim, preferably something that can take pictures quickly. i'm considering getting a canon powershot. also, it would help if best buy carries it because i have a $50 gift card there.

as much as i hate jumping to conclusions...

i spend a lot of time on the road, driving here and there over the weekends. those that have been a passenger in my car know that i have little patience for what i term 'bad driving'. i tend to yell a lot at offenders, even though i know they cant hear me. i do wonder if they ever see me yelling, though.

my biggest pet peeves of highway driving:
1) people who pass on the right. especially annoying when you're in a line of cars trying to pass a slow moving vehicle, and some speedracer tries to bypass the line by zooming down the right lane and cutting into the left. some jerk did this to me the other day simply because i was trying to leave some space between me and the car in front of me- he thought that i was going too slow, and cut in front of me with literally 1 foot of room to spare. which leads me to my second pet peeve...
2) cutting people off. i cant count how many times i've been approaching a car to pass them, only to have them swerve over at the last second to pass the car in front of them. i can understand not wanting to be incovenienced and having to slow down and wait for the other car to pass you....but really....try not to incovenience anyone else, please.

anyway, i've noticed an interesting trend on my last few trips: an incredibly disproportionate number of offending cars have republican/conservative-themed bumperstickers (such as 'sportsmen for bush' or 'abortion ends a life'). about 30% of the time, the bumpersticker is attached to an suv. it makes me wonder if this is more than coincidence. i realize that there are a lot of variables in this...it would be silly to make the blanket statement that all republicans are bad/aggressive drivers. not all republicans advertise their views on their bumpers, not all pro-lifers are republican, i have a relatively small sample pool. but i find it interesting to say the least.


post script: i'm not trying to incite any kind of political debate here-that's not the point. these really are honest observations and i'm curious to know if anyone else has noticed a similar pattern.

best show ever

you missed out on some good times, joe.

take me out to the ballgame

josh managed to get tickets to the cardinals-astros game on memorial day, and asked if i would go with him. even though i dont know much about baseball, and dont even really like it, this is the second game he's taken me to. it's kind of nice that he wants to share the baseball experience with me rather than take a friend who would kill to be there. while i think baseball is boring to watch on tv, i've learned that like going to the games because the fan spirit is infectious.

before the game, we had lunch with mom, dad, joe, and jen (joe's old roomie). we were going to eat at blueberry hill (a stl classic), but the air conditioning was broken on one half of the restaurant, and the other half was too crowded. so we went to cicero's instead (another stl classic- in classic family fashion, neither mom, dad, or i had ever been to either of those).

josh and i took the metrolink (stl's pathetic attempt at a transit system) to the stadium, parking at the loop and riding about 20 minutes downtown. so instead of paying 15 bucks for parking, we paid 3.25 each in metrolink fare. it was our first time in the new busch stadium (the old one was torn down last year), and even though i was mad the old one was demolished, the new one was very nice and roomy. i didnt feel too squished in my seat. the game itself was fairly uneventful, although marquis did hit 3 people, two of them in a row. the highlight of the game was when pujols hit a home run in the 7th with a man on first and third. the game ended 3- 1. josh and i ate peanuts the entire game, and he bought me ice cream because i was hot (made the mistake of wearing jeans). we got the guy sitting behind us to take our picture. notice how josh is decked out in cardinals gear, and i'm....well....not. he promised to get me a so taguchi shirt so i'd fit in better at the next game.

bikes are fun.

friday night there was something called 'garage art' going on around columbia, where different houses were hosting different artists' work (we never found a house that actually had the art in the garage....only basements and backyards), and there was a party going on at each of the houses. since all the houses were pretty close to where we live, we all decided to bike there. at this point i should explain that lately parley has gone bike-crazy, and has been pulling them out of dumpsters and fixing them up. there were 5 of us, and he had 5 bikes that were rideable. i hadnt riden a bike in years...not really since i was a kid. and it was increadibly fun- zooming down hills, racing other people, zipping around corners. the next day, columbia's annual 'art in the park' event was going on at stephens park (a bunch of local artists and craftsmen put up booths at the park and sell their wares. there's also live music and food). parley, two friends of ours, and i biked there (it was probably about a mile away, close to where i work) since we knew parking would be scarce. there were a lot of cool booths, activities for kids, and really good funnel cakes. i was surprised at how tiring the bike ride was, especially on inclines that didnt look very steep at all. then again, i was on a crappy one-gear bike that came from a dumpster...

it all reminded me of how much we used to ride bikes as a kid. i remember one summer when we decided to clean our bikes and make them really shiney. we took pictures of the clean bikes afterwards and then rode them around and got them dirty. my bike was blue with a sparkley bananna seat... or it was yellow with a basket... maybe they were both mine at some point. lots of hand-me-down bikes in our family...