Dave Meddish on Jeopardy

I saw an article in the Daily Evergreen about a WSU employee being on Jeopardy. I started to read it and I saw it was Dave! I e-mailed everyone on the softball team and some other people that I knew. It was pretty exciting that he was on the show.

I had fire training tonight for the new guys on the department. I went to the station around five o’clock and helped George get everything ready. As people showed up I made it a point to introduce myself. While Jeopardy was on I watched the episode in the next room. I was getting so excited as he was moving towards a victory. Ben called me during a commercial and said it was more fun than a football game.

Dave ended up winning twenty-thousand and one dollars and is going to play tomorrow to defend his championship.

Peter was planning on coming over to watch Saw with me. I got some pizza and Tricky Stix. We watched Saw and then he hung out with me for another couple hours. He did not take off until nearly four in the morning.

A Near Victory

Tonight’s Flag Football game had a couple new guys on the team including KC who will be playing for the Thunder come this Spring. He is a good player. We started the game by having the other team drive down the field for a touchdown but they missed the extra point. Following that we went three-and-out. But after that it was downhill for us!

We started to click and score some points. Soon we had a lead. But on an extra point attempt we were intercepted for a loss of three points. But we ran an interception back for a touchdown. When it was nearly done we had about one minute to go and they needed to go the length of the field for a score. Plus they would need a two-point conversion for the victory.

As it turned out they got a really long pass play for the touchdown and ended up making the two point conversion. We had only thirteen seconds on the clock. We took a shot for then endzone but the ball was intercepted and we lost the game.

It was a fun game. Afterwards Richard and I stood in the parking lot for about twenty minutes talking about random things. I found out Erin will be in town to play dodgeball on Sunday. That is good news for the team.

Happy Halloween

Michael asked me to cover for him for a couple hours tonight so he could take his kids trick-or-treating. We had one call during that time. I also got a chance to watch House. As always a fun episode.

Following being on duty I met up with someone from Montana who is going to rent my apartment. That makes me feel good that that loose end is tied up. Now I just need to worry about getting the moving party set up and figure out how I am going to do my free-roll tournament.

I got my costume on and went to ValHalla to meet up with Ben. But by the time I got inside and looked around I could not find him anywhere. Finally I got him on the phone and he had gone home. I had been inside for about an hour. I then left myself. But I saw a few people I knew in there including Garrett’s little brother Grant. As well as Seiler.

Lots and lots of cars

After going to bed at about four in the morning, I turned off my alarm clock and slept in. It felt great to do so. I was going to have to help mow the lawn today. So I was prepared to do that. Before I got going on that I made my mom a CD for Mother’s Day. It had a lot of her favorite songs on it.

Then I went downstairs. I got a call from Gary. We were talking about doing some golfing today. But we ended up going to Apollo and playing catch with Josh. After tossing the ball around we did some hitting. Gary and I each hit a homerun. Then I pitched Gary as baseball and beaned him. It brought us back to the old days when we use to play homerun derby up at Apollo. We would pitch to each other and I often would hit Gary with a pitch. After we all took a few turns hitting, we left.

I got some gas for the lawnmower and went home. I started with the weedeater. Bill got the riding mower and started with that. I went around the yard, but soon I ran out of string. I could not find any new string so I pulled out the push mower. But after about two minutes of using it the axel broken and a wheel fell off. I showed it to Bill. He showed me where more string was. I got it on the weedeater and finished off the yard. Then I used the leaf blower to clean off the driveway.

After I was done I took a shower and then sat around for a while. I watched some TV. I called Michelle up. I had not talked to her since I saw her at Chuck’s Donut Shop. I left a message. She called me around nine o’clock pm. We talked for almost two hours. We were catching up on the old times and what we had been doing since we last saw each other. She was married and had a kid. Then got divorced and moved back here. I wish I had known. I wish I had not thrown away my chance with her. She made me happy, only I did not know it at the time.

When I was done talking to her Dave called and we met at the Iron Horse casino in Auburn. We played four card poker. There was a guy who reminded me of Andy. He sort of looked like him and was just as annoying. He was always talking and looking over my shoulder. He would comment on how other people played their hands.

After more than an hour and a half Dave decided he had to leave. He was too tired. I played some fifty-dollar a hand black jack. I lost the rest of the money I had from playing four card poker. I took off and headed home myself.

I was out on SR-One-sixty-seven when I saw about five cars get on the freeway at one-eightieth. They all stayed together and got on to four-oh-five right behind me. I got off at the Maple Valley Highway and went past Stoneway. Where the old Bingo hall is there were about fifty cars in the parking lot. The were all rice burners like from last night. They were all emptying out as I was going by. There were probably about sixty or seventy in all.

This time they were heading east instead of west on the highway. It was again about two am. So this time I decided to follow them for a while. We went out to near Maple Valley and then turned onto some side road. We followed that road to Four Corners. Then back to Maple Valley where they got on SR-Eighteen. I broke off from there and went home. They got on SR-Eighteen about one block from where they turned off the Maple Valley Highway, but they went a long way round to get there. I have no idea where they were going to go from there. But I did not have much gas. We had also seen three cop cars, on the route they took. It was odd to see them where we did, so I was worried that something would happen sooner or later and I did not want to be involved.

I got home and started to get ready for bed. I read a little bit in my book from Chris and was on the net for a while. Then I got a phone call from Michelle. She asked me to see her at the end of my driveway. We talked for about another hour total. I finally got to bed at about four am.

Welcome back Haymon

Today started out with my last day of work for the week. I went into Pullman. Ryan and I met up for lunch at Pizza Pipeline.

After I got off work I went to Colfax. I hung out at the fire station for a while. I sorted through my change that I had on my night stand. I had more then one hundred bucks. I got it all rolled up.

I grabbed the pizza from Bulldog pizza near the meeting time for the Coroners meeting. I went to the Coroners office and saw Kris from District Court. We chatted for a few minutes. She asked how I like life and about my job. Pete arrived and I went inside just ahead of him and set the pizza in the office. I got some plates out and he asked where Patti was. Finally he called her house and found out she thought the meeting was on Saturday. So Pete and I met and ate pizza.

We talked about a few cases. I asked Pete his advice about my ankle and the pain I still get from it. He said I should go see Pennington about it.

After the meeting I went to the fire station. Carl was working with Dan to redo the computer. I hung out there for a few hours hoping that we would get a card game going. It turned out there was no game. I was planning on heading home and going to bed because I was getting tired.

Ryan called and said Haymon was in town. I knew he was coming, but I did not expect him until Sunday. He got in early. He said I should meet up with them. At first I was not going to go, then I decided to go. As I was heading to Pullman I remembered about the After-Party Nic was throwing. I was thinking about going there too.

I arrived at Rico’s. I saw Neil outside. I followed him inside but he was too far ahead of me. He went upstairs. Then into the bathroom. I thought at first they may have all been playing pool. So I sat outside the bathroom waiting for him. Haymon walked up the stairs then saw me. He got really big eyes and smiled big. He came over and said hello and gave me a handshake and a hug. After he went to the bathroom I followed him down stairs.

Haymon, Moe and a guy chat

I sat at a table with Ryan, Moe, Haymon, Neil, and a few other people for a while. Haymon was going to get a round a beer and asked if I wanted anything. I said a water. Then he gave me a look. So I said I would have a Coors Light. I drank that down and people were getting ready to head out. Our plan was to get someone from another bar and go play cards. The game would be Killer Uno. We were also going to get some beer from the store. Once outside of Rico’s I had them line-up for a photo-op.

We left to meet at the Coug. I went inside first. The others had not arrived yet. So I got a glass of beer and walked away from the crowd. I got bumped in the process and spilled beer all over my shirt. The I worked on drinking it while the other arrived. Ryan and I went outside. The Coug is a big-time Greek bar. It is all sorts of better-than-thou people that hang out there.

After one person was missing inside, Haymon, was a one-man search party to find the person. We got her and then headed to Shakers where the person we were looking for was located. We walked to Shakers, another Greek bar. When we went inside and I told Ryan to keep up with the others. He failed in doing so and we lost them through the crowd. Finally we made our way downstairs. They walked out to the dance floor. I did not want to push my way through the crowd so I waited near the stairs and the pool table. I saw Pete from WSU Fire there. He said hello to me. Ryan went to look for the others. He located them around the corner and they found the guy, Lars, that they were looking for.

While Ryan was gone I saw Jory from the softball team. He said hello and then asked if I was married. I told him I wasn’t. He said “great, let’s go pick up some chicks.” I laughed and he did too. Then I told Jory I needed to go meet up with my group of people. It was near closing time. Moe gave me half of his rum and Coke that he had. I drank that and we walked outside. I headed from my truck and they headed for the cars. We were going to go to Dissmore’s before they stopped serving alcohol.

We got down there in time. They got three half-racks of beer and I got something to eat. Moe rode with me to Waller. I dropped him off at Waller. Then I parked my truck by the hospital. I walked up to Waller and they said that Haymon remember he had a hotel room we could use to drink and play cards rather than sitting around in the Waller library.

Ryan has beer… In hand!

Neil with lots of beer.

We drove to the Holiday Inn and Haymon checked into his room. We walked up there and no one really drank any beer. In fact we never opened the brand new decks of Uno cards we purchased at Dissmores. Instead we spent the next two hours telling jokes and talking about some sex stuff. One girl was talking about what men and women like in terms of sex and how it changes with age.

Ryan is getting Frisky

Haymon demonstrates how to get a promotion.

Then Neil said something about Russell being gay. I played stupid and Ryan and I kept making them feel dumb because they would show some of the “evidence” that Russell was gay and we would give an example of someone else doing that thing and asking if that person was gay as well. That went on for a while. We laughed so hard that my kidneys felt like they had been used as a punching bag for the evening. I took some pictures and videos while in the room.

We put beer around Haymon.
He woke up just as I took this pic.

Around four o’clock AM Haymon was pretty much out. The others were starting to fade. So, we all left. We walked to the cars. As Ryan was talking to me we was not watching where he was walking and bashed his knee into the hitch on my truck. I was laughing hard about that as well. It was a fun night and to think I was ready to go home at ten o’clock PM.

Family Movie Night

Ryan and I met up at lunch yesterday and ate at Basilio’s. He also gave me half the money for the parking permit. I did the normal stuff at work trying to get this stuff figured out.

At five o’clock I got a pizza and went to Russell’s for movie night. We were going to watch Get Real and Beautiful Thing. Several family members came over to watch them as well. Steve, a friend of Nick’s also came over.

After the first movie most of the people left. Nick, Steve, and I watched the second movie. Then Steve asked how I am a conservative/Republican gay man. I started to explain my underlying beliefs and how those translate into aligning with the Republicans. I guess you could say that we are, but not always for the same reason. But the ends are the same, and the means of getting to the end I would like to see is in the pathway of the Republicans.

I can say some of the things the Republicans are doing go against my beliefs, however, the things the democrats want to do are even farther away from what I would like to see, so I have to take the one that gives me the most of what I want.

We started to watch Dr. Strangelove after that, but it was getting near two in the morning and I wanted to get home. So I gave them a ride back to Waller and went home myself.

Working from Pullman.

Today was my first day working from Pullman. I got into the office and got the VPN set up and signed into my computer. At first I was using terminal services. Then after Ryan and I met for lunch at Pizza Pipeline, I went to the MSFT site and found they have a Remote Desktop application for Windows Two-Thousand. I got it installed and it is much better than terminal services.

After I was done working for the day I went to Colfax for fire training. It was my first one in about six months. It was good to see people. We did some hose evolutions. There was a new guy there. I showed him a few things about the hoses and flaking them, and putting the together.

I sprayed a little bit of water and helped reload the hose. Then I went into the day room and watched House with Ken. After House was over I went to the jail. I had to take my ACCESS re-cert test. I got one-hundred percent on it. I hung out at the jail until just after midnight when I finally went home to go to sleep.

Patrolling Whatcom County.

I made plans to go riding with Joe tonight. We were going to have a BBQ as well. I got ready and got on the road and headed to Joe’s place in Bellingham. On the way I stopped at Chucks Donut shop and when I was getting in my truck my pants which has a small slit near the pocket ripped and became big. So when I got to Joe’s I used my duct tape to fix the hole.

We decided to go to Billy McHales rather than having a BBQ. So we ate and chatted for a while. When we got back to Joe’s I watched some TV while he changed and got ready for work. We got going. He got his car ready for me. He normally has some of his stuff in the passenger seat. So it was put in the trunk.

Joe getting his car ready

Softball practice with Gay-Rod

After spending a fun-filled day trying to figure out how to get Dexma to respond to my computer and getting the final touches on everything, I left the day without anything working. I did get the latest changes to FootballPA completed. I have the offense indicator that will start the cursor in the correct box.

After work I went home and got my softball stuff put on. Then I headed to Auburn to pick up Mike. He seems to think I am gay for some reason. Mainly because I am playing in a gay softball league. I keep side-stepping the question. Only one person in my class from high school knows and I want to leave it that way for now. I don’t think there would be real harm in him knowing, but I still don’t want him to know.

So when I picked him up he said “okay… now come clean.” After side-stepping the question we headed for Woodland Park. At practice Mike did really well, and he showed the coaches that he would be too highly rated to play on the team. So he would not be able to play with us.

I took him home and then I went home myself. I chatted with Ryan about the Mariners big ten to two victory and we also talked about CSI that I has missed. I did not get home until close to eleven o’clock PM. I watched the news and the Simpsons before finding my way to bed.

A new project

With the new week I now have a new project that I am working on. It is one that I spent most of the day trying to run down and figure out how the thing works. It was slow going at first as it always is when I first get going on something.

On my way home I called Mike about playing softball on the Maulers team. He asked if I was gay. Because he does not understand why I would keep playing in the league. I side-stepped the question. Only Matt from my high school friends knows I am gay, and I will leave it like that for a while.

I told him that I want to play softball and if he can find me another team I will play on it, but until then I am going to play ball with these guys. I talked him into coming out and practicing with us. I hope that he will work out.

I got home and worked on a problem with the credit cards on the Janders site. It is not taking payments like that. I am not sure why it popped up, but there was a problem with the SQL statement. There were also some other problems that related to that elsewhere. I spent a while trying to run down all the problems. Finally I was able to figure them all out. For a while I was getting mad because I could not get it working correctly.

Mad Cow without the disease

This morning started off with meeting Ben at the Colfax Golf course for a golf tournament. It is a scramble and I am playing on Ben’s team. I am not that good and he is really good, so I am surprised he asked me to play. I feel bad for the other guys on the team. I hope that I do not hold them back.

Ryan from the softball team and a guy named Mike were the teammates. We started on the sixth hole. The problem is that we had to use four drives from each person on the eighteen holes. I don’t have a great drive so I was hoping to do well on the short holes so the team would not be handicapped by my short drives. We used one of my drives on the first eleven holes. So on the final seven we had to use three of mine. I was worried about it. But it turned out I had two great drives in a row. I had a two-hundred and twenty-five yard drive followed by a two-hundred-fifteen yard drive. On one short Par four Ben drive to the green in one. We were about twenty feet or so out. I took the first put and sank it for the Eagle! I was really happy about that.

Ben, Scotty, Mike, Ryan

We ended with a four under and ended up in fifth place. Last time Ben’s team took first place. But I don’t think I really handicapped the team that much at all. We won some prizes. I got a three pack of golf balls.

Colfax Police Officer Nebe and the Steer

While we were on the course around the second hole I looked over and a steer was running on the course. Ben got some pics. It was running around and Bryce from Colfax PD tried to get it back to the slaughter house. The steer had nothing to do with that and ran across the course and across a green leaving hoof prints all the way across it. When we got to the seventh hole we heard a gunshot come from the neighborhood to the South. A tiny bit later we saw the steer run back really close to the ninth hole that we were on. It was bleeding and pretty mad at that time. It ran past the ball that Mike drove on the ninth hole and got some blood on the ball.

Mike with the blood red ball

Finally it made its way back to the slaughter house and Scott from Colfax fire was asked to come down and finish it off. With one shot between the eyes it was dropped.

I went home and grabbed my computer and stuff for the football game. I called Ryan twice and left messages. He never answered his phone nor returned my messages. I am disappointed that Ryan is not willing to help me when I need him.

I made my way to the Kibbie Dome. After the eighteen holes of golf my ankle was really sore. I was hobbling everywhere. I got my computer set up and got the final touches on the teams’ roster text files. I got the script for the game. I was going to have to do it on my own today again. But I am hoping with my FootballPA application that I will be able to do it.

Brian’s, the teams’ PR guy, brother was going to ask his girlfriend to marry her at half time. We set up a screen to read out “Lisa, will you marry me?” At half time I made an announcement that there was a special message on the screen. I never heard what the answer was because Brian’s brother never showed back up to the stats booth where he did stats. So I am not sure if things went well. I am sort of thinking they did not go well.

I was able, with the help of the FootballPA do the game by myself. For the most part I was able to keep up with things and did a good job I believe. I made notes of things I would like to change about it to make it easier to use for the next time.

After the game I got some dinner and drove to Colfax. I dropped some stuff off at the coroner’s office and then went to control and talked to the guys up there for a tiny bit. I was tired so I went home and watched some TV before falling asleep.

Two movie night

On my way into work I was thinking about the FootballPA application I created. I was thinking about a way of making it work a little better. When the players’ numbers are entered it would display the players’ names and also clear out the entry box as well as put focus back on the first box. That was the clear button would not have to be clicked between plays. When the next numbers were entered it would clear out the output boxes before displaying the new information.

Following that I went to lunch with Ricky. We got some subs. I went back and started to chow on it. That I realized it was mom’s weekend. That means the roads will be filled with slow moving cars. It was not too bad until I was around mile post eighty. Then it started to get thick. I was able to pass the cars pretty easily. I finally arrived in town and then headed to Pullman. Ryan and I were going to see Sahara. They were talking with Steve Zahn on K-Rock this morning about the movie. It turned out to be a good movie. There is a lot of room for a sequel to this one. I asked Ryan if he got my message about helping me at the football game. I still had not been able to find anyone. The reason Ryan doesn’t want to do it is because he does not think he will have fun. He does not see it as helping a friend in need. It is about him.

After the movie I saw a couple Pullman Fire Reserves and a Colfax Volunteer going to see the same movie. Ryan and I went to get a pizza and then to his place. He rented National Lampoon’s Golddiggers. That had a few laughs but over all was a painful movie to watch. Following the movie I headed home.

Mariner’s Opening Day 2005

I woke up before five o’clock am today so I could get a few things completed before Ryan and I were to meet up at Rosauers. I went to the coroners office and checked out the new computer in the coroners office. It is a four-hundred MHz system. Pete wanted me to see if it would work for what we need. It needs a CD-burner and a card reader but it should do okay. It is maxed out with two-hundred-and-fifty-six meg of RAM. So it is slow, but for what we need to do that should be okay.

I went to Rosauers and I was ahead of schedule so I got an omelet for breakfast. Ryan showed up and he grabbed a donut. I ate and then we headed out. I had my personal radios so we could talk. He kept up with me just fine. We cruised across the state talking about everything.

When we got into Bellevue he followed me to my work. I made him instructions on how to get back. He was going to meet me at noon for the Mariners game. Terry gave me permission to skip a meeting so I could hit the game. I spent some time at my desk working until a little after noon. Ryan showed up and we headed out. I was in my truck and he drove his car. We planned on going to the Bellevue Park and Ride and going from there. But it was packed so we went to the Factoria Mall. I parked my truck and got in with Ryan. There was a lot of traffic on I-ninety when we got close to the field so we went South on I-five. But it was not much better on the surface streets.

Finally after finding no free parking and no place to park for pay, we drove to the Seahawk Stadium parking garage. We parked there and got inside about ten minutes before game time. We missed the Presidents of the USA concert, but we did see the salute to the ninety-five season and we saw Edgar throw out the first pitch. In the first inning Sexson hit a three-run homerun. In the third he hit a two run homerun. That was all the Mariners scored. Jamie Moyer pitched really well and got the win. The Mariners beat the Twins five to one.

Then we left and got a polish sausage for each of us. They were pretty spicy. When we got back to Ryan’s car at the top of the parking garage we sat there for a while. Ryan talked on the phone and I took two more pictures. I had a water. We thought about waiting for the traffic to settle down but I said we would be better off going. I expected to sit for an hour to get out. It only took about fifteen minutes. Then we got on I-ninety and cruised to the Factoria Mall. I got my truck and headed home. Ryan called and said his parents wanted me to go to dinner with them. But they were eating back at Factoria and they were all there. I said that I was pretty much home and my parents were expecting me for dinner there.

Before the game Boone was given his Gold Glove Award.

Edgar throws out the first pitch. It was a little outside.

The final score of the first Mariners win in 2005.

A day of Jokes

I was thinking about going down the the radio station (K-Rock) and trying out for the Jerry Seinfeld show. I did not do it though. I got up a little later than I wanted and headed into work the new way, going through Issaquah. I don’t know if it is any faster, but there is a lot less stops. So gas mileage should be better.

I went to work for a while but I wanted to get going because I was going to meet up with Ben and we were going to watch Harold and Kumar go to Whitecastle. I was excited to hang out with Ben again. Before I left work I saw a cake in the kitchen. It said to cut a piece. I started to and saw that it was an April Fools joke. It was a box with frosting on it.

Then I posted on G-Shack that it was going to go offline forever at the end of the month. Many people were fooled by it. It was funny. I also posted on Cougster.com that WSU sold the rights to Tully’s coffee to put a big green T on the top of Bryan Tower.

I helped him set up his new computer with his E-mail and other files from his old laptop. I also brought over my external drive. I gave him all my MPThrees. I also gave him a few other things from it. We watched an old episode of South Park. Then we watched our movie. Ben made me a couple DVD’s using his new burner. He gave me Caddyshack.

I had a good time hanging out with Ben. He is a super nice guy and a ten-six-seven.

My dad’s stuff

I got the records page completed. I also updated the rest of the site with the new records page replacing the standing page I was never able to properly keep up with. The site is new and cruising along.

Jon came over with stuff for my mom because of her birthday yesterday. He also brought over the stuff that my Aunt Karen brought to us that had belonged to my dad. It included his first wedding ring. He was married for about a year. The women he had married moved to California and was murdered down there by her new boyfriend.

There was also his old grade school report cards. Some of his books. It has some pictures. There was a photocopy of a letter he wrote while in the military. There was also some funeral programs for a couple guys who were my dad’s age who died in a car accident on December seventeenth, nineteen-fifty-seven. My dad was in the car as well. Two guys died. My mom told me one guy who died was alive at first and he had a hole in his lung and when he would breath blood was coming out his mouth. Sounded very violent.

I watched SouthPark and they did an episode that was a commentary on the Terri Schiavo case. It was an interesting take that they had on it. Kenny was Terri and Cartman was Michael.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today is my mom’s birthday. I got her a card when I came home from the office. I spent the day today doing more work on the website for my softball team. I even put together a “records” page with the old era records and new era records. With the change in style of doing stats I figured it would be unfair to have stats that covered everything because in the past we use to count anything that got you on base as a basehit, even if it was really a fielders choice or an error. The old batting averages were artificially high because of that. So were other stats.

I got home with the card for my mom around eight pm. We had dinner then I went to my room and talked to Ben and Ryan on the phone. We talked about softball and I asked Ben if he wanted to watch Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. He said he did. So we will do that on Friday.

I watched some TV and then got on the computer and checked my E-mail and a couple message boards before finding my way to sleep.

All day with Ryno!

With my alarm clock buzzing I got up and headed to the coroners office for the meeting. We went over the last few cases and we looked over the autopsy shots from the murder that happened a few weeks ago. It was interesting to see the bullet path and the damage to the brain.
Following the meeting I went into the SO and printed off a few things for my softball team and checked my E-mail. The plan for the day was to hang out with Peter like we had planned. I called him around noon and let him know I was free and to give me a call when he was available. I sat around the house for a while relaxing.

Then I decided to go to my office and get some stuff on the computer done. I had a few thousand E-mail messages I had to sort. I spent a lot of time doing that. I hate paying first step internet for spam service and still getting as much spam as I do. It is horrible.

It was getting later. I was going to get a pizza from Little Caesars. When I was there I called Ryan. He said he was at Blockbuster. So I went in there and found him. We rented a movie called Blackball. It was about a young guy who breaks into the British Bowls scene that is dominated by old high-class people. It is by National Lampoon. It was okay, but I understand why it never had a huge following. Ryan has a membership at Blockbuster where he can rent as many movies as he wants for a flat fee.

We went back to Blockbuster and got Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. I also bought a couple movies that were on sale. I got Saw, Anchoman, and two other movies. We grabbed a pizza from Little Caesars this time through. I was still waiting for a call from Peter but none were coming and by now it was after five pm.

We started to watch Harold and Kumar when I got a call from Ben. He was going to have a poker game and wanted to know if Ryan and I wanted to come. I did but Ryan didn’t. I didn’t want to leave Ryan, but I wanted to go. I tried to get him to go but he was refusing. He is like a bump on the log. If he does not *think* he will have fun he will not do it. It limits some of the things we can do together. So after much coaxing I got him to go. I was surprised because normally he will not change his mind about that stuff.

So we stopped the movie where it was and went to Bens. We were only going to be there for a couple hours. It turned into about four hours. We started by playing tournament style Texas Hold’em. Then when enough people were eliminated we played Apples to Apples. It is a real fun card game I had never heard of until tonight. Ben also got Ryan and I in the helmet club. When I get a copy of the pic I will post it. It is terrible!

After the tournament was over we started to play four-five-six. I played that for a few hours. Everyone was really liking the game. At one point Ben was up more then twenty bucks. I did a twenty dollar bet. Ben “aced-away”. His girlfriend got really mad. We joked about Ben sleeping on the couch because of that.

Later on Ryan and I left and finished watching Harold and Kumar. I laughed a whole bunch more. I took off after the movie and went home. I watched TV for a while before finally finding my way to bed.

As it turns out Peter never called. I am glad I did not sit around waiting for him to call me. It seems that he is really flaky. I am not sure what the issue is with him, but I have to believe there is still something there.

Happy Birthday Nick!

I had big plans for the day. I was going to get a new battery in my truck. I was going to drive the Bumblebee around. I was going to get my trucks’ license renewed. I was going to work at the jail. Then I was going to go to Nick’s surprise birthday party. Well that was all dashed when I woke up a few hours later than I had planned. I set the alarm clock, but did not turn it on.

So I got up and went straight to the jail. I got lunch at Bulldog Pizza on the way. I mainly stayed in control the whole time and then I helped the captain with a computer problem at his house. I had him buy some new equipment for his computer. So I will be installing that stuff for him one of my next trips into town. I went to the auditors office and got new tabs for my truck. While at the jail Sgt Poffenroth asked if she was the only who did not know that John (name changed) was gay. She said that she was really surprised. She said that she had no clue but it was clear that everyone else seemed to know. I played dumb with her and tried to get more information about how she had heard about it. She said everyone knew. One day the topic came up and when she found out, everyone else in the room was shocked that she did not know. I told her that it was just rumors. I said that he had said in the past it was not true. I asked what evidence others had, if John had told them. She said it was the other officers figured it out because of the guy John was always with and whatnot. Then I went home and got ready for Nick’s surprise party. I got Ryan and we drove to Russell’s place.

We were the first there. So we went inside and waited for Russell to show up. When he got there I helped him get a few things set up. Then he went to get Nick and took him out to Dairy Queen for dinner. Everyone else was gathering for the party. When they finally showed up, everyone yelled Happy Birthday. Nick was really surprised. He was happy and had a good time. He did not know we were doing that.

The people at the party were on the left side of the isle politically. So I was the only conservative there. A few of the people were on cougster.com. We talked about the WalMart thing and joked around a little bit. Ryan and I left to get some dinner at Taco Bell in Moscow. The others were planning on going to the Show in Moscow.

Ryan and I went to his apartment. We ate and then played Madden Football. I threw for almost eight-hundred yards of passing. My team is currently undefeated. It is going well. I also spent time when I was not playing trying to get Ryan’s computer cleaned of spyware and viruses.

An Evening with the Peterman

At work today I spent most of it helping to clean a computer of spyware. It was so bad it would not get on the network at all. It was really slow. It was in bad shape. But I used my magic fingers to type in the address of the spyware applications I like the best and I get the computer responding and working like a champ. The coroners meeting for tonight was cancelled but I planned on going over anyway because Peter and I had plans on hanging out.

I did not have to be in a huge hurry so I left work after I got the computer taken care of. I got some lunch and I got some chew. It was my first dip in a week. I hit the road and the traveling was pretty tame. I made good time and I got to my house a little after six pm. I hung out at home for a while watching some TV. Peter and I had planned on meeting sometime after nine, but I was free earlier. So I called him and he said he was doing something on the computer but would be done in about an hour. So I drove to Pullman and got some dinner and stopped at my office. I did some stuff on the computer and waited for Peter’s call.

Around eight he called me and I went over there. We started to talk about the small stuff. What each other has been up to and all that crap. Then we started to talk about his project that he is doing and presenting. He is interested in seeing what I can do or offer for the business plan. We talked about the business plan in depth and we talked about programming in general.

At one point I had his cell phone and took a few pics with it. He has it set up with my first name. But I never go by my first name with him. I have no idea why he set it up like that. So I was going to change the name to Scotty Walkin like Ryan’s phone is set up. As I was trying to do it he wanted to see what I was doing with it. He was wrestling me for the phone just like we did back in the day. It was always fun to wrestle like that with him. Finally I got done with the phone what I wanted so I gave it to him.

He looked at it and asked where the name Scotty Walkin came from. I said Little Ceasars. He thought the back story was lacking. We started to laugh then I told him it was the name they had on the pizza receipt one day when I got a pizza that was carry-out.

I hung out for several hours with him. We watched SouthPark and the Jeff Foxworthy Roast as well and just talking about everything under the sun. I still have not asked the question that I want to know the answer to, but that will come someday. He said he puts a lot of trust into me. He knows that I am trustworthy and he values that. So I hope that someday he will admit to me what the issue was. He admitted to me that he was an “asshole” to me and was sorry for being that way to me. There is still some tension between us and I don’t know if it will ever go away. Maybe I would feel more at ease around him if he were to tell me what the issue was.

At the end of the night we decided that we would get together on Saturday and watch Saw and do stuff.

T-Ball Practice with Justin

Jon is down in Arizona for the Mariners Spring Training. I was asked to take Justin to his practice because Lisa would be taking Logan to his practice. I got off work a little early and drove to Jon’s to get Justin.

We started to go to the field and I asked Justin if he knew where we were going. He said he did not. So I said, let’s drive around until we find it. He said okay. So I went to where it was. And then he got all excited. He said we were in the right spot. Then we got his stuff from the truck and he hurried to the field because he thought we were late. We were the first ones there. I threw the ball with him for a while. Well it was more like ran after the ball when he threw it and rolled it back to him. Then the practice started. That takes a lot of talent to work with a bunch of five-year-old kids with an attention span of about thirty seconds.

Follow practice I took Justin home and waited for Lisa. Justin and I played a Scooby Doo video game while we waited. When Lisa got home she fixed pizza for us. Justin, Logan, and I played some board games. The last game we played was sorry. I lost to Logan on it. I think he played with some rules that were not regulation, but that was house rules, I guess.

I headed home after that. I watched my CSI TV shows. I decided to go to bed earlier than normal because I wanted to try to get a decent night’s sleep.

Happy Birthday Wenis

I feel a little worse today than I did yesterday. I am still not getting good sleep, but I don’t seem to be too tired. I am coughing a lot but I am not getting the phlegm out so when I breathe deep it sounds like gurgling. Yes, this is quite nasty, isn’t it? One of the worst things is my nose is either really stuffy and I cannot breathe through it or I use some meds to reduce the stuffiness, but that dries it up so much that the cold dry air going through my nose causes a stinging-like feeling each time I breathe in. Yeah, it sucks to be sick. I have not been sick like this for a long time.

I went to he store to get some NyQuil because I figured that I would use it to help me get a good nights sleep. While at the store I saw Gary’s mom, Natalie. It was great to see her. We hugged and then talked for a few minutes.

I went home and checked on the webcam that is monitoring the backyard. I still have to work on getting the settings so it only records when major movement happens. It seemed to be hit off by anything last time. It actually filled up the hard drive with twenty-second videos.

I came inside and I talked to Ryan on the phone for a little while about my ride along from last night. I also called Richard and wished him a happy birthday. He sort of sounded like he was wondering why in the heck I would be calling him. Oh well, I wished him a happy birthday all the same.

I had dinner and did the dishes and rushed to my room to watch my normal Sunday night TV shows. I also spent some time talking to Peter online. After my shows were over with I took my NyQuil and went fast to sleep.

Riding with Joe — Again

I planned on sleeping in as much as I could so I would not be tired tonight. I stayed up until four o’clock am. But duing my sleep I found myself waking up every few hours. I was not sleeping well.

I pretty much sat around the house watching TV and doing stuff on the computer while waiting to find out if Joe would be working tonight or if he would be sick again. He said we would be working. So I left around three o’clock pm. I got some corndogs and cough medicine from Safeway.

I hit the road and was cruising along. There was a slow down around Everett. But it got cruising again. I was talking to Ryan about a lot of things. We spoke about the basketball tournament mostly. He was telling me about yet another of my teams losing.

About ten miles outside of Bellingham there was a slow down. I thought it was a traffic jam. It turns out some small convertible rolled over on the right shoulder. People were stopping to help. About ten people had stopped. I kept going because there were so many people there and I was in the wrong lane to stop quickly.

I got into Bellingham and drove to Joe’s house. He just bought a new house. It is three bedrooms and two-and-a-half bathrooms. It is a pretty nice house. He got a call from John, another deputy, about going out to dinner. So we drove to downtown Bellingham and got a hamburger at this bar and grill. It was good food.

Then we went back to Joe’s. I set him up with FTP access to the website so he could move over pics and PDF files. He got ready to work and I got one more shot of medicine taken before we headed out.

The night was pretty uneventful. It was really windy and that caused many alarms to sound, most likely due to poorly shut doors blowing open in the strong wind. We also helped a local city PD arrest a guy for domestic violence. I also told Joe the Green Golf Balls story. He was not impressed and vowed to get me back.

One of the things Joe loved to do was get me on a road and ask what direction I thought we were heading. Most of the time I was off by one-hundred and eighty degrees. So I would say East and we were going West, etc. He got a kick out of how backwards I was.

He also drove me to the boarder and I got to see it. It was seriously a ditch. There was a residentail two-lane road on the American side and the same thing on the Canadian side. There was about a eight to ten foot grassy area and a ditch that was about two to three feet deep. It is funny was separates American and Canada. I could litterally get out of the car and walk into Canada with nothing but a three foot deep ditch to go through.

At about two-thirty we were close to Joe’s place and I was planning on calling it a night at three so he headed to his house and dropped me off. I drove home as quick as I could because I was getting tired and I wanted to get to bed.

Jello Shots

When I got to work Terry and Shawn were having a smoke out back. We were talking about my ride along. Terry asked what I had going for the day. I told him I was done with my bug, so he told me to take off early. So I stuck around until around one pm and then left for lunch.

I hit the highway and I was on my way to Whatcom county. I was about twenty miles from Bellingham when Joe called and said he was sick and would not be going on patrol. So I turned around and headed home. I had planned on helping out my softball team at the bar on Saturday, but I would be going with Joe on Saturday, so I called Eric and he said I could come over tonight to help out in making the Jello Shots.

I got home and my parents were planning on going to the Eagles for dinner and invited me. I went down and I was not feeling all that hungry so I ate what I could and then I left to go to Seattle to Eric’s condo. My job was to pour the liquefied jello mix into the shot cups. Other put the lids on them and then Mark put them in boxes. After we were done I drove them to the bar. Mark and Gerry took them into the bar.

I was planning on meeting Dave at Billies Casino. I pulled out some money from the cash machine and started to play. The Four-card poker table was full. I played some PaiGow to start out. I was doing well, then the dealers changed and I started to lose. So I went to a blackjack table. I got a couple blackjacks in a row then the shoe changed and I went down hill.

I moved to four-card poker because the table had some spaces on it. I played for a while and was doing well. Then I got a straight-flush. That was a forty-to-one odds on my five dollar bet. Plus another twenty-to-one odds on a second five dollar bet. So I won more than three hundred dollars in the one hand, because I also got paid fifteen buck on the final bet. Dave and I were given another comp for a meal. So we decided to quit after a little while. I cashed in and I was up three-sixty. We got dinner. Then as I figured we would be going Dave suggested we play some more.

We went over to the four-card poker table again. I sat in the first position and I sat at an angle because there were two ten-six-seven’s playing pool. I keep watching the ten-six-seven’s and I was unable to concentrate on the cards. Finally they left and I got to playing. I was doing well for a while and then I could not get a hand. So finally I told Dave I was done. I walked out with another forty bucks for a total winnings of four hundred bucks on the night.

Hanging out with Ben

I got a call from Ben to start out my morning. We planning on meeting up and doing a short golf lesson and hitting the a bucket of balls. I met Ben at the golf course I paid my fees and bought a bucket of balls. I pulled out the seven iron and he started by telling me a lot of things about stance, holding the club, and the swing.

After getting through the bucket of balls my back was really hurting, but I was ready to get going. Ben’s friend showed up and we started with our three-some. After the first hole there was a solo golfer behind us. We invited that guy to join us. He did so for the rest of the way we had a four-some. I was not having the best of days but I was holding my own. Ben would give me some instruction on the course when certain situations came up. He taught me how to get out of a sandtrap. After we were done with the round of golf Ben and I decided to go to the WSU baseball game that was underway.

We went inside and saw Mark from our softball team. We sat behind home plate a few rows back. The score was seven to zero in the first inning. The Cougs were doing well. But while we were there we only saw good pitching, with no offense to speak of. Towards the middle of the game Ben asked if I wanted to go to his place and get something to eat real fast then come back.

So we drove to Ben’s and I had a beer and a TV dinner. We started to watch some of the Best of Will Ferrell. As we got into it Ben said we would go back to the game at three pm. So we left and walked back into the stadium. We got our seat. Started to get into the game. A guy from the other team hit into a double play and the game was over. We sort of laughed about the fact we came back for one more play.

We went back to Ben’s apartment. We were going to watch a couple movies. When I got there he had the idea to hit the softball for a while. So we went to the playfields and hit the ball about thirty times each. Then we went back to Ben’s apartment. We watched Caddyshack and Anchorman. I had never seen either of those movies. I was laughing so hard during them. Ben made a couple bags of popcorn. I could not believe how funny those movies were.

I talked to Ryan and we decided to go to dinner at Applebee’s in Moscow. So Ben and I rushed over there. We sat down and ate. JT was our waiter. He gave us all free pop. That was nice of him. After we finished eating we decided to hit the bars in Pullman. Ryan was the one who really wanted to go. So Ben got his car and drove us to My Office. We got on the trivia and I had one more beer. We played trivia until about two in the morning. Ben offered me a place to stay for the night, but I decided to head back to Colfax and sleep there.

Today was a blast. I have not had a day like this for a while. Just being busy doing fun stuff, one thing after another. And on top of that getting a chance to hang out with Ben so long without other people around. It was just a wonderful day.

New golf clubs

I went to work and with my project finished, aside from the adding of the new type for the appexport, I spent time trying to step through the process to see where I could fix it.

Around noon a group of us went to lunch. We got some subs and I was given a coupon for a free sub and pop. So lunch did not cost me a thing. That was nice. Free lunches… nice!

I stuck around until about two o’clock pm. Then I hit the road. My cell phone was totally dead and I could not find the charger when I left my house. I was hoping it would be at my house in Colfax. While I was looking for it before leaving to go to work this morning I found the golf clubs that Jon gave me a while back. So I took those to Colfax with me.

When I got in I went to my house and put my golf clubs in my golf bag. Then I called Whitcom and let them know I would be on and available via radio only. I let them know my cell phone was dead and being charged. I put the phone on the charger and drove down the fire station.

I hung out there for a while and talked to Carl, Tim, and Ken. Tim and Ken left on a call and I chatted with Carl a little more. Around eight o’clock I went home and got my cell phone and then headed to Pullman. Ryan and I were going to watch Third Watch and go to see Hostage.

I also talked to Ben about golfing tomorrow. We are planning on meeting up around ten am. I called Phil, Ron, and Mark about golfing with us. None of them were able to go.

I got to Pullman and grabbed a pizza from Little Caesars. I went to Ryans. We ate the pizza and watched some TV. Then we went to see the movie. It was pretty good. The ending was lacking for me. Some loose ends did not seem like they were tied up for me. Some movies have been doing the recently and I don’t like that. But over all the movie was pretty good.

We headed back to Ryan’s apartment and watched SouthPark. I left and went home a little while after one am because I wanted to get a decent night of sleep.