My brother is in town this weekend so he got to see me play soccer for the first time in many years. That was cool! Especially since we won. He’s here to help me move…which I won’t go into right now, but I’m sure it will eventually be addressed. Anyway, its great to have him here, especially to watch me play soccer! Did I mention that we won? :P

If we hadn’t won, I would’ve been very upset about the non-touchdown touchdown that Bullock made after the non-fumble fumble, but we won, so I’m not too upset. What would’ve made it much worse was the fact that the Texans got that first touchdown by extending the ball after the player’s forward progress had already stopped. I think that was a bad call. The lineman had already run in to call the player down when he saw the ball extend over the line.

Of course, I’m sure if the roles were reversed, I’d be saying “it just has to break the plane” over and over again. In the end it all worked out. Kinda nice to know that even with that freebee and discounting one of our TDs, we still won.

Jason and I had club seats to the game that we won on eBay, and it was a blast. We showed up early to enjoy an amazing buffet (I ate more BBQ than I’ve had in a long time) and our seats were on the first row of the club level.  Here was our view:

Pretty awesome. The weather wasn’t as bad as the announcers made it sound. It was windy, yes, and there was a little rain, yes, but it was not bad at all. Nothing like the playoff game we went to a few years ago where I left the stadium and couldn’t feel my feet. This was definitely more pleasant.

Anyway, I was tempted to go get free coffee from On The Run, but, as you know, I don’t drink coffee and it would’ve just gone to waste. They should really add hot chocolate to that deal.

Friday we drove up to Lexington, which took about 3 hours, but it was a pleasant enough drive. Its amazing how different the road quality is as you pass into KY. I’ve always heard that Tennessee has nice roads, but its hard to remember that when you drive through construction everywhere you go. But as soon as we crossed over the border, the road quality immediately changed. And not for the better. They are doing construction too, but the existing roads are worse than even our old roads. Jason brought up an interesting point that Kentucky has State income tax, whereas Tennessee doesn’t. That would make you think that they would have better roads, right? I guess our higher wheel tax makes up for it, but I’d much rather pay that. It just makes sense.

Anyway, we made it to Keeneland around 3pm. We forgot that we’d lose an hour by crossing into the Eastern Time Zone, so we got the races at about Race 5 (out of 10). It was pretty crowded, but our seats were good and the weather was very comfortable.

Here was the view from our seats.

We got two $2 betting vouchers so at the 9th race I put in 2 bets. One of them was a smart one and we won $3.20. Hey, its something. I can see how people can get into the races and betting, although the 30 minutes in between each race is a little long, even if you plan to bet on every race. I guess it gives enough time for you go to see all the horses prance around out front and then place your bets.

Getting out of the place was a nightmare. We probably sat for 20-30 minutes waiting to get out. Then we headed to our hotel, the Springs Inn. Their website doesn’t really do them justice. I thought we were going to be looking for a fairly small hotel, but it was quite large. Our room was nice, but the beds were pretty uncomfortable. My biggest gripe is that the cleaning staff started very early on Saturday morning and they set up right outside our room. They were so loud!

Friday night we went to the Maker’s Mark party, by which I was pretty impressed. There were SO many people there and they had live music, 2 buffets, and lots of liquor. Jason and I didn’t stay too long which was probably for the best. After just 1 1/2 drinks, I was tipsy. We heard the next day that the bartenders got heavy handed with the drinks towards the end of the night.

That’s all for Part 1. Stay tuned.

Yea, I’m a cheese.

So, for those of you who haven’t heard the story, which is probably very few of you, I’ll go ahead and tell ya. My old Rollerblades mean a lot to me and its taken a long time for me to consider buying new ones. To give you an idea of what I mean by “old”, here are a few pictures:

Ironically, the color schemes are very similar between the two skates.

Anyway, I received these skates on September 5th, 1992. Why do I remember the exact day? Well, my dad was in a particularly generous mood and he offered to buy these skates for me, mostly on a whim. He never bought things on a whim, but they were on sale and he bought them for me at Sport Chalet after we had lunch at Coco’s in Long Beach. Still wondering what is special about it right? Soon after our shopping, my dad headed off to referee an adult soccer game. It was there that he had a fatal heart attack and passed away before the ambulance arrived on the field.

So, there you have it. I was the last one in my family to eat with him, and the Rollerblades were the last material gift he gave me. I’ll keep them forever. I refer to them as my magic skates because in the ump-teen years I’ve had them, I’ve never had to change the wheels or bearings and they are still quiet, I’ve never fallen, and my feet still fit in them. And I’m sure my feet have grown since I was 12. Anyway, its been a great ride and its time to retire them. May the magic live on.

Jason’s dad got tickets from some guy at work and Jason was kind enough to let me go to this game, since he went to the last one. The seats were incredible:

We were in the 5th row in the 1st section and it was a great vantage point. Like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Unfortunately, we were not on the side where they made their big come back, but we could see things clearly enough.

It is so exhilarating to get into a game like that. I can see how people totally get hooked on sports and would make watching them their job if they could. We almost left with about 9 and a half minutes left to the game, but I said we should stay. Good thing we did. Man.

Anyway, that was definitely the highlight of my weekend.

Thanksgiving was really nice, except for the fact that I was, and still am, pretty sick. I have some kind of upper-resp thing and I haven’t had my regular voice for 5 days now, plus I have more phlem than I think I’ve ever had. It’s not pretty, especially in the mornings. Anyway, supper at Jason’s parent’s house was delightful as always. Jason’s dad fried the turkey and his mom cooked about 7 different sides. It was way too much food, even for 8 people.