Project Miner

This past Saturday, I went to the Auburn/Alabama football game, also known as “Iron Bowl”, and still can’t stop thinking about the massive disappointment in the stands.  No, not the loss (Auburn lost, but played brilliantly, so War Eagle!), something harder for me to shake off.

For those of you who aren’t from the south, or don’t “get” college football, or hate sports and all us idiots who get rampant over it, it’s hard to explain the hype and energy of Iron Bowl.  It’s really unlike anything I’ve experienced in sports.  People are hyped.  To the extreme.  Even with the game held the day after Thanksgiving (in the early parts of the afternoon not far removed from turkey coma) and Auburn a 7-4 unranked enigma of a team facing an undefeated powerhouse national contender in Bama.

I’m there with my good friend Thomas, who is even more rabid a sports fan than I am, particularly with Auburn football.  We are both hella excited and at least moderately helped along by tailgate beers and feelin’ the vibe of our Alma mater and the crazyness of Iron Bowl.  Auburn jumps out on top quickly, which isn’t that much of a surprise, but still has us and all the orange and blue fans getting more and more hyped.  After a holy-shit-that-was-unreal onside kick recovered by Auburn, we’re about to jump up 14-0 and really get the place roaring.  Our quarterback throws an ill-advised pass that is intercepted, but luckily for us there was a false start penalty that negated the play.  At the end of the play, Bama’s cornerback takes the intercepted ball and throws it 20 yards down the field, caught up in the emotion and clearly over-reacting.  Flags are all over the place, and surely he’s going to get an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for throwing the ball.

And now the ugliness begins.  The guy two “seats” to my left decides to yell out to the crowd his take on the play…

“Five yards on us for a false start!!!  15 yards on you for being a n****r!”

He didn’t get much reaction, but was clearly impressed with himself.  So, as the refs called it out over the loud speaker, he repeats himself, verbatim and much, much louder.  I’d already barfed in my mouth a little and alerted Thomas to the first rant, so he was ready (not that anybody would need to be) for the second.  Thomas and I cringed, shook our heads and tried to turn our attention to the game.  Auburn scored a touchdown moments later, but it was kind of hard to really cheer and go nuts, since I was still in shock and a little shaky from the rage and sadness this guy’s words caused.

I’m not sure how to flow this post into how that made me feel, really.  It certainly wasn’t the first time I’d heard it, and certainly wasn’t any more or less hateful than before (I’d heard “friends” say it before with all the hatred intended).  It was just one of those times where mere seconds before, we were in a “one of us” situation – screaming at the top of our lungs and putting all energy into rooting for a common cause.  Then slam, there is the abrupt feeling that this guy would spit on my heritage in a heartbeat if given the chance.  It’s draining.  More so than I was ready for and more so than I can explain.

After waiting on the game to get back to life and getting ready for kickoff, Thomas leans over to him and says something along the lines of “I’m glad you are having fun, but I don’t want to hear that word again”.  Dude sizes up the situation, hears Han Solo saying “it’s not wise to upset a wookie” and nods the ole discontent yet agreeable “OK”.  Even though I just called him a wookie, Thomas is my fucking hero.  Obviously, because he said something to the guy and I wasn’t going to, but also I can’t shake the feeling he was also going big brother and defending how upset I was.  I mean, really, saying something to that guy does nothing.  He probably won’t shout it again that day, but clearly it won’t change his ignorance.  Either way, it was cool, and turned an utterly shitty situation into something I could feel a warm fuzzy about later.

I asked Thomas later if it was worse that he said it or nobody else said anything back to him.  I’m still not sure, but I’d guess the latter, even though Thomas is certainly the exception there and I wouldn’t have said or done anything either.  One final note – after he said that, I looked out and counted one non-black player on the field at the time.  There are 22 players on both sides of the ball.  I realize nothing about the guy has to make sense, and I guess it’s better that way.

In the end, I hope “more of us than them” applies to Thomas and I and not this guy and his type.

We went to piedmont park today with the Netherton-Hall gang and had a blast.  It’s basically our “neighborhood park” and I keep forgetting how nice it is.  The playground is great for Ona, with it’s spongy rubber ground and array of slides, swings, and play things.  There’s a pond with ducks and fish and a little gazebo and a nice deck (and tons of pond scum, but hey, we’re not swimming in it).  The pool was redone this summer and is hella awesome – it even has a mini “hooch” like whitewater where you can just coast and a current takes you around the pool.  Saturday mornings there is a little market with fruits and veggies from local farmers and random people and stuff everywhere.  The list goes on.  The new parking deck is even awesome (though, errr, $4.75 for just over two hours to park?).  All said, it’s a really great part of living in midtown and I’d kind of taken it for granted lately.  If you’re around the area, give it a chance, it’s really gotten nice in the last few years.

You’d think hindsight would make me smart enough to never write a post titled “death by xxxx“, because when I don’t write a post for four months, it sure does look stupid. Anyhows, here I am, writing in the bloggy for the first time in forevers.

Things have been great at the casa StoutMuntz. Ona turned two at the end of July and is a really fun kid. We took a three day vacation to Hilton Head with Momma D and Big Ron (aka “Ken”, aka “Big Papa”), and had an absolute blast. We actually spent the first day with just Ken. It’s very rare for us to spend time with just Ken, and he was super relaxed and easy going and fun. I was really happy with his ability to let go of work and get his vacation on. Here is some proof

Up next is a little trip to the mountains with Katy’s family. We’re headed to the north Georgia mountains somewhere. I think the plan is to relax, play cards, cook smores, and do other random relaxy vacation stuffs. Should be a nice getaway.

Hmmm, maybe this is why I haven’t blogged in four months – life feels boring when I write it down like this. That might sound terrible, but it’s not, to me. It’s been really great, just not overwhelmingly exciting enough to write a book about. I guess sometimes “just same ole same ole” can actually be “awesome”.

This poor blog has been on life support while I was out playing on facebook.  I’m kind of over facebook now, and would rather keep bloggin’, so here I am.  Of course, so many things have happened it’s hard to figure out what to write.

I think everybody likes hearing about Ona, so I’ll start there.  She’s 22 months old now, and doing well.  I guess this is the age in a child’s progression when they learn at a wickedly rapid pace and parents have no idea what they actually know.  Last week I said “Ona, do you want to count to three?” and she immediately responded “four, five six?”.  So, yeah, I guess counting to three is old news.  Her language progression is really neat to witness, though it’s officially time to shut the cursing off… at least until she can understand where and when it’s appropriate.

We did our annual March of Dimes benefit last night, buying a table for our friends and family at La Grotta here in Atlanta and then going to the after party to drink and hang out.  Very fun night, and I love the food at La Grotta.  It was a fixed menu, but they made an exception for me and Katy’s grandma and gave us mushroom risotto instead of seafood risotto and I’m very glad they did – it was my favorite dish.  Everybody else seemed to think the melon and prosciutto  with balsamic reduction was the best.  It was very good, but the risotto was really great.  Veal was the main dish and it was probably the best prepared I’ve had veal (I’m not a huge fan of veal usually, but I’ve only had it a few times).  It was good, but nothing really special.  Anyway, it was a good night.

I’ve joined weight watchers.  Most people look at me like the 90 pound pageant girl who thinks she’s fat when I say that, but that’s just because my baggy clothes hide the chub.  I’ve got about 15 to 20 pounds to drop.  So far, week 1 has been pretty good.  It’s a pretty easy plan to follow, though I did get anxiety about what to eat and how to track it at first.  I just weighed-in and lost 2.6 pounds in the first week.  I don’t expect that rate to stick around, though.

I need to do a few housekeeping things in my technical world.  I need to start using something like Picasa or Flickr again.  I’ve been posting pics to Facebook.  Actually, that’s my favorite part of Facebook, but I need to figure out a different approach.  I know I can use Flickr and share that on Facebook, but I’m not a fan of Flickr.  Maybe I’ll try Picasa again.  Maybe I’ll just keep posting them on Facebook and you people will have to look there for ‘em.  I like suggestions.

I went to the doctor yesterday to see what’s up with the nasty cough I’ve had for the last two weeks and heard quite a story from the doc.  He asked how things had been going with my allergies and I remembered I had a bad reaction to a sample of singulair he gave me.  I told him I thought I was allergic to the allergy med (mmm, irony) and when he asked why I said “well, it make me feel like I was on speed and did something weird to my junk?”.  While I panicked and tried to figure out how to say I’ve never taken speed, but I assume that’s how it feels he said, “Uhh, what did it do to your genitals?”.  “Oh, it was weird, it was like they shrunk and got hurty”.  Now the conversation has spiraled into crazy Seinfeld awkwardness and I just wanted to get away.  Oh, did I mention my Mom was there too (she was my ride and I’m still a 10 year-old when I go to the doc)?  The end to my awkward panic comes when the doctor (who is very monotone) says “that’s called amok”.  “Errr, wha?”.  Then he delivers this gem of a story (which I can’t confirm via the interwebs, but it’s still a good one):

Researches discovered a tribe somewhere, called the amok tribe.  Some of the men were having delusions that their genitals were shrinking and that made them go crazy and run around doing all kinds of insane things.  And now we have the saying, “run amok”.

Hooray for the end to awkwardness, and that’s quite a story.  Wikipedia disagrees, but I don’t think I care.  Though, now all I can do is wonder: was he saying I was imagining my junk hurting and shrinking?  That’s not something you make up.

I only have one 2009 resolution: not to make any more idiotic resolutions.  All they do is make me pissed at myself and self-fail at stupid unnecessary goals.  Was 2008 a failure because I didn’t read a bunch of books?  Nope.  Still very pleased with 2008 – had a great year – family rocked, business is doing well, my health is actually pretty good considering I’m getting my chub on, and so on.  Screw resolutions, I don’t need to make myself feel like dook for not doing some random junk I thought of the first hopeful day of a new year.   How’s that for the bloggy start to 2009?  Whoo, 2009!!

Katy and I really like to go out to eat (Jim and Amy created monsters).  We’ve been trying to cook at home more, and doing a good job of it (all cred to Katy there), but we still really like to go out to eat.  We usually go to mid-range places, but we also like to plan a date night or random night out to a nice restaurant.  For me, it’s been all about the food, because I usually don’t get much out of the “fancy” experience at the really nice places.  Until recently.  A few months ago, we went to a place in Atlanta called Canoe for one of our first post-Ona nights on the town.  As the experience was getting started and the server was telling us the specials and such, I noticed I was all stiff and saying “emmm kay” and “oh, sounds fabulous” and basically not being myself.  It was like an epiphany and I suddenly realized I was always that way at swanky places.  When the server returned, I was all slouched in my seat and being myself, saying “I don’t know shit about wine, but I want something to go with the big assed steak I’m about to order…”.  It didn’t negatively impact the server’s attitude toward us, but it totally changed the meal for me.  So from now on, I remind myself to not get caught up in the swanky atmosphere and be myself.  I figure the food costs the same no matter how I act, so may as well settle in and be comfortable.  Hope they don’t mind a few enthusiastic f-bombs when the food tastes great.

Just some updates on Ona.  She rocks.  She’s 14th months now and is fun, fun fun.  She’s in mimick mode now, which means she’s probably going to start cussing any day.  My favorite thing she repeats is the result of “what does the owl say?”.  When I say “who, who, who” she gets excited and curls her lips into “whistle formation” and responds with “oooh, ooooh, ooooh”.  When in the car (which we sadly seemed to be in constantly this weekend) we “bbbbbppppprrrrrtttt” back and forth a lot, which is fun for everybody.  She also grabs the toy microphone and says “helllooooo” into it, after we do that same thing.  it’s definitely cute… and definitely dangerous.

She’s stringing two words together every now and then… my personal favorite is, of course, “hi dada”.  Makes me melt every time.  Though, I’m starting to feel guilty that she’s stopped saying “momma” entirely, so I’m constantly trying to drill “momma” back into her vocabulary…. which is probably doing the opposite.

She’s standing up on her own and walking around with the help of the little “walker” thingy.  Apparently, she has taken some steps in school, but not at home yet (she’s not out of arms long enough, probably).  It seems like she could do it, but she still seems unsure that she can.  She kind of stands for a while and you can see the light bulb turn on and she looks a bit shocked like “whoa, I’m standing on my own!” and immediately sits down.  She gets positive reinforcement from that one (in the form of hysterical laughter, it’s really more funny that it sounds… for real) so that’s probably not “helping”.  Really, we’re in no rush for her to walk, though.  Whenever she’s ready, we’re ready (errr, I think… which probably means we’re not at all).

Ah, vacation.  Katy and I were in Vegas last week for a much needed three-day getaway.  I was actually a little worried it wouldn’t live up to the expectations – our first Vegas trip in 2004 was probably our best trip together.  Well, it totally lived up to it.  Katy set the tone for trip by ordering a midnight snack of filet mignon and eggs the night we got in.  We did all the same stuff we did last time – pool, drinks, gamble, eat, nap… repeat, but not always in that order.

Food
Other than the surprisingly great filet mignon and eggs, the highlight for me was, get this, the sushi restaurant.  Not because I ate any fish, but because they had a roll I could eat and loved.  It was a veggie roll with soy paper wrapping.  No water creatures to make me gag.  And the veggies were of a “stir fried” consistency and delicious.  Was awesome to finally get to participate in the sushi fun.  We ordered a lot of good room service and I ate way too many chocolate covered almonds.  All the food was great, as usual.

Pool
We hit the pool every day from 8:30′ish to 12′ish.  We’d go down and grab a croissant and coffee and then grab a spot at the pool.  Once awake, it was time for the Mai Thai’s and the occasional dip in the pool to cool off.  Was great.

Gambling
We only played blackjack this time.  I usually hit the craps table as well, but stuck with blackjack this trip.  Ironically, I came away up about 21 hands.  I do the “slow and steady wins the race” routine and place the same bet all the time, follow my typical rules and only stray a bit from time to time.  Katy, on the other hand, is more risky.  And she paid for it the first day, but then rocked it out and might have come close to breaking even when it was all done.  I consider gambling worth money, so even losing is fine with me, so this was hugely successful.

Drinks
My drink of choice this time was Mai Thai at the pool, Baileys on ice at the tables, whatever comes to mind in restaurants.  Katy also did Mai Thais along with Bloody Marys, Vodka Tonic and her usuals.  I only barfed once. 

Other Junk
We saw Jay Leno.  Was pretty good…. nothing spectacular, but still a fun break from the booze and cards.  We also rode the NYNY roller coaster, which was fun as hell.  Katy did her usual anxiety attack as we went up the first incline, but seemed to enjoy it enough.  Great views of Vegas from on the coaster.

We took about three pictures, I think.  If I find ‘em, I’ll post ‘em.  Was a great vacation.  BIG, BIG LOVE to Momma D and Big Papa Ken for watching Ona while we were gone.  It’s so awesome to have people nearby who we know Ona loves and will have a blast with while we’re away.

Haven’t been on the bloggy in a while, so here goes random updates…

• Was in Mobile, AL this week with the government project.  Mobile, errr, isn’t the most happening place in the world.  Good meetings, but was quite ready to get home.  Amazing how good I realized my life is after being away from it for a day.
• Katy and I are going on a vacation!  Crazy.  We’re going to Vegas next week.  At least we’ll be too drunk to worry about Ona?  My Mom is going to watch her, and I’m more worried about Mom than the kid.  Though, I guess if Mom lived through “Eric the spawn of hell baby”, she should make it out OK.
• Ona is almost 14 months old, but still hasn’t reached what should have been her first birthday.  That’s crazy.  She’s still not interested in walking, and that’s just fine with us.  She has some sort of pseudo pink eye right now.  Yeeek.  Poor kid.  She’s still happy and cute and fun, though. 
• I’m still running.  I don’t even know myself anymore.  I love it.  Though, my body still hates it… still getting numb foot at about the 2.5 mile mark.  It’s time to consult a doctor.  I’m scared.  It seems that’d be just my luck to finally start getting in-shape and enjoying running and my body reject it.
• Read “The Final Solution” by Michael Chabon on the plane to Alabama.  Fun book.  I dig Chabon.  About to start the Yiddish Police Union book.
• Been watching The Wire on DVD.  Am half way through season 2 and hot damn that’s a great show.  Much the fun.

I guess that covers it.  I’ll recap Vegas next week!