Sunday night, still at The Executive West for the tournament, I went to the hotel bar with my friend Bob and his friend Mike. I had a couple BBC Porters. Last year I had this (it's the only decent beer the hotel bar carries) and didn't care for it too much, but this year it is excellent. I don't know if it's because my tastes have changed or because last year it was simply a bad keg.

Anyway, Bob and I caught up with each other a little and talked about the olden days in Nebraska. It was all very nice and pleasant.

Monday night I had a beer with my friend Fred and then sat around the bar having a couple more porters while I did some people-watching. It was also very nice and pleasant.

Life's too nice and pleasant lately.

I need some drama dammit.

...one where empathy exists.

Oh yeah, seeing you was really nice too.

Off tomorrow (yay!) so I went to Rich O's and celebrated virtual Friday.

Well, maybe celebrated is the wrong word. Perhaps observed would be better.

Rich O's was fairly empty and I sat at the island by myself all night. A few of the professional beer drinkers were scattered around, and three semi-cute girls were sitting in the red room, but that's it. Nobody I cared to talk to was present.

Determined to try new beers, and only new beers, tonight, my first selection was a Ridgeway Santa's Butt Porter. Here's what I said about it at ratebeer.com:

(draft) Probably the blandest selection that Rich O's Saturnalia has to offer. A bit of a chocolate smell and taste that's followed up by a very watery finish. Decent but not memorable at all.

Next I had a Hitachino Nest Red Rice Ale.

(draft) Tastes like a pilsner until you swallow, that's when the funkiness takes over. I guess the funkiness was due to the sake yeasts used on the rice. My enjoyment of this beer grew with each sip, but by the time the glass was gone I still didn't like it enough to order another pint.

Finally, I had a XX Bitter De Ranke, a beer with a scary (to me) name.

(draft) The hop aroma was very evident and I was surprised to find such a tame flavor behind it. This is a beer I could drink all night, but I wouldn't want to because it's pretty boring.

So I had a very pleasant and relaxing night, disturbed only by VigilanteGirl's continuing perkiness. My castle walls have been completely rebuilt so she's wasting her time trying to get in. My loss, really.

Just a quick note to say that my vacation starts tomorrow and I'm starting to get pretty pumped about it.

It's not so much the time off work, though that's certainly a big deal.

What I look forward to most is the opportunity to be around pool players again. To be around hundreds of other people that understand, and share, my obsession with poking balls around with a stick.

I'll try to keep up with my messages, and I'll try to even post a new entry every now and then, but I'll make no promises. Especially Friday through Monday, when the Banks tournament is going on, I'll be spending almost all of my non-sleep time at the tournament site.

Those of you who just need to read something here every day should head on over to my pool 'blog as I'll be updating that more regularly with tournament updates, observations, and such.

I went to the Gas-N-Stuff this morning, as I do every work morning, and while I'm paying for my soft drink this dingbat (a past, and so far only, Dumbass of the Day recipient in this 'blog) asks me, "Are you in a good mood today?"

I frowned and answered that I was, and she countered with, "Well you sure don't look like it?"

"Well, maybe I was in a good mood before you asked me that stupid question. At any rate, my mood is actually none of your business."

"Man, maybe you should go home and get up on the other side of the bed."

"Maybe you should go fuck yourself."

Having my mental state questioned by a perfect stranger first thing in the morning, while annoying enough in itself, reveals a bigger problem. It seems that VigilanteGirl has been making my mood a topic of conversation at work.

I may need to give her a spanking or something. That would certainly cheer me up.

After work today I went and ordered myself a pizza and had an NABC Tunnel Vision - which is back after a brief absence.

I was sitting and talking with CuteAsFuckGirl about her growing up in Washington County when, lo and behold, UnfortunatelyNamedGirl came in and joined us.

Now neither of these girls has the slightest interest in me. I know it, and they know it.

So why, I ask, did they both begin competing for my attention?

I took a picture of CuteAsFuckGirl so I could send it to her phone, and UnfortunatelyNamedGirl told me she'd lost my number. Losing it would have been a little hard because she never had it in the first place - she was just trying to establish that she'd seen me first.

I ended up taking a picture for UnfortunatelyNamedGirl as well, and shortly after that CuteAsFuckGirl just happened to find some pictures in her purse she wanted to show me so she had me move over next to her.

Then UnfortunatelyNamedGirl dug my sister's name out of her memory and further established her deep relationship with me by asking me how Dina was doing.

Then CuteAsFuckGirl countered by talking about how where she grew up was near where my other sister lives.

At about this point all of the dirty looks passing back and forth between these girls was really starting to freak me out a little.

Two psychos in the same evening is a stretch even for me.

The other night a guy at Rich O's recommended an author (Ayn Rand) to me that I'd never read before. As I'm always looking for new people to read I made the trip to Barnes and Noble on Saturday to check her out.

Nothing by her on the shelves. I guess she's been inactive lately.

Of course that didn't stop me from spending $250 on books while I was there.

I'm with books the way some women are with shoes and some guys are with tools. I simply cannot leave a bookstore empty-handed.

These are just the books in the basement. I've got two more of these shelves, full of technical books, in my office, and another 50 or so books scattered about the house.

I will say that I've read nearly all of the fiction books. I usually go through a book a week. Right now my unread book stack has about a dozen books on it - including the six I bought on Saturday.

My temperature's been back to normal since Friday evening, but I may have had a slight relapse in the middle of the night last night.

I got a phone call from an unexpected person, and I was a little short with her.

When I got up this morning I felt guilty about it, so I picked up the phone to call and apologize.

Thanks to my phone's calls log, I saw that there was no call.

It'd been one of those feverish delusions - like what I was having Thursday when I dreamed/imagined that I went to the kitchen about a hundred times for water but I actually only made it once.

Anyway, I'm a little bored, can you tell? Just want to write something no matter how mundane.

Spent the first part of tonight listening to MixedSignalGirl spew forth some of the most screwed up logic I've ever heard.

As near as I can figure it, and my translation skills are a little rusty, I've been the victim of preemptive pout.

Also fired was a preemptive guilt trip bomb but that had no effect on me as my immunity for such things remains strong.

I guess she and I have things back to normal though. Whatever that means.

So I've mentioned before that my Uncle Wayne has a karaoke business. I've gotten into the occasional habit of going to the little bar/restaraunt where he's working just to listen to the performers.

I will not be performing myself. No thanks.

What I've noticed is that all karaoke performers fall into one of these categories: