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| | Yeah, there s a scent palpable in the air. The smell of recently cut grass, sweat, blood and pure testosterone. Can only mean one thing... FOOTBALL SEASON!
Oh yeah, that time of the year we all live for. Summer camps began this week. Preseason games soon to follow. Oh yeah.
I m predicting my blessed Steelers will be going places. Special places. Places not unlike the playoffs and maybe the big show.
A ton of emphasis has been placed on revamping the secondary (our only real weakness from a year ago now that Kordell is gone). Our offense will be better, Maddox will be more comfortable at the helm (and if he falters I think Batch could easily become the man). We have the best receiving tandem in football (statistically just edging out the Moulds/Price combo). We ve added a legitimate receiving threat at TE. All three able bodied and potentially starting RBs have rebounded from injuries, giving us an unprecedented depth and flexibility in the running game.
Oh boy oh boy... I can t wait. Hell, I m even excited about the Eagles and the new stadium.
God, I love football...
-bampf | | | It s coming. Oh yeah.
Bubba Ho-Tep! Check out the trailer:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/bubba_ho-tep/
It won t be a huge mega studio release. Probably will only be shown in large markets... but as luck would have it, I live in one such market.
Sweet.
-bampf | | | Two days since last post.
I got nothin. Nadda.
Oh well, have a good weekend all... headed back to central PA this weekend for tasty fair food, amongst other things.
Chicken corn soup here I come.
-b
PS bp, I know how partial you are to fair food... Shippensburg Fair on Saturday if yer lucid enough to make the trip. | | | Ok, from the reports I m reading we re pretty sure we killed Saddam s sons. I m pretty happy that these two monsters finally got theirs. Here s the bit that struck me as odd, though. Supposedly there were over 200 troops from the 101st and special forces, 10 TOW missile toting Humvees, as well helicopter air support all used in the apprehending.
Reports talk about a fierce gun battle lasting 4-6 hours. So it took over 200 well armed and armour supported troops till kill 4 guys with assault weapons? 4-6 hours of fighting? What the hell? Also keep in mind that one of the four was a kid, and one was badly crippled. Weak.
Another thing that bothers me is the Jessica Lynch thing. She s getting this hero s welcome that the press is doting on relentlessly. What exactly did she so that was so heroic? She was part of a Maintenance company that couldn t follow a map, took several wrong turns, and then put up a pathetic fight when attacked. She got the crap beat out of her and then was rescued by real US soldiers (who did so against minimal resistance). Again, where s the heroism on her part? Silly.
I m reminded of the Onion article talking about America s C and D students fighting in foreign wars. It s funny cause it s true.
-Bampf | | | I m starting to really dig the city (and our proximity to it). Rather spontaneously we decided to take in a Phils game yesterday. I had a rain check ticket that I needed to use, and the Vet s days are really starting to be numbered so we buzzed into the city after work.
Stopped off at Tony Luke s for a steak. Mmmm Tony Luke s. Then to the Vet. We sat in the right field nose bleeds right by a bunch of typical Philly asshole fans, one of which incessantly shouted insults at the Mets and any Mets fans within earshot. Nice. Good ole Philly fans. They re surly.
The boys weren t fairing so well so we buggered off early to beat the crowds (we stuck around long enough to see Thome hit a 2 run homer to make it close). 15 minutes drive from parking lot to our front door... sweet!
We re committed to taking advantage of the city as best we can. Concerts, museums, plays, shows, etc etc. There s so much to see and do... the city is our oyster.
-b | | | As I ve mentioned before I do my best to avoid including links in the BampfBlog... as this isn t THAT kinda blog. My Blog is here for posterity and I don t want it littered with dead links but I ll make an exception now.
Lebowski Fest
That s right, a Big Lebowski festival, complete with the real life Dude that inspired the Cohen bros. How sweet is that? Check out the article. Glad to see that the sublime goodness that is The Big Lebowski is receiving the cult worship that it so truly deserves.
"You said it, man. No one fucks with the Jesus."
-bampf | | | Dinner was a true event Saturday. The place was very impressive. It was also really crowded and noisy (it was later Saturday night). The food was excellent (as well it should be). We had two appetizers, entrees, cocktails, desserts and coffee. Everything that came near our mouths was really great. The service was impeccable. Everytime you finished a dish, a waiter/busboy would clear and re-set your table. The two of us literally went through nearly 15 plates and sets of silverware. The thorough gorging ran about $125. Less than I expected. Throw in another $30 for tip and valet parking (this was the only thing that came out of our pocket... nice).
The crowd wasn t nauseatingly yuppie or anything. There was a mix of people. From clubbers stopping in for a ($9) drink to jet setters in their elegant duds. We spotted at least two stereotypical guido gangster types (replete with gold chains, and skanky call girl in tow)... nice!
So now the two of us are really looking forward to becoming affluent DINKs so that we can afford to indulge ourselves like this more often.
-b | | | Tommorrow is my birthday and our trip to Buddakan to be urbane Philly socialites. Weee.
So I ll be 29 in nine hours. I m OK with that. It s next year that I ll be kicking and screaming in a vain attempt to halt the passage of time. For now I m content to retain my blissful twenty-something status.
We re both very excited about the Buddakan thing. We have a 10:00 dinner reservation... that was the only time available and we called a week in advance. Apparently there are months long waiting lists to get the more primo Friday and Saturday evening slots. These are good signs. These are the times I wish I had a top hat and monacle to look REALLY sophisticated. Yeah, that d be sweet.
I got a pair of movie tickets for my birthday from Liquent. That was kinda cool. First time I ve ever had an employer do anything like that. Guess that means we can either go see Pirates again or maybe take in T3. I ve heard incredibly disparate reviews of T3, so I figure it s worth giving it a shot. We ll probably do Pirates though, as Kristyn has yet to see either one or both of the first two movies.
TMBG is playing Penns Landing Sunday. Still not sure if we re gonna make that one. They re playing with Art Garfunkel, and quite frankly the prospect of going to a concert amongst rotting old hippies kind of frightens me. Shudder. We ll see what happens.
Hope everyone else has an eventful weekend.
-bampf | | | A big kudos to the Edogg for discovering a Space Moose mirror site. The site contains the archives of the long unavailable Space Moose web comic... easily the funniest web comic of all time. Check it out for yourself:
Space Moose
Unfortunately it appears some comics are missing (including maybe the funniest comic EVER... "Space Moose and the Time Machine". However there s still lots of good stuff... so check it out if you re interested in a refreshing view of the college experience from a nihilistic sadist Star Trek fan moose.
-bampf
PS The first comics of the series are quite bad, but they get exponentially better... keep reading. | | | As alluded to in yesterday s post, Kristyn and I got to role play last night. First time I had played (as a player) since about February, when Gort and Kirwan wandered into early retirement. So I m very happy about that. Had a very good time, met some new people from the area. Very cool. Looks like this is gonna become a weekly thing, so we re both very excited about that. I may even rekindle my Hyborian campaign and run the new D&D version 3.5.
Thinking back, last night was the first time ever in all my roleplaying days where female gamers outnumbered the males during a session (2:1 no less), so that was very cool. I m looking forward to future sessions... just need to decide on a new character concept...
-bampf | | | I m a little late posting this week, but since the comments section has been so busy I fugured more content wasn t a priority. Anyway, this past weekend was designated a Wedding Recovery Weekend. So we were as slothful as possible. Friday we were complete slugs, ordering out and watching movies. Saturday was the LXG and Pirates double feature (as stated in the comments I recommend them both, especially Pirates)... and to couple our sloth with some quality gluttony our only sustenance for the day was a huge friggin tub of popcorn (the Mega-bucket or something to use the AMC naming convention) and hot off the conveyor belt Krispy Kremes! Oh yeah.
Sunday brought more laying around, and dinner with a couple of local gamers that I met over the internet... as luck would have it, looks like we ll be playing in their RPG starting tonight. WooHoo! Not only is it nice to be able to roleplay again, it was really great to actually meet some kindred spirits in the area (an additional bonus is that they live mere blocks away). So, it only took us a year, but we now have demostrative proof that we are capable of being social (we just typically choose not to).
Next weekend is my birthday and to celebrate we have dinner reservations at Buddakan... one of Philly s best (and most expensive) restaurants. It s a really trendy, asain cuisine place in Old City (Travel and Leisure ranked it in the top 50 restaurants in the country). Should be pretty sweet. What makes it nice is we recieved a $160 gift certificate for the place as a wedding gift (and yes we ll spend all of that on one dinner) so it won t cost us a penny to sample the Philadelphia jet set life. Nice. Did I mention the place has a 20 foot tall golden Buddha?
-bampf | | | I guess Kristyn and I are still kinda basking in wedding afterglow (we refer to each other as husband/wife a LOT) but everything else is pretty much unchanged. Don t know if I was expecting otherwise, but really the only difference is my Gburg class ring on my right hand has been replaced with a wedding band on the left. Huh.
Well, anyway, I m a married man. Don t feel any different... I m still very happy about it... and life continues unabated.
As mentioned over on bp s blog, this is a big movie weekend. LXG and Pirates of the Caribbean. Nice. Johnny Depp and Alan Moore (seperately as opposed to combined as in From Hell)... can t go wrong with either. We hoping to do a double feature and see both. Like to see T3 sometime as well, but it s slipped on the priority list.
-b | | | The deed is done. After a wondrous and eventful long weekend, things are starting to quiet down. There s a slight hint of normalcy in the air. I have to say the wedding was damn near perfect.
The days leading up to the big day were really great, as chronicled in the previous post. The day of started with golf with Chad, grm and my father-in-law to be at Cumberland Golf Course. We had a good time playing. We did a 3 on 1 best ball (as Chris is an accomplished golfer and the three of us all suck). We were able to stay competitive this way with Chad and I sporadically getting lucky off the tee and grm s relatively consistent irons. The round ended after the 16th hole as we were hit by an incredible torrential downpour. We were cutting it close for time so it was a nice added impetus to head for the hotel. As we drove to the site, drenched in our vehicles, lightning struck and blew out a transformer at the first red light we stopped at. I was hoping it wasn t an omen portenting coming disasters.
At the hotel, I was given a 'changing room' since the girls were monopolizing our honeymoon suite. The room reeked of smoke and the AC was near non-existent, so getting a shower and into my tux was pretty arduous. At one point I got down on my knees and stuck my head in the little mini-fridge in a futile attempt to stop sweating.
Things went pretty smoothly from here. Everyone arrived well dressed and on time. The ushers looked great in the James Bond white dinner jackets (I was a bit worried when Kristyn first told me we were putting my friends in white tuxes). Pictures went smoothly save for a slight delay when my boutonniere went missing.
Somehow I remained relatively calm and collected. I don t think I was numb or anything... I just had that antsy excitement like you get before playing in a big game. I kept running into early arriving friends so talking to them may have helped put me at ease.
Kristyn was, of course, a vision. Her dress had been a diligently kept secret (she even gave me numerous false hints in the previous months as to it s style and look to further throw off my expectations... she s deceptive) so it was a wonderful surprise to finally see it. The dress was perfect and suited her so well. Like a said, an absolute vision. Somehow I managed to refrain from crying. Not sure how I did it, but I surprised everybody (especially me) by maintaing relatively good composure throughout.
The ceremony was really superlative. Best wedding ever. Seriously. I know I m uber-biased, but I really think that s true. Judy, the minister, put together an incredible ceremony. During our meetings with her she had us fill out questionaires... asking about how we met, our feelings about the nature of marriage and relationships etc as well as favorite authors, passages and songs. She gleaned a lot of insight from these and really tailored the entire ceremony to fit us. There was a recurring Douglas Adams theme, there was mention of our meeting, our unique interests... it was really wonderful. The vows that Kristyn compiled were incredible. We had countless compliments on the ceremony. More than anything people gushed about how meaningful the ceremony was... there was no proselytizing, no platitudes, everything was explicitly about us. We even had an elderly couple tell Kathy that they wanted to get divorced just so they could be remarried by her. Yeah, it was that good.
Afterward there were a bunch more pictures and some bouncing around various rooms trying to elude the guests (we eschewed a receiving line, deciding it would take way too long to receive 220+ guests). The reception was great as well. Grm gave a most excellent toast (and the two pre-toast toasts were short and sweet). Another funny moment came when grm started listing various embarassing moments of mine and promised he had dozens more he could share when the two Argent Lupe tables added in unison "So do we".
The reception really flew by. The food seemed to be really good, although I only had time to sample a tiny portion. I spent most of my time floating from table to table trying to say hello to everyone. I quickly lost Kristyn and wasn t reunited with her til near the last dance (this at least served to silence the annoying glass clinkers). The only low points were near the end of the night when the band played YMCA and the Electric Slide in quick succession... two songs that I was promised to be on a strict verboten list. My rage at the Dirty Stinkin Jew (that is the band leader s permanent moniker now) gradually abated (I offered numerous people up to $50 to punch him in the face after someone restrained me from doing it myself... I forget who exactly). The only other low point was one of Kristyn s friends becoming so inebriated that he had to be forcibly removed by Mike and I.
I had a great time hanging out with all my friends. I told a couple people that it was like a prolonged "Jeremy Smith, this is your life" episode. There were pods of different friends... college friends, Guild friends, Luper friends, D&D friends, Stoner friends, HS friends. It was really cool. I hadn t seen a number of them in a while so it was great to have em all in one place.
The Sunday breakfast was a nice winding down event. Turn-out was good, and we got to dive into our sizable pile of loot. We made out really well. A lot of people were just amazingly generous. We drove back Sunday evening still pretty exhausted. I think we were both asleep by 10:30.
Monday was a nice transition day. We slowly incorporated our gifts into the house and did some shopping with some of the numerous gift cards we received. We even stopped to take in a movie, "Finding Nemo", which I found to be frightfully dull and formulaic... hopefully Pixar will eventually escape Disney s grasp so that they can make some innovative movies.
And today, I m back to work as normal... wow. Twas five days of wondrous madness. Thanks to all who played a part in it... thanks to the wedding party and ushers (special thanks to grm for admirably fulfilling Best Man duties), thanks to everyone who attended, thanks to all those at the pseudo-Bachelor Party and the fireworks display. Huge thanks to the Varners for footing the bill. And of course, thanks to Kristyn for being my perfect bride.
Time to return to my blessed life.
-bampf
| | | In roughly 18 hours I ll be married. Super-sweet. So far this weekend has been near perfect. I ve been having fun reminiscing with grm. My very impromptu psuedo-Bachelor party was excellent. A lot of people showed (more than I expected) and we had a very good time. That meant a lot to me.
The rehearsal was really great. Having the Gettysburg crew altogether was super (eight of us all told, with an additional two tomorrow). Rehearsal dinner food was excellent and abundant. Everyone seemed to have a good time. No tux emergencies.
Afterward we had a wonderful time setting off PERFECTLY LEGAL fireworks at my parents house. A huge debt of gratitude to the Edogg for feeding our pyromania.
All these good times has succeeded in asuaging any nervousness or anxiety. I m really thankful for all the great friends I have that are making this time so enjoyable rather than nerve racking.
Now that things have quieted a lot of thoughts are running through my head. I m happy to report that there s no trepidation, no doubts or second thoughts. There s just a lot of excitement. Tonight I m really feeling that I m leading a blessed life. At 28 years of age I ve managed to surround myself with a ton of wonderful friends and I get to marry my absolute dream girl, my soul mate.
Hard to ask for more than that.
Thanks all.
Sorry for the sappiness, but I figure this time round it s warranted.
-bampf | | | Holy crap... tomorrow s the day. Somewhere in the wee morning hours I obtained a little ball of nervous excitement in the pit of my stomach that doesn t look to be going away any time soon (either that or my body s just reacting to eating at Angies at 5:00 am after an all night gaming session at my impromptu pseudo-bachelor party).
Well, the time is nigh... here we go...
-bampf | | | Wow. We re really close now. All kinds of things are in motion. This is my last day of work. We leave for central PA tonight after seeing Gigantic. We re taking two wedding invitations... one to give to the Johns and one to be signed... rockin! Now if the band at the reception doesn t play a TMBG song I m definitely going into a berzerker rage!
We were frantically zipping around the house last night making sure we didn t forget anything essential. I m sure we did, not looking forward to finding out what.
This ll probably be my last entry before the big day so I leave it to you guys to complete the countdown in your heads. I assume I ll see a lot of you Saturday (or before). I m really looking forward to it.
-bampf of the terminating bachlorhood | | | Remember how, as a kid, you counted down each day in eager anticipation of Christmas morning? This is way more exciting than that. Madness I say, it s madness.
Weather report says that today is the last decent day for a while. Hot and humid the rest of the week. Chances of thunderstorms here and there. That kinda sucks but makes me really glad I never have to go outside the hotel once my tux is on. That hotel AC better be in high gear though.
Thought I d add a couple non-wedding related notes just for a change of pace. Kristyn and I saw 28 Days Later on Sunday. I highly recommend going to see it. It s by Danny Boyle (of Trainspotting fame) and is extremely well shot. Lots of excellent classic horror elements, a nice dark twist, excellent soundtrack... good stuff. Go and check it out.
During the previews there was a trailer for a movie called Underworld. Very cool stylistic uber-noir gothic vampire vs werewolf film. Excellent trailer. The movie was such a blatant White Wolf rip-off though I figured they had to have licensed the concept or something. I did a little research on the film... uncovering additional White Wolf plot skeins (Jyhad, the Masquerade, Vampire clans, Werewolf tendencies etc), but found that WW was not involved in any way. Screams for a lawsuit.
Anyway, I ll have to add that to the ever growing list of must see films... LXG, T3, Pirates of the Carribean... plus we re planning on seeing Gigantic tomorrow before heading to central PA. John and John are both supposed to be at the theatre for a big gala premeire event... we figure we ll take them a wedding invitation since it was at a TMBG concert that we got engaged (afterward John F blessed our union) so it seems richly symbolic to have sort of come full circle back to the Johns before the wedding. Just adds to our already magical story... nice.
-bampf |
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