Anne and Ryan were out on Friday, which left Nolan and me to goof off at home when I got back from working on Legion of Super Heroes.
We had big plans: some Magic: The Gathering, a little Brawl, and maybe some OGRE and heads-up poker.
But when I got home, the goddamn pine tree in the front yard dropped a huge ball of pollen down on my car, and I spent the next four hours on the couch sneezing and trying to fight off the allergy-induced headache that felt like it was going to split my head in twain. Good times. Good times.
Nolan ended up playing Diablo II while I watched the Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles pwn the Los Angeles Angels of Not Los Angeles Because We Play In Orange County But Our Idiot Owner Wants To Have Los Angeles In Our Name Because He’s A Moron.
For those of you who missed the sixth inning massacre, the final board was:
LAD – 16 25 1
LAANLABWPOCBOIOWHLAIOWBHAM: 3 10 2
Of course, the Dodgers did their best to blow their fifteen run lead, by letting Carter come in and give up three hits and a run, and though I normally don’t like games that are total blowouts, watching the Dodgers on the winning side of it for a change, and especially at the expense of the stupid Angels who swept us last year, was awesome. I should also add that the Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles shutout the Los Angeles Because We Play In Orange County But Our Idiot Owner Wants To Have Los Angeles In Our Name Because He’s A Moron to complete the sweep, and move up to 1/2 a game out of first in what is probably the weakest division this side of 7 year-olds playing little league.
Speaking of the Dodgers, yesterday, my dad took me to Chavez Ravine for some LAD vs LAANLABWPOCBOIOWHLAIOWBHAM action, and it was awesome. There are pictures in my buzznet blog, including a shot of Tommy Lasorda, who is the closest to royalty you’ll see at Dodger Stadium, who got a standing ovation from our entire section when he walked from his seat to wherever it is you go when you’re Tommy Fucking Lasorda and you rule.
Anyway, back to Friday: After the only team on the field worthy of having Los Angeles in their name blew the game wide open, I picked up my bag of comics from Free Comic Book Day, and finally had a look at the books I picked up. Most of them were a solid "meh," but that’s the whole point of FCBD: to see new stuff that may not excite everyone, but introduce new readers to new material. If you’re a guy like me who is already pretty narrow in tastes, it’s unlikely you’re going to find much that excites you. However, there were a few things that I really liked that I’ll pick up next time I’m at my friendly local comics shop:
The Bongo freebie was also funny (and funnier than the average episode of the Simpsons these days, which is not meant as a backhanded complement) and the Fantagraphics Funnybook was fantastic.
Around ten, my antihistamines finally started to work, and my headache began to subside as it was overtaken by drowsiness. I fell asleep watching Dark City, which is still a hell of a lot of fun to watch, whether you’ve got a head filled with antihistamines or not.
Today, Anne and I opened up a new front in the War on Shit All Over Our House and Yard (Operation Enduring Yardwork) and pruned the hell out of a tree in the front yard, as well as tearing out all the weeds that had attempted to establish a beachhead in one of our front yard planters. Rain threatened all day today, but never arrived, which was great, because the combination of breeze and humidity provided just the right level of comfort for fighting the forces of Bermuda grass and their allies the tree-looking things that spring up all over the goddamn place. In a fit of planning ahead, I did my best Sean Penn imitation and snorted a whole bunch of Flonase (relax, I have a prescription) before I started the work today, and I was able to work for about five hours before simple exhaustion overcame me (rather than the sneezing and allergy-related misery I experienced Friday night.)
After all my yard work was done, I decided to take a break and play a little poker at PokerStars, so I hopped into a 4-player heads-up sit-n-go (I was inspired after watching the Heads-up Championship on NBC this morning.) I really like those matches, because most of the players at the lower buy-ins are very straightforward (so you know your pair of kings is no good when they bet into you on an A-high board) and you only have to beat two players to win three buy-ins, instead of 8 players in a regular sit-n-go. At one point, my first round opponent had me down to just a few big blinds, but I got insanely lucky and bounced back, tilting him in the process and taking it down. My second round opponent had the classic online tell: he’d check the "check/fold" box when he was in the BB if he didn’t like his hand, so I’d call and if he insta-checked, I knew I could bet no matter what on the flop and get him to fold. I rode the right combination of luck and trusting my reads to victory, turning my mighty five dollar buy-in into twenty dollars when I flopped TP and a flush draw with AT and got him to call me with KT when my flush missed.
Okay, now it’s time to go watch The Simpsons, in the lame hope that it manges to be funny this week.
Uh, okay, the whole opening bit with the attacking couches? Brilliant. Even if the rest of the show veers off into that weird Jesusland they’ve been hitting so frequently this season, that was worth the price of admission.
Wait. The baseball bit? Very funny. This "homer is the relationship counselor" bit? The polar opposite of funny. Are they hiring old 1970s sit-com writers? This is like a rejected Three’s Company script. Give me another monorail, please. Please, I beg you.
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Hrm, did you have to copy/paste all the LAANLABW and so on and so forth, or did you actually sit there and type it all out. Good to know the Dodgers did okay. My Cubbies lost there innercity series, even if we did manage to keep out of a sweep.
Speaking of Sean Penn, someone told me I resemble him, and yet Im a her. O.o
Remember when Socia was on a real LA team? Yeah, me too.
I like Shadowhawk. I have not read it in years, but now that Valentino is coming back, I may start. He was one of my customers years back when I worked for FedEx. After I was already reading the comic) and gave me a few autographed issues for my birthday one year.
Love the “LAANLABWPOCBOIOWHLAIOWBHAM” acronym. I am an OC resident and love the Angels, but the California Angels. I was a big Dodger fan as a kid, and still hold a place for them in my heart. One of my fondest memories was meeting Bill Russell and having him sign a shirt for me at a Montgomery Ward in-store in the 70’s.
Wil,
The NL west is hardly the weakest division this side of 7 year olds. It’s not the weakest division in baseball. In fact it might be the best. Yes none of the teams are looking to be awesome. But as of today all 5 are at least 2 games over .500. That’s pretty good I think.
No dead weight teams like Kansasy City, Pittsburgh or Florida. The best player in baseball (Bonds, of course) makes his home in the division as well. Not to mention a really strong record against the other leagues. If I recall the NL west has won something like 16 games more than it’s lost against the NL central.
Do I think an NL west team will win the series? No probably not. But it is a strong division.
With any luck the good guys (the Giants) will make it to the playoffs from this tough division.
I still have my copy of Shadowhawk #1 in a box somewhere at home (along with several other Image #1’s… I miss my comic book collecting days!). I had no idea it was still around! It was quite a good book though.
I hate myself for this.
the “LAANLABWPOCBOIOWHLAIOWBHAM” accronym should be LAAN…..NBHAM
Sorry.
Also, while on the subject of comics, do you read any webcomics?
mono= one
rail= rail
Holy crap, I haven’t played OGRE since the mid-80’s.
Hey sorry to hear about your allegies. I just wanted to tell you that I watched Child confidental and they had the one of the sidekicks and geeks. You were on there and I’m like. “Hi Wil!” I’ve been catching alot of the episodes of that show. You’re right, you were one of the geekiest, but Stand by Me is what made me become a fan of yours all those years first. Then from then on I watched Star Trek the next Generation just to watch you. Ok I was a fangirl. LOL. I hope you feel better. Allergies suck.
Wil,
Big 10-40 on the allergies. (That shows MY age… )
We gardened, planted, mowed, etc. all day Sunday, and at one point I was sneezing so hard and my eyes were so teared up I could hardly open them. And I ran out of Flonase and hve to wait for the doc to issue a new scrip!
So, I know how you feel. When does this hay fever stuff stop?
BTW: looking forward to seeing you in Boston this summer. As a demander, I’m gratified that it worked…
Hi Wil,
LOVED the photo of Lasorda. I’m a Cubs fan living in Phillies land, but I have a lot of respect for Tommy. Very cool.
What’s with your mirror universe goatee, though? Did evil Wil take over the blog for awhile? And is it true that the babes really ARE hotter in the mirror universe? 🙂
-Rob
Hey Wil,
Allergies def suck but, at least it didn’t ruin the entire weekend. Saw you on E’s Child Star Confidential. It was nice to see a positive story on there b/c there have been so many sad and tragic stories of many of the child actors so far. Good luck w/ all of the work on the yard & house!
-Emily
The Simpsons used to be cutting edge over a decade ago.
The bashing of Flanders and his fundamentalist family is still wholesome fun for me, but leave out all of those cliches.. That’s when I go to South Park for my salvation. Cutting edge, always offending, and seldom cliche.
I respect Cartman’s authoritaww!
I have to agree with you Wil.
The Simpsons stopped being funny long ago. I keep
hoping one day the edge will
be back and I willlaugh and not groan.
And that online tell is why I only use the checkbox in ring games or very occasionally in tournaments. I think the signal is sufficiently muddied there.
I’ve been very pleased with ShadowHawk. It’s not much at all like the original series, which is a good thing in my mind. It’s a lot better in almost every way.
Wil,
Just how long have you been playing Magic: The Gathering?
12 years for me. I am beyond a geek when it comes to this game. My DCI Judge Certification proves it 🙂