Shots from today's visit to the Butterfly Pavilion

Go Dogs!!!

Here's the update: Fresno State up 11-6 on Georgia in the 5th inning of game 2 of the College World Series. It's an elimination game for the Dogs, but look for this to go to a deciding 3rd game tomorrow night. Two words for you: Tommy Mendonca. The official Fresno State website is here.

Man, I wish I was at the Doghouse right now with a tri tip sandwich in my hand...

Weather report

Man, it's hot here in Denver. Blazing. Whew. Totally overwhelmingly hot. Here it is, just after 7pm and it's STILL 75 degrees! Miserable. Brutal. Yikes. I mean, GET ME HOME!!!

Oh wait, it's 95 right now in Fresno...

The End Result

Back at the beginning of the school year, I blogged about how I'd made it into the top 30 of InterVarsity staff nationwide in terms of the all important metric that is the frequency of car rentals. All year I've kept track of my rentals, and here are the final tallies:

Number of cars rented: 18
Number of days: 52 (that's a month and a half out of 9 spent on the road last year)
Total cost: $2,124.79 (or the equivalent of 8 and a half wii systems or 708 Starbucks hot chocolates)
Total miles: 10, 687 (I could have driven to Boston and back and then there again instead...)

So there are the stats. And I'd like to give some props to Dollar. Early this year I just committed to one agency to rent from. I became a member of their rewards program and it worked like a champ. I have in my file three free rental days, but the biggest thing was that the desk staff started to recognize me when I'd come in. Somebody say "free upgrades!"

Lastly, perhaps you are wondering how I did this year? I got a letter from "corporate" (tip of the hat to Michael Scott), and here's an except:

"You have been selected, based upon your unique position as one of the top 30 InterVarsity employee auto renters! Because of your select position, you came to the attention of the auditor of our business auto insurance policy."

So I have to send in a copy of our policy and my DMV record. It's funny. I never thought of my travel load as anything approaching "unique" and "select!"

At tonight's Rapids game...

Me and my inner Griswold...

So we made it to Denver. By van. All five of us. Here's the tale of the tape...

Total miles: 1193.7
Day 1 mileage: 490.2
Day 2 mileage: 444.9
Day 3 mileage: 258.6

Couple of highlights:
1. Dinner with the Nalleys in Vegas on the first night. Great tri tip, Nalley!
2. Amy almost becoming a Mormon at Cove Fort, UT at the hands of one Sister Leathers...
3. Being forced to eat at the Little Caesar's pizza stop at the Big K in Richfield, UT when all of the fast food was overrun by little leaguers.
4. The Virgin River Gorge. Fantastic.
5. Cheap gas? Paid "only" $4.09 in Vegas. And it's under four bucks here in Denver.

Now let the sabbatical begin!!!

A Fly in the Soup Soccer Report

I watched the Germany v. Austria match today, but just to clarify, it wasn't this one.

Overheard down the hall

Joshua (chasing Lucy): "Lucy, Lucy, don't fall in the hot lava. You'll die."

Amy (from the office): "Joshua, don't talk like that. I don't like that language."

Joshua (pausing at the door to the office): "But, um, Mommy, that was English."

My three ladies...

Yeah, good one...

So there I was this morning filling up at the local Vons. $4.38 with my 3 cent VonsClub deduction, mind you.

All of a sudden, this old dude in a mini-van finishes his fill up and then pulls up next to me on his way out. "Did you get your kiss?" he asks.

I'm confused. What does he mean? Are they giving out free Hershey's somewhere and I don't know about it?!? I look at him and ask him what he's talking about.

He pauses for a second, nods his head in the direction of the gas attendant's booth, and with a wry smile says:

"well if they're gonna screw you, they may as well give you a kiss on the way out!"