Last night I went to another poker night hosted by one of the chicks from bookclub. I was the first one to arrive, but not too long after, a bunch of people showed up. One of the girls wound up bringing 4 extra people, so they were also smart enough to bring extra chairs! There wound up being 10 of us total, and so the games were a lot more interesting than when it was just 4 people.

There were actually 2 guys in attendance this time, and I wonder if they knew exactly what they were in for. There was no denying that this was a predominantly girl’s game when a deck of Hello Kitty playing cards got busted out! The boys looked pretty amused—and even moreso when some of the girls didn’t know how to play (and one of them insisting she won when she really had nothing).

One of the guys had to re-buy in like 3 times, so I guess you can’t say that guys are always better. The games were a lot of fun though, and it was definitely more entertaining with more people around the table. The poker playing lasted like 4 hours, with lots of food and drinks to go along with it.

In the end I wound up losing $2, which isn’t too bad. I played a couple hands poorly, but I had fun, which I guess is what really counts. I hope that we do the poker night again soon and that we get a big group like this again. It’s really hard to win large pots if there are only 3 other people and no one wants to stay in. The guys also made bigger bets than just girls would make, which kept things interesting. And, I’m sure I’ll only get better the more I play!

Posted at 12:49 PM | (0)

Yesterday right before the end of work, I got a call from one of the girls who did both kickball and book club with me. She had scored some free tickets to the Death Cab for Cutie show at the Bowl from her boss and invited me along. Since free tickets to a Bowl show are pretty sweet, I said yes.

Her boss’s tickets also included free VIP parking, so we were able to park right next to the venue without paying. Another perk was free access to the Terrace area, where you can chill above all the common people and still see and hear the stage and see the ocean, enjoy some free appetizers, and partake in a full bar (though unfortunately not free) as opposed to just beer and wine. So, we hung up at the Terrace area during the opening act (who neither of us had heard of), and ate a lot of cheese, crackers, salami, strawberries, and other things. I grabbed a plate of chocolate mints and chocolate covered raisins before heading down to our seats, and it was pretty amusing because I could hear people all around me commenting on them (probably because you can’t buy them in the regular area, so they were probably wondering what’s up).

We sat in our seats during intermission and waited for DCFC to start playing. I don’t know a lot of there songs, but I did wind up knowing 3, which had gotten a lot of radio play. The show wasn’t sold out, and it took awhile for the crowd to fill in, but by the time the sun set, there was a pretty sizable crowd watching the band. When the lead singer did some acoustic romantic song, all the ladies in the crowd sang along (of course….ladies always dig the acoustic love songs, right??), which was weird, since I didn’t hear a lot of singing on the other songs. But at least it meant the crowd knew the songs!

The age of people at this concert was all over the place. There were a ton of teenagers, some college age, and even some middle aged people who weren’t there with their kids. For example, sitting directly in front of us was a couple that was at least in their 40s and they were totally rockin out to some of the songs. The man would do this little rocking back and forth in time to the music, sometimes getting faster, sometimes shaking his head side to side. The lady did these white rapper gestures and looked like she might punch the guy in front of her sometimes. But, at least they were enjoying themselves!

We left right before the encore started, since we had heard all the songs we knew, and figured we’d beat the traffic. So, I was home by 10pm, but I had a fun time. The Bowl is a cool venue, and it was a nice night. Also, you really can’t beat free, especially with the perks of parking and Terrace access!

Posted at 10:55 AM | (1)

Yesterday we had our monthly meeting of bookclub. It’s normally during the week, but one of our core members is taking a class that meets every weeknight for a few weeks and so was only free on the weekend. Since we don’t always have a huge turnout, we tend to schedule around when works best for the few people who show up regularly!

So, we met last night at a different location than usual, but one that was still close by and so within walking distance. We actually had a dude show up, which is something that hasn’t happened in ages. He was actually someone who was on a rival kickball team, but apparently intrigued that half of our team was made up of people who belonged to the same bookclub. Wanting to be forced to read periodically, he decided he’d try it out and so showed up without having read the book. He actually suggested our next book though, so maybe he’ll represent on behalf of males everywhere. We’ll see though….guys never seem to stick around for long, not sure why.

There wound up being 8 of us total last night, although some people showed up a little late. Of the 8, only 2 people (one of them being me) finished the book. I thought it started out a little slow, but it was amusing by the end. As long as one person finishes though, it’s all good. Because then, if you never intend to finish, you can at least know how it ends!

As usual we also talked about all kinds of random stuff, which of course also included how hot it was and what, if anything, people did for solstice. It wasn’t nearly as hot last night as the night before, and so we sat outside on the girl’s patio and it was actually quite nice. It wasn’t too hot, and it also wasn’t cold enough to need a jacket. Overall, a nice couple of hours spent outdoors on a warm summer evening. Perhaps next time we’ll get more people to show up on a Sunday if we actually send out a reminder on Friday.

Posted at 4:28 PM | (1)

So yesterday I attended the nearby house party for most of the day. My apartment started getting warm, and so I headed over about 11:30. There were already a good number of people there, and several people I knew, so that was good.

My plan was to meet up with Ben at some point and catch some of the parade and/or hang out in the park that had the bands and other things going on, but he ran out of time before he had to head into work, so it was not to be. Instead I stayed at the party, except for when we all took a trip over to the beer garden in the park for a few hours.

It was so ridiculously hot yesterday—everyone felt all gross and sweaty. Even the breeze was warm for a lot of the time. Still though, it was an entertaining time. Best of all, the host had Rock Band set up, so a bunch of us got to play it. I mostly did vocals, and I guess the general consensus was that I did a really good job, because when people at the party who didn’t know me came up to me, they were all like “oh, you were the singer!” and they said it in an “oh cool” kind of way and not like “ohhh god, you were that horrible singer” so I guess that is a good thing As a result, I sang a ton of songs, although at one point someone wanted to try out being the singer and I took over playing guitar and then bass. Man, I was not very good at that, but I put it on Easy mode and managed for the most part to not fail. Still, if given the choice, I think I will stick with vocals, since I had a much easier time racking up points doing that.

The party went all day and well into the night. I wound up leaving a little after 11pm, and there were still at least a dozen people or something when I left. I suppose that means it was a good party if so many people showed up and there were still that many people who stayed late. It was cool that it was an all-day option—people stopped by at different times before and after they partook in the various solstice activities. And thus marks my first experience with solstice, despite the fact that I’ve lived here for quite awhile.

Posted at 1:54 PM | (0)

Ok, so technically yesterday was the solstice, but here in SB, we do a pretty big celebration on the Saturday around solstice. So, that means today is the day of celebration—there will be a parade, bands, food, crafts, a beer garden, all kinds of random stuff. It’s one of the biggest events here.

Not sure what exactly I will be doing, but at least some of it will probably involve stopping by a nearby all-day party thrown by some kickball people. It’s going to be a super hot day though—hopefully it will be bearable to be outside!

In the meantime, I leave you with the following video, to get you in the mood, cuz it’s officially SUMMERTIME!!

Posted at 11:17 AM | (0)

I finally couldn’t take it anymore and had to pack up my stuff and head to the library. It’s just too darn hot! I thought that I could take it, since I survived yesterday no problem—I had my fan strategically placed, my window and door open to help the air flow through, and I wasn’t moving around too much.

But, even just sitting there I could feel myself getting too hot to feel like I could get any work done. Also, when the air is that hot, my computer tends to heat up a lot (someday I’ll get around to trying to remove some dust from the fans or something, which I think accounts for some of the problem, but that’s another day), making it suck to touch it—and forget about putting it on my lap!

So, I packed up, got in my air conditioned car (normally I’d walk, but it’s too hot for that), and now I’m sitting in a comfy chair in the air conditioned library. Soooo much nicer. One thing is for sure though, summer is definitely here!

Posted at 3:56 PM | (0)

It’s been warm the last couple days, and I think it’s only expected to be warmer the rest of the week. It seemed a perfect opportunity to get outside after work, especially since my apartment gets warm—at least outside there is a better chance to feel the breeze.

I grabbed my book and my ipod and walked on over to the nearby park to chill in the shade. The walk over is actually kind of hot, especially since it feels a little humid or something, but once in the shade it’s quite nice. I intended to do mostly reading, but there were some interesting activities going on.

In addition to watching the parents with cute little kids look at the turtles and ducks and stuff, I also observed an ever-growing group of people showing up with hula hoops. They mostly just sat around, but there was some hula hooping going on occasionally. I also got to listen to some sort of string band playing a bunch of songs. I’m not sure if they were there as a scheduled performance, or if they just all decided that would be a good place to practice their music? But, it was obvious that they have played these songs many times—it’s not like they just casually get together like the hula hoopers or anything.

It was nice to just sit outside amongst the pretty flowers and trees and animals and random people doing random things. I think I actually did more looking around than reading, but oh well. It was a nice way to spend a few late afternoon hours on a beautiful, sunny, warm day. On the plus side, by the time I came back, the sun was no longer beating down where I sit when I am home!

Posted at 10:10 PM | (0)

This evening I had a very early dinner (or a very late lunch, depending on how you look at it) with Claire and some of her friends, since it had been ages since I’d seen her. Our schedules just hadn’t seemed to work out in terms of hanging out, so instead of going out like we had in the past, I just suggested doing lunch. She brought a couple of her friends along and we headed to the Natural Cafe. Despite the fact that most of the menu is like all soy and veggie and whatnot, there are things I will eat—I got the pasta, which is normal.

After the lunch/dinner concluded, I headed home for a tiny bit before heading to the kickball finals with another girl. We were the only 2 representatives for our team, but no matter. We rooted for the team we cheered for last week, and the semi finals were an exciting game. The game was decided on their final play, when they kicked the ball hiiiiigh in the air. The pitcher was totally going to catch it, but then…dropped it! So their runner scored and they were off to the finals!

After a brief break the final game began. We cheered and cheered, and it was quite exciting. The game took forever though, because the teams were disputing a lot of calls, and there were a few special circumstances (like one guy got injured while running, so they had to replace him on base). The team we were cheering for was down 2-1 for the longest time, but then they tied! And then…they were up 5-2! The other team started coming back, but ultimately they were able to hold them and so the team we cheered for the past 3 games won the finals!

The winning team, the other team that made the finals, and the team that finished the season #1 (which was not a team that made it to the finals) all get to go to the Founder’s Cup in Vegas, so that’s pretty cool! Perhaps next season our team will get to go! :)

It was a good end to the season, and the games were pretty exciting to watch. I can’t believe more people didn’t want to show up—but I guess if they weren’t playing, they just didn’t care! Whatever dudes.

Posted at 9:59 PM | (0)

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads in my life—I hope you enjoy your day! :)

Posted at 12:23 PM | (0)

Last night I met up with Ben to get a drink at the bar where his friend works. After that place closed, we headed over to another and hung out for a little bit, watching the bartenders make some interesting concoctions. We had invited the friend to come meet up with us after he was finished closing up, but he went home instead. We didn’t wind up staying out too late, but it was nice to get out for a little bit. Back at my place we mostly just talked—there was a surf contest on to check out, but we didn’t really wind up watching it, although they didn’t run through the final rounds yet so we didn’t miss those. All in all I think it was a good night.

Posted at 12:36 PM | (0)

Yesterday evening I headed out to watch the kickball playoffs with another girl from our team, who is also the co-captain. The captain joined us after the first round of games had ended, just in time for the second round.

We sat and watched the teams where we knew the most number of other players—in the second game our captain had previously played on one of the teams (who won their game last night). There was an upset on the field we weren’t watching, but other than that, I think pretty much every team expected to win did.

Next week is the semi finals and then then finals and then….no kickball for like 3 months! Bummer. It was fun to watch the games without worrying about when to take the field. A couple people from other teams came to watch as well, but far fewer people than I might’ve thought. I guess most of the people just don’t care unless they are winning!

Oh, and probably not a coincidence, but the team we lost to last week didn’t bring their heckler (they got spoken to about the issues we had)! And they lost!! HMMMMM!!!

Posted at 11:47 AM | (0)

Yesterday around 3:30 I headed over to Leadbetter beach to celebrate the birthday of our kickball captain. Several other kickballers were going to be in attendance, so I was glad that I would know a few people.

It seemed a little chilly when I got there, but it seemed to feel warmer as the afternoon progressed. Everyone brought something to eat or drink, so there was plenty of food, and mostly people just chilled and socialized around the picnic table. Some people came or went at various times, but when the sun went down there were still quite a few of us left. I got home a little after 9pm, making it a long day in the sun—but luckily I had my magic sunscreen on, so I was all good. One good thing about staying so late was that the parking attendants had already gone home, so I got to park for free—it would’ve been a bit pricey considering how long I was parked there!

All in all it was a nice afternoon outdoors in the sun by the beach. I also got to test out this string bag that I just finished knitting. It looks small but is very stretchy and was able to hold a zippered hoodie, sunscreen, a towel, my sunglasses case, my wallet, keys, and cell phone. I probably could’ve fit a few other miscellaneous items in there too if I had needed. The thing is awesome! Check out how cute it is below.

Posted at 10:56 AM | (3)

This evening was the end of the season party for Kickball, even though technically 8 teams will still be battling in the remaining playoff games. It started around 6, and I arrived shortly after to find not very many people there. I did find 2 girls from my team already there and grabbing some of the free food, so that was good.

Eventually there wound up being about 7 of us from the team—a respectable number, but definitely not everyone. One of the disadvantages to it being light out later in the evening is that we were there for awhile and it was still sunny and didn’t feel like things were really getting started. Combine that with there still not being a lot of people in attendance compared to the mid-season party, and it was a pretty mellow situation. So, when all but 2 of the team members decided they were leaving at 8, I packed up and followed suit. The 2 members left behind are the ones who like to partake in the flip cup challenges, and are also our captain and co-captain, so they were probably sticking around for that. But since it was kinda dead, I just called it an early night.

It was still nice to hang out with some people from the team for a bit—I was afraid no one would come because of the bitter end to our season on Monday. It sounded like everyone was up for playing again though, so maybe we’ll all play together again in the Fall. That would be cool. At any rate, this was a mellow closing to what was overall a fun season. Some of us might still go check out the games on Monday to see how the remaining teams do—yay kickball!

Posted at 8:52 PM | (0)

Last night I headed over to Ben’s neck of the woods so that we could go see the new Indiana Jones movie. The nice thing about seeing the movie was not worrying about the ridiculously high cost of seeing it past matinee hours because my company had given me a gift card to Movietickets.com for the holidays. This was the first time I used the card, and the nice part was getting to bypass the line of people buying tickets and instead printing out the tickets at the little kiosk in front of the theater, yay!

I enjoyed the movie, although I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite of the series. It started off a little awkward or something—though maybe it’s just because it’s been 20 years since the last one! It did seem to get into the groove of things by the time the plot really got going, so that was cool. It got maybe a little too sci-fi, but overall I did like it. It’s one of those movies that you just can’t NOT see, ya know? Perhaps next I will have to view Sex and the City!

After the movie we headed over to Chili’s for some chips and salsa and margaritas. Oh and mozzarella sticks. Can’t forget the mozzarella sticks! We hung out there for a little while and left as they were getting ready to close the place for the night, thus concluding an enjoyable evening.

Posted at 3:53 PM | (2)

Well, last night the Spring kickball season officially came to an end for our team.

We were the first team up to kick, and the innings went pretty fast as each team held off the other in terms of scoring. During the 4th inning, we received a questionable call which resulted in one of our guys being out instead of staying on 3rd, so our potential for scoring for that inning was diminished. By the time we finished kicking and headed into the bottom of the 4th inning, the game was still scoreless.

The other team then had their turn to kick, and they also received a questionable 3rd base play, but one that was again in their favor, allowing their guy to remain, and ultimately score, along with 2 of his teammates. That sucked, but we still had our chance to come back in the 5th inning, though it was to no avail. I think part of the reason we were unable to come back was the fact that their team had a resident heckler.

Their heckler was not actually on their team—he did not play or wear a shirt. His only purposed seemed to be to throw out stupid banter and comments nonstop. And when I say nonstop, I really mean it—the dude did not shut up. Most of it was just really dumb, but then he said a more personal comment to one of our good female players, and she got really offended. To say that he affected our team morale is a bit of an understatement, especially when several people asked him to be quiet and our refs seemed unsure if they were allowed to do anything about it.

So, we lost. It wasn’t as huge a loss as those games earlier in the season, but this one still kinda sucked because that one guy just brought the whole fun level down. This guy showed up the last time we played the team, and we hated him back then too. No other team has hecklers like that, and it really does seem to violate the spirit of the game. It’s not like we’re a professional league—we’re just a bunch of people trying to have fun playing a game, and it just isn’t fun if one person is being obnoxious. The people on the other team wouldn’t even admit to being friends with this guy, claiming he “just shows up”. Pretty lame.

A few of our team members complained to the division rep, who agreed the heckling was out of line. We weren’t looking to get our loss overturned or anything, but we wanted to know if there was anything a team could do in such an instance, and if perhaps a rule could be added to be allowed to ask the offender to leave or perhaps penalize the associated team if the inappropriate behavior continues. Not sure what the outcome, if any will be—I’m sure nothing that will affect us this season—but hopefully next time there will be something people can do.

It was too bad our end came on a sort of low note—no one wanted to stick around afterwards. But, we did play well defensively and definitely improved from the beginning of the season. I am totally going to play again next season, and I hope to see my teammates return as well!

Posted at 12:38 PM | (2)

In one short hour my kickball team will be playing in the first round of the playoffs. We are playing a team we already lost to earlier in the season, but I think we’ve improved a lot since then. We are the #12 team, and we are playing against the #5 team, and as in NCAA playoffs, anything could happen! Anyone predicting an upset?

Here’s hoping we win so that this will just be our first game of the playoffs, and not also our last!

Posted at 5:33 PM | (0)