Category: Fun

Mr. John Sassatelli was in town last week for some GE voodoo and was gifted with the opportunity to stay with us over the weekend. Much fun was had, several games were played, some beer was drunk, and we went white water rafting on the Ocoee river in Tennessee. Ocoee Rafting was our host and Doug was our guide.

Doug offered us the option at the beginning of the trip of “Wet and Wild or Boring and Mild?” John, Jenn, and I opted for Wet and Wild but the other occupants of the raft were less inclined to be rolled down the river without a raft. Doug stuck John and I at the front of the raft where we were guaranteed the roughest ride.

(we were also guaranteed the hardest ride on your legs, knees, and hips. You jam your feet into the crevice between the side pontoons and the floor of the raft, which leaves you in an odd, twisted position considering you are expected to lean way out and pull hard with your paddle)

I expect that Doug does not consider it a good trip down the river unless he’s managed to dump at least one passenger. Luckily that passenger was me. It was odd how unexpected it was when I fell out of the raft given we’d gone 4 miles down the river already with us all hanging on for dear life. Suffice to say, I didn’t drown.

It was a good time on the Middle Ocoee. This company also offers a full day trip including the Upper Ocoee, which is where the Olympics in ’96 were, and the Middle. We plan to go back sometime and do the whole thing.

Despite the fact that there was plenty of hockey last season to be watched (college, ECHL, CHL, etc.) it’s glorious to have the NHL back in action. Here are some links to get you up to date on what the hay is going on.

New Rules for 2005-2006 in the NHL.
Overview of new stuff for the NHL
Atlanta Thrashers Fan FAQ

Of course, we can’t leave out Comments from the NCAA Ice Hockey Rules Committee concerning the stepped-up enforcement of interference and obstruction penalties during the ’04-’05 season. This courtesy of U.S. College Hockey Online with all the best college hockey coverage.

If anyone is aware of any overarching evaluations of the rules enforcement for college hockey last season, I’d like to be made aware of them.

If only we could all sue everyone for everything. Here’s a case of a Russian astrologer suing NASA for ruining ” the natural balance of forces in the universe” and for deforming her horoscope.

I probably need not tell you I have little patience for astrology. The Bad Astronomer does a much better job than I would of taking it apart piece by piece.

Jenn and I ran in the annual Peachtree Road Race 10K yesterday with 54,998 other people, all of whom wanted to park in the same parking lot as we did. It was a great deal of fun, plus almost perfectly in line with our marathon training for later this year.

Jenn finished with a time of approximately 1:09:10 and Bill came in at 1:09:33. Actual clock times were 1:48:10 and 1:48:33, respectively, which tells you how long it took for us to cross the start line after the initial gun. Our race numbers were 60932 and 60933, but those are not consecutive numbers; it placed us in the sixth starting group, about 2/3 of the way from the front.

Another clock at the finish, next to the official time clock, is the T-Shirt clock, which shows whether or not you’ve qualified for the coveted Peachtree T-Shirt. In order to be deserving of the shirt, you have to cross the finish within the 75 minutes allowable by the T-Shirt clock which does not start until the last runner crosses the start line.

Our T-Shirt clock time was 30:30. So, if you do the math, you can see that the entire length of the race, all 10 kilometers of Peachtree and 10th Streets, was full of people for at least 10 minutes of this race. That’s a lot of people. I envied the helicopter pilots with their birds-eye view of the throng.

Speaking of helicopters, it’s amusing to climb off of the MARTA shuttle bus at the Buckhead/Lenox exit at SR 400 (all interior roads were closed due to the race) to the sound of five news choppers whop-whop-whopping their way over the startline of the race. They looked like a bunch of big mosquitos, just hanging out. Either that, or the harbinger of some Hollywood movie-esque disaster thriller, with hovering news choppers to bring it to the world.

Last, but certainly not least, in this story (or first, depending on how you look at it) was the trip in to the race. MARTA provided excellent service to the start line, with trains and buses running to get people there on time. Unfortunately, we underestimated the earliness-factor that we would need in order to get to our nearest MARTA station to aquire parking. I can now attest that the FULL LOT sign at the entrance to the Sandy Springs MARTA parking lot isn’t exactly fool proof, as at least 60 or 70 vehicles were allowed in that did not have parking spaces.

Suffice to say, we got there on time, after parking in a commercial lot next to the MARTA station, right next to a sign that says “NO MARTA PARKING.” Alas.

Store Wars! Coming to a supermarket near you!

Definitely worth a looksee

On the JibJab mailing list, I learned that they’ve got a new teaser out to advertise their upcoming full-length feature short starring some of the Budweiser mascots. Hopefully Spuds will show up.