Author: Joe White

I got a ticket for allegedly running a red light back in September (it was broken, but what can you do). I took defensive driving a while ago, but forgot to
send off for my driving record. All the paperwork is due in court tomorrow, so that meant going to Austin to pick up the record in person.

So, after sleeping for about 3.5 hours in Huntsville Sunday, driving Ed to the airport at 5:30am, taking a 45 minute nap on the side of the road between
Huntsville and Birmingham, sleeping for an hour on the flight back to Houston, and taking a 1.5 hour nap once I got home, I drove to Austin. Got into town just
in time to sing with the St. David’s Compline Choir for their 9pm service: plainsong, sarum,
Gregorian chant…I love singing that stuff. Then went over to the Behemolith and ate chicken wings with JP and
George, talked with John and Holly, and looked at the heavens through George’s mondo telescope. Was up til 1 talking, then stayed up another hour entering blog
items (see below).

Got up at 8, breakfasted with JP at the Omelettry, which I am afraid I can no
longer recommend (higher prices, had to ask for real cream instead of the CoffeeMate on the table, only one refill on coffee, which also had to be requested).
Stopped by the Texas Heart Hospital and visited with Lee Chilton, one of my freshman advisers, who is now a cardiologist and daddy, but still a committed cyclist
(he once rode Beer-Bike with a broken foot). Lunched with Mark Mellon-Werch on the UT campus, where we ran into PJ Abrams, an old MOB SA buddy.

Stopped by JJ Baskin’s office at SEDL to deliver a baby present only 9 months late and visited with him for a bit before
driving back home.

For those of you whom I missed this trip, I apologize. I’ll catch ya next time. I am now tired. I think I shall sleep.

Monday 19 May 03
BA 2024 departs Houston Bush 4:05pm arrives London Gatwick 7:10am +1 day
Thursday 22 May 03
BA 700 departs London Heathrow 10:50am arrives Vienna 2:10pm
(to Budapest???)
Monday 26 May 03
BA 697 departs Vienna 11:40am arrives London Heathrow 1:05pm
Tuesday 27 May 03
BA 2025 departs London Gatwick 10:00am arrives Houston Bush 2:05pm

Anyone care to volunteer for airport run on the 19th or 27th?

While driving to Austin this evening, just as I was about to cross the Brazos River, I notice some people standing on the railroad tracks. Just some punk kids,
I though at first. But as I got closer, I realized they really were three Punk kids, all dressed in leather: one with a spiked red mohawk, one with an orange
one, and one with a blue one. They just seemed to be standing there talking. What they were doing out in the middle of nowhere like that, I have no clue, nor
how they got there. But not what I expected to see if a fairly rural setting like that old railroad trestle.

Apparently, karaoke is very poular in Huntsville, Alabama; we saw three places just on the stretch of highway by the hotel: Bruce G’s, Mr. C’s, and one whose
name I forgot, because it didn’t fit the pattern. Mr. C’s was where we were Saturday, and although it was ostensibly open only for the wedding folks, there were
quite a few ‘regulars’ there that evening.

Kelli was *not* pleased when I pulled out my cigar…said I could smoke it only if I did a shot. I agreed, and Craig had them make me a Chocolate Cake:
Frangelica and Vodka with a sugared lemon slice. Amazingly enough, when you drink it and then immediately do the lemon, your mouth tastes like you’ve just eaten
chocolate cake.

Of the regulars, some were actually very good, some were ok, and some didn’t realize that the microphone amplifies the human voice, rendering their shouting
unnecessary. The hairstyles tended mainly towards mullets for the men and big hair for the women…and when I say big hair, I mean 80’s Dallas big hair…truly
impressive. There were lots of examples of another phenomena that I don’t think I want to mention on a webpage my parents read.

Our group started off with Monty Python’s “Sit on My Face and Tell Me That You Love Me”. I then did “Chantilly Lace” and Craig did the auction song whose name I
can’t remember, but he did it very well! We managed to live through some excrutiatingly bad AC/DC songs, some very painful dancing by the assembled regulars,
then finally got up again. Craig had a kick-butt “Desperado”, the place fell silent for my “Can’t Help Falling in Love With You”, and erupted in cheers to
Kelli’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”.

It was after midnight, and since I had to leave around 5am to get Ed to the airport, we called it a night.

But I still need to add the chorus of Craig’s song to my Quotes page.

One of the more morbid things my friends and I do from time to time is have a death pool, where you select a bunch of celebrities, and if one of yours dies
first, you win. In the last pool we did, Princess Diana barely beat out my Mother Teresa, and since she died by misadventure, we had to pay double. The way
things worked this time, the three of us went around suggesting names, rejecting anyway that were not known to all of us (I can’t believe they didn’t know who
Leni Reifenstahl was) or that we weren’t sure as to their actual existence (Saddam and Osama). We then did odd-finger to see who went first (George won), then
picked from the list until we each had ten.

George:


  • Pope John Paul II
  • Dan Quayle
  • Charlton Heston
  • Meg Ryan
  • Pete Rose
  • Ronald Reagan
  • O. J. Simpson
  • Walter Cronkite
  • Mick Jagger
  • Dick Cheney

JP:


  • Ed McMahon
  • Hulk Hogan
  • Boris Yeltsin
  • Stephen Hawking
  • Chi Chi Rodriguez
  • Yanni
  • Buzz Aldrin
  • Farah Fawcett
  • Pia Zadora
  • John Edward

Me:


  • Strom Thurmond
  • Yasir Arafat
  • Clint Eastwood
  • Scott Peterson
  • Bill Gates
  • Eminem
  • Lisa Bonet
  • Sean Penn
  • Jeane Kirkpatrick
  • Queen Elizabeth II

Stakes are $30 a person, which is doubled for ‘misadventure’, generally agreed to be some sudden, external event, but must be agreed to by all participants or
else standard payout applies. And, as always, participants may not hasten the demise of any pool entrants.