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Thu, 27 Apr 2006
I have been remiss in posting hash trashes. Here is one from April 19. This was NGB's pre-7-mile bridge hash, so it had
a strong 7 theme to it. There was no 7&7, though. We met about 0.5 miles
from my house, so I rode over there by bike. There was a strong turnout
from Ft. Lauderdale, perhaps due to the resounding success of the hash awards?
Anyway there were lots of people and cheap beer. NGB took the usual 15
minute head start, afterwhich we set out to catch her. I was doing well, and
got most of the checks right. And even the ones I missed, I was able to
catch up on. I think DBK passed me three or four times. The beer check
turned out to be at Coasters, a neighborhood bar on Dixie. They seemed
happy to see us, although we did run them out of beer mugs. I don't mind
drinking out of a styrofoam cup.
The second half was mostly a straight shot back to the start. The circle went
well, with Yeast presiding. Lots of quality down-downs. And them back to
Coasters to finish off the evening.
posted at: 07:28 | permalink |
Sun, 23 Apr 2006
The 25th running of the 7 Mile Bridge Run was as good as ever. Of course, this was only the second year I've actually run it. I was legally
registered, unlike a lot of my friends (cough) bandit (cough). This was the
last year for camping at the Knight's Key campground, because some greedhead
developer bought it, and the low-rent camping will be turned into high-end
condos ("from the low 800's" or some such).
But we enjoyed the camping anyway, and on Saturday morning we all walked over
to the start. I (and a lot of other people) had to use the port-o-lets. I
made it to the start with a minute or two to spare. All of the number-less
bandits were starting at the back of the pack, but I moved up a little. There
was a bang, and we were off!
I ran a slow pace this year, about a 10 minute mile. The run isn't too hard
when you go that slow. The pack gradually thinned out, and before I knew it,
the finish line was coming up.
I met some friends and we watched more friends come in. There were only two
people we know who suffered the indignity of being picked up by the bus. They
were still on the course 90 minutes after the start, so they got a free bus
ride. There were some non-runners in our group who had brought their cars
over the bridge before the start of the race, so we piled into their cars and
went back to the start. The beer (various flavors of Michelob Ultra) was
flowing at the start, and the racers were partying. I saw lots more people
from home that I knew, and we even ran into Karen.
We finally walked back to the campground to get out of the sun. Most people
were napping or swimming. We socialized for a while, and finally broke camp
and headed down to Key West. Where the story continues...
posted at: 13:18 | permalink |
Mon, 17 Apr 2006
We went back to the range on Saturday afternoon. We've been going out to shoot by the canals, but have been hearing from
other people that the sherrifs are starting to run people off of there. So
we went to the local range. Last year the range started requiring people to
use only range ammo (which you have to buy from them). So I can't use a box
of Winchester 9mm that I buy at Walmart for $6. Instead I have to pay them
$12 for a box of reloads. To justify this they have a couple blown-up
revolvers on display. Of course, the revolvers were blown up by someone
shooting hot handloads, but that's beside the point.
This was my first time firing Rob's new Ruger .22 pistol. It was very smooth.
After shooting the 9 mm, the .22 felt as though it had almost no recoil. And
it was pretty accurate. Mostly, though, I shot my S&W Sigma 9 mm. I put
around 200 rounds through it.
Rob had
these cool new stick-on targets. They have some kind of coating on them that
pops off when you hit them, so it's really obvious when you have a hit.
Here's a before-and-after of my target after I blazed away at it at 15 yards.
That's the other thing I don't like about indoor ranges: they're so short.
And you can't shoot at washing machines there, either.
posted at: 07:24 | permalink |
Sun, 16 Apr 2006
The 2006 South Florida Hash Award ceremony was held on Saturday night. Me and C. stopped to pick up PH, CC and SF on the way down to Miami. We had
all opted to skip the run portion of the day's events, and just do the
food and the awards.
We finally got to south Miami, and headed east on the
Rickenbacker Causeway to the old Marine Stadium. There was nobody in sight,
but we did find a parking lot of hash vehicles, and a cooler full of beer that
someone had thoughtfully left behind. We hung around for a while, more lost
hashers appeared, and eventually SotB appeared to lead all of us to Jimbos.
Jimbos was a colorful place near the water. I don't know the story behind it,
but it has the look of one of those places that was grandfathered in, like
the Biscayne Bay stilt houses. A location like that should really be a 30
story condominium instead of a simple place where you can go to get a beer and
sit outside.
There were lots of hashers we hadn't seen for a while, but the most shocking
of all was... Blowhoe. He was in town for a while. He moved from Hollywood,
Fl a couple years ago, to Hollywood, CA. He is now appearing as a rapping
roller skater. Check him out at
www.rollerrapper.com. We took lots of photos for his site.
Then it was time for the group shot. Someone, possibly Jimbo himself,
climbed up on a table to get the shot. The crowd was encouraging for a while,
but began to mock him when he took way too long to get it done.
One the way out I took a moment to appreciate this monument to the VW bug.
Back at the parking lot, the circle commenced. We matched up Blowhoe's
girl-of-the-day with another young hasher. They did a co-down-down, but
despite plenty of encouragement, would not fight or kiss.
There were plenty of other down-downs as well, although S&Minator was not able
to stay awake for them. Horshack did have a nice drinking vessel, and Itsy
pants were just a masculine as ever. Which is to say, not at all.
Then the party moved inside for food, beer, and the awards ceremony. I stopped
taking pictures around then. There were twenty awards given out, for all kinds
of things, like Rookie of the Year (DBK), and Best Ranger (CA). It was a
grand time. There were some skits, too, including one with me in the cast.
Fortunately you don't have to see me in a bikini top, but check out P-rick and
Yeast. Then they ran us out of there for the Latin Disco Party.
posted at: 13:18 | permalink |
The annual Race For The Arts 5K run was yesterday morning. Linda is heavily involved as the webmaster, and has other duties as well.
I hadn't pre-registered, so I rode my bike down to get there by 6:45 am so
I could pay my $25. Linda was gettting her school's artwork up. The
amphitheater was still mostly
empty.
I helped Brent set up a few tables. Dean was open for business at the soda
stand. And TJ was getting ready to race. Pretty soon we crowded up to the
start line.
The tension mounted, and then we were off. I didn't get any photos of the
race itself. I ran an easy race, next to Mark. I was a little slower than
I was in the Race for the Cure, but I felt a whole lot better.
Afterward we listened to the music for a while. Kit recovered on the curb.
And I saw GD for the first time since the InterBash. The IHOP was there with
pancakes, and I won a four-volume set of Harry Potter books in the raffle.
All in all, it was a good morning.
posted at: 11:24 | permalink |
Sat, 15 Apr 2006
We tallied up all the votes for the Misc Awards. After the regular four miler at Run and
Roll, we met at the Dwarf. Mark logged me into the
hash web site as an admin,
and I tallied the votes. Then Sheldon and Gary showed up. What are the
odds?
posted at: 14:07 | permalink |
Rob got himself a new Ruger Mk III pistol. It's a .22 pistol so he can do cheap target shooting. If you're not familiar
with these (I wasn't) Ruger has been making them in various versions since
1949. This one has a fluted bull barrel, which should make it more accurate.
It also has an amazing amount of safety features. It comes with a little
hex-type key that will lock the safety in the "safe" position. It has a
magazine disconnect so it won't fire without a magazine inserted. And it has a
chamber loaded indicator so you can tell if there's a round in the chamber.
The internal workings must be pretty complex. At one point Rob pulled out
the "jackknife" style breakdown mechanism in the grip, but then he couldn't
get it back together. There was something rattling around in there, and he
had to fiddle with it for a while. Eventually he got it working, and we went
off to try it out.
posted at: 13:38 | permalink |
Thu, 13 Apr 2006
I thought they were remaking the Italian Job. Again. I was on my way home, when I saw a car carrier full of Mini Coopers. And not
these fancy new BMW-style Minis, but the original, tiny, underpowered ones.
I have no idea what was going on. There was no name on the car carrier.
Maybe it was someone moving to Florida and bringing their Mini collection with
them? I know I didn't see any advertising for a demolition derby for dwarves.
I guess the conspiracy nuts will have fun with this.
posted at: 07:38 | permalink |
Mon, 10 Apr 2006
Here's a Barracuda I saw out at the fairgrounds on Saturday. It looked totally stock, with simple silver paint. It was parked next to a
new Corvette, and as we walked away, the Corvette owner walked up to his car.
He spent a long time checking out the Barracuda. Me and Rob were trying to
decide which car we'd rather be driving. I finally decided on the 'Cuda, but
Rob went for the 'Vette.
posted at: 07:07 | permalink |
Sun, 09 Apr 2006
The Reggae Hash was better than ever this year! At least that's what I heard, since I didn't go last year. We all met up in
the Head's back yard (where did we meet last year?). Lots of hashers from
down south, including the one-and-only OP.
The first half was a familiar one, since it was in Lake Worth. We went east,
south, west, north, and then east over the bridge. The beer check was under
the east end of the bridge. It was hot, but there was plenty of coconut with
lime in it to cool everybody down. On the way back we timed things just right
for a quick like-down in the street.
The second half went pretty much straight back to the Head's house. Which was
find with the pack. Then the knife came out. I had given OP and GH a ride
to the St. Paddy's Day hash, and afterward I found this nasty-looking Gerber
in my car. I asked both OP and GH about it, but they denied knowing anything
about it. GH grabbed the knife for himself, though, and began threatening
OP with it. I'm sure it was all in good fun.
After we got the knife put away, the down-downs began. Yeast had set up a
whole bunch of Red Stripe in cups to facilitate the process. The circle
virgin (Nicole?) did a nice job on her down-down, although we only got a joke
and not a body part. Lots more down-downs followed.
Plenty of standing around in the sun. GH kept his new knife close at hand.
There was even a new song for the occasion. Yeast had printed up copies of
it and handed them around, and we all joined in.
Eventually we adjourned to the front of the house to watch GH ride his bike.
Amazingly, no one was hurt. The hashers that were motivated wandered on
down to the park where Reggae Fest was playing, to party on into the night,
and some others of us just headed on home.
posted at: 13:38 | permalink |
Sat, 08 Apr 2006
Here's a couple portraits I took with my new camera phone. This one has a flash built in, so the close-up photos look much better. I
had lunch with my dad, and I got a shot of him while I was showing him the
phone. He just got a Samsung phone from Verizon, and he loves it. He's still
working on the voice mail, though. The other picture is of my cow-orker
Bart. We had lunch a couple days later, and I got some shots of him. This
is the best one. The flash defintely helps.
posted at: 21:45 | permalink |
Here's my desk at work. That's right, this is where the magic happens. There's some race numbers
up on the wall, and a cup that Linda made me, and of course my monitor and
keyboard. Some pictures of Linda, and one of me with Lisa and Holly. This
is one of the first photos I took with my new Nokia 6682 phone (1.3 megapixel).
posted at: 21:41 | permalink |
Fri, 07 Apr 2006
Linda's butterfly hatched. She found him on her milkweed plants when he was a caterpillar, and she stuck
him in the butterfly cage with some nice milkweed leaves to munch on. Then he
turned himself into a chrysalis, and then we waited for three weeks. We were
leaving the house on Thursday, when I noticed there was a butterfly in the
butterflay cage. So Linda reached in and grabbed him (he didn't want to come
out), held him for a moment, and then he flew off into the grapefruit tree.
He rested for a couple minutes, and then he was on his way.
posted at: 22:07 | permalink |
Thu, 06 Apr 2006
It was New Beer's Eve last night, better known as the 67th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition. Yeast gave
us all a history lesson, culminating in the New Beer's Eve FCAT. We met
behind the Publix, with a good-sized turnout of 30+ people. In honor of New
Beer's Eve, Yeast had provided Natty Lite. I got some photos as the sun was
setting.
Yeast was away promptly at 7:10,
and we followed him after a decent interval. The first half was mucho shiggy,
winding through the Pinehurst mountain bike trails, and then crossing the
street into the equestrian park. The pack had some idea of where they were
going, so the pace was quick, with not a lot of time solving the checks.
After just 3.27 miles we arrived at the beer check, on a secluded lake in the
equestrian park. As we stood around refreshing ourselves we saw a curious
site in the distance. It was the walkers, but they were ... running?
Apparently there is a quite a push in the walker community to get properly
trained for the upcoming 7 Mile Bridge run.
Pretty soon we left the beer check, for a more-or-less straight run back to
the cars, where more Natty Lite awaited us. We had a decent circle, with
Plop keeping the crowd under control. There were several returning NFHNs,
and even a hash hottie. Things are going well in the new hasher department.
Then Duffy's, then home.
For once my prediction was pretty close. The prediction is on the left, and
the actual trail is on the right. I got the mountain bike trail and the
equestrian trail, but Yeast opted to skip Okeeheelee after that.
posted at: 07:31 | permalink |
I made up some prototype hash decals and I took them out to the run last night. I thought they looked pretty
good, but AC had to go and point out the mistake. Can you spot it? Hint: the
phone number is wrong. D'oh! I used some laser printable labels to make them.
Actually, Linda did most of the work. They seem to be mostly waterproof, but
I don't know how long they will last in the sun. The initial plan is to take
them down to the Keys in a few weeks, and slap them up in bars.
posted at: 07:18 | permalink |
Wed, 05 Apr 2006
I wasn't sure what that was in the back yard when I got home today. I could see some orange and blue, but couldn't make out any details. As I
got closer it began to look like a cat sleeping on something. Then I saw
it was Martha lounging on top of Linda.
posted at: 18:08 | permalink |
Mon, 03 Apr 2006
I saw a really cool Audi this weekend. I think it's an Audi TT, but I really don't know a lot about Audis. The wheels
and the blacked-out trim give it a nice look.
posted at: 07:04 | permalink |
Sun, 02 Apr 2006
The Island surf shop is sponsoring the hash. At least it looks that way. I was downtown on Sunday afternoon to go by
Fat Cat bike shop, and I saw this on Island's sign. I don't know what it
really is, but it sure looks like they're saying "On On".
posted at: 20:36 | permalink |
Sat, 01 Apr 2006
The Gators are going to the NCAA finals! Again. We saw the game at the Old House on Saturday night. Just like the
last time (in 2000) I didn't pay too much attention to the tournament, because
I figured they would get knocked out. But when they were still in it after
the quarters I figured I had to go see the semifinal game. They were in
control pretty much all the way. They were in such good shape at the finish
that the final three minutes went by quickly. I guess George Mason didn't
think there was any point to fouling them to get the ball back. Finals are
Monday night. Go Gators!
posted at: 21:31 | permalink |
Thu, 30 Mar 2006
P-rick set another trail on Wednesday. This was (I think) his fourth one, but it was probably his worst. He made
the classic mistake of going way too long between marks. Add to that him
using GH as a co-hare, and you have the recipe for disaster. I still would
have been okay, except I ended up with a virgin hasher and an NFHN hasher.
The virgin was pretty slow, and was walking by the end. After we had done
six miles we finally got to where the beer check had been, but the pack had
already left. Fortunately, at just that moment, Circumspector called to
see where the hash was. So I asked her to come and pick us up and take us to
the end. And she did. So the circle was okay, but there was a lot of P-rick
abuse.
My GPS died after about a mile, because I forgot to charge it up, but I filled
in the trail by hand. The pink is the GPS track, and the yellow is what I
drew in. The start was at Run and Roll. AI was there, and he was ready
to run.
These are the two hashers I was on trail with. I think they'll keep coming
back. Although all of the pictures I had of the girl were of her sitting down
resting. And finally a shot of the pack before the circle, as they dreamed up
accusations against P-rick.
posted at: 07:41 | permalink |
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