Dinhternet

I can’t believe you’re yelling at me to update when you know I had to wake up early to go to a service project, Peggy. For shame!

Yesterday… jumped online for a bit in the morning. Downloaded the new Naruto and Bleach episodes, but I haven’t watched them yet. Read more Cryptonomicon. Hopefully I’ll finish that soon. After that, I’m gonna go to the library and see if they have the Baroque Cycle. If not, I suppose I’ll have to get it from Border’s or something. And re-read Snow Crash in the meantime. I’m not sure where that one is, though. I think Eddie C’s still borrowing it.

Ran some errands in the afternoon. Ended up at the bank just as Joe was getting off work. The ensuing conversation is quote for the day.

He did the later. We headed over to his place together and I took a gander at the router set-up. It was a little weird, but I got it working… kinda. The wireless seems to be on the fritz, but we got it to work with his good ol’ Cat-5 connector. Thanks to Tom for helping us out by getting the drivers for us.

After that, watched a couple of AMVs and then Ian came over and the three of us went to Costco and then the mall. I got some burritos and some body wash. It’s funny… I didn’t remember until I got home… my microwave is broken, so I can’t take full advantage of the frozen burrito goodness.

TAK was gonna go to the drive-in to watch Wedding Crashers, but we told them how bad of an experience we had last year at the fellowship there, so instead we all went over to the house. I brought Jeremy’s burnt Family Guy movie, but it didn’t seem to work. Must be a bad burn or something. Instead, we just watched the last couple of episodes from the new season. Oh, and I tried to do some service stuff at the same time. Stuff can really creep up on you! Especially because of how the 31st is kinda hidden on the calendar.

I was going to just chill and watch the movie and go home early and sleep and be a responsible SVP. But then Michelle kept insisting that I drink more and more with her. There was a service shot, a Laguna shot… man… I was stupid. And then… she started 7-11-Double. And my plans went down in flames.

I think everyone got nicely toasted last night. Joe M and Paul did jump kicks and passed out. Brandon started pulling his pants off again. Mabel would alternately shove dollar bills down my pants and jump on me (without warning me first about either). All while Lin was trying to watch Lilo and Stitch again.

I ended up not getting home until… 2. They were still drinking and stuff, but I had to go. Took Lin home, too, so that took a bit. When I got home, saw that Peggy was online, so I came back from away real fast to say good night to her. And ended up talking to her until 6:45 in the morning. Well, I can’t blame it entirely on her. I had to do some more service stuff, too. And sip water to make sure I wasn’t going to be hungover SVP at the project. But she doesn’t know that. It’s all your fault, Peggy!

Oh yeah, and I just remembered a quote from the day before that I just have to share. It comes from when Mommy Tang randomly ran up to me at Jason G’s Farewell BBQ.

And then she talked about the consequences of the last time I told [someone] [something]. I’m sorry, moms. But it was too funny! (The last time and this.) Mommy Tang randomly reminded me again throughout the BBQ not to tell. And Mommy Van, I don’t appreciate your implications.

Hey, no one’s yelled at me to update yet. Awesome!

So what went down yesterday? I woke up naturally at around 9:30, but Peggy insisted I sleep until at least 11, so I kept forcing myself back to sleep until about 12:30. Of course the first thing I do is to hop online and write a post for Dinh-starved fans. Checked other people’s blogs, too.

Then I started reading Cryptonomicon again, but it was slow going, because I kept one eye on my monitor for stray IMs. Thu H messaged me and insisted my “Reading for pleasure” away message meant I was reading porn. When I asked how that was possible, she said I was reading trashy romance novels with pornographic illustrations. I didn’t even know those existed.

Read for a couple more pages, and then Peggy started distracting me. I chatted with her until it was time for Jason G’s BBQ. Damn, I’m never going to finish that book! Good thing I’m not really in a hurry, having read it already and all.

Again, I was one of the first to get to the BBQ. But no grilling for me this time, Will Oh handled that. Stepped inside the lounge, where the guys were playing Magic and the girls were doing crosswords. It’s just like CoHo!

Slowly, more and more people came, and the crosswords and Magic cards were packed up, and things got a bit more social. Except for me. I did a lot of sitting and watching. Just didn’t feel like talking much.

The BBQ was probably the biggest APhiO event yet this summer, which is ironic, since it was unofficial. I hadn’t seen a lot of these people around. Like Vince! He is yesterday’s quote.

Poor Trung. Mommy Tang thinks that just because she had so many of us, we’re expendable.

BUt going back to what I said, so many people there I haven’t seen in a while. Why aren’t you guys signing up for service? Man, if half the people there did duck sales, we’d be getting a lot closer to our goal of 500 ducks a day. I hope that doesn’t mean you guys aren’t going to be doing service when the term really starts again. Another irony is that the BBQ was supposedly for Jason G, but he was gone for the majority of it. He was busy packing and lying to people about being stuck back in Oakland. I don’t think he even ate any of his food.

Left the thing around 9 to go back to my place for Victoria’s thing. It’s funny how Victoria complained that she needed more girls and told us to invite them, but her party was majority girls. Had the obligatory birthday shot with her and then I ran upstairs. It’s weird… I just didn’t feel like drinking when there was liquor in front of me, and plenty of people to drink with. The night before was the exact opposite.

So yeah, just stayed at my computer and chatted with Peggy. It was really nice up here. The AC was on for the first time this year, because it was so hot downstairs, but we didn’t want to open the doors and windows and risk a noise violation. Ran down occasionally to say hi to people I knew, and to sing Happy Birthday to Victoria. Not that she would have noticed if I wasn’t there. She was pretty messed up by that point. I hope she feels alright for the beginning for her LONG drive to Ohio today.

So yeah… chatted with Peggy until 4 in the morning, and then we passed out.

Jason G, have fun in Japan. Victoria, I know you’re gonna kick ass in law school!

I know I said I wouldn’t, but what the hell… one more post to be truly and completely caught up.

Woke up this morning and got ready for the Special Olympics project. I could hardly contain my excitement. Had a solid breakfast of cold corn on the cob, made myself a Nalgene of Gatorade (I bought the powder the other day), and got picked up by Jackie. We picked up Eric at the Colleges and met up with Alan’s car, and then we were off. It’s funny how Eric’s e-mail said, “I have no idea where Old Sac is, I hope the drivers know how to get there,” and he allocated an hour for the drive. Jackie was lead car because Alan didn’t know how to get there, either, but he passed her up at one point, so we took a roundabout way to get there. But were still on time, so that’s cool.

On the way up from the parking structure, Mommy Tang was about to try to go up a down escalator. Everyone yelled at me for stopping her short of getting on it, but later she got me a bag of candy from Sweet Factory, so I think I made the right call.

We met up with Laurie, the contact, and she gave us an overview of the Duck Regatta and what we were supposed to do. For those of you that don’t know, we’ll be selling these ducks for the next two weeks. Well, I guess “selling” isn’t the right term, since we want people to “adopt” the rubber duckies. Quote comes from just that issue. (Pardon me for jumping out of chronology for a moment.)

Yeah, doesn’t really sound like “adopting,” does it?

But yeah, to continue, we get people to adopt these rubber duckies, and then on August 6th, we release them all from the I Street Bridge and let them float down to the Tower Bridge, where oil booms funnel them into cages, and the first five into the cage win prizes. So it’s a glorified and cutsified raffle, really.

Laurie took off after asking us several times if we were “pumped” and we all droned, “yes,” back to her. I don’t think she was very convinced. Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention that she told us our group goal would be to sell 500 ducks today, so that meant seventy-five ducks per person! It shouldn’t be a problem, though, because people love Special Olympics. And they tend to buy Quack Packs (sets of five) and Quacker’s Dozens (sets of twelve, obviously).

I think we were all a bit intimidated, but we did our best. It was pretty rough for some of us at first, especially those who aren’t really used to giving sales pitches, but I think it got easier after we all got numbed to rejection, as well as picking up on what works and what doesn’t work. Mommy Tang was a beast and sold almost the same as the rest of us combined. Kevin was also very popular, earning a solid second place.

Around noon, started sending people off in groups of three to take a lunch break and move cars, since there was only one free parking permit for two cars, so we had to keep validating and moving the second car. People took a bit longer than I would have liked for their breaks, but I can’t say I blame them for wanting to stay out of the triple-digit heat.

Eric and I were the last to take breaks, and although I wasn’t hungry, I knew I had to force myself to eat, so I got some Panda Express, since they have the largest drink cups in all of Fast-food-dom. Oh, and my fortune cookie said, “Make those special talents you have work like a charm.”

Back to the grinder after that. I think sales were at their lowest in the afternoon heat. And people got ruder, too. I mean, it’s cool if you don’t want to buy a duck, but there was a couple standing next to our tent heckling us for a good hour. What the hell is your problem that you make fun of volunteers trying to raise money for Special Olympics?!

I tried to make sure everyone was cycling so they all got breaks in the shade, they all got enough to drink, and just were as happy as could be in the situation. Laurie collected our sales at 4 (we had sold ninety-eight ducks at that point), and took off. We were supposed to stay until 5, when the Bridge to Bridge Festival officially ended. (We sold another twelve ducks in that time, making a grand total of 110. Only slightly less than our goal of 500.)

Cool random stuff I noticed at the festival… the Wild Bill cars. Starbucks’ Green Tea Frap. And of course, the stunt tank we were set up next to. They had an act called the “Human Torch” where a diver wearing a 100% cotton suit put on a cape that had been soaked in gasoline, climbed ten meters into the air, was lit on fire by a small explosive, and then jumped into a pool. They also had a different guy dive from twenty meters. Keep in mind this is all into a portable pool about ten feet deep.

So yeah, when the project ended, we just kinda threw everything back into the plastic bins that Laurie had under the table, and then folded up the table and left it there. I’m surprised she didn’t want to take the stuff with her. Kinda want to see if the stuff will be there tomorrow. Back to the cars and the magic that is air conditioning as quickly as our sore and, in some cases, burned legs would take us.

Oh, and some advice for people selling ducks in the future… try to have change to break a $20. The Rio City Cafe, which we were next to, got sick of us asking. (They must have broken at least $100 for us in the span of two hours, so I don’t blame them.) Small restaurants in the area were too stingy to give us their small bills. So yeah, if you come with $5s and $10s, life will be easier for you. Unless you actually get people who want to buy Quack Packs or Quacker’s Dozens. And believe me, those are few and far between. Also, keep track of your change, because I lost the $20 I was using.

Anyways, back to Davis. I was still freaking hot, so I suggested going swimming. Went home to change into trucks, and I picked up Thu H and Drew on the way. We met Jackie already in the Chaparral pool and hung out there for over an hour. Oh, and Diana Pham was there having a BBQ with some friends. Mommy Tang stopped by to say hi to us, but didn’t say hi to her.

After swimming, everyone but me was hungry. Dropped Drew off at his place, since he was going to Hot Pot City with a bunch of folks. Jackie, Thu H, and I showered and then went to IHOP in Dixon. They ate, I sat and chilled with them.

Back to my place, and as Jackie dropped me off, Jason G was in my driveway, so I stood outside and chatted with him for a while. Eventually he went home to do some more homework, and I went inside and took care of some service stuff. Then I wrote post after post after post.

And now I think I’m going to go pass out. Good night, all!

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention… no hives at all today! I carried pills around all day just in case, and never had to use them. OK, good night for real now!