5 ounces and 9 inches*

It still amazes me that something so small can be worth so much money. Right now, Barry Bonds' home run ball #715 is being auctioned off on eBay. It's at $130,000 right now, but this one is going to go for a lot. It's not every day that someone passes up the Babe. #62 for Big Mac when he surpassed Maris reached 7 digits while #70 fetched 3.3 million.

I'm really not guessing that Bonds will get that high with the whole steriod scandal and all, but you never know. The guy who caught it during the beer run hopes it goes for a fortune, but it just doesn't seem like it's going to go as high as before. I did hear that the winner of this auction gets a free 1 hour 'work out session' at the Bay Labs followed by a Grand Jury testimony 2 months later.

I'll put the over/under at $350,000 .... any takers?

The Dream's Come True

This week is going to be filled (and has been filled) with much excitement.

Last Wednesday, I got a call from an FBI agent when I came home from work. It went something like this:

FBI:"This is [classified name goes here] with the investigation offices in Nebraska, is Brian there?"

BH:*Heart rate climbs: "Yes ... this is him."

FBI:"I need to schedule a meeting with you before the weekend to discuss a very important issue."

BH:*Heart rate doubles: "... and what is this in regards to?"

FBI:"We need to do a background check on James Lewis before he can enter the Air Force."

Needless to say, I was a littel stunned at first, and then relieved. He never really said that he was FBI on the phone, but when I met with him in person, he flashed me his badge to read, exactly like they do in the movies. So, I picked it up and asked, "do you mind?" Then he told me everyone does it. So, I spent a couple of minutes checking out the badge. Let's just say if this guy wasn't FBI, he got some impressive street peddler to make him a good looking fake in downtown NYC.

This leads enough excitement into my busy weekend. After a Saturday party with Christi, it was time to get serious on Sunday. And serious our baseball team got.

We finally did it. We finally won our regular season championship for the LABL. This means one thing: HAYMARKET BABY! (as if you couldn't tell from the above picture)

This is what I've waited for ever since the Panthers joined the LABL. This also means that I'll get to play 9 full innings on the best field in Nebraska.

That's only the beginning of the fun for that week. On Sunday night, we will load up all of the furniture to begin the moving process to Colorado. We'll travel up Monday morning and come home Thursday night. That leaves one day to get everything put together/installed our townhome, and one day to relax and spend more time with Christi before we are apart for a while.

Happy 23^rd

Happy birthday Ben. All of us here in Nebraska hope that it's just as enjoyable in a different state.

HOT!!!

Razing to Raising

First we razed Adam's, and then we raised mine:


I thought mine was big, then mom sent me pictures of the new one at Memorial:

The EE retreat with #1

Sorry for no posts lately. Christi and I had a very busy weekend.

On Thursday, we went in and took a very long multiple question test to make sure that we are compatible on most levels and facets of our relationship. This was followed up by hearing a talk from the worst motivational speaker I've ever heard. I guess I really don't have much experience listening to motivational speakers, but she was a lot worse than Matt Foley. The night consisted of 3 people telling us how to live out our married life. 3 people. 0 wedding rings. It's tough to take advice from people that don't even show signs that they are married.

This led to Friday. I've been dreading this day ever since Christi said that we were going to get married in the Catholic Church. Friday through Sunday was our marriage retreat. 3 days of going over questions and living back in dorm style rooms with unknown roommates.

As we walk into the main room where everyone was seated, I saw someone that I knew. I couldn't believe this. I knew someone at a Catholic retreat weekend in Omaha. I pointed ahead, and said, "Christi, look who it is." She responded with, "Yeah, I know."

At this point, I figure that we are pointing at the same people. Well .... close enough. I saw Jason Dourisseau, she saw his fiancee Summer. We approach them, and Christi starts talking to Summer. I think this is awesome since we'll be hanging out with them all weekend. Out of curiosity, I asked Jason what room he is in. He said '5', and wouldn't you know it, that was the exact room that I was staying in. After examining how many people where at our retreat, I had a 4% chance of getting matched up and roomed with him.

As would be expected, he was a great guy. He was really down to earth and good to get to know. He said that they are getting married in the last weekend of July and then both of them are heading to either Germany or Holland so that he can play some basketball in the European leagues.

Needless to say, I talked to him a lot about basketball, and found out that I was at a bunch of major games like the HS championship, game in Lincoln and Waco where he screwed up his ankle, and most obviously, the game at home where he tore down the hoop against Tennessee.

Long story short, the weekend was actually quite fun. It was a lot better (and different) than I originally throught it was going to be, and having Summer and Jason there helped out a bunch.

The New Definition

Since Adam is moving out in a month, I needed to fill the void that he was leaving behind with his entertainment center. How does one do this? By going out and buying a 50" DLP TV. High Definition will never be the same.

I'm assuming I might be throwing the World Series party for this next year, as well as hosting a couple of football games in the fall. Hopefully this thing looks absolutely sick up in the mountains as well.

It took Adam 2 years to convince Ben to buy a big TV, and it only took him about 2 weeks to get it in my head that it's a good investment. Maybe it's good Ben didn't get one. It probably wouldn't have made it during trip #1 to Charlotte.

Best Header of the Cup

I love Zidane to death. I've loved this guy since I saw him dominate in the '98 championship. The two headers he had in that game were amazing and helped the French beat Brazil 3-1.

Those might have been good, but nothing compares to the header that he had in OT yesterday. How do you decleat someone just using your head? Click play below to find out.

Just chillin' at the Holiday Inn

Sorry for this extremely long post, but hopefully it is worth a couple of minutes of your enjoyment. I saw 3 new Holiday Inn commercials over the past week, and they are just hilarious. But, going back into the 90's, the Inn produced some classic ones as well:



After working with ad/marketing people at SI during the last school year, they've always told me the 'Identity Theft' commercials are the best produced. You can't complain with these though. Especially the Jeopardy and Whale ones.

Independence

On this 4^th of July edition of blogging, I would like to give a big birthday shoutout to my dad. Dad finally caught up with mom, and hit the big 5-0. Him having his birthday on the 4^th in the 4^th of July town is really fun and stuff like that doesn't happen to a lot of people.

I have to head into town quick to see him, watch the float to see a future presidential nominee (Hagel), drink some juleps, watch some fireworks, etc.

In my absence, and for anyone who's reading this on the 4^th instead of going out and having some fun, here's a couple of things to make your day:

Drew's Bachelor Party

I get to be the host with the most tonight, and it's going to be great. I still can't believe that Drew's getting married though. It's amazing, but at the same time, it really reminds me that I need to start thinking of what I'm going to say for a toast ....

Ben was talking to me a couple of months ago, and told me that he gets a couple of hundred spam emails per month. I didn't think I'd be anywhere close to that, but then I thought I delete a couple of emails a day that are spam. I came to find out that I have 200 plus per month. This is shocking since I've never even used this account to order anything online or signup for anything. The only thing that I can think is that when people send me forwards, my email gets sent to everyone else, then everyone else, then .... you get the idea.

The Clique

Ben VanKat
Troy Bell
Chris VanKat

Archives

April 2005
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008