My weekend was pretty awesome, if I must say so myself.

Friday night we hung out with the Chapmans for happy hour at Baby Acapulco’s, and after a massively confusing series of people driving other people to various homes, went to karaoke at the Canary Hut Pub. I sang a Travis Tritt song, then later accompanied Bobbi Jo on stage for the male part in “Love Shack,” my all-time least favorite song, but I never realized how prominent the male vocals are and was given critical acclaim for my performance.

Saturday we went to the Beagle Brigade at the dog park, then stopped off for Torchy’s for brunch.  Afterwards I swung on up to Dell Diamond, home of the Triple-A minor-league Round Rock Express, affiliate for the Texas Rangers. At their annual FanFest, I was allowed down on the field to take batting practice and see if I could swat a home run using a wooden bat, batting off of none other than one of Nolan Ryan’s sons (don’t know for sure if it was Reid or Reese). All my pitches seemed to be low and outside, but I made decent contact on a few flies to the outfield after pitifully swinging and foul-tipping the first pitch into the dirt.  That night we went out for delicious Indian food at the Clay Pit with the Viviritos, and later visited BB Rover’s Pub where we sampled a few of the 300+ beers available.  Always nice when I can get a bottle of Summit EPA just down the street!

Sunday we boned up on our Seinfeld knowledge for that evening’s big annual Seinfeld Trivia night at the Highball.  I was a nervous wreck when we got there once I saw how many other “experts” there were.  Basically, if you haven’t seen every episode 25 times, this trivia night wasn’t for you.  Do you know the real life name of Izzy Mandelbaum?  Do you know the Seinfeldism for a non-Jewish woman being lusted after in a room of Jewish men?  Do you know who Yev Kasem is?  Can you name at least eight fictional movie titles that start with A, B, or C that were used on the show?  Or can you name the actress who played the masseuse by listening to a random five-second audio clip?  These were amongst our many questions.  With the help of Lauren, Brian, Mike, and Kristin, our squad named Golden Boy (Jerry’s favorite t-shirt) finished tied for eighth out of 36 teams.  Perhaps the most difficult part of the night was the five of us agreeing on a team name, as everyone wanted to be cleverly obscure.  I really wish I would have thought of this before, but “Barring Some Unforeseen Incident” would have been a great team name.

Individually, I went up on stage for a bonus elimination game at the end of the night.  Twelve contestants took turns rattling off original episode titles until only one person remained.  I finished fourth, successfully naming The Pen, The Peurto Rican Day Parade, The Glasses, The Cheever Letters, and several others before being unfairly dismissed for my answer of The Keys: Part II.

The night was very stressful for me.  I just couldn’t believe that we weren’t winning; I knew almost all the answers.  But at the same time I was having a great time, very much in my element.  For the past 24 hours since it ended, I haven’t been able to stop dwelling on my few wrong answers!  I need to find a local Jason LaPlant-type person for next year, which will be the fourth annual Seinfeld Trivia night.  We intend to start studying in February and try our luck again!

Here's me on the left field grass at Dell Diamond, home of the AAA Round Rock Express.
The visual round of the Seinfeld quiz. This was by far the easiest of the 8 rounds.
This is what a minor-league left fielder would see at Dell Diamond.
There was also a huge car show going on outside Dell Diamond. Here is a car that set some sort of land speed record.
Lauren is always experimenting with hot new eats, treats, and bevs. Here's her attempt at infusing jalapenos into Sauza tequila.
Not forgotten on Friday morning was Small Hound, who accompanied me to Callaway. Everyone was very impressed with how much calmer, more well-behaved, and larger Baxter was since his previous visit.