Accents

So my only goal in the softball game on Monday night was simply not to embarrass myself. I mean, I’d played baseball/softball I think maybe three or four times since middle school, so avoidance of self-embarrassment I though would be a reasonable goal. Anyway, we had quite a few people show up despite the 90-degree heat, so that half the team played until the middle of the 4th, and the other half (including me) played out the balance of the 7-inning game. We quickly fell behind 9-0 to St Paul’s Lutheran after two innings, but then slowly started crawling back into it. By the time our team switched halves we’d come back to make it 9-4 after 3 1/2 innings of play. I led off the top of the 5th with an infield single to the 2nd baseman and came around to score two at-bats later, and then scored another run the following inning after getting on with a single dumped into center field. When it was all said and done we (Evangelical Free Church) won 15-9; 15 unanswered runs, now I’d call that a comeback! I was put in at third base and had one grounder hit to me; I didn’t field it cleanly, but I kept it in front of me and prevented the runner from advancing past 1st at least, so that coupled with going 2-for-3 at the plate (third AB was a flyout to left) with two runs, I’d say I avoided embarrassing myself. Mission accomplished. 🙂
Walker Building didn’t have the A/C working the first couple days of this holiday-shortened week, which just happened to coincide with two of the warmest days of the season so far. Great timing. And with no window or fan in the TA office it’s been rather stuffy and miserable up there. At least today the A/C came back on full-time again, though since there’s no vent in our office we’re reliant a lot on cool air seeping in from the hallway, so getting the office more comfortable isn’t exactly a quick process.
I can add another new place to my restaurant list in State College, Red’s Steamed Cheeseburgers. I went there for lunch today with Jeff, Vic, Mario & Daniel, and it was pretty good. And the fries were awesome too (just way too many of them). I dunno, it still doesn’t top Sports Cafe’s 25c wing Tuesdays, which Daniel & I took advantage of this week again as usual. Even though it was easily in the mid-80s we still sat outside since we found some shade. Ahhhh, wings and a beer while sitting outside on a beautiful summer’s day for lunch, this is the life!
My new computer for work arrived today! I took some time this afternoon getting it put together and set up on my new (temporary) desk in 405, though it’s still not on the network yet, and needs a bunch of stuff installed as well. I’ve gotta choose a name for it too (_____.met.psu.edu), so I’m wrestling with trying to come up with something cool. Other computers in the department have names like snowsquall, heatwave, vortex (and various other meteo-related names), sitka and chaos, so should I continue the weather-phenomena trend? Perhaps with hailstreak, blizzard, willywilly or windchill? Or pick something distinctly non-meteo like shadowfax, jackbauer, viking, fjord, eucalypt, whitsunday, wallaby (Aussie nods), beaver, aurora or borealis? Or even pick some sort of obscure Biblical reference? Or perhaps a Minnesota reference, like hennepin, minnehaha, nokomis, itasca or hiawatha? Comments/votes/suggestions would be welcome, though sometime Friday morning I’ll probably have to make an executive suggestion on a name. So many to choose from though, this is gonna be a tough decision… 🙂
The other day I picked up the board game “Cranium” and the DVD “Fargo” at Target with a gift card I had. I’ve only played Cranium once, but really liked it and thought I needed at least a second group game to compliment Apples to Apples. And tonight Daniel & I watched “Fargo” over here at my place. We’ve both seen it before and really like it. It’d been probably eight or nine years since I’d seen it, and now with more perspective all the “Minnesota Nice” mannerisms (and of course the accent!) seem even funnier because they’re so true! I remember when the movie came out a lot of Minnesotans were indignant and claiming they don’t talk like that. Hate to break it to ya fellas, but yes you do talk that way. It may not be *quite* that pronounced (though they didn’t actually embellish the accents in the movie as much as I thought I’d remembered), but once you get out of the Twin Cities and into the country and the small towns, people really do talk that way. Personally I think it’s more charming and enjoyable to listen to than the “hey buddy” central PA accent, but I admit I’m a bit biased here… And occasionally I bust out a word or phrase here or there in the Minnesotan accent (in words such as Minne-SOH-ta, boat, uffda, or roof, for which I constantly get made fun of ever time I say it, hehe). But then again I also do have a tendency to throw in some Aussie slang now and then, just to spice things up.