Tony (a.k.a. BigT, a.k.a. Mr. Britain)
Tony came up to visit us. He would become our first overnight guest. We didn’t have a big itinerary, but there was one thing on his mind: Haywood Banks. As it turned out, the musician/comedian was performing at Nitwit’s Comedy Club (where my bachelor party began) which is blocks from our apartment. We sat through an opener who wasn’t too bad, ordered a couple drinks that I’m sure labeled me as fruity as they tasted, and we talked about live and things.
Then, on to the stage walked one of the goofiest looking people I have ever seen. If you’ve never taken in HB’s physical appearance, it is quite the site. His body seems stretched in comic proportions: too tall, gangly, thin, puffy beard and hair. But he writes clever music, and his jokes (and appearance) reminded me of an amalgamation of Weird Al and Steve Martin. It was a good show, and I bought a grocery bag afterwards.
The next night’s event was a play in Madison. Bob Davidson had a role in “Dearly Departed”, a play about a funeral. The President of DSU played the man who dies in the first scene and is never heard from again. It was pretty good. It was also the first DSU play where I’ve seen a “dialogue coach” listed on the program. Everyone had a southern accent. Also, a large portion of the cast were new faces. We went, we talked to people afterward, we had a good time. The play was a comedy, and it was pretty good. I thought the cast did a very good job.
It was a good weekend. It was nice to have Tony up. We played Rock Band, we ate at Ruby Tuesday’s, we had roast beef sandwiches, and we all made out for like two hours. We did not, however, get any pictures.
Check out the Haywood Banks photoset.
Lost Weekend 1
It had all the makings of disaster. What we had proposed was for a group of friends to sit with us and watch TV on DVD for an entire weekend. Stopping only for food, sleep, and bathroom breaks. How well would it actually go?
As it turned out, it went very well. There’s not much to say about the weekend in general, because all we did was watch TV on DVD. We managed to get through all of season one and into disc 1 of season two. It was interesting to watch people’s reactions to the cliffhangers, twists, and reveals. The show has come a long way since season one, and it was interesting to see some clues that came up later (even in this season) and to see what their relationships were like back then.
The weekend was so successful in getting people hooked, that we cancelled our second weekend. Everyone had gone out on their own and started watching season two because they couldn’t wait. That and a lot of schedules conflicted with our choice of weekend 2.
In a funny side note, I mentioned the lost weekend at a work gathering and came to find out that Scott Lawrence, one of the head honchos at Lawrence & Schiller, is a big Lost fan, and he and his wife have been marathoning their way through the DVDs as well. He even managed to work Lost into a speech he gave at our agency-wide staff lunch.
Check out the Lost Weekend 1 photoset.
Dan
A long time ago, Dan mentioned stopping by around Easter time. Then both Holli and I forgot entirely about it until a couple days before he came down. It was okay. He’d be yet another in the growing line of people who have driven to Sioux Falls for the pleasure of sleeping in our apartment.
The biggest conundrum we faced with Dan’s visit was his Lenten obligations to not eating meat. This meant we had to be creative with our meal choices. We did Valentino’s, Panera Bread, and Skipper’s, all good choices. I can’t remember all that we did. We rented a movie, Gone, Baby, Gone. I didn’t realize what it was about despite having listened to a podcast of two guys reviewing it. But, I liked it. I’m developing more and more respect for Casey Affleck. Check out the movie, unless you don’t like violence, cursing, blood, pedophilia, the Afflecks, children getting hurt, and drug use.
One of the best things about living in Sioux Falls is our ability to host people. Sioux Falls offers a lot more than Madison does, and it is up to Holli and I to figure out what the best things to do in town are for when more people come and visit.