April 19, 2004
I didn't do much this year, since I spent Friday night and a large portion of Saturday with the spare (donut) tire on my car.* Finally got to Sig Tau at about 5:30, checked out the midway before it closed, then went to dinner at My Thai in Shadyside. Good, but expensive.
Anyway, the guys got a little over-ambitious with the booth this year, trying to build a two-story structure (Wallace and Grommit's house) and a game that looks like an even-more-complicated life-sized version of Mouse Trap. (And it worked almost as well.) They took fifth place, the top three get trophies. Thus, they were the second-best also-ran. I heard from a couple people that they don't think they can win with a single-story booth, but we've demostrated many times over the years that we can't win when we bite off more than we can chew, either.
Heh. "We". I haven't touched a booth since 1999. I don't think I get to use "we" any more.
After that I stayed at the party long enough for "Piano Man", then my antisocial-ness trumped my desire to see everyone and I went home. Had dinner at Silky's with Tristan Sunday night and that was it. I don't mind that I missed everything, really. I've realized over the last couple years that I'm really getting sick of doing this every year. If I'm in DC (like I'm planning) this time next year I think I'll just skip it. Taking one year off out of 10 doesn't seem like too big of a loss.
* OK, quick addendum on the spare tire. I spent last winter slipping and sliding all over the road, then noticed last week that my front right wasn't holding air very well. I decided to go in Saturday and get a new set put on. Friday on the way home from work I got to hear that wonderful "thwupthwupthwupthwup" noise and pulled onto an Ellsworth sidewalk to change the tire. Then proceeded to kick the shit out of the wheel until it loosened (it had been a while since I had the tires rotated). Anyway, I got it to NTB Saturday and here are the results of the tread-depth measurement. You need 2/32" to pass inspection.
FL: 1/32"
FR: (blown)
BL: 1/32"
BR: 3/32"
So yeah, new tires were a good idea.
