Where do I come up with these ideas?  Why go to Austin in January with no particular reason in particular?  Well, conversely, why not?  I couldn't find a reason why not to, so I started planning...Austin, here I come.

Time to take a trip back...senior year of high school, spring 2000.  Best friends of mine Andrew Lund and Rob Harvey apply to their grand total of one college each (University of Texas) and had their college plans in place.  Out of the schools I applied to (TCU, SMU, Texas A&M, and North Carolina) I, as you know, chose TCU.  Now, I've lost contact with many people since leaving Marcus High School, but I can say for a fact Andrew and Rob are not in that category.  Friendship is a strong bond, even when you go to different colleges.  But I couldn't stay away:  since going to college, I've made six weekend jaunts to Austin, Texas to visit the "locals."  Let's review:

Trip # 1:  Fall Freshman Year, October 2000.  Geoff and I flew down to Austin, him to visit his brother and sister, me to visit Andrew and Rob.  Transportation was difficult; neither of them had a car.  I stayed in their dorm room in Prather Hall, which is in the shadow of Jester.  I got a campus tour, Trivial Pursuit at Metro coffee shop on Guadalupe, and found our long-lost friend Dan Grimes who lives in Austin.

Trip # 2:  Fall Sophomore Year, October 2001.  This time, I drove with Scott Hatter to Austin, primarily for the purpose of holding our fantasy baseball summit, Yorkis (modeled after Yalta).  We bowled, mini-golfed, ate at Threadgill's, had breakfast tacos at GM Steakhouse, watched the Texas-OU game, and made executive decisions pertaining to The Real League.

Trip # 3:  July 2002:  I wanted to attend the Section Conclave in San Marcos, but couldn't go Friday night.  Instead, I flew to Austin Saturday afternoon, ate lunch with Dan at Guero's, and then he and Andrew drove me to San Marcos.  Total time in Austin:  probably 5 hours, but it counts.

Trip # 4:  August 2002:  Randomly, Joe Orbock (Andrew and Rob's other roommate) decides to go to Austin for the weekend.  Hey, I'm doing nothing, I'll go.  Also in Austin were Erin "Rufus" Roof and Laura Zielewski, old friends from high school.  Joe's dad took his truck to the movies, so we didn't leave Highland Village until 10:30, rolling into Austin at 2am.  Also on this trip, I met the much-talked-about Lauren (see photo at right).

Trip # 5:  December 2002:  Again, a random trip.  Andrew's 21st birthday was December 28, so Rob and I surprised him in Austin for it.  We didn't leave the apartment complex much.  I met the famous man named Johnson, who introduced the guys to the "Knowledge Bowl" in his hometown of Victoria, Texas.

Trip # 6:  January 24-26, 2003!!!

Here we go!  I arrived at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport at 3:30pm.  Rob and Lauren picked me up at the airport, which is only about 10 minutes from their apartment complex, Sterling University Village on Oltorf.  Andrew had to take off for work at Ivory Cats around 5, but Rob kept me entertained.  Another Austin character, Tommy, came over for some RBI Baseball on Nintendo.  When Rob discovered his apartment had no beverages, there was a need to head to Lauren's apartment to get our fix.  Rob drank her last Pepsi, plus she made scrambled eggs and toast for us.  Oh, and hot dogs.  In return, we had to get our blood pressure taken.  Lauren is a nursing student at UT, and apparently she just learned how to do this.  Rob liked having his taken...

We returned to the Rob/Andrew/Joe apartment about 1:00.  After some more RBI Baseball, it was about time to turn in.  Then a strange character shows up at the door brandishing alcohol and a smile on his face.  Expecting to walk into a rockin' party, he was surprised to see just Rob and I.  Joe walked in seconds later, and with him a whole party of Rockfish waiters and waitresses.  Rob chose to close his door and go to bed.  I was less fortunate, my plans to sleep on Andrew's green "pod" couch thwarted.  Luckily, Lauren was kind enough to let me shack up at her place.

Saturday

Lauren wakes up at 10am.  That's about average for me, on non-alarm days.  I hung around for awhile, watched some Travel Channel, and headed back to Rob & Andrew's at noon.  The door is locked, I pound on it, waking Andrew in the process.  Apparently they're not early risers.

We went to lunch at the guys' "home restaurant."  The restaurant I speak of is a Jack-in-the-Box on Oltorf.  Apparently they eat there about 4 or 5 times a week.  No one approached us for money, but Andrew thought it would be funny to sprint out the door and act like he was going to drive off without me.  After lunch and some more RBI Baseball, we head to H-E-B for dinner supplies.  Pepsi cubes (24-pack) are $3.99, with convenient coupons that are stuck right on the box.  (RBI Baseball...at right)

The Pepsi Incident

Returning to the apartment, we begin to unload groceries.  Andrew thinks it would be funny to close the trunk on Rob's head.  He bumps the back of his skull with the trunk as Rob is grabbing the Pepsi cubes.  In retaliation, Rob swings one cube toward Andrew.  He dodges.  The cube flies up in the air, making contact with the car in the next spot, then crashing to the ground, spilling Pepsi everywhere.

At this point, Andrew and I are cracking up.  Rob begins to walk toward the apartment and proceeds to hurl the second cube about 10 feet into the air.  The box comes down in an explosion of carbonation.

We could not stop laughing.  Rob isn't really mad, now that he sees he has won the contest of wills by damaging a lot of soda.  Our favorite soda, too.  Of the 48 cans we bought, we salvaged 36, and Rob threw one back in the parking lot as we cleaned up.

Joe was leaving about this time for work when he sees the Pepsi remains all over the parking lot.  Rob chases him with a spraying can.  Joe runs off like a girl so his clothes don't get wet.  Also, a family of prospective residents were touring an apartment in the neighboring building.  I'm sure they were quite impressed with the intelligent co-residents that are Andrew and Rob.

Rob has done some funny and crazy things over the years, but intentionally damaging 48 cans of Pepsi is perhaps one of the craziest.  He celebrated by popping one:

Upon returning to the apartment, we doused the cans with water.  A lot of them were sticky, since Pepsi had been sprayed all over the parking lot.

After the "Pepsi Incident", Dan was coming over for a mini-fantasy baseball summit.  Granted, the season is still two months away, but we plan early.  The first summit was called "Yorkis", in honor of both Yalta (the post-WWII summit of FDR, Churchill, and Stalin) and the MLB pitcher Yorkis Perez.  To follow, we called this summit "Eduardo", honoring another Perez.

Executive decisions were made, and an RBI Baseball tournament commenced.  Rob won, and all games were recorded in "the ledger."  Rob maintains scrupulous records on the result of every RBI game played.  Strategy I learned:  California, Detroit, and Boston are the best teams.  John Tudor is a wicked southpaw.  Tony Armas Sr. hits a lot of homers, and Jose Cruz Sr. is quite fast.  And of course, more blood pressure had to be taken.

Saturday night was relatively uneventful.  Rob and I stayed in, since all vehicles were gone from the apartment complex.  Andrew was at work, Joe, was at work, Lauren was gone as well.

Rob and I schooled some folks at online poker, watched vintage George Carlin, and Nickelodeon GaS (Games and Sports).  It has all the old school late 80s/early 90s game shows like Double Dare, Finders Keepers, Nick Arcade, Legends of the Hidden Temple, etc.

The camera was quite useful on this trip, as you can see.  Here are some more:

Ian and Lauren on the left.  Dan had the shakes when he snapped it or something.  On the right, that's Rob and Lauren, wrestling.

In conclusion...Austin trip # 6 was a success.  Rob apologized for lack of "things to do", but I accomplished what I set out to do, which was see good friends.  I'm sure I'll return again, now that transportation is so much easier.  A 40 minute flight away, that's all.  The next project?  Get Lauren to Fort Worth!

ADDENDUM.  Dan Grimes.

Okay, so I may have left out some Dan details.  Yes, he lives in Austin, works at Whole Foods corporate office, and frequents GM Steakhouse more than anyone should, but he was an integral part of this past weekend.  The fantasy baseball summit Eduardo could not have happened without him.  He has goals like breaking the racial barrier in our league (only prospect:  John Saunders) and the gender barrier as well (some woman he works with).  Dan favors a strategy of having Tony Armas Sr. lead off the Boston lineup in RBI Baseball...very interesting.  He still guilts me about when I "ditched" him for a girl over Thanksgiving.  I stand by my decision.  After all, he was late showing up to Rob's house.

The photo is hazy, yes.  There is little to know backlighting, key lighting, or focus lighting in Rob & Andrew's living room.  That's Dan, all right, wearing a Bosox cap.

THE VOORN PROJECT
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