Other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?

I have never thought to myself, "man, I'm glad that weekend is over," but welcome to my Monday. Here's what happened.

Starts out great. I get the chance to play golf at the tournament course for the upcoming Wachovia Championship. Mind you, the tourney begins Thursday, so playing it the Saturday before is fairly spectacular. It was a great day with the weather, good company on the course, and other than me playing like a mope, it was enjoyable.

After the golf, I get home, watch the NFL draft for a little while, watch to see where my teams make their picks (nice work by the home town team , by the way), and then it's time to go off to the minor league baseball game with the kids and Mrs. Chipstack.

All is well, until we get to the parking lot at the stadium, when the parking attendant tells us, "you're leaking gas badly."

Huh?

Well, turns out the fuel line in the back of our newly acquired van (and those who know me, know what the purpose of the van is), had come loose--and it was the 2nd such incident on vans made by this company. Well, the fuel doesn't get to the motor with no fuel line connection, so, what to do? We're stuck like Chuck.

Call the van company. No answer. Call our friend Volsfan. She drives to the stadium to pick us up. Call the van place again.

On a Saturday night, someone picks up the phone. Wow.

They tell us what we need to do, and that they are covering all repair work/towing expenses under their warranty. I tell Volsfan, and the family to go inside, I'll get a ticket, and meet them inside once the tow truck comes. All these conversations, mind you, are taking place before the game begins.

By the time the tow truck has come to the lot, rolled the van onto the hauler, locked the keys in the van (not joking), and then unlocked the van to get the keys out, and driven away, the game is in the top of the 7th inning.

And beer sales end at the bottom of the 7th.

Managed to slug down 2, before the game ended. Volsfan took us home (a deed for which I am eternally grateful), and Mrs. Chipstack and I had a cocktail before going to sleep.

Sunday, call the repair place to find out the status of the van--no word as of 10:20 a.m., but they will call me. After not hearing back from them, I decide to call them at 1:20. The voice on the other end says, "it's ready!" We go pick it up, and life, as we know it, returns to normal. That whole 3 hour time frame waiting for word was brutal. We are thinking the repairs are going to take longer than.....well, a long time. We're making contingency plans for the week ahead, yada yada yada....turns out, we didn't need them.

So yeah, that was my excitement. Did manage to get in a shorthanded card game on Sunday night, as we had 5 current league members, and a prospective member over to talk about the league, changes we can make (and there aren't many), and then played some hold 'em. I was elevator boy for much of the night (including a rebuy). Was shortstacked in the small blind (blinds 400-800, 100 ante), and pushed with AQ suited. No callers, I scoop. Then get QQ next hand--shove, get called, and double up. Manage to make 2 pair with KQ later, only to be beaten by a flush. 3 handed, in SB, I look down at the A of hearts. All in.

Call, says the BB. Volsfan has 88.

Night night.

Still, good ideas were shared, fun was had, and in the end, I was able to forget about a Saturday night that could have been a whole lot worse than it turned out to be.

Cards for me will be thin for a while. Hell month has begin. Golf all this week, then 2 weeks of NASCAR.

Oh, and July can't get here fast enough.

~M