Things of ole'.

Bonjour mon amis et famille. Well here I am again, sitting in my apartment, and thinking about what to write about since I last left you. First off, thanks for the comments and I appreciate the feedback about the video. I have to tell you that the video was a success with the club. All the kids love it and have sent me emails expressing their thanks as well as the parents. Not to toot my own horn, but that last part is pretty good eh? Haha…love you guys. So on with the info…

Cole and his girlfriend, Jen, came to Rouen for the tail end of their “Euro Trip” and they were going to spend the rest of the week with me. We had a blast. I showed them around the town, we went to a castle, and Cole got to make a superb dinner on his birthday. If you don’t know Cole, he is a chef in a high class restaurant in Denver, Colorado. So he kinda surpasses the level of skill that would be on “Cooking with College Dudes.”

Cole's Paella



I have to tell you one more thing about Cole and my trip. Jen had to leave a day earlier so Cole and I had one more day in Rouen. We did something that I haven’t done in over 7 months. We saw a movie at the theatre. So I found out that the only showing of “Batman Dark Knight” in English was at 8:30 at this one cinema. So Cole and I walked over to this place, about 30 minutes walk. It was really funny at first when we took our seats because we were the only goof balls in this huge theatre. I mean, who wants to see a movie in a language they can’t understand. Then a couple of people started strolling in….but I noticed something. They were speaking French. So more people started showing up….and they were speaking French. Well shit…..this better be in English. The previews start commencing. ALL IN FRENCH. Well shit. I could have sworn that this showing was in the original version. Cole was giving me the look like,

“What the fuck Tony, I just wasted 20 bux American on tickets and some shitty Popcorn.”

I just told that we would wait for the first word spoken on the screen and go from there. The movie started…Cole and I were just glued to the screen waiting for the first spoken word. It was English! Cole and I just gave high fives and laughed. We got looks. It was just really funny.

Cole left the next day, Sunday, and I prepared for our first games of the playoffs. Sorry, not going to give and in depth analysis about the games. We played Dunkerque for the 5th and 6th time. We swept them….again. Marc pitched a 1 hit shutout in the first game 7-0 and I picked up the 9 inning win in the second game 11-5. We played well, we hit well…yada yada yada.

Okie dokie. Now let me backtrack a bit. I have to tell you a funny story that happened last Wednesday. I treated Eric to a dinner because we needed to talk about the new club. After Cole, Jen, Eric and I ate and talked for a bit, Cole and Jen retired for the evening because they were pretty train lagged and Eric and I went out for a beer. Eric took me to the “Underground.” It is an Irish pub that is really chill. Eric and I were the only cats in this place besides the stereotypical Ted Dansen Cheer’s bartender. So Eric and I were talking about the next year as well as playing some darts. It was about 10:30pm and I was almost ready to call it a night and head home...
But something magical happened…..

I’m talking “thank you god” magical……

A bus pulls up outside the bar and about 40-50 girls come into the bar.

Eric and I just give each other maniacal grins. Hold on, this is the best part.
They are all English speakers.

So Eric and I got a couple more beers.

It was a great night.

I met a really sweet girl from California. Her name is Katie and we hit it off as soon as we started talking. She is just a sweetheart and we have been hanging out the past couple of days.

Enough of that though. Let me tell you something else that happened this week that I haven’t done since I have been back to the states.
Eric asked me after the games on Sunday if I wanted to stay at his house that night because he wanted to take me trout fishing.

“Oh well, hell yeah.”

So early Monday morning, we headed out to a little rural town outside of Neufchatel. We started at about 8:00am. Another one of Eric’s friends, Michel, joined us. He is a really nice guy who loves to fish. I told him….
”Man, if you love fishing….you need to get to Missouri.”
So we drank beers, bullshitted, and pulled trout out of the lake all day. We left at about 1:00pm for Eric’s to start BBQ’n our bounty. Good day.







I really haven’t mentioned one of my good friends on the team. His name is Vincent, CF, for our team. He is a really cool guy with always something to do. He always has friends with him and he has been a good friend of mine. So here are some pics.



That is about it for now. We go to Beziers this weekend for the next match-up in the playoffs. It is in southern France, along the coast. I will talk to you guys soon and I love and miss you all. Good night.