Sunday, February 25, 2007
Arie Luyendyk Watched My Beer
Our good friend Point-One-One's 50th birthday party went off with a bang last night. The guest list was made up of .11's family, as well as his Parrothead, marina, and work friends. We all basically conquered and occupied a pizza joint in Gilbert, from about 7:00PM until......I'm not really sure. I mean, I was there, I just don't remember. It was really, really late. I do know that.
Bob Karwin performed, and as always, was a blast. He has some sort of giant data storage and retrieval unit hard-wired into his brain that allows him to remember and play literally hundreds of songs with no sheet music. Before starting, he circulated a list, several pages long, of songs he could play on request. I have trouble remembering what I had for breakfast this morning.
Wait a minute....I slept through breakfast this morning.
I helped in the celebration by preparing and emceeing the "Great .11 Trivia Challenge." We all learned more about .11 than we probably ever wanted to know, like he once dated a girl named "Blomeyer" in high school. I was tempted to call bullshit on that one, but he seemed sincere. What the hell? It's his birthday.
To set up the Trivia Challenge, we had to move around some bar stools for the contestants to sit on. I sat my beer down atop a room divider, and there was a guy on the other side of the divider with his back to me. Fearing he would not see my beer and knock it over, I tapped him on the shoulder to warn him. He turned around, nodded, and grabbed ahold of my beer mug to protect it from danger. As it turns out, they guy was Arie Luyendyk, legendary two-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, and one of .11's marina friends, who I took to calling "boat people."
So how many people can say that a world-famous Dutch Indy car racer watched their beer for them? I haven't had that sort of brush with fame since Steve Miller sat next me on a plane in 1970.
Next thing you know, I'll have my own page in Wikipedia.
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Bob Karwin performed, and as always, was a blast. He has some sort of giant data storage and retrieval unit hard-wired into his brain that allows him to remember and play literally hundreds of songs with no sheet music. Before starting, he circulated a list, several pages long, of songs he could play on request. I have trouble remembering what I had for breakfast this morning.
Wait a minute....I slept through breakfast this morning.
I helped in the celebration by preparing and emceeing the "Great .11 Trivia Challenge." We all learned more about .11 than we probably ever wanted to know, like he once dated a girl named "Blomeyer" in high school. I was tempted to call bullshit on that one, but he seemed sincere. What the hell? It's his birthday.
To set up the Trivia Challenge, we had to move around some bar stools for the contestants to sit on. I sat my beer down atop a room divider, and there was a guy on the other side of the divider with his back to me. Fearing he would not see my beer and knock it over, I tapped him on the shoulder to warn him. He turned around, nodded, and grabbed ahold of my beer mug to protect it from danger. As it turns out, they guy was Arie Luyendyk, legendary two-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, and one of .11's marina friends, who I took to calling "boat people."
So how many people can say that a world-famous Dutch Indy car racer watched their beer for them? I haven't had that sort of brush with fame since Steve Miller sat next me on a plane in 1970.
Next thing you know, I'll have my own page in Wikipedia.
