Ballard Street by Jerry Van Amerongen for August 31, 2013

Gene also has trouble with color coordination.

Playing ball indoors can run into $$$

I seem to recall that on one of more occasions, my backside was warmed for playing ball in the house. I think that once an errant pitch, thrown to my younger brother caused the breakage of an antique demi-tasse cup. Mother was NOT amused.

Fenton, I shall have my usual Redbreast Irish, and get all these good folks a drink on me.

The last time Gene tried playing outdoors it didn’t go well either.

……zzzzz….. * POP * …kk snrff….zzz…. whuzu say… Fendon…. zzzzz..

O!No…. I wassen shleebing…. was jus ‘…..zzzz..um…. reshting my eyes… s’warm back here, an I been doing some ….zzzzz…….paberworg……

Oh….

Well, I couldn’t have been asleep, cos I was starting to watch Bev’s video…..and …Um…. Bev?where did you go?….

And Ling was here…. and Brian….

and….x_Tech! Where did you go?You were right here…..

I was just going to say that from your film of it, Gene’s “fireball” pitch is certainly underrated….

short porch on his home field

: D

….but man you should see him Watusi!…….

@X, That’s impressive! I don’t think I’ll have anything to drink. Had to throw on some clothes early because my landscapers were here. They just finished so now I’ll have a light breakfast and then do my weights.

I think I’ll also illuminate a couple of borders today and tomorrow, so I’ll have something to take to Tuesday’s calligraphy meeting. I’ve got to get back into producing for my Barony.

Who the heck is pitching?

Good one!

Thanks, Stel,I found out that I CAN post things from my FB (as long as they are drawing URL from another source).

The borders that I’ll do this weekend will probably be drawn from one that I showed above (or other old favorites) as it’s much easier to redo an old design than to think up something new with many sketches. I just draw in ink on the parchmentine and fill with gouaches (watercolors). The guys like receiving the violent bloody ones.

Gene and June are the newest arrivals on Ballard Street and for sure and for certain they will fit right in. Gene has had life long issues with his height and long arms and June has been his life long critic. She says it’s only to keep him humble, Gene thinks she has a superiority complex. June doesn’t see anything complex about his squatty body and long arms. A match truly made in heaven. Gene was an office accountant with a small plumbing fixture and rubber gasket manufacture and June worked in the County Clerk’s office. They loved their jobs. There was something romantic about the smell of new rubber and old paper. They enjoyed the drive through the city watching all the kids at the bus stops and some riding their bikes. Both had old fashioned water coolers with those tiny paper cups. Life was easy, pensions were predictable, week ends were always waiting, the kids called on Sundays and they got a new car every six years. And then there was that fateful day they decided to move to Ballard Street. And the more things change the more they stay the same. Gene just can’t get it right and June is in her hay day. Just wait until they meet Shirley and the gang. I sure hope June likes polka dots. Gene may not know it, but there is a cow suit on the horizon.

I mmust. Be. Aat the. tiki. My iPpod iss drunk. Lots of great. Demolition going on. Hi evveryonne. I’ll. have. Aa double Fenntonn. A nythinng will do.

Haas. Anyone see aa n iPod do this? It is driving mme nuts, aaa if I nneeded hellp.

N I ce calligraphy DAAZZ.

Hey BBEV! I Ann here!I am here.

BEVVIEK!!!!!

Gosh the mmusic iss loud. But nicce

Maybe I wwilll just dozze here. While. BBEV. pplaays the. Juke. Box.

Is. GROG or anyone else here

Nnoo resppecct.

Good. Night. :—)

Nnoo resppecct.

Good. Night. :—)

I’ve been having WAAY too much trouble with IE lately.I’ll have a few tabs open and it freezes up so I have to close with Task Manager (the normal ways did not work).

with everything else, did not get started on any calligraphy or illumination today (but it’s ready for tomorrow- right after breakfast).

I decided to remove a few recently installed programs (including Weather Channel, tho I DID like hourly readings and comparing cities that way).

I’m hoping that I fixed my problem.

Love listening to the music (and I saved the shortcut to that Jenga demo). My lover and I played that one evening last year with my youngest boy and his girlfriend. I’ll share it with him by email.

Hi BALLARDEERS. My iPod rebooted. I gave it a swift kick in the app and it smartened up. I’ll have a hot toddy to put me back to sleep little monkey. Er, no, you may go back to sleep. I’ll help myself. (They are SO cute when they are Groggy.)

Good morning friends. Susan should be along soon, or Bri or X.

Hi Shika…. how did you know?

Hey, Shika, I’m here and I think Susan right behind me.

No, I’m right in front of you, X!

Sure, I just turn my back for one second and you sneak in ahead of me.

Yup! I’m sneaky that way.

But I had to get in here, and start setting up for the Labor Day barbecue in the afternoon.

With the Monkey away, I have to smoke some ribs…. yak, beef and pork.

(Oh Goodness! I hope Gene doesn’t swing a bat anywhere near the brick smoker!)

Would you like a beer, or maybe a banana daiquiri?

And you, Shika?

And NO, I am not going to smoke any ribs in a pipe…. just in case any of th local smart a$$es were about to ask!

Wouldn’t mind a pint of the dark, now that you mention it Susan

Sure thing, X….

And Fenton, I’m making my own banana dak, of course….

Got a big blender-full for the Saturday night crowd.

Yoo hoo….. Saturday crowd…. that was your cue…..

GoComics is being very weird….

Opening new pages or refreshing leads to 404 errors…the 2nd or 3rd try usually works.Comments don’t post till the 2nd or 3rd time you click “Submit.”

And Happy3’s demolition gifs stopped moving.

G’night, all…..

@Susan,I have had no 404s but IE kept freezing up on me and having to reboot a tab (or the whole thing) and sometimes I had to go to Windows Task Manager (Ctl/Alt/Del) to close IE tabs.

I went into my control panel and deleted Weather Channel and a couple of smaller programs loaded within the past month, and now I seem to be OK.

I liked the hourly view of temps and humidity at a glance, did NOT like loud thunder every time a little sprinkle was approaching, but I got rid of it because it was giving problems. That may have caused the problems with my Skype transmission as well (I could receive but not send good video). I’ll try some later.

Bev … I tried to google information about the invisible chairs, but found mostly forums with questions, but no answers.

THIS sitesays the women are wearing a sort of brace on their left legs, under their costumes, and that in the part of the video they show, you can see them step carefully into a little hole on stage that locks it, so they can lean back.

I did find one site that claims it’s yoga. That seems impossible.

Brian…. I was still getting 404’s a couple of hours ago when I posted the above.

And yeah, first tries at anything didn’t work.Sometimes a different path seemed to help, like going to the alphabetical list, or to another comic, in between…

But I decided that could be coincidence, cos the next refresh was fated to be the one that made it happen anyway.

It’s almost like the GoComics internet pixies wanted proof that you really, really wanted to go there… or that you just HAD to submit that comment.

Hmm. My timing seems to be off. I missed SUSAN and STEL and BEV and and everyone. I’ll just have a Steam Whistle Fenton. Thanks.

Good Night BALLARDEERS. If I wake up in the night I may see some of you. Happy Labour Day!

@Shika, Performers have been “flying” on invisible lines for decades. Doing it as a group ballet movement is good, tho’.

@Susan, I only saw the question above the 2nd link (and now read comments below) They look FAR too relaxed to be doing that as an exercise (not to mention that the instruments would also throw them off balance).

Now I’m really curious about that so I did a little more search (now that IE is working again) and one guy used a board about 2’ square everywhere. I’m still not sure how they maintain the sitting pose quite so long (would have to see more of the mechanics) but those young acrobats ARE trained to a torturous extent for many of their routines (saw some in Branson on a family holiday) so it would still be a combo of machine + training IMNHO.

I was curious about the Steam Whistle that Bev mentioned, but I see that it’s just beer. I can tell many drinks apart (especially brands of gin) but all beer/ale tastes much the same to me (and all smell like dirty socks). A cocktail by that name would be interesting.

How do you like Steam Whistle BEV? I like the red one.

DAZZ, I have seen flying people on wires many times, but this was done well. The timing had to be just right.

I like Heiniken (spelling?) too. My dad would order that at the Oktoberfest and I got to like it.

Hi BRI. How is your weekend so far?

Maybe a piñata would help?

https://cleoandcompany DOT net/august-31-2023/

Good morning Balladeers and Tigressy!!

What he doesn’t have trouble with is his left biceps muscles. That is one powerful right-handed swing.