Couple Saturdays ago we were at the hipster bar where we play pinball, for the several-times-delayed Women's Launch Party for the John Wick table. As we were going upstairs to set things up we saw the little chalkboard standee proclaiming: 'High Score - HMZ - 50' and 'Beers and Cheers for 50 Years'. And on the big table, the one we always use for hosting pinball tournaments, were set up ... presents and cupcakes and old craft projects and a big glass bowl full of quarters. Covering the dart board up there, under the banner 'More Fun Than Two 25 Year Olds', were an array of photographs from the life of HMZ.
You may not be sure who HMZ is, but that I'm addressing him with his pinball initials tells you something. He's one of the original, core team of the Lansing Pinball League, there at the start and until WVL, league founder and then-roommate, graduated and moved out to the southwest corner of Michigan. Life and all got to demanding more of his time and we just never see him anymore. And here we stumbled into his birthday, completely unaware and unexpected.
Well, we were beyond delighted, and he was happy to see us and happy to get birthday wishes and hugs from us. (HMZ is the person who started the local rumor that a hug from me is life itself. I don't think I'm that good at it, but I am a hugger and enjoy it and people who don't like hugs like my hugs.) And he's always been one of our favorite people, an island of calm maturity even when so sloshed he does not remember winning a top-three place in league finals. He married a couple years ago --- a thing announced to his friends only by his making, like, his one Facebook post ever --- and this was the first time we'd been able to congratulate him in person and to meet his wife, who certainly seems quite pleasant.
And then, if we weren't already thrilled by all this, who should show up but WVL, who'd been invited but was uncommitted about whether he'd actually arrive. And we spun off into side conversations trying not to monopolize him (or HMZ) in-between time at the tournament that, oh yeah, went nicely enough (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger won, like the safe money said). WVL was so happy to see us, along the way to seeing his old roommate, and just --- you know, we had been stressed over the things that delayed the launch party in what was already a busy month leading up to two or three big expeditions you'll be reading the outcomes of in these pages soon. To have the stars align so that we reconnect with some old friends seen too rarely, though? And on one of those birthdays so special anyone pays attention to them? Spectacular.
Also now bunnyhugger has promised that the women's pinball tournament held in July will be the HMZ birthday classic. So that's nice to have sorted out.
Let's get back to Bronner's now and enjoy more Christmas wonderlandery:
Fox ornaments. You can see where they're trying but they're not as good as the raccoons.
And here's squirrels, which are pretty impressive, I'll admit.
Decoration above the mermaid and sea-creature ornaments. It's a bit weird to be looking up at mermaids. Note the big ol' clam by her side.
Some of the mermaid's world of ornaments. The pair of dolphins making a heart shape are clever.
Glass mermaid on dolphin, refracting light from I'm not sure where so it looks all peculiar.
Now we're into South America-themed ornaments where no, they don't have coatis. Sloths get some representation, though.
Trivia: By January 2001 the Athens 2004 Organizing Committee (ATHOC) had raised 448.1 million euros for what it estimated would be a 1.962-billion budget. Source: Encyclopedia of the Modern Olympic Movement, Editors John E Findling, Kimberly D Pelle. Wikipedia says as it turned out the total revenue totalled near 2.1 billion euros and the company closed with a surplus of about 130.6 million, so, huh, that seems pretty close to estimate. The book I'm using was published 2004, so it probably closed press in mid-2002. It also notes that there's, like, eight billion different things you could call the amount spent on the games depending on who's doing the spending and where.
Currently Reading: More comic books. You know how it is.
