Date: October 2001
Pictures: 573
My last and very possibly best (maybe only because I don't remember much from the previous ones) New Orleans trip with the Rice Lads. Even though it was supposed to be a 'dry' trip this time around, the booze ran free as usual and our freshman and newbies were hazed and harassed in proper Lads fashion. We didn't lose anyone this year, although Daniel Smith lost his dinner behind the van. Ok, so he wasn't the only one, but his was the most beautiful by far, and his was the only one I managed to capture on camera. Anyway, this special gallery I put together for the trip is not for the weak-hearted or for those who watch 'The Price Is Right' in their free time. Yes, I'm talking about you Mrs. Fisher. You really don't want to know what your son was up to on this trip. Be warned that there is nudity and a whole lot of lewdness and crudeness within the windows of this gallery... so what are you waiting for. Start looking!

Date: February 2002
Pictures: 249
This was my first time to play ultimate frisbee with the Rice Ultimate team (Cloud 9), and I couldn't have picked a more perfect tournament. It's probably hard to tell that I am being sarcastic. Maybe if I told you that it was damn near freezing outside, the wind was blowing at least 40 mph (which isn't good for playing Ultimate in ANY temperature), and none of us brought adequate clothing with us because it was well over 80° when we left Houston, then you might begin to recognize the sarcasm. And feel our pain. But despite the miserable playing conditions, we had a hell of a fun time, my team got our arses handed to us on a plastic disc, and we totally rocked the party that evening. To top it all off, I got my arse signed by the Callahan winner from that year (I think that's the name of the award... anyway, it's the award they give to the best female ultimate player in the country every year, or maybe in the world, or maybe only in Baton Rouge... I don't really know, but everyone was talking about her so I went over and politely introduced myself, handed her the permanent marker - which unfortunately wasn't permanent enough - dropped trough, and laid out over the pool table in the middle of her game). If you don't believe me, just take a peak at the pictures. And please look at the other pictures too, as there is more to life than just Jay's arse.

Date: September 1997 - May 2000
Pictures: 78
Ah yeah, the good ol' days. These are a collection of various pictures of the Lads over the course of three school years, plus a few other random pictures that don't belong in there but I was too lazy to take out. The picture of my dad is supposed to be in there though, as that was taken at one of the many Lads games he attended. He's definitely got to be in the running for Lads All-Time Greatest Fan. And please check out the picture of little freshman Tony Licatta in a tux. He even talked a hot girl into taking the picture with him. Stunning.

Date: September 1997
Pictures: 31
A less than memorable game against Tartleton State (a college none of us had even heard of) was more than made up for by an exciting trip to the Dallas area for the game, a stay at Tony Licatta's house (check out the family pic in front of their house... that's little brother Nick (Brown '03) in his pubescent years!), Kevin Fisher's first goal with the Rice Lads (which was followed by the most comical one-man celebration I've ever seen in my life... it would have been ok had we won the game Kevin), and a crazy night of bowling in which Tuckman managed to talk two women into sleeping with him that night. One was his sister. And the other one decided in the end to take Gabe Garcia home with her instead. Now that I think about it, I don't think I EVER saw Tuckman again after that night. What ever happened to that guy?!

Date: October 1998
Pictures: 55
My second trip to New Orleans, and since I wasn't being hazed as a freshman this time, I actually remember bits and pieces of this trip. The rather small incoming class (just Wally?) of freshman this year was boosted at the Mona Lisa by the stellar speech of Kevin Fisher (who missed the trip the year before, as did I) and the heckling of the Jones Boys, who also managed to get the phone number of our annual waitress Michelle. Only Trucker actually called her later though. Our future captain Kevin Fisher didn't feel so well after downing a bottle of the ol' Jägermeister by himself, something that was to become a regular one-man tradition over the next four years. We had to drag him all over Bourbon Street and we when he started looking even worse than Trucker does after only two drinks, we began to really worry about him. Just when we were thinking about calling an ambulance for our lifeless friend, we met Sammy, possibly the best street singer in all of New Orleans. No sooner did Sammy bust out the first line of 'Lean on Me' did Kevin's head pop up and a smile (if you could call it that) appeared on his face. Two songs later Kevin was dancing around with Sammy and only hours later were we able to pull the two apart. Definitely the highlight of that New Orleans trip, if not ALL of them. Thanks for saving Kevin's life Sammy, wherever you are.

Date: April 1999
Pictures: 32
One of the greatest Rice Lads traditions ever, and one of the oddest, saw the consumption of five of the largest sausages in the world in less than 15 minutes. And McClintock chugged two beers in under 40 seconds, a new record that was only to be shattered years later by Parker Jones' amazing three beers in 45 seconds. I don't remember who got the 'Wanker of the Year' award this time around, but most likely it went to Wally Upp, who as I recall won it ever year in his time as a Lad.

Date: October 1999
Pictures: 117
Even though freshman - and future captain - Blake Borgeson chose O'Douls as his drink of choice for his hazing, his and the rest of the freshman speeches were once again spectacular and the beginning of a crazy night on Bourbon Street. This year we totally fearless though, as Wally brought his entire knife collection along on the trip and gave us each one to carry for safety. Trucker was the only one who ended up stabbing anyone that night though, and that was actually back at the motel when Paul tried to slip into bed with him later that night. I think this trip was also the first time the Soccer Player Formerly Known As Carlos hit on Tanya... if I remember correctly she kicked him in the balls when he put his arm around her, but we all know Tanya just has a strange way of showing affection (as we all know the two ended up dating for several years).

Date: April 2000
Pictures: 20
For some stupid reason, I offered up my room to the Lads for YOB 2000, and my futon and roommate were never quite the same after that night. Jesse Bernal made a rare appearance that night, freeing up some time from his busy schedule of modeling as the token Hispanic for all of Rice's brochures to come hang out with the boys.

Date: September 2001 - May 2002
Pictures: 68
A bunch of random pictures from my last year as a Lad, including a picture of me with possibly the worst haircut I've ever had (now that's pretty bad!). My favorite pictures in the bunch are definitely the ones of Matt Connelly, Eliot Turner, and Wally Up lying in the middle of the highway, and they require a little explaining. Driving back at night from Texas A&M in Kevin's truck, I noticed that Eliot's ancient Volvo in front of us seemed to be emitting sparks from the bottom of the car. We caught up with him and forced him off the road. We didn't know who to call, so these three went and laid in the road until they were almost run over by a highway patrolman, who after beating the crap out of them was nice enough to help us call a tow truck. I had a look under the car, pretending to know what I was doing since I was the only mechanical engineering major in the bunch. Eliot's CV joints looked like they were in pretty bad shape and I thought they might be the cause of the sparking, so we decided to tow his car all the way back to Houston (about 100 miles!). In the end it turned out it was his compressor that was causing the sparks, not the CV joints, and all he had to do was turn off the A/C and he could have safely driven back home himself. That was the fateful night that I decided to never become a mechanical engineer.

Date: September 2001
Pictures: 59
Our first two games of the season in 2001 were on the same weekend, requiring us to drive all the way down into The Valley for the first game with whatever Podunk community college is in McAllen, Texas. They were all Mexican and they spanked us 4-1. Jurek the mad Polish striker also sprained his ankle in this game, which amazingly managed to keep him out for the entire season! The next day we played UTEP in San Antonio... at least those guys were nice enough to meet us halfway, and even though they were all Mexican as well, we managed to spank them 3-1. But none of that was important... the highlight of the trip was definitely the Mexican restaurant we stopped at in the middle of nowhere on the way home that had some of the best Mexican food - or any kind of food for that matter - I've ever had in my life. The fruit stand we found earlier in the trip was pretty cool too though, and I actually got pictures of that.

Date: October 2001
Pictures: 124
Oh, the infamous Lubbock trip. The game against Texas Tech that we barely had enough players for despite the 12-hour drive we made up there was easily forgettable, but the 12-hour drive back, however, was a classic. Our fearless Captain Fisher ODed on the Jägermeister early in the trip and spent the last 200 miles of the trip with his head buried in the cooler. Parker and Junker were having their own little party in the back of the van. Peter kept trying to perfect his bottle piss technique. And for some reason anyone who dozed off had the most amazing dreams, which we were somehow able to capture with my camera. The last picture is by far the funniest though, because poor Peter didn't realize that thing was on his cheek until he'd made it all the way back to his dorm room and said hi to a handful of cute girls along the way. Half asleep, he walked into the bathroom and started brushing his teeth, and only halfway through did he notice the black thing drawn on his cheek. Good times.

Date: October 2001
Pictures: 29
For one night of excused debauchery, the Rice Lads became the Rice Nads and after a pre-party with the Nadettes in Connelly's room, we terrorized Weiss' infamous party with our brazen nakedness. Believe it or not, my only regret from this crazy night is that I didn't take more pictures of the Rice Nads at their best.

Date: November 2001
Pictures: 70
We were brave enough to venture off to Bumblefuk... errr, I mean Tuscaloosa, Alabama for the National Soccer Tournament (or whatever it's called), where we beat the eventual winners Ohio State in our first game 2-0. Mark Doughty had an amazing goal from about 30 yards out that was kicked off balance and had almost no spin on it. Definitely one of the best goals in Lads history. We played some great soccer the first day and advanced to the first round of the playoffs, where we faced Utah Valley College (or some ridiculous name like that). Despite the fact that they were all probably Mormons too stupid to get into BYU, they were all damn good soccer players. We took the lead early with an amazing diving header in the box by Parker Jones, but in the second half nobody could stop their evil, bald-headed right midfielder whose veins seemed to be pumping with caffeine (even more effective - and off-limits - than steroids for Mormons). He dribbled circles around all of us, and by the end of the game half of us were injured and the score stood at 4-1 to the Mormons. They busted out a 2-liter bottle of Pepsi, shook it up, and sprayed it all over each other like champagne in celebration of their victory. Then someone reminded them they had only won the quarterfinals. Anyway, besides the soccer, the most memorable event of the tournament was our big group meal at the Chinese restaurant in front of our motel. The twenty of us, led by Mike Henshaw himself, put five tables together and took up almost half the restaurant, which was fine because there was only one other group of guests in the restaurant, a middle-aged couple and their grown daughter. So we were all shooting the bull and telling stupid stories as always, when from the other side of the restaurant the man eating with his wife and daughter bellows out "you boys better watch your mouths around my wife and daughter!" There was silence at our table for about 10 seconds as we looked at each other in shock, and then we quietly resumed our conversations, doing our best not to use words any four-letter words. But alas, boys will be boys, and a few more expletives slipped out from our mouths and drifted across the room. The next thing we knew the holy-roller was on his feet staring us down and yelling at the top of his lungs in his redneck accent "I warned you boys to shut yo' mouths around my wife and daughter. Now if I hear even one more dirty word out o' you, there's gonna be trouble!!!" I'm sure most of us felt pretty bad that we were not being good representatives of our school, but under the circumstances I think most everyone was just trying not to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation. Of course had the man gone out to his truck and come back in with a shotgun, I'm sure we would have been a bit more apologetic. At any rate, it was an excellent introduction to Alabama for us.

Date: February 2002
Pictures: 127
The first of several pub nights in the spring semester when the Rice Lads and Ladettes stormed Wally's... errr, I mean Willy's Pub and wreaked havoc on all the under aged drunk kids. There are some lovely pictures in here, especially of Peter with a big soccer ball on his head being jumped by Kevin's woman. Oh, the things that happen on pub night. Too bad none of the Rice Lads ever go on to do anything important with their lives, or these would be valuable blackmail pictures someday. Surprisingly the best pictures on this pub night were those taken of none other than Ben Fite, who spent most of the evening puking into the toilet after downing two whole beers by himself. Ok, just kidding Ben... we know you shared the second one with your roommate. Make sure to check out the picture of the Campos wheeling Ben out of The Pub on a stretcher to have his stomach pumped. What a classic!

Date: February 2002
Pictures: 42
More fun at The Pub, less pictures. I would have taken more, but Peter forgot to bring the soccer ball head, and nobody had to get their stomach pumped. It was still an exciting night though, with retired Lad Gregg "Trucker" Johnson in attendance despite his busy schedule of being a full-time lush (he said he was at The Pub 'on business' though). Burt K. also managed to flash his pecs to at least 13 freshman, most of them male.

Date: March 2002
Pictures: 20
Only twenty measly pictures from this rather tame Pub Night. A few of them are quite disturbing though, and I only wish I could remember why they were taken.

Date: March 2002
Pictures: 34
I don't really understand why this is the one pub night of the year referred to as 'Senior Pub Night' when there are still just as many of those damn toddlers (i.e. freshman) running around stepping on people's feet and begging us to buy them beer. But the Lads were there in force as usual (buying beer for the freshman ladies of course), with the Ladettes and our fan club in tow. My mechanical engineering senior design project team came out in force as well... all five of us, that is. And despite it being my last Pub Night ever, I somehow managed to keep my clothes on... well, at least until I got outside.

Date: March 2002
Pictures: 68
Instead of venturing off to Cancun for some lame spring break of sipping margaritas on the beach, the fearless Rice Lads chose instead to freeze their butts off in scenic San Antonio at the University of Texas - San Antonio soccer tournament. I'm sure it had a more official title than that, but who cares. All that matters is that we won. Oh yeah baby. We beat out the worst teams in Texas to take home the trophy. And we got the number of a semi-hot waitress at Chili's. Not a bad way to spend my last spring break as an undergrad. Actually, why the hell didn't I go to Cancun...?

Date: February 2002
Pictures: 127
It's funny how I remember so much less about the Ultimate tournaments than the soccer tournaments, but I guess that's because I only played Ultimate for half a season at Rice. But even though I don't remember much about the games or the scores, I do remember having a blast on Bourbon street with the Ultimate crew and I do remember having one of the largest collection of beads on the street, even though most of them I picked up from off the street and they were caked in all sorts of nasty griminess. That's probably why when that random drunk guy came along and offered to race me down a side street for my beads, I gladly accepted. Everyone lined up along the street to watch, and even though I planned to lose anyway, I didn't expect a guy on a bicycle to pull out in front of us... fortunately I was way behind, but the shirtless guy I was racing clobbered the bicycle and the rider and went crashing into the cement. I was happy to give him my dirty beads to make him feel better. And I refused a rematch...

Date: March 2002
Pictures: 54
The only ultimate hat tournament I ever joined in Houston (the only other one being in Hawaii), and not a terribly memorable one. We played out at some polo fields near Memorial Park... having lived in Houston for over 20 years, I was very surprised that was the first time I ever found out we had polo fields in our city. A lot of the guys and gals from the Rice ultimate teams played in the tournament as well. I think my team did pretty well, but don't remember the exact outcome. All I know is that Kevin was on the winning team, and that's why two guys are kissing him in that one photo. Then we all went to the Olive Garden for dinner, where the guy at the table behind us was celebrating his 50th birthday. He let me give him his first birthday spanking of the evening. Seriously.

Date: March 6-12, 1999
Pictures: 333
A trip to New York City I took with Campus Crusade for Christ to feed the homeless and get on 'Good Morning America' (which we did by standing shirtless in the falling snow outside the NBC (?) studio in Rockefeller Square). 'Al the Weatherman' came out and talked to us, and we were all on national TV with 'Rice Owls' painted across our chests. But of course that wasn't near as much fun as feeding the homeless... it was just a little side excursion. Seriously, it was a great trip, and my first to the Big Apple, a trip I've made only once more since then.

Date: April 1999
Pictures: 21
My second Beer Bike, and my last one as an observer, since the next two I rode proudly and fiercely for Brown College. Not many pictures here, as I was too busy giving my friends at other colleges eye lacerations with my guerrilla water balloon fight tactics.

Date: April 2000
Pictures: 116
Despite the fact that this was my first year to ride in Beer Bike, I managed to get a number of (crappy) photos before the race. I probably would have taken some pictures after the race as well had I not been run over by a Sid rider in the race and thrown head first into the track on my last lap. I lost most of the skin on the left side of my body and cracked my helmet in two, but otherwise came out in pretty good shape considering the circumstances. Unfortunately for Brown College, I was the first rider and I was on our best bike, which had to be used by at least two other riders in the lineup, so that really screwed everything up for them. But I wasn't really worried about that at the time... I was more interested in finding the guy from Sid who took me out...!

Date: February 2002
Pictures: 62
Held 100 days before graduation, this party would have been lame had it not been for the fact that it was a bunch of crazy Rice seniors getting drunk and naked at a big club. So basically it was a very good night, even though I knew I had a lot of work to do in those last 100 days!

Date: February 2002
Pictures: 49
A pretty darn good party thrown by the Archi students, this year at the Saint Arnold's brewery out on Hwy. 298. It was well worth the drive (well, the bus ride) out there, as the venue was very original (we were dancing amongst the tall brewing tanks) and lots of women were kissing me that night. The funny thing is that I wasn't going to go to the party, since the $14 ticket seemed a bit expensive to me, and I didn't have a good costume (I ended up going as a redneck, which really didn't require much of a costume for me), but while I was out skating in the medical center earlier that day, I found exactly $14 in cash lying on the ground, and I knew I was meant to go. And low and behold, one of the girls that kissed me that night ended up becoming my girlfriend for well over a year (no, her picture's not in this gallery, and no, it's not the guy I'm hugging Brokeback Mountain style!)

Date: March 2002
Pictures: 15
Usually I probably wouldn't bother putting up a gallery of so few pictures, but there's something about these pictures I really like. I don't remember exactly what we were doing that afternoon, but it involved moving a bunch of heavy stuff into the old food servery. After all our hard work, we decided to go for some ice cream, and for lack of a better place to sit, we jumped in shopping baskets to eat our yummy treats.