First, I need to apologize, this is going to be a long post, but I need to properly set the stage.

We were a bunch of friends with a few simple goals this season: have fun, drink beer, and play a little softball (in that order)! And somehow along the way we were actually winning some games and had made it into the playoffs. We were fourth seed in the physical chemistry division. We had beat the fifth seed, so that meant that Thursday night we had to play the first seed. And we won. Now we had to wait for seeds two and three to play their game after us before taking the field again to face the winner of that game at 9 pm the same night. Double headers are no fun. All was going well until the police showed up. Something about open containers in public. They were nice about it, just made us pour out our beer before giving our licenses back. But now we had a real problem...our super powers came from our beer...and we couldn't drink anymore. Well we had beat our next foe once before, so we knew we had a chance. Unfortunately we were fast sobering up. The game went back and forth a couple of times, but we kept up the banter and out heckled the other team. And when the dust settled, we won. We had done it, we had claimed the physical chemistry division title! Then we found out that the championship game against the organic league winners was the next night.

Here's an excerpt from the league commissioner's email that Thursday night so you have an idea of what we were up against:
"The three-time Organic League champions from the Trauner Lab are on the
verge of completing the first undefeated season in documented league
history...On the other hand, the first-time Physical League title holders, who ripped
through both of the top two seeds on Thursday to reach tonight's game, are
in the midst of the greatest single-season turnaround in league history.
After a 1-7 inaugural campaign in 2006, they have suffered only a narrow
first-week defeat (5-3 to Your Mom) and a narrow last-week defeat (6-5 to IR
Sox) en route to an 8-2 record and a berth in the title clash.
The stage is set for a unique title game. The league's steadiest force
against its most shocking Cinderella. A true David & Goliath encounter.
Can Ugly Endgame finish their unprecedented run and add a second title to
the Trauner Lab trophy case? Or does Team Terror have one more rock left in
their slingshot?"

By the way, did I mention that we're Team Terror? Yeah, it's not very P.C., oh well. Anyhow, It certainly didn't look good. And then the oddest thing happened...we won. With a final score of 13-5, we were the new UC Berkeley Chemistry Department Summer Softball League Champions.


Back row left to right: Abigail, Brian, James, Luke, Renee, Justin, Me, Mark, Pradeep
Front left to right: Cyrus, Aram, Phil, Josh
Not Pictured: Alex, Bill, Pepe, Eric, Katelyn, and all the cheap beer that got us here!

This past Saturday was our good friends' Bill and Lexie's wedding. The wedding was right here in Berkeley, so we didn't have to go far, which is always nice. The ceremony was at All Saints Chuch followed by the reception at the Hillside Club less than a block away on Cedar. It was fantastic weather, sunny and 70, so even dressed up no one was dieing of heat. The wedding itself was beautiful and all seemed to go according to plan. And possibly best of all, if gave me an excuse to try my hand at some wedding photography. Incidentally, Bill and Lexie are the ones who introduced me to Bulleit Bourbon.

Click the image below for the rest of the wedding photos: