Wednesday, October 29, 2008

P.B. Slices



I have to try these because I love PB&Js ... and I'm lazy.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Attention Gregy...

Game on! Seriously, we need to do try this the next time we see each other. Deal?


Hilariously Weird Tug of War - Watch more free videos

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Another awesome weekend

On Friday afternoon, I got done with the final project hanging over my head at work and it felt really good. It was a big relief because I knew I had another fun-filled weekend coming up.

Another intern and I took off from work a little early on Friday and headed out to Chapel Hill for "Late Night With Roy," which is the University of North Carolina's annual pep rally for the impending basketball season. We first went to South Point Mall to get some food. My friend is a big fan of Panera, so that's where we went. I had been to a Panera when it first opened in Redmond, but didn't think much of it. This, however, was pretty dang good...much better than I remembered! We then headed out to campus, getting there at about 7. We parked in a centrally-located parking garage and walked over to the "Dean Dome," where they play basketball. It was a little bit of a walk, but it was nice to see the campus. I was very impressed with Duke's campus last weekend, but I think I like UNC's better. Lots of brick...big, beautiful trees...the quintessential college feel.

We got into the Dean Dome (which is really called the Dean E. Smith Center) at about 7:15, thinking the event started at 7:30. But when we got in, the women's basketball skits were already underway and we determined that the event must have started at 7. Missing part of the women's portion was actually good though, considering I'd rather watch paint dry than women's basketball (note: unless Madi's playing).

The arena is huuuuuuuge! With a capacity of 21,750, it's much bigger than the Key Arena, which holds 17,098. So, needless to say, I've never seen so much baby blue in my entire life! We had to sit in the very top row, which gave my legs a workout! Despite not knowing a lot about UNC's basketball team, it was a lot of fun. The men's team is ranked first in the country in preseason polls, which isn't surprising considering they have all five starters from last year returning—including three probable first-round draft picks in Ty Lawson, Tyler Hansbrough & Wayne Ellington. The place was absolutely electric, I got some goosebumps and it was a good time.



After that was over, we walked through campus again and headed up to Franklin Street—the happening street near the school with lots of bars, clubs, places to eat and little shops. It's sort of like The Ave in Seattle, only a lot nicer. My buddy wanted to take me to a frozen yogurt place called The Yogurt Pump (or the YoPo, as it's often called). I knew it would be good when there was a line out the door. We waited in the line for about 10 minutes before finally getting inside and seeing a sign that said "Cash Only." Neither of us had cash, so we got out of line and headed up the street to Ben & Jerry's. C'mon YoPo...get with the now! After some ice cream, we headed back to the car and headed home. It was a great time

Because I didn't get to bed until about 5, I did some serious sleeping in on Saturday. I woke up at about 2, but them came out to my recliner in the living room and slept for another couple hours. I'm such a lazy bum. At about 4:30, I got up and made some coffee and oatmeal while I got directions up to Toad's Place in Richmond, Virginia, where I was heading to see an awesome concert.

When I got the tickets, I didn't realize how far away Richmond was. Despite driving through on my way up to DC, I didn't realize it was two and a half hours from Durham. Oh well, the lineup was worth it. The bill included NOFX, Dillinger Four, Teenage Bottlerocket and The Flatliners...all awesome bands and certainly worth the drive.

I headed out at about 5:30 and got into Richmond at about 8. The club was very easy to find and Richmond seemed to be pretty nice. Granted, I didn't see a lot of it, but I liked the cobblestone streets and there was a little canal that ran right by the club.

I got in just as a band called Fake Problems were finishing up. The Flatliners took the stage after them and it was the second time I've seen them. They're from Toronto and I saw them open for A Wilhelm Scream a while back at Studio Seven. I thought they were pretty good that time, but I thought they were awesome this time around. They play really fast in-your-face punk with a little bit of ska (sans horns) mixed in for good measure. If you like the Suicide Machines, you should check out The Flatliners. They're on Fat Wreck Chords and I need to check out their albums because I've certainly enjoyed their live show.

Up next was Teenage Bottlerocket from Laramie, Wyoming. They play really bouncy, bubblegum pop punk, similar to The Ramones and Screeching Weasel. It's catchy, it's fun and they played a good set. I was just reminded by checking them out on Interpunk.com that I need to check out a band called The Lillingtons.

After Teenage Bottlerocket, Dillinger Four took the stage. It was the last show on the tour (called the Paddy vs. Fatty tour, as Paddy is the singer for D4 and Fatty = Fat Mike from NOFX). Paddy from D4 was trashed. Not only did the guys come out already really drunk, I don't think I've seen a band drink more on stage. Beers after every song...some whiskey...the guitar player was drinking a bottle of wine...it was pretty crazy. They're also the only band I've ever seen that sets up lawn chairs on the stage so they can sit down when they get tired. As a fat guy who gets tired easily, I can appreciate that! They ripped through an awesome set and, although I've like them for a long time, I realized I really need to get their newer albums and listen to them more often. They're a really great band and Paddy lived up to expectations by taking off most of his clothes during the set. They had a big crew on the side of the stage that was also rocking out and getting naked.

After that was the band everyone came for...NOFX. Last night marked (I think) the seventh time I've seen them live (four Warped Tours—Kingdome parking lot, San Diego and twice at the Gorge) and three clubs (DV8, Showbox SoDo & Toad's Place). They always put on a great set and last night was no exception. I quickly found out that my trek from Durham was weak compared so some other people. In line, I heard some girl say that she drove out from Colorado Springs and I talked to a couple before D4 played that said they drove 12 hours from Montreal for the show. Awesome! I was in the crowd for the other four bands and had made my way up to about the third row by the time they took the stage. They said they hadn't played Richmond in about 10 years, so that was pretty cool. They also made fun of Richmond and Virginia the entire time, which was funny. The pit got a little too wild, so after a couple songs I headed up to the balcony and found a place where I could see. The thing about Toad's Place is that they serve alcohol there, but they don't restrict people drinking to a certain area. So, there were people trying to mosh with full beers, which just doesn't work too well. My shirt was soaked with beer and sweat by the end of the night.

Here's the most-accurate setlist I could put together. Some of the songs might be out of order and they may have played one or two that I forgot, but here it is...

• Intro
• It's My Job To Keep Punk Rock Elite
• (half of) 180 Degrees—during this song, the crowd surged forward, pushing the barrier that separated the crowd from the stage, thus squishing the security guards. NOFX had to stop playing to get everyone to scoot back to unsquish the guys. They tried to pick up where they left off, but that didn't work, so they just moved on...
• Seeing Double At The Triple Rock
• Reeko (after this song, Fat Mike said, "That was the worst song you'll hear all night. Sometimes we play all good songs, but we usually only do that in good cities...so you're getting a lot of duds.")
• F*ck The Kids
• Perfect Government
• Eat The Meek—Mike introduced this song by saying, "This song is for those two guys (pointing to two black security guards). This is black people music, played by white people, for white people."
• Dying Degree
• Drugs Are Good
• Soul Doubt
• Murder The Government—I love how Mike always changes the first verse of this song. The album version goes: "I wanna see the Constitution burn...wanna watch the White House overturn...wanna witness some blue blood bleed red." On their second live CD, he say "I wanna see Dick Cheney have a heart attack...wanna see Jenna and Barbara go to Iraq...wanna see our president do time." When I saw them at the Showbox in May, he said something like, "I wanna see Dick Cheney have a heart attack...wanna see pretty much everyone home from Iraq...wanna see George Bush take a nine iron to the head." Last night, he said, "I wanna see Dick Cheney have a heart attack...I wanna see the White House full of black (again pointing to the two security guards)...I wanna see George Bush deepthroat Obama!" Awesome...
• Louise
• Radio (Rancid cover)
• Quart In Session
• Bob
• She's Nubs
• Linoleum
• The Brews
• Bottles To The Ground
• Whoops I OD'd

Encore:
• Kill All The White Man
• Theme From A NOFX Album—then Melvin stayed on stage playing accordion for about 20 minutes. Good times!

They said they have about 20 new songs and were going to play one of them, but when they said that, some kid booed and Fat Mike was like, "Fine, we're not playing a new song because of that guy." That kid's an idiot and I hope he got punched in the face. So I went and found a YouTube video of the new song, called "The Quitter." Enjoy...




It was an awesome show and, after the set, I found NOFX's tour manager, Kent, at the sound booth and asked him if their show, "Backstage Passport" will be coming out on DVD. He said that it will be released next year on Fat...so, that's awesome!

The drive home went well. I got to my car and heard the last two innings of the game (damn Phillies!), got home, made some food and cleaned up my kitchen with the anticipation that I may be getting a new roommate (with two cats) today. Hasn't happened yet, though, so I'm not sure what's going on...

Last weekend was awesome, this weekend was great and next weekend's going to be even better!

As a side note, all this talk about music reminded me that Matt put up his list of his top 25 favorite albums of all time. Now I want to see what Mike and Kelly's lists would look like. Also, Fernando...you need to start a blog already! C'mon...everybody's doing it! I even took some time to think of some blog names for you. Just pick one...

dudeguys.blogspot.com (whoops, already taken)
chileanlikeavillian.blogspot.com
keeptrackoflaco.blogspot.com
thebronzefonz.blogspot.com

Monday, October 20, 2008

Catching Up After An Awesome Weekend

The reason I didn't blog at all this weekend is because two of my best friends, Matt and Kelly, came out to visit me. I've been friends with Matt since sixth grade and with Kelly since high school. People are always amazed that we all still keep in touch and hang out so often and I know I am very lucky to have such a great group of friends. My dream would be for all of us to live in a cul-de-sac together. Maybe if one of us wins the lottery...

Anyway, Kelly got in late Thursday night. I didn't have to work on Friday (taking a late Columbus Day off), so that was awesome. I picked up Kelly at the airport and we came back to the house. We got back at about midnight and just chilled for a little bit. At about 2 o'clock, Kelly suggested we hit up the grocery store. I wasn't tired, so I thought it was a good idea and we headed down the road to a place called Harris Teeter. It's open 24 hours and it's a nice grocery store, kind of like Top Foods. Kelly found a huge container of cheese balls and we both went some cereal. He went with a couple of my favorites—Golden Grahams and Cap'n Crunch and I tried a new kind, Keebler Cookie Crunch. I went all out, dumping the whole box into a big mixing bowl, which made Kelly laugh so hard, milk almost came out of his nose. I couldn't finish it all though, and the bowl ended up sitting in the sink for the rest of the weekend, getting really soggy and nasty.



We watched "Superbad" and didn't go to bed until 6 in the morning. That made me sleep in until 2:30 on Friday and I felt really bad, because Kelly said he woke up at 12:30. He said he didn't care, though, because he knew we'd make up for it that night. Did we ever...

I found a cool place online that I wanted to take Kelly for lunch. We headed out and found it, but it wasn't open. The reason I wanted to take him there, however, was not for the food, so it didn't really matter. The reason I wanted to take him there was for something the place has in the parking lot...an ass-kicking machine!

Kelly had some fun kicking his own ass...


Then he got ballsy and decided to turn around...


I had some fun too...


That was just the start to a kick-ass weekend! (rimshot!) The restaurant was out in Raleigh, near the airport, so we headed back into Durham and drove around for a bit, ending up at Elmo's Diner, where we had "breakfast." After that, we made our first Locopops stop. I had sweet corn and Mexican chocolate. Sweet corn was pretty good, but Mexican chocolate was the bomb—probably my favorite so far!

We came home and just chilled for a bit, watching some funny videos on the Internet, while we waited for Matt's plane to get in. Matt got in at about 8, so we headed out to the airport and picked him up. He was hungry, so we went to this place down the street from my house called Golden Corral. It's a buffet, but it's a lot better than Old Country. We all stuffed ourselves (I think it was the theme for the weekend). After that, we came home and watched "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," a movie neither of them had seen. After that, we headed back down to Harris Teeter to get some more snacks and so the fellas could get their drink on. We came back and played poker for a while and, once 3 o'clock rolled around, I knew I couldn't go to bed. See, I had agreed to drive one of my co-workers to the airport and he needed to be picked up at 6:45. If I went to bed at 3, I knew I wouldn't wake up and the last thing I wanted to do was flake out on being his ride to the airport. When I called my co-worker at 6:45 to tell him I was on my way over, he was like, "What in the world is going on over there?" I told him my buddies were in town and that we hadn't even gone to bed yet. He laughed and they ended up coming with me to the airport, bantering incessantly in the back seat the entire way there, which had him cracking up.

I finally got to bed at about 8:30 and slept until about 1. We woke up and headed out to show Matt around beautiful downtown Durham. We first headed to the Q Shack and it was awesome, as usual. Then we went downtown and hit up Locopops again. This time, I had chocolate rosemary (mmm!) and Moroccan curry, which was interesting. It was a coconut popsicle with curry powder mixed in. Not something I would think of, but I've never had anything bad at that place. I love it! Then we drove around Duke's campus. Cheryl—remember when we drove around there a bit? Well, inside that stone block that we saw, there's a road that heads out of there and the campus is HUUUUUUUUUUUGE! That little area we saw, is probably just about 5% of the campus. We drove around there and saw the Duke Chapel and all of the people heading to the Duke vs. Miami football game. After that, we headed to the mall and walked around for a bit. The guys did a little shopping and then we decided to see a movie. We saw "Sexdrive" (I guess it was the weekend of comedies). It was a little cheesy, but it was also a lot funnier than I expected. Overall, I would recommend it if you're a fan of "Superbad." Then we headed back down to Harris Teeter and picked up some pizza at a place called Randy's Pizza. It was awesome. We headed back to my place, watched the rest of the baseball game and then some SNL. It was a lot more low key. We just chilled out—Matt and I played some Fantastic Contraption on our laptops and Kelly beat Portal on my 360. We went to bed at 5.

Sunday we woke up and headed back out to Elmo's. I haven't been a lot of places around here, but I think I'd be hard pressed to find a better breakfast spot. We all pigged out on omelets and pancakes and then headed back to the house where we watched some football. We didn't really think about dinner (probably because we had breakfast/lunch so late), so by the time we got around to that, pretty much everything was closed. A fast-food chicken place called Bojangles was open, so we went there. Matt and I got some chicken biscuits and Kelly ate the leftover pizza. We came back to the house and played some poker while we watched the Rays beat the Red Sox to go to the World Series! What a great game! At about 12:30, I had to go to bed. The guys had to go to the airport at 4:45. They were going to just stay up and sleep on their respective planes, but I had to get some sleep because I had to work today.

My roommate got back late Sunday night and, as I was heading to bed, he told me it would be his last night in the house. He decided to quit his masters program and move back home and become a teacher again. Kind of a bummer and it sounds like I'll probably be getting another rommate, maybe two. We'll see...

So I went to bed, but woke myself up with hiccups at 3 in the morning. That has never happened to me before and it was very painful, because I also had some bad heartburn. My stomach felt like a garbage truck full of acidic pig slop driving down a freeway with speed bumps. Not fun. Just as I woke up, Kelly snuck into my room to get an iPod chord and I said hey. He said they were playing cards still, but had switched from poker to gin rummy. So I said, "what the hell" and headed back out there. We played some gin rummy until they had to head to the airport and then I got to sleep for a couple more hours when I got back. Better than nothing, I suppose, but I was still really wiped at work today. Honestly, I can't remember the last time I've been that tired. Needless to say, I came home after work and crashed in my recliner and now I'm about to head to bed after I click "Publish Post."

I came home for lunch and Josh was just packing up his car. We talked for a bit as I ate and then I did the dishes, because I didn't want his last memory of me to be the nastiest sink in the world. But then I had to go to the bathroom and he said goodbye by knocking on the door...so much for a good last impression!

This writeup probably makes it sound more boring than it actually was, but we really had a great time and I was so glad they could make it out here. I'm so lucky to have the best friends in the world!

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

I need some recipes

Ok loyal readers—I need your help!

While I'm very proud of the fact that I'm able to churn out delicious meals like this one...



...my skills are very limited. Pretty much every night I have to ask myself, "What's for dinner tonight: spaghetti or mac 'n' cheese?" Kind of pathetic...

So, help a brotha' out! Help me diversify my easy dinner portfolio! In the comments, post your favorite EASY (and I mean easy) dinner recipe. Break it down for me, because if you leave any loopholes, I'll surely find a way to screw it up...

Monday, October 13, 2008

October 13, 2008

It was a great day at work today. Why? Well, it was actually an optional day. Apparently we get Columbus Day off—that's how awesome BA is! I actually decided to work today and am instead taking Friday off, because my friends will be in town. So it was a nice, quiet day at the office and I got a lot done. After work, I came home, made dinner and then went to the grocery store with Josh. Came back, watched the rest of the game and got inspired...

Remember what my room looked like a couple days ago? Well, I got inspired and decided to clean it tonight. After all ... Matt and Kelly will be here this weekend! Here's some proof...

My room...



Ok, so I have a little bit of laundry to do. But I even cleaned off/organized my desk...



And, just so Kelly doesn't accuse me of cheating, here's a picture of my closet...



Up next ... cleaning out my car!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

October 12, 2008

Lazy weekend

It was a real lazy weekend for me—but I knew it was going to be and I'm okay with it. On Friday after work, I went to the grocery store to stock up on some snacks because I knew I'd just be chillin' at the house all weekend. After that, I just watched some baseball, played Fantastic Contraption, played some Madden and goofed around on the Internet until 4 in the morning. That caused me to sleep in until about 3 on Saturday. When I finally got up, I headed to the mall to return some shoes. I got the shoes this summer at Nordstrom in Bellevue. I really liked them (although they were annoyingly squeaky) but they had already started to fall apart. As I expected, the Nordstrom out here didn't have them, but returning them was easy (of course!) and I found a sweet pair of Asics...



I also did some more digital shopping. Here's what I found this time around...

For Megan: some computer speakers that look like giant ear buds!



For my dad: The Dude action figure!



For Matt (or anyone else interested...): A daily calendar that has 365 different sexual positions!



I actually got a digital gift for Greg, but Cheryl said it was such a good find that it might turn into an actual gift...

After the mall yesterday, I was just hanging out when a buddy from work called and asked if I wanted to catch the rest of the game at a sports bar right by the office. I said sure and he came over a little later and picked me up. We headed up there, but only stayed 5 minutes because the place was an absolute joke. They call themselves a sports bar, but they only had four TVs and two were playing NASCAR and the other two were playing college football. Lame! we ended up coming back here to watch the rest of the game. Woo Rays!

Today I woke up at a more-reasonable 12:30, ate some cereal (Cookie Crisp) and watched a little football before heading back out to the mall. My new shoes are really skinny, so my jeans always slip underneath, which I absolutely HATE! So I went to find a new pair of jeans that isn't as loose as my current rotation. I found a great pair at Eddie Bauer. When I got home, I put them on and they still do it a little bit, but they look good and I don't think they'll do it as much. Still kind of frustrating though.

When I got back from the mall, I noticed that the house smelled a little funny. So I did the dishes tonight and nearly puked. It literally smelled like someone sat in the sink and took a dump. Husband training won't be complete until I begin to put my dirty dishes directly into the dishwasher, instead of letting them pile up in the sink...

Favorite cereals

A conversation at work the other day got me thinking about my favorite cereals. If you don't know, cereal is my favorite food. I could (and have, on many occasions) eat it every meal of the day. I love pretty much all cereals, but here are my 10 favorite kinds, in order...

1) Golden Grahams
2) Cap'n Crunch (with Crunch Berries)
3) Fruity Pebbles
4) Rice Krispie Treats cereal
5) Life / Cinnamon Life
6) Oh's
7) Cocoa Krispies
8) Frosted Flakes
9) Frosted Mini Wheats
10) Sugar Smacks

There's a ton more that I love that missed the cut. What are your favorites?

Friday, October 10, 2008

The Odd Couple

My roommate Josh and I get along really well, but we don't exactly have the same habits. He goes to bed at 10:30 and wakes up at 5; I go to bed at 2 and wake up at 9. He shaves everyday; I hate shaving once a week. He studies all night; I watch baseball and play Madden. He actually works out; I pretend to work out. And there's this...

His room...


My room...


His desk...


My desk...

Thursday, October 9, 2008

The funniest thing that happened to me today

For the past few weeks, I've been texting back and fourth with my aunt about yogurt, of all things. See, when Cheryl and I passed through Colorado, we stayed with her and my uncle (and Jack!). In the morning, Cheryl and I were eating breakfast and my aunt asked me if I like yogurt. I told her that I do and she recommended this Greek brand that she loves, Fage.

On Sept. 13, I couldn't remember the name of the yogurt, so I texted her. Here's how our conversation has gone over the past few weeks...

Me: Hey, what's that yogurt you said was your fave?
Her: Fage I like the 0 percent fat one. I think it's 80 calories!
Me: Oh yeah, thanks!

I couldn't find it at the grocery store but, a couple weeks later, I saw it when I was out at Target one day and picked one up.

Me: You're crazy. This yogurt tastes like sour cream!
Her: Not!

The other day, back at Target, I saw the same brand, but instead of just being the plain yogurt, the little container had two sections—90 percent of it was yogurt, but there was also some honey. I decided to give it another shot and it was delicious! But it was also 250 calories. I texted her again today and this is what took place...

Me: I found Fage with honey. Waaaaay tastier. Of course it's also 250 calories. Such is life...
Her: Here's what u do. sprinkle it with splenda and add some fresh berries. I like raspberries! That makes it tastier and keeps the calories down.
Me: Good call. I'll give it a shot because it's growing on me!
Her: Can I ask you a personal question?

My mind started racing. What could she possibly want to know?!?

Me: Sure
Her: Who are you?

I lost it! I almost fell out of my chair I was laughing so hard! My aunt had a text messaging conversation that spanned nearly a month with what was apparently A COMPLETE STRANGER!!! I texted her and then called her right away and we were both laughing too hard to even get words out for the first minute of airtime. Too good!

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Play this game

Some people over at Lookout Landing pointed me in the direction of this awesome little game and it's completely addictive. It's definitely one of the best internet games I've ever played. It's really fun and really challenging, but it's also good for learning more about physics and engineering. When you actually complete a level (especially after the first few), it's a very rewarding feeling and I wouldn't make fun of you if you said you got up and did a little dance. Check it out, but don't blame me if three hours slips by...

Fantastic Contraption

October 8, 2008

Con(n)or Glassey: Fashion-Forward Yogurt Connoisseur...

It was a pretty good day at work. I've been doing a lot of data entry lately for the books that come out this winter, so that can be a little slow, but I was very surprised and excited to see that one of my articles is being featured on the front page of Baseball America's Web site. I'd link to it, but you have to be a subscriber to read it, so that's kind of pointless. So I was really excited to see that and I clicked on the link for the story ... and my name was spelled wrong. It's no biggie, I'm obviously used to it and it will get changed ASAP.

Remember how I said I wanted a haircut yesterday? Well, after work today I decided to drive to Target and pick up a pair of clippers. They were only $20, so if I cut my hair twice (and I'll do it way more than that), they easily pay for themselves. Paying $15 for someone else to buzz my head is just ridiculous. So I got those and I also restocked my fridge with yogurt, because Target is the only place I know of out here that sells my favorite yogurt—Yoplait Light Banana Cream Pie. I also got a few Rachel Ray yogurts and this weird Greek brand my aunt Joan recommended. I guess I'm a yogurt connoisseur...

Anyway, I got home and was delighted to see a package from my sister and parents. It was filled with all kinds of goodies—thanks guys!

After looking through that, I decided to give my new clippers a whirl. Are you supposed to wet your hair? I don't know what I did wrong, but it seemed a lot more difficult than it usually is when my mom or Cheryl do it. I've even done it myself before (back when I was roommates with Joe Harkins) and it seemed a lot harder than that time as well. I was thinking about trying out a mohawk for a while, as my ticket onto the Rays bandwagon, but I quickly scrapped that idea when I was having difficulty even buzzing the hair off the sides of my head. About halfway through, I was getting pretty worried...



I kept going and it turned out okay, I guess...



Cleaning up was easy and I hopped in the shower to get all the little hairs off me. When I got out, I realized that I had a few straggling hairs, so I grabbed the scissors that came with the kit instead of busting out the clippers again. Bad idea...



I'm calling this look "The Bear Attack." Maybe it'll start a trend. Maybe not. I think I'm wearing a hat to work tomorrow...

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

I got tagged!

Kari tagged me the other day, requesting that I fill out this survey, so here goes nothing...

9 TV Shows I watch:
• baseball
• football
• Curb Your Enthusiasm
• Project Runway
• Saturday Night Live
• The Office
• 30 Rock
• The Soup
• Seinfeld

9 of my favorite restaurants:
• Q Shack
• Jimmy John's
• Red Mill
• King's Teriyaki
• Matt's Famous Chili Dogs
• Sushiland
• This little Mexican place in Snohomish...not even sure what it's called, but it's awesome.
• Alligator Soul
Cereality (haven't even been there, but trust me...it's my favorite!)

9 things that happened yesterday:
• Woke up
• Shaved
• Took a shower
• Went to work
• Ate lunch
• Came home
• Watched some baseball
• Talked to Cheryl
• Went to bed. Exciting, right?

9 things that I am looking forward to:
In chronological order...
• Talking to Cheryl tonight
• Matt & Kelly visiting me
• World Series
• NOFX concert
• Coming home for Halloween
• Mariners hiring a GM
• Election Day
• Megan coming to visit me
• Coming home for Christmas

9 things on my wish list:
• an awesome job
• a house
• a great Mariners GM
• an after-work game of Wiffle Ball
• a haircut
• cooking lessons
• a maid
• Rays winning the World Series
• more iPhone apps

9 people that I tag:
I wish more of my friends blogged, but they don't. Kari already tagged Anna Marie. I'm pretty sure Mike and Kelly won't do this. Katie—do you read my blog? If so, you're up!

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

October 1, 2008

Dead ballplayers, playoff predictions & Cheerwine

I went to bed early tonight and felt refreshed this morning—and it's been a while, with a busy weekend and then feeling exhausted on Monday. I was a little better yesterday, but today I felt great. And, it was an awesome day at work. I started off doing some data entry, but the day got better as it went on. Yesterday I got to write a little piece that will end up in the next issue, so that was cool, and today I got to write some obituaries (no, I didn't write one for the Mariners!). I did, however, write one for a guy that went to CWU, which was a strange little coincidence. In the afternoon, we all crowded into the conference room to watch some playoff baseball. Not the whole game, but the final few innings. It's such an awesome change—from sneaking peeks at box scores at my old job, to watching the game with everyone in the office. I definitely can't complain!

At work, we all put playoff predictions up on a white board, so I thought I'd share mine here, so everyone can see how I'm thinking...

ALCS: Red Sox & Rays
NLCS: Dodgers & Phillies
World Series: Dodgers & Rays
Winner: Tampa Bay Rays

There's a lot of talk about the Angels being the best team in baseball, but I think they're a bit overrated. Sure, they won 100 games—the most in the majors—but, remember, the AL West was pretty pathetic this year. For me, winning 97 or 95 in the AL East (as the Rays and Sox did) is more impressive. The fourth-place Blue Jays won 86 games, which would have put them second in the AL West. As for the Rays, I was one of only two guys in the office that believes they can take it all. I love this team—they just have "it," they have that swagger. They've been underdogs all year, but I actually think that's in their favor. A lot of these guys came up through the system together and they have something to prove. But it goes beyond that—they obviously have the talent too. They can pitch, they can hit, they can run, they play good defense. They can do it all. Joe Maddon is a great manager—he's tactically sound, he's gutsy and he knows how to get the most of his players. But, if they don't win it all this year, they'll have plenty of other chances, as this is a great young team with an excellent front office and a lot more help coming through the system. The best is yet to come in Tampa.

In the National League, I think it comes down to pitching. The Cubs will be the favorites, but I think the Dodgers have one of the best rotations in baseball, and they'll be tough to beat in a five-game series. Add in a red-hot Manny Ramirez and I like them over the Cubs. A sick part of me would take pleasure in seeing the Cubbies lose in the World Series—especially to Lou Piniella's old team—but I don't think they'll get that far. As much as I'd love to see my boy Mike Cameron in the World Series, the Phillies over the Brewers was the easiest pick of the playoffs. They have solid starting pitching and a thunderous lineup. With Ben Sheets out for the Brew Crew, I don't see this one going past four games.

After work I went grocery shopping. Mostly the usual stuff, although I'm trying out whole wheat spaghetti and I got three different kinds of mac n' cheese (whole wheat, thick n' creamy and organic cheddar), so I'll let you know which one is best. I also got a soda called Cheerwine, which is a local product. It's tagline is "A Cherry Different Soda," but it's not a cola. But it's not like pure cherry soda either—it's a little like Dr. Pepper, and my initial reaction is that it's pretty good. I also got some more of those salsa cups, because those were a huge hit the last time around and I'm going to take another crack at cooking collard greens. Hopefully they turn out better than last time's disaster...

Now I'm just chillin', watching the playoff games and doing some baseball research. Good times!