Cheryl has her own blog now! Sure, we could have just both blogged here, but that would have required a name change...and her blog's name was just too good to waste: NorthCherylina
So head over there now for a recap of what she's been up to since leaving WA and a video tour of our new apartment. Bookmark it, love it, leave lots of comments, just don't forget about me...
I went with my friend Jeff and his friend Rochelle to go see a Carolina Rollergirls double header last night. I was a little skeptical but, honestly, it was awesome and I quickly became a fan. Don't knock it till you try it!
Basically, there's two teams of five girls skating around a flat, oval track. Each team essentially has two positions: four "blockers" and one "jammer." There's actually three blockers, a "pivot" and a jammer, but I don't really know what a pivot does. Anyway, the goal is to get your jammer to the front of the pack, at which point, they can skate around and rack up points by crossing various lines. Eventually they'll get back into the pack and it starts over again. The blockers are trying to clear lanes for their jammers while, at the same time, trying to block the other team's jammer. Really, it sounds more complicated than it is.
We watched 2 games and each game consists of two, 30-minute halves. The first game was Carolina vs. Gotham Girls All-Stars (2008 National Champs). They were LEGIT. Gotham won and the score was something like 181-34. Then it was Carolina (same team, but different girls) vs. River City Rollergirls from Richmond, Virginia. That was a lot closer, but Carolina lost again, 81-76 (or something).
The skaters have cool names like Penelope Bruz, Trudy Struction, Eye Candy Stroy, Kama Suture, Scariett Tubman, Surly Temple, and Barbara Ambush.
I thought of a few names of my own: Slamma Montana, Ann Uerysm & if there were a republican rollergirl, she could be Sarah M. Palin.
Sorry I haven't updated in a while. With the draft being just two weeks away I have been amazingly busy and it's going to be crazy for a while, even after the draft because of Hawaii, moving Cheryl and all our stuff out here, finding a place to live, summer tournaments and showcases to cover, weddings, etc. But I can't complain. Life is good, even if I've been bad about posting the details here.
I'm going to Florida tomorrow for the weekend and I'll only post something if I see an alligator...
I was talking to my friend Matt today about the new NOFX CD and how much I like it. We were talking about how it compared to their other albums, so I decided to rank them, starting with my least favorite (though I like all listed here, obviously) and going down to my favorite. NOFX has been a band for almost 30 years and they're still putting out awesome, important music. They're definitely one of my favorites and it makes me proud and happy that my friends and I still listen the same stuff that bonded us in junior high.
So, here's my order, with the caveat that I only focused on post-S&M Airlines full-lengths (because, let's get serious, who likes Maximum Rocknroll, Liberal Animation or S&M Airlines?). I also thought it would get too hairy to try and rank EPs (though The Decline would be No. 1), live CDs and B-Side compilations.
Here they are with Haiku reviews...
9) Ribbed Silliness begins You can hear the potential Just a bit too raw
I've heard from a few different people lately that one of the things they like about my blog is when I post pictures of what I've eaten lately. So I decided to do a post cleaning out the pics from my camera phone, which includes a few restaurants (both new and old) as well as a few other funny things I've seen lately. Enjoy!
First, the food...
This is from a Persian kabob place I went to a couple weeks ago with my buddy. The meat on the left looks like a turd and wasn't very good. The meat on the right is lamb and was just okay, but kinda fatty. Also, I was expecting (hoping?) the bread underneath would be like nan, but it was hard and crunchy and tasted like sesame seeds. Really nothing special, overpriced, won't go back...
This is a sandwich from Which Wich? on The Ave. That place was amazing and I was glad to find out it's a franchise and there's one in Raleigh. This is their sandwich called "The Elvis" and, as you can see, it's peanut butter, honey and banana. So delicious!
This lovely spread is from my very favorite Vietnamese restaurant on The Ave called Thanh Vi, a true Seattle gem that I miss and always try to hit up when I'm back home. I used to eat there all the time when I worked on The Ave (no joke...10 days straight at one point, which I've never done with any other restaurant). Love this place. Great food, cheap, very friendly (the woman there remembered me after not being in for more than a year—even asked about Cheryl). Just writing this is making me wish I could go there tomorrow! This is a "small" bowl of pho & a beef Vietnamese sandwich. Normally I would just get one or the other, but when I get the opportunity to visit Thanh Vi these days, I have to pig out and get both.
Last night I got a serious craving for some authentic, taco-truck tacos. My favorite Durham food blog, Carpe Durham, loves taco trucks more than I and apparently Durham is thriving with Mexican food on wheels. So much so that the Carpe Durham peeps have made a "Tacomentary" about the situation...
So I drove up to North Durham and got me some tacos. The drive took about 15 or 20 minutes, of course I had to take out cash because I never have any and I got a little freaked out by a Dog The Bounty Hunter-looking dude with a Hells Angels belt buckle at the gas station, but once I bit into my first taco, I knew the voyage was worth it! I got four tacos because I'm fat I couldn't decide what kinds I wanted to try. I got Mexican barbecue, asada, pastor and chicken. Pastor and asada were the best, chicken was the worst because it was dry, but all were delicious and hit the spot.
This is a Chicago dog & cheese fries. I love Chicago dogs—loaded up all the way, but I've only had them before at Matt's Famous Chili Dogs. This was was actually in Chicago. Granted, it was just in the airport, so I'm not really counting it until I have one from in the city somewhere, but it was still pretty dang good. I really suck at eating local cuisine though. Didn't have crab cakes when I was in Baltimore and didn't have either a Chicago dog or deep-dish pizza when I was in Chi-city. Lesson learned: I've had tons of North Carolina barbecue to make up for past mistakes.
And now for something completely different!
Cooper is awesome!
Wacky space toilets at O'Hare. I've never seen these before. There's disposable plastic film that rotates on a new cover for each use to ensure a clean, sanitary seat. Fernando—was this a deciding factor in moving to Chicago?
A license plate I saw in the Starbucks parking lot the other day (click on it to make it bigger). Did a double take. The young, Asian female kinda mean-mugged me she noticed I was taking a photo, but that's what you get...
Last week, when I was at home, Jon, Jen & the girls came up to visit. As always, it was really great to see them. They always have such funny stories saved up, which is why I've been lobbying for them to start a family blog (any help in this effort would be greatly appreciated). They recently took a trip down to California for a family vacation to Disneyland and they also stopped off in Fairfield, Calif. to tour the Jelly Belly factory. They said it was really neat and told us about how it takes two weeks to make a jelly bean (probably why they're expensive ... which reminds me of the time in high school when all my buddies worked at Target and got us a ton of Jelly Belly tins after easter for a penny apiece. Good times!) and how any beans that are too big or too small aren't stamped with the name and are sold at the factories as "Belly Flops." They also brought us some "treats" from the factory—Jelly Belly's latest gross-out beans in a box called BeanBoozled. The idea behind the BeanBoozled boxes is that there are 10 different colors of beans in the box and each color can either be a good flavor or a wretched one. See for yourself...
So, right after breakfast, as we were all sitting around the table, I decided to crack the box open, sort them out by color and start playing Jelly Belly roulette. I almost threw up my pancakes. In my opinion, here are the flavors, from worst to "best": rotten egg, vomit, skunk spray, moldy cheese, booger, baby wipes, pencil shavings, ear wax, toothpaste & pepper.
Yesterday I was a guest on a fantasy baseball internet radio show called RotoExperts Think Tank. I had to wake up at 8 in the morning to do this (after going to bed at like 3:30), so I blame my random babbling on the fact that I was really tired. But, if you still want to give it a listen, here you go. I start about 1/3 of the way through the show and you can fast forward by just clicking on the progress bar...
Kari tagged me for a belated Valentine's Day survey, so here goes nothing...
1. Where did you meet your wife? Cheryl's a year younger, but we went to junior high and high school together. We didn't hang in junior high, but I knew some of her friends. During my senior year in high school, my friends and I would often drive by Caroline as she was walking home from school and would oftentimes exchange waves. After one of the friendly drive-bys, my friends and I actually had a conversation that went something like this: "Hey, we should hang out with that group of girls—they seem really cool." They must have been thinking the same thing, because around the same time, Cheryl was on my sister's softball team and sent me a Happy Birthday e-mail out of the blue. So, our groups of friends started hanging out frequently, I got a crush on Cheryl and we started dating soon thereafter...
2. How long did you date before you were married? A long time. We were friends for like a year and a half, then started dating the summer after my freshman year of college. So...five years.
3. How long have you been married? 972 days.
4. What does she do that surprises you? She remembers EVERYONE'S birthday. I'm talking random-ass people we haven't talked to since junior high or high school. She's like Rain Man.
5. What is your favorite feature of hers? There are a lot to choose from, but I'm especially fond of her adorable dimples!
6. What is her best quality? Cheryl's the complete package. She's extremely kind and caring, she's smart, she's supportive, honest, down-to-earth, fun to hang out with, a great cook and well-organized (which is great, because I'm certainly not). But, what I like best is her awesome sense of humor. That girl cracks me up on a daily basis.
7. Does she have a nickname for you? Let's see...Mostly just Con and Hubb Rubb.
8. What is her favorite food? Mongolian Beef from P.F. Chang's.
9. What is her favorite sport? I'm guessing "So You Think You Can Dance" doesn't quite count, so I'll say volleyball.
10. When and where did you first kiss? Ha! This is actually disputed. I say in her car, she says at her house. But, since she knows Shavon Jones' birthday, we should probably trust her memory over mine...
11. What is your favorite thing you do as a couple? Lazy weekends together.
12. Do you have any children? Just names, so far. We'll see if we can keep dogs alive first...
13. Does she have any hidden talents? Aside from the birthday thing? She's really good at Guitar Hero, she can tie cherry stems in a knot with her tongue and can do funny impressions of really random people.
14. How old is she? 26
15. Who said "I love you first"? Cheryl did, but the feeling was mutual.
16. What is her favorite music? Pop punk, '80s & Phantom of the Opera soundtrack.
17. What do you admire most about her? I admire her strength. Cheryl's been forced to deal with a lot of things, but she's not bitter or spiteful. She's just a really, really good person.
Saw this bumper sticker tonight in the parking lot when I went to dinner. Talked to the guy in the car and he was a real grouchy old white guy with too much cologne. Apparently he made 100 of these for all of his friends.
I went and saw Slumdog Millionaire tonight. Despite the hype, I actually went in with mixed expectations because on the way to the theater, Cheryl told me a couple friends saw it and said it didn't live up to the hype. To protect the guilty, I won't mention their names because I was blown away. I absolutely loved it. I would see it again tomorrow, in a heartbeat. If you haven't seen it yet, do it ASAP. It's everything a good movie should be. It's gut-wrenching, heart-warming, thought provoking, powerful, funny, dramatic, entertaining and educational all at the same time. Even though most people think they know the ending, it still managed to be captivating and suspenseful. It's a great story, visually stimulating, the acting is fantastic and, as a bonus, Freida Pinto (shown above) is just stunning. Two thumbs way up—this movie deserves it all.
1) On the way home from the game, I took an exit looking for a BBQ joint that I had seen billboards for. Of course it was closed, but I saw a drive-thru convenience store. It's not a drive-thru like McDonalds, where you drive next to the building...you actually drive through the damn thing! If you think about it, that pretty much makes all the other "convenience" stores pretty inconvenient.
2) A UNC Baseball billboard. I was pretty surprised by that. I know I haven't seen a UW baseball billboard, but I'm trying to think if I've even seen a Mariners billboard...
3) This huge chair (notice the mini van for scale). I've actually seen these (there are two) before from the freeway, but this time I actually took the exit and tracked them down...
I've been lazy on the blogging lately, but I had an awesome long weekend with Cheryl last week. Cheryl couldn't get a flight out on Friday night, so she toughed it out and hopped on a 6 a.m. flight on Saturday morning. She got in at about 4:30 and we hung out for a bit before heading to P.F. Chang's for a nice Valentine's Day dinner. After that, we came home and had a relaxing evening of cribbage and movies.
On Sunday, we met a friend and his girlfriend for lunch at Mama Dip's, which was awesome. For the drive out to Chapel Hill, I downloaded the new Lonely Island CD, which is awesome. After lunch, we headed to Frankie's Fun Park for some mini golf. I won't lie...Cheryl schooled me (48 to 54).
Here she is after shooting a hole-in-one... The place also had some nasty, fake blue water...
After that, Cheryl and I headed home to nap and chill. That night, we went to dinner at Jason's Deli and then just chilled some more—watching the season 14 premiere of The Amazing Race and then the new shows on MTV. I rubbed Cheryl's feet for an entire HALF HOUR for losing at mini golf!
The best part about Cheryl's trip out is that is was for more than just a weekend! She lined up the trip with her school's mid-winter break, so she was able to stay until Wednesday morning. I was able to take Monday off because it was President's Day, which was great. Cheryl and I slept in and then headed over to Sutton's Drug Store in Chapel Hill. That place is awesome. You step in and you kind of feel like you're going back in time to the '50s. On Monday afternoon, we looked at some available houses and condos online. There are some really cute ones, but here's a tip for home sellers. If the best picture you have of your backyard "pool" looks like this, just skip the picture...
I had to go to work on Tuesday and Cheryl pranked me by changing my desktop picture to something that shows two of my least-favorite things about the Mariners. If only the fans were doing the wave in the background, she would have had an awesome trifecta! Damn, she's funny! We went to dinner that night at a friend's house, which was a lot of fun. Cheryl headed back to Seattle on Wednesday morning and the countdown begins again...34 days until we see each other again!
I don't talk much about baseball around here, but I wanted to share my thoughts on Ken Griffey Jr. returning to Seattle.
The Mariners have signed Griffey—apparently for real this time—and I have mixed feelings.
I'll preface this by saying Ken Griffey Jr. essentially defines my childhood. I moved to Seattle in 1990 as a seven-year-old, so yeah it was natural to latch onto The Kid.
Actually, I even liked him before moving to Seattle. I remember going to a baseball card shop in New England and getting his rookie card ... only to have Megan accidentally sit on it on the drive home.
Griffey was my favorite player. I would always stop what I was doing when he came to the plate. I loved watching him hit back-to-back home runs with his dad, hit home runs in eight-consecutive games and bang one off the warehouse in the home run derby at Camden Yards.
Griffey even tossed me a ball once in the Kingdome and I was lucky enough to watch him play in a charity basketball game against the teachers at my school.
I loved watching him make acrobatic catches, joke around with other players and his smile at the bottom of the dog pile after The Double is the exclamation point on my favorite baseball memory of all time.
I'm man enough to admit that I cried as I welcomed him back to Seattle a couple of years ago when he came to town with the Reds.
So, sure, a part of me likes it because seeing him in an M's uniform again will just feel good.*
But, there's not a nostalgia column in the standings and I think it's counterproductive for the direction of this team. Sometimes you should just love the past and move on.
Griffey isn't the player many in Seattle will expect him to be. He shouldn't be allowed to play the outfield and is useless against lefties (.202/.299/.350 over 187 PAs last year).
Like Dave said the other day at USSMariner, if Griffey is willing to DH against righties, this could end up being the best of both worlds. It would appease the fans that want to party like it's 1995 and could help the team win games.
If, however, he's playing the field and getting regular at-bats against lefties, I think this situation could be kind of be like seeing your grandparents in the old folks home, when they don't know your name and have to have their diapers changed. It's nice to see them ... but your final memories will be forever tainted.
But, in general, I'm excited. Someone better find that old Naughty By Nature CD quick!
Random thoughts from the day, since it's been a while without an update (sorry Mom!)
• I never realized making fresh squeezed orange juice was so hard. It doesn't help that I already have a sore hand from opening my thermos, but damn that was strenuous. Better be worth it! • That's what I'll be having for breakfast tomorrow morning. Well, that, and a yogurt parfait (organic french vanilla yogurt with granola and fresh blueberries). Cheryl told me that I bought a bunch of "stoner food" during my last grocery shopping trip. Eggo waffles, trail mix, grilled cheese Uncrustables...maybe she has a point. • I watch way too much Jon & Kate Plus Ei8ht • My job is freaking awesome. Now that all of our books are off to the printers, I can finally start focusing on the task at hand. I was absolutely stunned today when I looked at the clock and it was already 5 p.m. The days just fly by. • My XBox 360 has been magically working like a charm lately (knock on wood). • Here are a few awesome web sites I've found lately: F My Life (R-rated), This Is Why You're Fat, & JacksonPollock.org • At work today, I found out that Scottsdale Community College's mascot is the Fighting Artichoke. That's awesome! • Playing poker on Friday night was a lot of fun and I'd like to play recreationally more often. I know the guys at work have talked about getting a game going & I think that would be a blast. • Jeff and I are going to see Tim Barry on the 28th. • I've become addicted to Facebook lately. A few frustrating design gripes aside, it's not even funny how much better it is than MySpace. In fact, the only thing MySpace really has going for it is MySpace Music. • I'm sure most of you have seen the "David After the Dentist" viral video, but if you haven't, do yourself a favor! • The weather has been absolutely gorgeous lately. I can't wait to get my new bike out here! • Five days until Cheryl comes out to visit!!!
I'm a journalist working as an assistant editor at Baseball America. It's a dream come true and I started this blog so everyone back home could keep up with my daily adventures.
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