Ha! Victory is mine!

Despite the horror stories I’ve heard about the demise of the Shamrock Shake of McDonald’s fame, I simply couldn’t believe it was true. Why, I had one only… has it really been two years?

I am in a self-imposed fast food exile, yet when I attempted my annual trip to the local gut-buster for the express purpose of scoring one of those minty treats I was bluntly informed that the only flavor available was chocolate-banana. WTF, it’s only a week until St. Patty’s Day, where could they be?. So the hunt began. This morning on the way to work, I stopped into another McD’s in the Pioneer Place food court only to be denied again. Uncle O’Grimacey would not be pleased. Luckily the third time was the charm. After work I decided to try my luck at the SW 6th location near Pioneer Square. Jackpot! It is official. THIS McDONALD’s HAS SHAMROCK SHAKES! Within minutes I was cruising downtown with 32 frosty ounces in my hand. Within a couple more minutes I had a horrible, gut-wrenching belly ache and realized once again why I don’t go to McDonald’s. Oh well, I’m sure I’ll forget by next March.

Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about

This is how you start a season. I was meaning to get up and watch it, but I really didn’t feel like walking down to the bar at 6 in the morning. I know, I know… I’m a lazy bastard. Who doesn’t want to be at the bar at 6 am on a Sunday? Anyways, it looks like the sale of Ruud van Nistelrooy isn’t a complete disaster just yet, but we’ll wait and see how they do without Scholes and Rooney for the next three matches.

Urgent update!!!!!

Sorry for all the exclamation points, false alarm. I’ve been meaning to write a lot more, but the weather’s been so nice lately that I feel guilty staying inside. That and I really haven’t done anything worth writing about. Let’s see… I fixed my brakes, hooray! Umm…, I sat at Pioneer Square and ate my lunch while watching all the crazies, awesome! I took the streetcar over the 23rd to get a cheesesteak from Tributes before going to the bar, kick ass! I did just upload a bunch of new/old pictures to my Flickr page. Anyway, if anything truly exciting happens, I’ll keep you, the faithful reader, posted

Pat Robertson must be right because we’re obviously on our way to Hell

What is that giant, burning orb in the sky? This is Portland, the Pacific Northwest, the middle of a rainforest. We don’t see the sun here, let alone triple-digit temps, but it must be a sign of impending doom because we all know that global warming is a crock of shit, right? What else is there to say. I’ve been through hot midwest summers and it doesn’t really get humid here, but if I hear anyone say that ‘it’s a dry heat’, I’m gonna slap ‘em. Hot is hot. I’m gonna go take my third shower of the day and then mooch off someone’s AC.

UPDATE: For so bravely putting up with today’s heat wave, I decided to treat myself to a little all-you-can-eat sushi and crab legs for dinner. Mmmmm… Todai.

Wow, all I can say is just….. Wow

In what will surely end up being one of the most interesting (to say the least) matches of World Cup 2006, 4 red and 16 yellow cards were shown in the Netherlands vs. Portugal game today. I believe that ties the record for most cards shown in a World Cup match.

I wandered over to Kells to check out the match because ABC, in all it’s glorious wisdom, thought it was better to show info-mercials rather than show the game. Normally I consider Kells an extremely shitty place to watch games, but I was impressed today. Instead of the two tiny flat panels they usually have, they brought out the big guns: a giant projector screen and surround sound. Anyway, the place was packed with Netherlands supporters, and I’m not talking about some orange shirts here and there. I’m talking about tulip growing, cheese wheel making, wooden shoe wearing, Dutch speaking Oranje supporters. I’m not sure where they came from, but there was a shitload of ‘em and they were vocal.

I expected an exciting game, and I definitely wasn’t disappointed. There was some good playing coming from both sides until the ref completely lost control of the field in the second half. Ahhh, the best and the worst that soccer has to offer all in one exciting action packed game: powerful shots, dives, beautiful goals, headbutts, ball control, spikes to the groin, elbows to the face, pushing, shoving, bitching, moaning… What more could you ask for?

And in other news, England phoned in another thoroughly boooooring 1-0 win against Ecuador earlier in the day. They will go on to play Portugal in the next round. I want England to win, but they can’t seem to find the back of the net to save their lives. They’re lucky that two of Portugals top names will be suspended for their match on Saturday

In the words of Pavement ‘fucking righteous’

Built to Spill kicked some serious ass. At this point, though, I'm kicking myself because this is the best picture I got. The first night of the show we stood two feet from the stage. I could have reached out and touched Doug Martsch. Unfortunately that was also the night I forgot to bring along my camera. The second night we stood a little farther back. It sounded a lot better being able to hear the whole band, but it also meant that most of my pictures ended up blurry because my camera takes shitty pics in the dark.

Whateva. Both nights kicked ass. They played a good mix off of old and new albums along with some unreleased songs and covers. I'd say the only downside is that even though they played for 2+ hours, because the songs are longer than your typical pop crap, they didn't play some of the older songs we wanted to hear. Stop the Show and I Would Hurt a Fly would have kicked ass. Not to mention Carry the Zero and You Were Right, but they can't play 'em all I guess. That's what teh interweb is for.

No time for love Dr. Jones

I'm walking out the door to go to the first of two Built to Spill shows down at the Crystal Ballroom, but before I take off I have to give a couple shout-outs & happy birthdays to Scott and Ben. Ben, I'll see you at the show. Scott, don't wuss out and crash before I can get there. Sorry, it's not getting anymore exciting than that. I'm out.

So much to do.

I haven't written a whole lot lately because things have been very busy around here. My mom and sister just left yesterday after a week of visiting. The Rose Festival is going on. The World Cup finally started, and my copies of The Greatest American Hero and The Muppet Show just came in at the library. For those of you who don't know The Greatest American Hero has probably the single greatest theme song ever made and is quite funny for a ridiculous 80's sitcom. Anywho, yeah. So I'm finally trying to write more. I was also trying to upload some of the 300 pictures I took last week when I found out that Flickr doesn't let you show more than 200 pictures at a time on a free account. Hence, I was forced to upgrade to a pro account. Please make my time and money well spent and check out my latest work.

Hmmm…..

According to my confidential source, Wayne Rooney may be fit to play in the World Cup after all.  England's chances (and my chances of winning a new iPod) are looking slightly more chipper.  Only seven more days until the cup arrives in all of it's hi-def glory.  Don't attempt to contact me until after the final.

What’s up with that noise?

Apparently I'm gonna have to go into debt soon. Within the last week two of my friends bought ginormous HDTV's. Of course the TV's are meant to go along with the 360's that they both bought about the same time. Holy hot damn. Jim and I played some 2006 FIFA World Cup and it's like watching an actual match on TV. I came back home to my little  27" and was suddenly depressed, so very, very cold.  Anyway, I guess it's time to trade in the ol' Playstation and upgrade to the latest and greatest.