• Have you bought a raffle ticket yet? WHY NOT?
  • Have you donated to Relay For Life yet? WHY NOT?
  • There’s this scene in The Town that gets me every time. Bear with me if you haven’t seen it. Ben Affleck’s character, Doug, goes to see his friend Jem, played by Jeremy Renner. It’s just after he’s met and started to woo Claire, played by Rebecca Hall. Doug: I need your help. I can’t tell you what it is, you can never ask me about it later, and we’re going to hurt some people. Jem: Who’s car are we going to take? Ultimately, these are bad people doing bad things, but still, that’s friendship and that’s the type of friend I want and want to be. You need something, I’m not asking questions or trying to figure out why or how it might benefit me. I’m saying yes, if at all possible.
  • If any of you DC tweetup attendees/DC residents want to hang out Thursday (the 21st) and/or Friday (the 22nd, but during the day), then GET AT ME. (Alternatively, kik me at 2yellows).
  • I’m still trying to work out logistics for the potential uber-road trip in September. I don’t know about Minneapolis, but I still want to make Chicago (and surrounding areas) happen before MITU. I’ll figure it all out eventually.
  • It’s entirely possible I will be at the Firefly Music Festival in Dover in July. Killers, Black Keys, OK Go, Flaming Lips, Cold War Kids, Ra Ra Riot, Girl Talk, Cults, Jack White, Heartless Bastards, Death Cab, Lupe Fiasco? It’s…too beautiful for words.
  • I’m super-stoked for the excessive heat warning tomorrow. Really, really….stoked.
  • Hope you’ve all had a happy and safe weekend.

  • It’s really sort of incredible how people react so angrily if someone even hints at making a joke or observation about someone’s race or sexual orientation, but those same people will make the most vicious comments about people’s weight. Seriously, think whatever you want and judge all you want, but making fun of people’s weight is bullshit and I hate you if you do it.
  • I may have just impulsively booked a trip for September (that will in no way interfere with MITU) because. “Because” is a perfectly good adult reason, you could look it up.
  • I watched the Champions League final yesterday at a Wild Wings (because when we called our favorite “English-style” pub they were showing….steeplechase….which is fine if you like that sort of thing but ugh, seriously? Only plus? They have 8$ buckets of Corona…so….yeah.) It’s always fun when you meet an American “supporter” of an English club, and then casually drop a name (like say, Vinnie Jones or Ron Harris) and watch them look at you blankly because they’ve only just started with the club. It’s fine, it amuses me to make them a bit uncomfortable, but hey, at least they’re watching and they’re engaged. Usually, if they really like the club, they’ll go back and sort out the history part.
  • We were trying to think who the third in line for a “having a really strange conversation with Siri” commercial would be. Consensus fell to Taylor Swift or Howard Stern.
  • I feel like something is really building to a big Pete Campbell moment at the end of this season of Mad Men. Which, of course, means that something big will happen to someone else and Pete will still be douchey little Pete Campbell. Anyway, Mad Men tonight!
  • I guess finding out about prominent deaths via Twitter is pretty much the way of the world these days. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
  • For those asking, I brined the chicken for two hours (2 parts sugar, one part salt, half a gallon of water). I made the sauce myself from the following recipe: 1/2 an onion minced, 3 cloves of garlic minced, 3/4 cup bourbon, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, 1/2 tablespoon of salt, 2 cups of chili sauce, 1/4 cup of tomato paste, 1/3 cup cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons liquid smoke, 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce, 2/3 cup packed brown sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon of tabasco. Simmer the onion, garlic and bourbon together for 10 minutes. Mix in the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce to medium and simmer for 20 minutes. Put sauce into a food processor and pulse until smooth.

  • My sister is pregnant. There’s a couple things there. One, she told my Dad and all her friends but not me (as of now). Two, she will be 42 by the time she gives birth and while I know people older than that have given birth with no issues whatsoever, it makes me nervous for her. Dad says she’s due in December.
  • I’m an idiot who had sunscreen with me yesterday but didn’t put it on. Now I have burn on my arms. PRO TIP: Put sunscreen on when you’re out in the sun. You would think I would have learned this lesson by now but you’d be wrong. Oh so terribly wrong.
  • There’s like three weeks and a half left until Julie’s Relay for Life event. Please consider contributing to her team if you haven’t, or contribute again.  
  • I wonder, exactly, what Gordon Gee gives to Ohio State that warrants a two million dollar per year salary and an over half a million dollar per year travel budget. What will the tipping point be for college tuition? 
  • My back is finally starting to feel better. It’s been like 9 days since I tweaked it. Let this be a lesson to you young, strong, healthy people. It all ends. All of it. Enjoy it while you can.
  • It’s been a rainy humid Monday. 

  • I’ve spent a super-sexy afternoon with the heating pad on my upper back. LADIES?
  • I’ve probably talked back to the Zooey/Siri commercial more than any commercial ever. She doesn’t want to put on real shoes but she had time to put on makeup AND lipstick? WHAT IS THIS MADNESS? I have a really weird thing with Zooey. It’s complicated.
  • Horse racing fascinates me. There was like a ten hour long pre-race show for a two minute long horse race. The equivalent time for the Super Bowl, which is like four hours long, would be a 3 and 1/2 billion hour long pre-game show. You can check my math because it’s totally right. Oh, and it only FEELS like ESPN talks about the game that long. Anyway, horse racing. Everyone pretends to be an expert on horse racing for three weekends a year (or four if you get into the Breeder’s Cup too) and then goes right back to not giving a shit. Perfect. 
  • Just based on my twitter feed, I’m sensing a disturbance in the Force as it pertains to Tim Burton’s latest opus. I *think* he might have pushed his luck with this one.
  • The Union (our local MLS team) lost AGAIN yesterday, and things are so bad that I basically nodded grimly when my friend Jay said without any irony whatsoever that Abby Wambach would be the best striker on the club right now if they were to give her a kit. It’s bleak.
  • The Tom Shales SNL book is really good, but about 100 pages too long. Conversely, The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman could have just kept right on going.
  • I feel bad every time I see a Spotify song posted, since apparently Canada decided that their country is just a bit too awesome to use that service. Or something to that effect. I’m going to keep trying to use mp3’s and the sound cloud search. SOLIDARITY EH?
  • The candy store thing is on life support. They have decided to delay selling until after the Summer ends. Oh well.
  • Mad Men tonight!

Random stuff on a Friday before I go grocery shopping like a GANGSTER

  • So after that little NFL labor scrap last year, the new collective bargaining agreement translated into a lower rookie wage pool. This has made trading draft picks much easier and a bunch happened last night during the first round of the draft. This makes the excessive and endless mock drafts completely and utterly worthless. That’s a good development. Enough already with every website in creation having a draft expert putting out five hundred and thirty two mock drafts. Stop it. Enough.
  • My new camera lens (55-250mm) comes today! This is exciting stuff and I’m hoping I can get used to it a bit before tomorrow evening’s Union-Earthquakes match.
  • So crush posts are annoying, and people hate “this is my Friday”. This is your “what annoys the tumblratti this week” update. Next week we cover: Endless face posts and repeating memes!
  • I was both disappointed AND annoyed to find out that fuckyeahmuffins AND effyeahmuffins are both parked and abandoned. I like muffins, yo.
  • I was considering going to Connecticut today to see the candy store but other things intervened. I think it might happen next Friday. If that does happen, I might just come back to NYC for the evening, so NYC people, stay tuned.
  • I follow some really funny people on Twitter, and my stream is really excellent when a big sporting event occurs. This week, in particular, has been great. The two Champions League semi-finals, the draft last night, baseball, the hockey playoffs. It’s nice to enjoy Twitter again.
  • I had a “secret tumblr messages” post in drafts. I deleted it. For ME, I didn’t feel right about it and so I didn’t do it. I’m not blaming you or judging you if you do those sorts of things because it’s not my place.
  • Tomorrow’s tailgate food update: Fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, and Noble Pils. 

  1. iPhone achievement unlocked. I had to bust stones at the AT&T store but I ended up with the iPhone and two free months for all the BS I’ve been through with them lately. In the immortal words of Kevin Malone, it’s just nice to win one once in awhile. Send me your iPhone must-have app recommendations. 
  2. I feel like you should know that if you ever come to a Philadelphia sporting event wearing literally any other team’s shirt, you should expect to have a certain segment of the local glitterati let you know you aren’t really welcome and that you might want to consider going back from whence you came. I saw a gent in a pretty swank Boston Bruins jersey get told that very thing yesterday at the Union match. Why he was wearing a hockey jersey to a soccer match is anyone’s guess, but let’s just say he found out quickly what we think of oppo jerseys ‘round here.
  3. I guess I’ll have to make it to one of these CHSH things at some point. Looks like you guys had a lot of fun. Glad to see it.
  4. Sadly, I sort of feel like any time a movie promo leads with “From the makers of…[insert former awesome movie here]…” you’re looking at a complete disaster. It’s such lazy marketing. “Remember how much you liked this movie? Well, this movie is by those same people! It will clearly be just as awesome! Get out your cash!”
  5. You know, you would think on Jackie Robinson Day in baseball, that the Dodgers would be in the nationally televised night game on ESPN. You would think. Oh hey, the Yankees. Again.
  6. I shook off an ugly problem this past week at work. Now we go towards my favorite time of year. The happy period when we have to fill out our “self evaluation”. Mine should be pretty easy this year as I plan to give myself all 5’s and put “WAS AWESOME ALL YEAR” as the justification. TRY TO TELL ME I’M WRONG!
  7. Mad Men tonight! Domestic Don is boring me to death, actually. 

  1. I’ve started making ice cream again. I feel good about knowing everything that goes into it, for whatever that’s worth. This week: Coffee, and man oh man, it’s good.
  2. I tried to figure out a Minneapolis-Chicago-Grand Rapids driving road trip today and it made my head hurt. Nevertheless, I think it might happen. There are some people I need to see.
  3. New phone this weekend. I *think* I might be going with Sprint/iPhone. If you feel the need to talk me out of it or give advice, holler.
  4. Tomorrow is my Friday. The four/ten thing is working out quite nicely.
  5. I feel like this Spotify integration is going to be a good thing but I seriously now could post like 20 songs a day. It’s going to take some willpower not to do so. The huge album art is something I’m still trying to decide in terms of whether I like it or not. I’m a big album art guy, overall, so I’m leaning towards “like” right now. 
  6. I’ve been really enjoying watching this Tigers/Rays series. Detroit has a great team and a really nice park, and it’s been good baseball. Plus, there was snow on Tuesday, which is always fun. I’ve seen more snow on baseball games than I saw in my back yard this year.
  7. I just covered my cat with a warm towel and he yawned and fell right asleep. Cats are so weird.

  1. Hunger Games - Thumbs way up.
  2. The end of The Masters was pretty fun.
  3. My chicken didn’t thaw well enough so I was #TEAMPIZZA tonight.
  4. Arsenal gifted Manchester United another Premier League title this morning. I will now light myself on fire.
  5. My dad called today to talk about the anniversary. Every year he says “If I had been there…” and I say “Dad, you live in LONDON. How were you going to be there?” and then we laugh. 
  6. I was gifted a turntable today. Vinyl Sundays, here I come.
  7. Mad Men tonight!

It’s been a Sunday.

  • I sat outside yesterday from 2:00 PM until just after 6:00 PM. It was 40 degrees or so the entire time, no sun, with a stiff, cold breeze. To say that it took me FOREVER to warm up last night would be an understatement. There were two young gentlemen near me during tailgating yesterday wearing shorts and t-shirts, drinking copious amounts of Yuengling Lager and making their own cheeseburgers. I remembered my youth wistfully, trust me.
  • I ran the numbers on an impulsive trip to Chicago and I just can’t swing it, sadly. I hope you guys all have a great time. 
  • DC in June is possible.
  • A year ago this weekend I was in Florida. It was a really good weekend and I need to get back there at some point. 
  • Seeing this Star Wars kinect thing makes me want to go get one, play the game three times, then never use it again. 
  • I’m 2[space]Yellows on Draw Something and the Zynga games (Scramble, Words With and Hanging With). I think I’m best at Scramble, so if you’re looking for easy wins or really horrendous drawings, you know where to go. 
  • I didn’t go to Hunger Games today because everyone was WAY hung over (except for me, and I’m not allowed to go before they go). So we’re going to celebrate the anniversary of the Crucifixion of our Lord and Savior by watching teenagers battle to the death, as He would have wanted.
  • Lando Calrissian trying to uber-mack on Leia is still creepy to this very day.

  • I don’t have to do a lot of driving these days. Lately, all it is is going to the gym and the occasional two minute trip to the grocery store. Given what the gas prices are currently, it’s fine. I take some pleasure especially in the ride home from the gym early in the morning. It’s been warm enough to have the window open and I get to listen to my favorite playlist and that’s been a saving grace. It’s quiet and there’s not a lot of traffic and the day hasn’t really started yet. 
  • If the Force was based on frustration, I’d be Obi Wan Yoda Vader.
  • I’m seeing Hunger Games on Sunday. It’s nice to have read the books and hear things like “It’s a very faithful adaptation”, and to have a more than a few people I trust tell me that they both liked it AND thought it was good.
  • An Anchorman sequel? Okay. Did we need that? I can’t tell. Honestly, I’d rather see more of Dale and Brennan. I guess I’ll have to drag my “St. Dorothy Mantooth” t-shirt out of mothballs.
  • Today is my Friday. If there’s a time when three-day weekends every week cease to be a good thing, just put me out of my misery.
  • I understand there’s going to be snow over the weekend just north of here. I’m excited to read all of the “WTFSNOW?!?!” tweets and posts while it’s going on. 
  • I officially can’t find the only picture I have of me at 17 so, yeah. It’s a good one, too, dammit.
  • I’ve started writing again at BGAM, so if you’re looking for ranty opinions on American soccer topics, that’s a good spot to find them. 
  • As Lisa is fond of saying, this is a blog post.

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