Are You Ready for some Football?

 Sports Chick   

Today is the opening day of the 2004 NFL season. Oh yeah. Every year, I join the football pool at work. One year, I won over $900 from winning the pool. Of course, the guys at work hadn’t realized how much of a sports freak I am. At the time, I was listening to sports talk radio 24/7. They had no chance. Then I think they thought it was a fluke. Well, the next season, I tied for second place and won about $300. But last season, I was really uneven. I only won $100 the whole season. A major change in the San Diego sports radio market (damn Clear Channel, yet again) and the crappy signal that ESPN 800 transmits in SD made it nearly impossible for me to listen to all the sports talk that I love.

Thanks to John Lynch and the Mighty 1090, it’s on again. Sure, Scott and BR are total homers and I can’t stand Philly Billy. But Scott and BR make me laugh and when they aren’t talking about the Chargers, they actually have good opinions. I also stream ESPN radio - Mike and Mike in the morning are really good. And of course, there’s Romey. He’s the reason why I got addicted to sports radio in the first place. 

So the joke around the office is that everyone is contributing to my retirement fund. We play on My Game Picks - just the games straight up and any ties are broken by the Monday night game total points. Easy enough.

And good old Zach peer pressured me into playing rotisserie. I have never played fantasy before...but this should be fun. Z set it to draft players automatically and I am pretty happy I picked up Daunte Culpepper as my QB and my boy Terrell Owens as one of my WR. Yeah.

So my Super Bowl prediction? Eagles and the Colts. My Niners are going to tank so I am by default an Eagles fan this season. I've lived there and since TO is there, I gotta root for him. And any team that can stick the hurt to Dallas is a team I am pulling for. So saith the Sports Chick.

And I want to know who else is geeked up for the season. Give me your predictions for the Super Bowl. I'll think of some prize for whomever ends up guessing both right. Cause I'm cool like that.


« rawk off

Back to the grind

 Rambling   

I am so glad to be back. Even if I am at work already and have 211 emails to go through.

When I got back on Saturday night, it was like I never left. Talked to Jeremy (and he played me X before he got off air) and then went to Kelly’s Pub and Lamp with Boytoy and Emily. Sunday, I went to BSC and Lamp with Joe. And last night, I went to see Sean and Ali at Blarney Stone (and Joelle was there...nice surprise).

So...yeah. The next few weeks are going to be crazy. We are moving our office (closer to my house) in two weeks and I have a bunch of social stuff and shows (Keane, 94/9’s show, Pixies, Rock the Walk) planned. And before I know it, I will be in Vegas with Karaoke Heather for her birthday. Life is good.

Homeward Bound

 Wanderlust   

It’s been a quiet two days. And trust me, that’s totally okay. I was totally touristed out on Wednesday when we went to Fort Clatsop, which is a replica of the fort that the Lewis and Clark expedition built for the winter. There’s a bunch of bicentennial stuff planned for next year, but they are already starting with getting everything ready for all the big events. And I just couldn’t bear the thought of sitting through another demonstration, tour, history movie. So, I went through the fort while everyone was listening to the park ranger. And then I read all the displays instead of watching the movie. Much better on my sanity, let me tell you.

It’s totally crazy, but I have this problem when I go away from home for more than a week. I am just done with being gone. I thought it would be different this time, but if I hadn’t had the diversion to go to Portland on Wednesday, I probably would have freaked out enough to call anyone who would listen to me about being homesick.

So the past two days have been me lounging around, working out (need to get back on the routine...though I weighed myself yesterday and it looks like I lost 2 lbs.), and reading a bunch. And that’s perfectly okay. Tomorrow, we drive back to Seattle to fly home.

And I will be so happy to get home and go out with my friends and just enjoy my life. It was good to get out of town...but I am ready to go home. Goodbye, Pacific Northwest....Hello, San Diego.

Show whore strikes again

 Rawk Shows    Wanderlust   

Would you make a three hour round trip drive to see a show? This show whore did just that tonight. I left Seaside around 5pm to be able to make it to Jem’s 8pm show at the Crystal Ballroom. It’s only about a 90 minute drive if you don’t hit traffic in Beaverton, but I had a side trip to make. I needed to go visit my friend, David, and his son, Evan. No problem...got directions and rolled over there. They just moved to a new place...I was most impressed by the fig tree in the backyard. So we had a nice visit and then I bailed to go to the show.

First of all the show was sponsored by Portland’s alternative rock station, 94/7. So their promotions people and talent were out in full force. A little about the venue...the Crystal Ballroom is the top floor of a brick building that used to be a dancehall in the day. It’s a medium size venue, equivalent to the floor of 4th and B, but with a smaller balcony. The floor is one of those old school wood floors that sway. Cool. And they don’t hide the ballroom roots. There are two huge chandeliers on the ceiling and the walls are covered with murals. Even cooler.

So I got a beer and found a place to plant myself. I started talking to the guy next to me because he seemed pretty hip. We talked about the band and then I asked him about the radio station that was sponsoring the event. And then we started talking about alternative radio...not your average convo, either. We were talking about playlists, ratings and demographics and the recent Arbitron trends.  So he asks me if I work in radio at home, I told him no. And it turns out that he works for Portland’s alternative station - he does production and has a show on Saturdays. What are the odds??? Anyways, we did end up hanging all night and that was a good thing.

So the show...it was great. Lots of energy from Jem. She told us that we were the biggest crowd they had seen yet. Nice. Here’s the set list:

Portland Oregon is Sloe Gin fizz

 Wanderlust   

Made it out to Portland today. Started out at Powell’s City of Books which is literally an entire city block. Bought some schwag for me, and a little something that reminded me of Joelle, and also Dharma Punx, which I have wanted to read forever. While we were waiting around, I talked to some guy, Eric, that works of OSPIRG - we started talking about Gov. Arnold and just started talking in general. Andrew told me I should have given the guy my number. Yeah.

After we were done there, we walked to Chinatown to see the Chinese Classical Garden. Your typical Chinese garden. But I noticed a bunch of stuff that I have never noticed before. Probably because I have been studying Chinese art for tattoos. And one of the things I noticed was the roof tile had the five bats (representing the five virtues) and the longevity symbol. I want to get a tattoo of the five bats and longevity when I meet my WW goal. So that was interesting. Also, I really liked the wood carvings - especially the ones done on the gingko wood. There were also carvings of flowers everywhere - I seemed to know more about them than our tour guide did. I love the carvings of the peonies and plum blossoms. Also, I noticed a lot of the stylized clouds I like.

After the garden, we got a local food recommendation - the Golden Horse. Really good Chinese food. The hot and sour soup was excellent - the hot came from good use of sesame oil. I had the broccoli beef (low points and I needed a veggie serving). Everyone else had good stuff too - orange chicken, mandarin chicken, sweet and sour pork, and sesame beef. I tried a bit of everything - the sesame beef was yummy.

Canada, our neighbor to the north

 Wanderlust   

Friday was a day trip to Canada, specifically, Victoria, the provincial capital of British Columbia.

We took the 8.15am ferry out of Port Angeles. The water was really rough that morning and I was seriously not feeling well. So to keep my mind off of hurling, I told Andrew and Anneka all of my really good hurling stories. And I didn’t realize how many I had until I started telling them. Like a couple of years ago when Richard and I went to California adventture and got forgotten on the Ferris Wheel and then went to California Screaming right after. Oh yeah. I made it to the girl’s room to hurl, but the lady next to me was so worried she actually knocked on the stall door to see if I was okay. And the only thing that made me feel better was a big margarita. Teehee.

Seattle details

 Wanderlust   

It’s weird to know that it’s Sunday and I’m not at BSC. But that’s okay. I just finished watching “School of Rock” and am all ready to fill in some details.

I knew that we only had a few hours in Seattle, so we had a short list of what we were going to do. First priority was food. Ivar’s has an outdoor seating area and a more upscale dining area...we chose the upscale area as I was not about to share my lunch with a bunch of seagulls. Lunch was fab and I wish I remember what beer I had while I was there. I think Ryan may have told me about the brewing company and that’s why I picked it.

Pike’s Place Market was a tourist trap. The trippiest thing that happened there was while we were at the famous Pike’s Place Fish market...the inspiration for the Fish philosophy books. Now, Norma and I work together and the Fish book is all the rage in our office. So we had to check it out. And we got there and there was a guy in his orange overalls that looked like Travis’ evil twin. Red head, same build, practically the same facial hair. I should have taken a picture with him, but it was freaking me out too much.