Yesterday I headed out looking for some Adventure and whatnot, seeing as how it was becoming Spring, and, at the time, it was sunny out. I decided to descend upon Lemurs and Dragons, to see if they were up for some Geocaching, something that Lemurs had mentioned being potentially interested the previous Sunday. I armed with my trusty Garmin GPS receiver, showed up at their doorstep and more or less announced thats what we would be doing. And it was fun.

Unfortunately, it seems we also needed lat and long coordinates for the Pizza Hut that Dragons, being ravenously hungry and in the mood for some "beer, pizza and wings," but being of very little monetary status at the time, had ordered take-out for. It turned out, after over an hour of fruitless searching, which included a stop into the nearby Taco Bell/Pizza Hut place (where they only serve those personal pan pizzas), which was supposedly right next to this takeout place, to ask directions -- which seemed beyond fucked up and way off, and a stop back to the Apartment to grab the laptop, which had the directions and a little map to it right on it, that the place we were looking for was Closed. It had moved, ostensibly, which explained the fucked up directions we got, and why they didn't match at all our understanding of where this place was supposed to be. Of course, they had the same phone number, and so we called it, and in short order found it, and got our grub.

In the midst of the quest, I had been so caught up in the frustration and confusion of our goose chase that I hadn;t realized how crazily hungry I had become, and it didn't help holding a large meat lovers pie, a double order of wings, and an order of cinna-sticks on my lap on the way home. So, once back, we ate our feats and drank some beer, and then I headed home. By then it was getting pretty late.

it officially becomes Spring in a little under 30 minutes, at 01:00 March 21 UT, which translates to 5 pm local time this afternoon (March 20). Happy Equinox, everyone!

I just spent a whopping 5 (Five) minutes filling out my Official NCAA Men's B-Ball Tournament bracket. "Think about it as little as possible" was my strategy this year. You can view that bracket here. For those of you not inclinced to look or care, I'll just tell you who I have winning: France!!!

As I've grown older and wiser (Ha!) I've come to realize an important fact: opinions are like assholes, everyone has one, and most of them stink.

In light of that truism, this blog is going to be a political-free zone -- or I'm going to do my damndest to keep it that way -- during this "conflict" with Iraq. It hasn't even technically started yet, and already I've had it with the various contrivances, semi-propagandist bullshit, poorly formed and informed alarmist, reactionary speech and actions, and the ridiculous rhetoric spewing out of seemingly everyone's mouths. Yes, folks, I've buckled myself in for the Long Haul on this one.

But, I can't ignore the fact I take a certain twisted delight in being a contrarian, with my usual social satirical bent, often times a pure cynicism bordering on outright Misanthropy. And yes, there is an oh-so Fine line between Political and Social, particularly in the rabid times, but I will do my best to stay on the "good" side of it.

Having said that, some Stupid shit has come to my attention in this day spent listening to KIRO 710 all day. There is the "Mariners not going to Japan story," wherein this war just seems like a cover to not make a trip none of the players wanted to make in the first place, and the fact that the NCAA B-Ball tournamnet will "proceed as scheduled" -- uhh... well DUH! WTF kind of non-story is that? Oh, the Bravery of NCAA President Niles Brand to not let the Iraqi scourge stand in the way of Our precious basketball! God Bless Him!

But one item takes the cake. This 80 year-old WW2 vet, who helped liberate France, is heading to the French embassy in D.C. to return the medal the French government gave to him. Talk about your histrionic overreactions. Man, I hope this guy Really feels like a Tool in about 6 months when France, who, by the way, has had a considerable miliatry presence helping fight the "real" "war on terror" in Afghanistan since November 2001, is fully on board with UN-sanctioned Iraqi rebuilding efforts. For fucks sake, people, get a god-damn Grip on yourselves. Jesus...

But even topping that was the lady who called in on the topic, and angrily referred to the French government as "traitors." Lady, I don't even know where to begin in this one. For chrissakes, lets start with the fact that a sovereign nation cannot be "traitors." Holy Cow! See what I mean about alarmist, reactionary speech and actions, and whatnot, from above? For Fucks sake people, I reccomend you all take a stress pill, sit down, and think about this for a while....

daisy, d...a..i..s..y...

The President is going to "speak" to the Nation is about half an hour, inevitably announcing "we" are 48 hours, or less, from "war" with Iraq... but I don't want to talk about that...

w/out further ado, My Weekend:

I decided, in this last week, that I had a hankering to go out sometime over this weekend last and get me a nice corn beef and cabbage dinner and down a bunch of Guiness. I had decided, given the shedule of events I had in place, that Sunday afternoon-eveningwas going to be the best time to do this. Then I got an email from Ryu/Mike inviting me down for "Irish cuisine" and then a trip to Kelly's in Tacoma to see Red Kelly and friends, starting at 5:30 on Friday.

Much to my meddling work, this event at Mike/Ryu & Mary/Lemurs' place turned into a full-blown party, complete with T&A, The Roommates, the B-day boy Cap'n Jon w/ Anneke, and a friend of Mike's, named Matt. Ryu/Mike cooked up an impressive two-course affair with Irish stew and then the corn beef and cabbage. It was most excellent.

Jon, whos Official b-day is today, had more or less failed to arrange an "event" in his honor for the weekend, as is the custom in our "circle." In fact, some conversation, which in my view had been almost entirely rehtorical, had taken place a week and a half prior, in which Jon expressed his desire to get together with some people and do something, most-likely Sat night. I expected him to shoot out and email, but it never happened, until I realized Thursday evening, when I called hime to inform him of Mike's plan, that he had more or less expected me to "arrange something," since it would have inevitably been at my house. Maybe I dropped this ball, maybe not... but I felt a bit guilty nonetheless, and declared Mike's get-together a partial, ad-hoc, de-facto, mini-b-day celebration for Jon.

Anywho, after Mike's fabulous dinner, those of us "left," which amounted to Ryu, Lemurs, and myself, headed on down to Kelly's to meet up with the Matt and catch some old-timey jazzy classics. It was good times, and I didn't get home until nearly 2:00 am.

Saturday morning I awoke with the vaguest sensation of a hangover, and it was also glorious sunny and (relatively speaking) warm. I only had two things set for the day: make some beer (Piss Free Pilsner, 2003 All-Grain edition), and play in my soccer game set for 7:30 that evening ( a rare Saturday date).

I ran my errands as the weather started to turn (but never got truly ugly) and started on the beer. That more or less took me right up to my game, which was a disgustingly Medicore effort. When I got home, Greg and I decided some Beer and a Movie were in order, so we walked up to rent Orange County (worth seeing, very funny, a definite and enthusiastic thumbs up) and came home to watch it and drink beer.

I wisely took it easy on the Beer as I had a 10:00 am game in Edmonds Sunday morning. I got up, did my usual pre-game morning preparations, and headed out shortly after 9. The weather was everything from driving rain to glorious sun, but mostly very fair, and it was an enjoyable game, ending in a 1-1 draw (in soccer, you learn to accept the Draw, the North American sporting distaste for tie games baffles us soccer afiacionados).

After the game, having come home, stratched out, eaten, and showered, I Immediately felt recklessly, hopelessly, desperately bored. Fortunately, I had left the going out and getting some Irish Schwerve on thing Open, despite Mike's delighful little shindig Friday. I just wasn't sure when'if I'd hear from people.

Right about 4 pm, when I was Just starting to go mad from the discontentment, within short order I heard from Mike on IM that he had traded off his Sunday shifts for the foreseeable future to "hang out and watch the Simpsons -- a "tradition" unwittingly started last week -- and I was to head down. I expected to hear from Tyler about the Irish plan, and just as I was to call him, he called me, to find out what whas happening.

A Plan was quickly hatched. I would drive to T&A's house, the three of us would go to 13 Coins on Pac Hwy where we would meet Mike. We would have, what we believed would be available, a corn beef and cabbage and Guinness dinner (our second of the weekend). Tyler had been to 13 Coins for such a deal before, so we all believed it would work.

Much to our chagrin, 13 Coins wasnt offering up such a feast. That was allright, though, because it's still a good place to eat, if not, in my opinion, needlessly pricey (but then again, I guess I'm a cheapskate when it comes of restaurants -- other than a few items, like steak, there simply isn't an appreciable increase in quality from a $10-15 meal out to a $20-30 meal out). Anyway, I got a good "dinner," if not feeling like I spent too much. Then we decided we wanted corn beef and cabbage anyway, and Mike was willing to cook it up.

And it made perfect sense. It takes 3 hours to prepare, we'd get to his place by 6, watch The Simpsons (remembering there were repeat episodes at 6 and 7 pm) and then eat second dinner. I felt a little stupid for blowing money at 13 Coins, but the fact is I was so ravenously hungry I Never could have waited until 9, so I guess all was good.

So that's what we did. And it Was good, and it made me happy, and it was a nice cap to my Weekend, a good Weekend in all.

So, happy St. Patrick's day, and happy b-day to the Cap'n Jon!

ugh, I really need to Blog, and its been an eventful weekend... but I really need to go to bed, so I promise I'll write it up sometime tomorrow