Portland March Madness Trip Report (Longish)

This is my account of last week's extended weekend down in Portland for the first round of March Madness 2010.

Thursday:

The first evening started out at the Gentlemen's Club where we discussed Wittgenstein over a game of backgammon... okay, Flan and I were drinking tall boys of PBR's in his bed watching basketball... okay, okay, they weren't tall boys. We played it tame Thursday night, in anticipation of a weekend to remember.

Friday:

Flan woke up at an ungodly hour to go into work. 4am? 5am? I slept. BAM texts me saying he is 40 miles out at 9am, so I hop out of bed and MAX downtown to find a pub. Beautiful day, so I wander around for a few miles, eventually slipping into Schmizza. The server says they aren't open for another 30 minutes, and do I want a beer? I am confused, but order two 23oz beers and some pizza tots.

BAM arrives!

I pay up my first of many lost prop bets on the weekend--he made it before the end of the first round of NCAA games. He adds the dollar to his stack of 99 ones. He lost the dollar back by the end of the game, which I added into my wad of 60 ones. Flan calls and we plan to meet up in an hour at Buffalo Wild Wings. With an hour left, BAM and I check out the drink specials at Schimzza and see 2pm-6pm Happy Hour specials on "$5 Schlong Island Iced Tea". BAM butters up the server and she hooks us up, since it is still before noon. BAM and I stumble out 30mins later.

Flan's co-worker can't make it, so we change plans and meet at the MVP Sports Bar slash Thai restaurant. Two hour wait on food when we arrive, so we start drinking a pitcher of Bud Light and a pitcher of Coors Light. 30 minutes later the entire restaurant has cleared out and BAM is spitting game on the MVP server, who sits down with us for a few minutes to watch the basketball games. I'm pretty sure we had some prop bets at this place, but I can't remember... possibly betting on what the score will be when the next white guy scores. A couple pitchers later...

What the hell did we do after that? Oh yeah, we MAX'd to NE Portland, then walked 2.5 miles to meet up with Jesse for... drinks. I know it is 2.5 miles because I won a dollar off of Flan, who thought it was only a mile. Someone with a fancy phone looked that shit up. We made a pit-stop at Irving Park on our walk for restrooms and I swooped in on 3 people tossing a disc. Got my throws in, then we finished the death march to the Tin Shed.

I spilled my first Gin & Tonic all over the place, which led to the first of several "will MHG spill another drink at this table?" bets on the weekend. After my 3rd (2nd?) G&T I craved a burrito from the Mexican restaurant just down the street, so I bounced. Just down the street ended up being another 2 mile road trip of stumbles and tunnel vision. I made it back in one piece and put the burrito in my mouth on the bench outside the Tin Shed.

We walked... gah... another 1/2 mile to another bar for... more drinks. It was sunny and I was happy. We heard stories of Flan tandem-bicycling with Jesse's friend Brad, and Flan bailing out on Brad, which led Brad to hit a tree. Yeah, that's about all I comprehended.

Then Flan and I got a ride from Jesse to Flan's indoor soccer game in SE Portland. BAM and I had a sidebet on Flan's goalkeeping ability. I had under 2 goals against, BAM took the over. Two minutes into the game BAM won the bet, but I quickly texted BAM to "Let it Ride!" with his winnings on the outcome of the game. Flan's team stormed back and won 8-4. I had a beer and a bucket of popcorn while rooting on the friendly sasquatch.

Ryan, Klink, Nat Arrive!!!

BAM heads back to the house to meet up with the new arrivals. Flan says "Fuck that, let's go drink to celebrate the soccer win!" I gasp. But shrug my shoulders and follow. Flan The Wise leads me on a walk to a bar a few blocks away and as we saddle up to the bar, the bartender says, "33.4 seconds left on $1 PBR Tall Boys." Flan doesn't miss a beat: "Four PBR's!" I take two. We celebrate. Apparently the deal only stands as long as the Blazers are playing.

We make it home on a ride from one of Flan's teammates. Even the two mile ride is eventful. We stop at a light and see this skinny indie guy punching these two muscular bald guys in the face. I try and piece together what is going on. A bike is on its side in the street. Scruffy Indie guy is going apeshit on two huge bald guys. Eventually a fourth guy comes in and tries to get the Indie guy to stop hitting the bald guys in the face. He succeeds... temporarily. The bald guys get back in their car, and then the crazy Indie guy runs up and kicks the driver's side window... shattering it... with the driver sitting in the seat. Shiiiiit. The driver gets out. The Indie guy finally realizes "Oh shit." and runs to his bike, picks it up and tries to peddle the fuck out of Dodge. Unfortunately, the 4th observer guy grabs the back tire and as the Indie guy is peddling and looking over his shoulder, he realizes the bald guy is walking up to him, and he isn't going anywhere. I expect blows, but the bald guy starts a conversation. The second the bald guy points to his car and looks over at it, the Indie guy cheeses it, and runs down the block and around the corner.

We, along with four other cars that are watching the show, end up leaving without any heroic action.

Flan and I make it back to the house and celebrate our safe arrival with UFO Pizza and a game of Munchkin and more PBR. Klink kicks all our asses and takes our money at Munchkin. We head downstairs for some shufflepuck for $$'s. I think Nat and I beat BAM and Flan, but I could be mistaken. We all pass out on the couches watching Vince Vaughn telling us that we're so money we don't even know it.

Jonno Arrives!

Saturday!

Oh God, Saturday.

Another beautiful day in Portland, but this time we don't get moving until 11:30 or so. BAM tries to get a bet in on waking up Jonno for breakfast, but nobody will take it. The six of us (minus Jonno) roll into NW Portland for breakfast. The wait for breakfast is 90 minutes, so we kick the soccer ball around in the street for 90 minutes until our 6-top is ready. I heroically nut Flan with the ball, then he cheap-shots me back while I am taking photos.

The wait is worth it, and our breakfast is delicious. Mine consists of a chocolate shake, a tall boy of PBR, a grilled cheese sandwich, and a cup of tomato soup. BAM and Flan make an over/under bet on how many times to guy at the bar will check out Klink on her way back from the bathroom. I think BAM wins with over 3. This restaurant's slogan: "You eat here because we let you" and this restaurant has panties with their slogan for sale.

We walk around the Pearl District for an hour in the sun. Klink checks out the architecture while the five guys try to find things to bet on. How long it will take the girl longboarding to fall? Can Nat climb that tree? How many strides does it take MHG to cross a street? My favorite bet of Pearl District had to be the Dandelion Racing we did in the little park stream. Ryan, Nat and I dropped dandelions into a little winding stream at the same point, and although Ryan's mammoth dandelion started out hot, much like the red hydroplane racer at M's games, he caught a snag and my green hydroplane did a spin move off of him and won the race for a cool $2 profit. Nat's sunk, or something.

We walked around for a bit, then found a sports bar to watch some more basketball and drink more beer. This bar is where the side bets really starts picking up. The table next to us has March Madness crazies as well, and I take one of their guys' money repeatedly on prop bets. First bet he set the over/under of the total score of the game we were watching at 145, I take the over and win the bet with 6 minutes remaining in the game. Second bet was who would take the half in the Northern Iowa vs. Kansas game, UNI was up five with five minutes to go and he picked Kansas. Ship it! Third bet I was feeling bad for the guy, so he picked Kansas to win the game, and I took UNI. $3! Hahaha.

The six of us get about ten games of Asshole in while watching basketball and drinking. We watch UW beat down New Mexico, and have some quality bets on the game and side action. Nat and I have a secret side bet on who will eat the last curly fry from the basket. He picks BAM and I take Flan. Our $1's are on the table, and others at the table keep asking what our bet is, but we can't say. Flan deduces that the bet involves him and BAM, so he promptly bets a dollar on himself, BAM obliges. Ryan tries to get action on the side action, but Klink keeps her dollar. Flan starts doing all sorts of things to try and win the bet, he gets close with dipping a curly fry in ketchup and eating it, but he can't figure it out. The curly-fry bet ends up being terrible, because nobody is eating the fries. Nat and I get sick over eating the entire basket (and which I blame for my "Stinky" nickname). We finally get the basket down to one fry and we stick the basket in the direct middle of the table and say "ONE LEFT" Flan grabs it, shoves it in his mouth, and wins him and me crisp George Washingtons!

Jenn and Eli Arrive!!!

Jenn, Eli and Jonno meet us at the sports bar and I get a side bet in with Jenn at some point, but I forget what for. We are seated at different tables, and I win $1 off Flan for picking Jenn to be the first one to look over at our table. Flan had Eli. We agreed not to influence their looking over at our table, and it took a good 15 minutes for Jenn to finally look over and win me my Flan dollar. I remember BAM winning a lot of big side bets, but I don't remember what they were... little help?

Klink lost some of her Munchkin money to me. First with a bet on when the current basketball game will go to commercial break. I set the over/under at 11:45 left in the game. She takes over. A guy drives to the basket at 11:50 and I don't like my chances. The ref's whistle blows at 11:47 on his way to the hoop, getting fouled. She's won the bet... but wait! The clock keeps ticking! It doesn't stop ticking until 11:44, three seconds after the whistle, and the game goes to commercial break, and I win the bet!!! Whoop! Bad beat for Klink, but if you want that dollar back you can always... go fuck yourself! hah! She wins the dollar back shortly thereafter calling "Over" on a 10-point end game spread in the UW/NM game. She offers an additional bet on a 20-point spread, which I initially turn down, but then accept. UW is up 21 with 15 seconds left and New Mexico drains a seemingly inconsequential 3-ball to ship me my blood money back. Bad beat #2 for Klink!

At some point I reach for my winning bet and spill my beer onto Ryan's quick-dry shorts. BAM collects side-bet spillage bet from Flan.

After UW wins, we bounce from the bar and go to a penthouse party at Flan's work friend's new place. Drink more PBR. The place is great, and the condo complex is out of this world. We bring our drinks up to the penthouse and get a bird's eye view of the city while watching more basketball. We get kicked out by a group that reserved the room 30 minutes later. Boo. We head back to our vehicles. One car goes to the Kava and Hooka bar, the other two head back to Flan's place to change and wash up. We all find our way to the "Pied Cow" Kava and Hooka bar.

We share two or three bowls of Kava, share a few candelabras of Hooka, and play Mafia for money. The only mafioso to pull off a victory is Jenn, but we all suspect foul play when she tips Flan (the game master that round) $2. I lose a 10-push up bet somewhere in there. Eli "goes to the bathroom" at the restaurant at some point and returns with a 12-pack of PBR. Time stands still at the Pied Cow, and we leave around 9pm after enough laughs to fill an episode of Full House.

Pre-arranged ping-pong plans fall through and we scoot down to Ground Kontrol and Voodoo Doughnuts. Voodoo's slogan: "The Magic is in the Hole" also panties for sale. I win $1 off of BAM at NBA Jam with Reggie "Mr. Clutch" Miller draining a shot at the buzzer. Dr. Mario, Frogger, Q-bert, Tron and pinball fun is had. We roll back to Flan's and Nat destroys at Liar's dice while we attempt to finish off all of the booze in the house.

Sunday:

We don't succeed, because I find a very dented PBR in the morning and crack it open, and start watching bball. Flan is off ski-racing on Mt. Hood so I continue to hide my new empty cans of PBR around his house where he will run into them. In the shower, on the bed post, etc. At about 2pm, after watching basketball and serenading Nat and Klink on Flan's bed with Counting Crows, Blues Traveler and Bone Thugz, I pack up and ride back North to Seattle on my motorcycle in a slight drizzle.

The End.

Sounders FC vs. Portland Timbers

On Tuesday I started out in a funk. Coming off of a great weekend in Metaline Falls and Spokane, I felt like a bum. Erin called from Italy on Tuesday morning, which helped me get out of my funk. After talking with Erin, I met up with Peter, my mom's cousin's old foreign exchange student from Belgium, who has spent the last five months traveling South and North America. We headed to the pool and had fun in the sun. Two knockouts from my teaching program happened to be at the pool too, and coaxed Peter and I into going out for drinks later (did not take much coaxing).

We went to an Irish pub in Kirkland, and we ended up playing a few rounds of pool. The girls were in top form, leaning over the table and trying to jinx us with their cleavage and tight jeans... aka heaven.

Wednesday, I carpooled down to Portland with a few friends, and we saw the Sounders FC take on the Portland Timbers. The two soccer teams are not in the same division, so the Sounders were playing their A-squad defense and B-squad offense. At 2-1 in the second half, they subbed in one of their A-squad offensive players, Montero, and Seattle held off Portland from scoring any more goals. I lost a bet on the first team to score when Seattle scored 80 seconds into the match, that was a bummer. At half-time I double-or-nothing'd the bet, but no more goals were scored, so Andrew got to keep his winnings from the first bet.

The Portland Timbers fans are insane. The rivalry is going to be sweet come 2011, when the Timbers join the MLS. Their mascot is a lumberjack who carries around an honest to god chainsaw, and revs it throughout the match. The smoke from the chainsaw revving smelled great. Also, the fans had a sign saying, "Keller: Do the Cobain!" with a picture of a shotgun... classy! Oh yeah, having seats in the second row wasn't so bad, either :)



This next picture is of the pregame festivities. A big paper lumberjack cutting down the space needle.



After the soccer match we crashed at Andrew's place in Portland, and I finally watched "The Godfather" for the first time. Good, long movie.

Three Day Weekend Hijinx

Three day weekend for me this week. I spent Friday morning up at Stevens and re-learned how to snowboard, day 17 up at the pass this year, not bad! The snow was slushy, and I stuck to groomers all morning, but by the end of the morning I was doing laps on the backside, which tired me out quick. My boots are a bit too big, and whenever I do a toe-side turn my heel comes up out of the boot, so I am putting all of my weight on my toes, particularly the big knob behind my big toe.

Once I tired out boarding, I hit the Foggy Goggle for a beer and catching a few March Madness updates. I caught one of my two championship-game teams, Pittsburgh, struggling against E. Tennessee State, which isn't a good omen for the games to come. My bracket is in shambles as of Saturday night, but at least all of my Final Four teams are still intact, which can't be said of half of my pool for picking Washington to make it to the Final Four.

Parents made it home Friday afternoon about 30 minutes before I got back from the pass. It was great to see them again and hear their fun stories from Arizona. It is sad not to have the house to myself anymore, but I also missed having them around. I can't make fun of them nearly as much when they aren't here goof-balling around to make fun of. We watched basketball until the last games of the day were over.

Andrew and BAM picked me up, and we headed up to Kenmore to one their college buddy Ross's house. We got a poker game going, and I cleaned house. Poker is easy when you get cards and hit flops. We followed up poker with Liar's Dice, and played a dozen rounds of liar's dice, which lasted until 4am. Liar's Dice just might surpass Quarters as the game kings play. I don't think I ever won a game of Liar's Dice, but I had a majority of my buy-ins paid for by side bets.

Alarm clock woke me up at 11am, nice and hung over. I didn't really drink that much the night before, but when my head hit the pillow on Friday night, I knew I'd be in for a rough morning today. Yes, indeed. I chugged cranberry juice and hopped on the motorcycle and headed down to Tacoma for the PLU BBQ ultimate frisbee tournament. Riding a motorcycle for the first time in a month, in 40 degree weather is one of the best hangover cures I have ever experienced. I felt fine on the ride, but when I got to the fields and changed into my cleats, I nearly toppled over because my head felt like it weighed 30lbs from still being hung over.

I just made a guest appearance today for a few games with the WSU team, and we won the last game of the day in thrilling fashion. Down 4-7 at the half, then 4-8 after the next point, we mounted a very nice comeback to win the game on universe point, 13-12. I stuck around for burgers and beer while watching the showcase game, then motored back up to Seattle.

Tomorrow I go help Marc install a hot tub at his place, watch more basketball, and yes, probably even drink a little more beer.

Portland = A Blur

When Andrew was up in Seattle for Xmas, he invited me on a trek down to Portland on the 10th of January for a weekend of debauchery and the Blazers game against Golden State. January 10th crept up on me, and I did not realize it was THIS weekend until about Wednesday. Interstate 5 closed down between Seattle and Portland due to the flooding on Thursday, and we weren't sure if the trip was still on until Friday afternoon, and checking the WSDOT cameras--finding a clear and open I-5.

I just emptied my pockets from the trip and found:
1) a box of matches
2) a sheet of paper for a free Taco Bell Chalupa
3) an empty wallet

A group of seven made it down Friday night, myself included, and we went out to a bar a few blocks from Andrew's house. We met Andrew, Rebecca and BAM at the bar, and they had already run up a $60 tab on appetizers and $2 well drinks... I didn't even bother trying to catch up. Talk of some sort of egg-meat-fried concoction at a different bar had us changing locations. At the new bar (which ended up being out of said concoction), BAM and I played cribbage with the pub crib board and cards, and the server handed me a box of matches. I was not entirely sure what to do with the matches, then realized there were no pegs for the crib board. Matches as pegs work very well, and definitely spice the post game losing tantrums up! (I won)

The free Taco Bell Chalupa came from the Blazers game. After an abysmal first quarter, Brandon Roy, Lamarcus Aldridge and Greg Oden came back and put up 115 points against Golden State's 100. For eclipsing 100 points, the Blazers won their fans free chalupas. When Portland hit 97 points, the jumbotron started flahing CHA-LU-PA! and the fans started going crazy. It was very annoying. The basketball game was a five point game with four minutes left, and I was trying to watch the fucking game! The chalupa was good though, and tided me over until breakfast the next day at 2pm.

My wallet started the trip with $80. $10 went to gas, $25 went to the bball ticket, and $40 went to food and drinks, and the most important $5 was spent at Ground Kontrol!

I felt like I was in a weird vacuum the entire trip, and time zoomed forward. There did not really seem to be a plan besides the basketball game, and we materialized at Ground Kontrol after kicking the soccer ball around the city streets. We spent an hour kicking the ball at the Lloyd Center park. We watched the Eagles beat the Giants, we watched Blade: Trinity, and we watched half of Predator 2. It would have been nice to see Stacey while I was in town, but the day and a half lasted about two snaps. I brought my laptop down and didn't even get a chance to open it!

Made it back to Seattle at 5:40pm tonight. Hit the bathroom, then headed out to Mary Ann and Kristy's for some Settlers of Catan with Eddie and the ladies. I got decimated in Catan, then got brutalized at the Game of Life. Looking forward to some more fun game nights with those fun people.

Not really sure what this week has in store, but looking forward to being busy with school!

Wow (long)

This weekend was one of those amazing weekends you don't want to start blogging about, because you're acknowledging that the weekend has past. Little expectation turns into an unforgettable weekend--those are the best kind of weekends. It would be like Barry Greenstein calling you up and asking if you could fill in for him and take his seat on High Stakes Poker for a night--and play with his money.

"Well, Barry, I had planned on sitting on my ass in front of the computer with a bag of cheetos and a few MGD's, but sure! I'll take your seat!"

The weekend started out with a bit of indecision on my part. I had talked with "Leia" about possibly going on a motorcycle ride on Sunday or Monday, but she had a previously arranged bowling get-together and the weather looked terrible. We had talked about going over to a hot springs on the Olympic Peninsula and making a long day-trip out of the ride, but she intelligently pointed out that we'd be riding back in the dark and rain. We'd both be tired and wet, which could be disastrous on a motorcycle. I didn't have high hopes for the kind of ride I wanted to take with her this weekend. Although to be fair, the summer ride along the coast with a sunset isn't going to happen anytime soon.

Another indecisive thing going on was Andrew's invitation to come down to Portland for the weekend. He called me Thursday evening and was looking for a clue as to whether I would be coming down. I looked up the weather forecast, saw rain, and decided that I wouldn't be coming down for the weekend. The cost of gas to drive down in the Explorer is just silly, and riding down on the motorcycle in the rain just wasn't appealing. I might still be doing something with "Leia," so I decided to keep my options open with her.

Friday rolls around, and I start my last day of observation at Salmon Bay. The day is gorgeous, and I start to question my decision to put off the visit to Portland. I didn't have any big plans in Seattle on Saturday, and the sun was shining, so I called up Andrew and asked if it was still alright with him if I zoomed down after my classes and observation. He was excited for me to come down and finally see his and Becca's new place.

The sun mixed with clouds to scare me into ditching out early from my observation Friday afternoon. I wanted to get down to Portland as quickly as possible, and in the least amount of traffic, so I headed out around 2pm from Seattle and left a note for Anna saying I'd be back Tuesday to finish up my observation.

The drive down was alright for the most part. I hit a couple patches of rain, but I got down to Portland around 5pm, which isn't bad at all for a Friday afternoon. I only stopped once, and I didn't even get off the bike to get gas, which is a bit rough for a 180-mile stretch of 70mph highway riding. On the way back up to Seattle, I stopped for gas and walked around, then stopped again for breakfast.

Made it down to Portland and got there just as Andy (Andrew other roommate) was on his way out the door for a bus ride up to Seattle. The two of us got an hour of Guitar Hero in before picking up Becca and heading out to the Olive Garden for dinner. The three of us met Po and his girlfriend and it was Po's girlfriend who really wanted to go to the Olive Garden for some reason or another.

Dinner was an absolute blast, three of us got the all you can eat soup, salad and bread-sticks combo, and Andrew and I split a 2-liter bottle of wine. Nice! Po's girlfriend actually turned out to be a pickier eater than I am. I have never met a pickier eater than myself, outside of severe allergies or veganism--and even then the vegans and allergics eat a wider array of food than I do. We were listing off foods we liked instead of disliked.

Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches? Just peanut butter.

What do you put on your hot dog? Nothing, just have it plain.

What do you have for breakfast? Bagel for me, Cheerios for her.

She drank the broth out of the soup bowl, but not the actual vegetables in the vegetable soup.

The only thing I don't eat that she does is salad dressing, but we found a few things I eat but she doesn't, so she won the "Pickiest Eater" title.

After getting back to Andrew's place, we grabbed a few tall-boys and hit the 9th floor hot tub and had a pretty cool view of the rainy city. I love hot tubs. We got pruned and decided to see if the trolley was still running. Andrew and I headed down to Ground Kontrol to drink some more and play arcade games. Always a good time at Ground Kontrol, even though the PBR Representative wasn't there this time... damn! I beat Andrew at Missile Command and he had to do 10 push ups, sucker--don't challenge or accept a challenge from me at that game, boyyeeee!

Once we were finished playing arcade games, we made the mandatory trip to Voodoo doughnuts, and Andrew got hit on by this intoxicated girl. We were both wasted by that point too, and we both found it incredibly funny. I'm not sure of the exact conversation, but it went something like this:

"I know you!" she says.

"No you don't."

"Were you at Mitchel's Bar tonight?"

"No."

"Do you live in North Portland?"

"No, you don't know me."

(Another guy walks in, and she says to him:)

"Hey! I know you!"

"Heeeey!" the other guy says, and tries to cut in front of all of us.

"Hey now, no cutting!" she says, as she pushes him to the back of the line, while Andrew swoops in and cuts them both.

"Hey! You're not that pretty, you can't cut!" she says to Andrew.

"First of all, I am that cute..." he says to her.

"OK, you're right, you are." she says bashfully.

"and second of all... here's your spot back."

The sly Andrew also managed to get off a nice "Nice Box" comment to a few ladies leaving the doughnut shoppe', who were carrying a box of doughnuts out. They responded "studly" on the way out. Andrew is just a big, happy, chauvinist drunk. Good times. We stumble back to his condo and I pass out very quickly.

Wake up Saturday with a monster hangover. Bottle of wine and four beers will do that to you if you don't drink usually. I eventually shake it off with plenty of doughnuts (we bought a dozen), water, and Guitar Hero!!! Again, the day was beautiful, so the two of us decided to head out to the nice Portland State turf field and kick around the soccer ball. I love to hack, but I suck at soccer. We must have kicked it around for a good two hours, before heading back to his place. We were hungry for something other than doughnuts, so he hopped on the Honda Ruckus and I got on my bike and we headed for Monsoon Thai.

That place is bomb. So much Thai for $9. We stuffed ourselves and bloatedly got back on our bikes to play more guitar hero and hot tub. When Becca got done helping out at her mom's veterinary clinic, the three of us headed over to Stacey's work and had some drinks and food. Andrew and I got a game of snooker in, where he had a pretty good come from behind win against me. I was due for one of those losses, I'm just glad it didn't come at the hands of Marc. Stacey joined us back at Andrew's place for some guitar hero (after all, she does play a bass in a band). She was rocking out hard and a good time was had by all.

Becca crashed early and eventually Stacey had to go. Somewhere in there I had a chance to check my email and "Leia" emailed me back about our little motorcycle trip. She had canceled her bowling outing on Sunday, and wanted to start early. I gave her a call for the first time and let her know I was down in Portland, but if she wanted to start a little later, I'd be up for it. We decided on just biking up to the cabin and staying the night. I wasn't sure if she'd want to stay the night with practically a stranger, but she seemed pretty cool with it.

I wasn't really sure what to expect with "Leia." I gave her a massage in the hot tub in Hanford without knowing her name, and she seemed to like it, but I wasn't quite sure if this motorcycle trip would be platonic or not. I knew we'd have a good time either way, and I was totally fine with either option. I'm not the one to pressure anybody into anything, except my really good friends when I know they are just being a wuss. This motorcycle trip was her first trip longer than a few miles, so she was excited to get out on the road.

It didn't rain on us until the very last stretch up to the cabin. We decided to head into town instead of going up to the cabin right away, because the cabin is cold and we wouldn't want to get back into our wet gear to go have dinner. Dinner was scrumptious, we both had burgers (well, I had a french dip), stuffing ourselves thoroughly. It was dark by the time we left, but not raining.

As soon as we got onto the road, it began to rain again. Balls. We slowly made our way in the dark up to the cabin and were pretty much surrounded in dark once we parked our motorcycles at the cabin. We had a high-five at making it, then I fumbled around with the keys in the dark. Finally got the door open and the light switch didn't work. Uh oh. Dad distinctly said he left the breaker on, so the lights *should* work. But the storm had been hitting the area for a while, so I was a bit concerned!

I tried a different light switch and that one worked. Phew! Apparently half of the light switches either don't do anything, or don't have light bulbs in the lamps. Got me, Dad! She zoomed over to the fireplace and got cracking on getting a fire going, and she got one up amazingly fast, although I think being an engineer had something to do with her success. I grabbed some wood from outside so we wouldn't have to go outside later, then we popped open some wine and played a few games of gin. Prop bets ensued, which led to your hero receiving an amazing back massage and returning the favor. More massaging ensued, and we fell asleep in front of the fireplace.

The next morning we got up and had some glorious breakfast sandwiches. We struggled to leave the heat of the fireplace, but eventually got out and walked around. I showed her the garden where I wanted to pet a bear when I was 4. We walked down to the Brison's gigantic log cabin and to the creek where salmon come to procreate and die. It was, of course, raining, so we didn't last very long.

Back in front of the fire and snuggled in, it wasn't easy to leave back for Seattle. We made a few failed attempts, then finally got our gear on and headed out, in the rain. By Arlington we were Popsicles, so we ducked into a diner and got some hot chocolate to warm up. We saw a patch of blue sky, so we darted out and road until almost Everett, but that took us an hour due to heavy Seahawks traffic. We stopped at a Thai place and she called a friend to let her know she'd be later than expected. She was planning on getting back to Seattle for her dance class, but with a 90 minute Everett to Seattle commute (which usually takes 20 minutes), we decided to just stay at the Thai place and have dinner.

The trip was amazing. We got to know each other, which was easy to do at a cabin with no phone or TV or anyone else. We're probably going to hang out again this weekend and see what happens. The really coincidental thing that happened with her this weekend is that she is going down to Las Vegas for a frisbee tournament the same days as the poker blogger get-together. Which may have tipped the scales in favor of me heading down to Vegas as well! Any available room to crash in, if I get any sleep? Still not 100% coming, but getting closer!

Balance is a Bitch

Don't get me wrong, having balance in my life is probably the single-most important factor in my happiness. Too much poker, too much ultimate frisbee, too much of ANYTHING wears on me after a while. But when balance manifests itself in the form of a wicked hangover following an amazingly fun night out with the guys, it is a bitch.

Last night kicked ass.

Started out with Marc and I heading over to Magnuson Community Center and playing some racquetball. It was Marc's first time playing, but he played high school tennis with me at Roosevelt, so he can handle a racquet with the best of em'. He wasn't much competition the first handful of games, as he was still getting used to all of the angles and which way the ball bounces in a given situation (it is trickier than it sounds). But by the end of our hour, he beat me in a quick game to 3. Damn quick learners!

We were driving back to my place so he could get his car and head home, when I got a call from Andrew, who is in town until Saturday. He just finished a 7-week trip over to England and Ireland, of which I am extremely jealous. He had access to his aunt's vehicle while he was in England, and racked up $800 in gas driving across the entire country. At $8/gallon, it doesn't take much--but he hit the southernmost point, the westernmost, and also the most north point in England. Not bad!

After contemplating what to do, we settled on having a few drinks at Pies and Pints last night. We peer-pressured Marc into having a drink with us, even though he knew it would get him in "the dog house" with the wifey. Way to stand up to the boss, Marc! The three of us entered an extremely packed Pies and Pints right at 9:30pm, when their happy hour starts. We didn't get anything off the happy hour menu, but that was easily the busiest I've ever seen the place.

We chatted over a pint of Mac & Jacks, about his move down to Portland and his amazing pad down there. He and his girlfriend, along with one of his buddies from Seattle, are sharing an apartment in downtown Portland. The apartment is on the 3rd floor, there is a Mcmennamins on the first floor who have already OK'd Andrew and Becca to come down in their pajamas for late-night pints, and there is an outdoor pool and hot tub on the 9th floor, overlooking the city. Damn engineers and lawyers!

Marc eventually leaves as promised after his first beer, and Andrew and I continue to catch up over two more pints of African Amber Ale. By this time it is around midnight, and we decide to head over to the Montlake house to play some guitar hero (the only time I ever get to play). To our surprise, the house is packed with people. Four guys playing Counter-strike and another group of four watching DVR'ed episodes of 30 Rock. Andrew and I sat down for a few episodes of 30 Rock, and that show is ridiculously funny. It is right up there with Arrested Development when it comes to a pure entertainment sitcom.

We eventually got some guitar hero in when the sole-objecting lady left for home at 1:30am. I got to play the 80's edition last night, and we rocked the house. Can't wait to get some more rocking in on medium difficulty. They all play on expert and have their hands hurt, while I just take it slow and steady on EZ-Mode--feelin' the flow, groovin' it~ groovin' it~

Heading to the Coast~

Whelp, no internet for the next few days (most likely), so don't expect much here until Monday. Looking forward to lots of drinking, golf, cards, and good times with great friends.

The flight up to Seattle was uneventful, and made it right on time. The guy next to me had some of those expensive BOSE noise-canceling ear-phones, and forced me to try them on. They are quite the invention, if you haven't--try those out sometime if you get a chance, I could barely hear the engines roaring with them on in the middle of the flight. The smoke from the Tahoe fires covered the sky all the way up to Reno.

Mom, Dad, Andrew and I went to the Mariners v. Red Sox baseball game this afternoon at Safeco Field. I used to like the Red Sox, and I guess I still root for them over the Yankees... but they are easily my 2nd most hated team nowadays in baseball. They have too much money, and too many fans since they won the World Series a few years back. And their fans are annoying. The Mariners won 2-1 in the bottom of the 11th inning in a really awesome game. We stayed until the bitter end, and got treated to a great show. Andrew and I each had three 24oz beers, gooood times.

Came back and had a little Salmon dinner with the Flanagans for my B-day, along with a nice and unhealthy super-rich chocolate cake. Had a few more beers, then headed down to the Montlake house to play Guitar Hero with Andrew. We rocked out for a few hours, and now the six of us (Marc,Sarah,Tyler,Renee,Andrew,Me) are all packing and getting ready for our coast trip. We're moving Marc and Sarah into their new house tomorrow morning, then leaving for the coast before rush hour hits. Expect some pictures!

Kirkwood Pics

While I'm in the posting mood, might as well get these pictures up from Kirkwood!

Andrew's butt plant:


Andrew stylin':


Andrew hopping into a mogul-field:


Andrew's OK after a 100ft slide through a mogul field, hooray for helmets!:


Andrew hiking to the chute:


Me coming out of a little chute:


Relaxing after a nice day of skiing: