Looking in the Mirror (a Poor Reflection)

So, I'm back for the wedding of my best friend since childhood. As best man, I took him and another groomsman down to the Mohegan Sun casino in lieu of a bachelor party. 

I don't particularly care for gambling and wasn't too happy to have to be blowing a minimum of $10/bet at the roulette tables (I absolutely suck at poker and blackjack). 

So, it wasn't my thing but I was glad Tone had had a good time (other than I got us lost driving home). But , still, I felt a little superior that I'm just not that into betting. I felt just a little superior all the way to blowing my morning $5 on this (a tradition every time I'm back on The Cape):

So far I'm 0 for 5...

Super Cup Live Blogging

So, there's some sort of important game on today? Guess I'll have to tune in and offer thoughts. 

Most folks up here are rooting for the Sea. Squawks. I'm over at Fishing Buddy's house to watch and decided I'm rooting for:

And lots of it! #12 just doesn't mean same to me as it does the Squawks fans...

Nice, yet another safety!

Nice pick on Manning! :)

I think Denver is having trouble without their thin atmosphere and reefer smoke. ;)

2-minute warning and I have yet to hear "Omaha" once. 

Yes, I gotta admit this has been one of better halftime shows in lllloooonnnggg while...

Uh oh, Tulip's gonna rub my nose in this one... I've been bitching for two years how there's no such thing as a return for touch down. Boy that crow tastes interesting...

Uh, wow. That was a closer gr than I thought (sarcasm)...

Yeah, I have to confess to some definite petty, vindictive schadenfreude with this lopsided game...

Getting Our Geek On

Bet you'll never guess what Tulip and I are waiting in line for a midnight showing of?

iPhone Updates

Well, count me in as another one not liking the iOS 7.0.4 updates. Hate the new icons. Hate the new colors. And especially hate that I just went to do a credit card transaction for my side business's customer and the new OS doesn't support my POS. 

Just yay! 

Ex-pat's Pats: Which Week Is It?

Watching game from new watering hole this week:

Okay, important stuff: welcome back Vereen and Talib! :)

 Where he'll that sack come from?!

Update 2: come on, Talib. Don't need that shit (or extra 15 yards)!

Update 3: f#<k!  7-0 also, Talib's gotta suck it up and remember the Patriot Way.

Update 4: bench Ridley. That's it...

Update 5: thanks for extra 3-point deficit, Ridley. 

Update 6: 2 minute warning and something stupid breaks the drive again!

Update 7: good job Gostowski!

Update 8: and there's Gronk!

Update 9: OK, WTF with getting Cam?!

Crow Tastes Yummy: 17-all. Good job (and much surprise, Ridley)! Redemption???

BULLSHIT! Flag was thrown and penalty should've been enforced !!! Munch-munch-munch, the Ref is out to lunch... Hey Ref, get off your knees as you're blowing the game!

Still, haven't felt so heartened by as loss I long. Good play by Pats despite my earlier bitching.

Post-Game Deliriums: Back home and probably a little too bombed (thanks to the lady offering us the pitcher of Sam Adams that she didn't like), but I actually feel jazzed by this loss. Here's why:

1. Overall, the Pats historically bomb on 1st game after bye week. Despite my bitching, I didn't think that was the overall case tonight.
2. Missing 5 key defensive players, they still kept a "hot" (sorry, but the post-game fawning over Cam reminds me of the fawning over Obama)offense rather limited, mistakes aside.
3.  Overall, the boys are making their plays and catches. They looked much like teams of yore.
4. Out of all but the game against the Saints that I've been able to watch, Brady looked like his old self again.
5. Did I mention that despite the loss, they're starting to look like team rosters of yore?
6. Final.Play.ASTERISK! 'Nuff Said?

 If pass interference was called, the Patriots would have received one final do-or-die play to win the game from the 1-yard line. There's no guarantee they would have won the game, although it would have been fun to find out.

I just keep hoping that the point of that Chumbawumba song ("I get knocked down. But I get up again.) keeps playing out and the Pats peak and pull it out when it counts. No more strong starts with a post-season fizzle.

Losing disappointment aside, it was a fun game for me and Fishing Buddy to watch.

Here's positive hoping for the rest of the season...

Draigkhiun: (Updated) Programming Note

Since i got weathered out of juneau and overnighted to Ketchikan, this week's posting from Draigkhiun will be delayed until Tuesday...

Update: Yeah, about a Tuesday posting? By the time I got back to Juneau I was about as useful as moldy potatoes from lack of sleep, travel-induced grumpiness, a hangover from hell, and the incessant pounding of the techno-house music I'd been hearing all weekend. Obviously, the post didn't happen and I'll try to fix that this evening. My apologies...

Ex-pat's Pats: Week 9 (with updates)

Am getting ready to travel out of San Francisco so won't get to see much of game ( nice sack and fumble recovery, guys).

Update 1: go Gronk!

Update 2: aaaannnd PICK! And Amendola TD!!! Now, time to head for airport.

Update 3: apparently half time and hoping Pats keep their lead. I'm stuck At SFO with nobody showing game on TVs...

Update 4: sooooo... If following correctly... Ridley fumbles and Steelers now have another TD on the board. Booger-snots! :(

Side note: hell is a middle seat of a full airplane with antsy little kids all around an no way to watch a close game where Pats seem determined to snatch defeat from jaws of victory...

Update from stopover in Ketchikan: just got see the final score. Holy $h!t! 55-31. I'm stunned. 

Ex-pat's Pats: Week 7

Visiting with my sister so no real post this week. 

Feeling a Little Blue at Our Next Stop

Yeah, Blue Man Group, baby!

Paying Homage to Uncle Bob

The catalogue girls new my uncle by voice on the phone. The joke was that Cabela's stock tanked during the months immediately following his death in 2004.

:( Man, I miss that old bear...

Next Stop England?

Nibble Lighthouse

Tulip at the Smiling Pond

Visiting the T.W. Burgess Jam Kitchen

Ex-pat's Pats: Week 6 Afterwards

Sitting in the parking lot waiting to get out into traffic  

Gotta be honest that I wrote it off when Brady got picked. Left to give my dad a chance at the restroom (we were in nose bleed seats, he's 82 and went the whole game without descending the stairs). The rest of us watched half the jumbo trom and half the field from the walkway while waiting for him. 

What an ending. Yelled ourselves hoarse on that miraculous pass/catch.  

3 generations of us at that there game.

Ex-pat's Pats: Week 6

Yeah, guess where I am?

Ya know, with my claustrophobia, Tulip can't believe I love stadium games... Half time:

Politics aside, good to be home...

Fuck! 27-24, little over 2 minutes and Brady got picked. I'm actually in process of leaving. Too many sacks. Too many idiotically dropped passes and blown chances...

... And I'm typing this as dad in restroom and...

OMG!!! :)

You've Already Subjected Me To Enough...

...All those shaky, loud, dark hours in the blue box. 

And, no way, no how am I leaving the safety of this vehicle ever again!

Updated:

Yeah, she's still not coming in...

Ya Know, I've Never Sat in a Rocker at an Airport Before...

And I rather like it.

He Was Here

Ex-pat's Pats: Week 2 (With Updates)

Game on at the favored watering hole. Am here with Fishing Buddy, a Missouri native, and we're in heaven with the Pats, Sox, and Cards games on the TVs!

Update 1: 2:48 in 3rd and I have to wonder why Woodhead was let go? At least you could kinda see Welker's* departure sorta coming...

Totally unimpressed with offense tonight and Brady's having to rely too much on Edelman! Hey, howzabout bringing Branch back?

Update 2: Thank God for Talib. This really was the defense's win tonight. 

Update 3: You have to seriously wonder if the offense is not up to par with prohibitive and/or self-sabotaging frustration over losing Welker; chief among them being Brady himself? One can only hope that the rest of the team gels and puts it together at the right time.

*In all honesty, as I watch Welker mug about in that god awful orange jersey for Old Spice, I seriously have to wonder if he didn't just succumb to the "Me's" that seem to consume so many talented players.

 Maybe he and that other ham deserve each other out there on the edge of the Rockies? I know, sour, wistful grapes.

He Always Finds A Way To Watch Over You

Taken at my bus stop, this morning, on my way to work. Somehow, I don't think it was meant to identify bears getting into garbage.

Never A Dull Evening In Downtown Juneau In The Summer

I wonder just how much the inebriated who set-off a fire extinguisher in such a way folks thought there was a major fire in the parking garage just cost the City and Burrough of Juneau?