Cinco de Stomach Ache

To celebrate Cinco de Mayo we will be heading down to El Flingers and suck down some tequila and Coronas while trolling for bar trash. Woooooh, SPU ’94!

What? We did that for St. Patrick’s Day? No, I don’t think so, we went to O’Flingers and downed sake.

Well if you’re going to be like that then we will do something different. Let’s see, Cinco de Mayo calls for the stereotyping of an entire culture, we can do that. How about this?

(Drumroll)

Please join us on Friday Mayo Cincoth for the first annual 7502 Taco Bell eating contest. Burritos, tacos, gorditos, ensinatotitos and baklava-- whoever (or herever) eats the most will be the winner. Unlike the Jason v. Seth run around Green Lake we intend to actually do this.

We will start by lubricating our systems with cheap Mexican beer and then head over to the Taco Bell on Aurora and 90th. The winner will receive the much coveted Crown de Sombrerro de Setenta y Cinco Cero Dos.

The best reading you'll ever see.

Dear reader, what are you doing on the afternoon of Saturday, May 27th?

If the answer is “dunno” or “stuff, I guess” then we are about to give you information that will change your life forever.*

The first novel by Seth's childhood friend, Pauls Toutonghi, is soon to be published by Random House. As Jason has pointed out, don’t be fooled by the name—Random House doesn’t just publish anything.

Pauls’ novel, Red Weather, is “one of the most acclaimed debut novels of the season.” People Magazine’s reviewing it, despite the fact that it has nothing to do with that girl that disappeared in Aruba. Seth read an early draft. It's funny, it's touching, and you won't soon forget the characters.

Pauls will read from his novel at 4pm on the aforementioned date, at Elliott Bay Books. You will enjoy it—-Pauls is a good reader. Parking will be easily procured as the Mariners are out of town. Please consider attending if you care about freedom.

*Note: Receiving any information changes your life to some degree, however miniscule.

Vin Scully Appreciation Night #1

Vin Scully, as you may know, has been broadcasting Dodger games since the team was in Brooklyn, and the man a national treasure.

What you may not know is that this means he's about 600 years old. Who knows how much longer he'll be around.

While Scully lives, we ought to enjoy him.

We get the Dodgers broadcast on our MLB Extra Innings package when they are playing at Chavez Ravine. So we're going to try to have a few Vin Scully Appreciation Events this season.

The first such event will be this Saturday night (4/15), with the Dodgers at home facing their hated rivals, the Giants. The game begins at 7pm. As a special treat, we'll serve Farmer John hot dogs--the same brand served at Dodger Stadium.

Here's more about Vin Scully if you care...

He does exhaustive research on every player. Fred McGriff will be batting and he'll all of a sudden launch, in that silky, perfectly-metered voice, into "Fred's mother says his favorite cereal as a child...was Cocoa Puffs. He attended Biljam P. Crabgrass Elementary where, in the third grade, he nearly won the spelling bee, but was eliminated on the word "thorough."

My favorite Vin Scully story, though, is this. And I'm serious not making this up...Jason Little of the Rockies was batting during a day game--a pretty dull game, really.

"At 16 years of age, Jason Little woke up on the morning he was to take the SATs, walked into his mother's bedroom, and found her ...(and here, Scully took a perfectly timed pause that was long enough to create expectation but not long enough to make you think something weird was coming) ... dead!"

The man's a genius. There's a DJ on WNYC in New York who does a special baseball show annually on Super Bowl Sunday...one thing he always includes is Scully's call of the very last inning of Sandy Koufax's perfect game. It's amazing to hear. Scully never pauses, never fumbles for a word, never includes an unneccessary word. And after he describes the final out, he doesn't say anything--he let's the crowd's cheering tell the story.

Feats of Strength--sort of

Jason has a big fat mouth and he uses it to inspire/piss off [choose one] his roommates. Now it's time to pay the piper.

Last week, Jason sat on the couch, watching TV and drinking a beer, while Seth headed out of an early evening run. Feeling his oats, hops, and the pent up aggression that comes with giving up insults for Lent (big mistake), Jason asked Seth if it bothered him that, "You can work out all you want, and even if I do nothing for two weeks I'll still be in better shape than you."

Jason then left for Philadelphia and Seth stewed for four days. Finally, Seth was able to gather the courage to respond to Jason's ridiculous statement. A challenge was issued and accepted.

For the next two weeks, Jason will do no exercise. Seth will give up beer and smoking, and work out 2-3 times a day, sideaches permitting. During the week of April 24th, a series of fitness tests will pit these nacho-eating gladiators against each other. David will ref. Though the exact events have not been determined, sarcasm and banjoing are already eliminated from consideration.

Breaking news: This reporter was just informed that less than 30 minutes ago, Seth had his first beer of his beer abstinence period. Also, he's heading out for a smoke right now. Good luck with that, Mr. Kolloen.

Farewell to Taco Tuesday...for a while.

Talk is cheap; unfortunately David is learning that action is expensive.

After years of talking about getting into advertising David is actually doing something about it. He will be taking classes at the School of Visual Concepts, and if all goes well will lead their football team to the Rose Bowl this fall.

Now the bad news, the classes will take place on Tuesday meaning that Taco Tuesday will be put on hold for ten weeks. So join everyone at 7502 Winona for a farewell to 69 cent tacos and 2.50 microbrews.

Tuesday April 11, the Tin Hat in Ballard, following the Mariners v. Indians baseball contest.

J'Mac's Birthday Week Round-Up

It's been a while since we have visited the Reunion Special. It's not that nothing has been happening, it's just we are abstaining from all electronics until there is either a peaceful resolution in Iraq or Leonard Peltier is set free-- which ever happens first.

Last weekend was JMac's birthday, and we celebrated with about 600 events. The biggest and the best was not rounding up everyone who ever lived on Corliss for a loud wonderfully obnoxious dinner at Buco de Bepo (the highlight being when all stood up to sing our national anthem), although the more we think about it, that was a lot of fun.

The highlight was his party on Saturday night. The night started with the delivery of an excellent chocolate, bourbon cream, strawberry cake from David's mother, and ended the next morning with the discovery of a series of divots across the kitchen and dining room floor. This surely marked the end of out high heel kitchen sprints. For more images of the night, click here, for images of delicious Eggo waffles, click here.

On Monday David and Seth took the day off work because, well, it was Opening Day. It's a holiday and you can't be expected to fill out anything in duplicate on a holiday. After a family bus ride with Sarah, the two marveled as large machines smashed the hell out of an old parking garage. They then marveled at the view over Puget Sound and the Olympics from Lowell's. Breakfast was followed by opening day baseball and cheap beer at Sluggers. In retrospect we shouldn't have been scared off by the pull-tapers hogging the bar at the Triangle, but what are you going to do? Oh, then the Mariners lost.

The last few days have been spent much like the summer will be spent, on our back porch, grilling meat, playing the banjo, and listening to Dave Niehaus on the radio.