The Office returns Sep. 27

Today's Short List - 8/24

1. Galaxy got owned last night. Completely ruined my birthday. 3-0 and those see-you-next-Tuesdays celebrated right in our face.

2. I saw another man's hairy ass last night. It was disturbing. It was a Chivas fan mooning us.

3. Highlight of the match. Riot Squad gathered by the tennis courts to pick up sombreros painted with the Riot Squad logo and followed a full mariachi band into our section. They played our chants and stayed in the section the whole time. We passed a sombrero and bought them beers. It was fun as hell. People's faces were priceless when they saw the procession.

4. Did you see that Baltimore lost 30-3 the other day. Not the Ravens, but the Orioles. The first time in the modern era of baseball (since 1900) that a team scored 30 runs.

5. I'm hungry and we're going camping.

Today's List - 8/23

1. I am officially old. Please use a larger font when typing comments.

2. Got a couple of nice gifts last night at dinner. In-laws got me a dinner at Marston's, but its not a normal dinner - its called a winemakers dinner. Along with a 5-course meal I (and a yet undetermined guest) will be sampling 5 wines from Zaca Mesa, a good winery from the Los Olivos area. Also got a very nice bottle of wine that you can find in my "wine cellar" at corkd.com (see link in sidebar. I have nice in-laws. I don't think most people can say that.

3. Buffets kick ass. We went to the Atheneum at CalTech last night for dinner. It was buffet night. Where else but a buffet can you have prime rib, swordfish, champagne chicken, spicy shrimp rolls, au gratin potatoes, and ratatouille all on one plate.

4. Galaxy vs. ChivasUSA is nationally televised tonight on ESPN. I'm not saying much more, but the supporter's group that I sit with (L.A. Riot Squad) always brings the heat for Chivas. The word "historical" has been used in reference to our planned mischief tonight. Check it out.

5. There are several situations in which I could spend an infinite amount of money: at a good wine shop, a bookstore, Target, a stationary store with nice pens, etc. Yesterday I re-discovered an old one: camping gear. I could buy camping gear all day. We got a new tent last year. Its pretty big, but we are hoping that it will hold our family one day. Yesterday we got a camp stove, a new big cooler with wheels, and a camping coffee percolator pot. There's about a million other things that I could buy.

6. Costco is currently selling a 160-quart ice-chest. Its a beast. I think a small person could sleep in there. You may think your cooler is big - well, its not. This one is.

7. I'm reading Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities. I don't think I like it much, but I can't stop reading a book in the middle. Except the last book that Amanda recommended to me, but I stopped reading that because it was a very confusing sci-fi type book.

8. Happy early birthday to Pete. I think his is the 25th? Happy birthday also to my brother and to my grandmother. We all share the same birthday. Also, happy birthday to Kobe Bryant, Julio Franco, Keith Moon, and Shelley Long. I would say happy birthday to River Phoenix, but he's dead.

9. Want to hear something weird. I share a birthday with River Phoenix and my wife shares a birthday with Joaquin Phoenix. Joaquin Phoenix was in "To Die For" with Matt Dillon and Matt Dillon was in "Loverboy" with... Kevin Bacon. So there you go.

10. You should see the pen my wife got me for my birthday. It dominates all other pens.

Today's List - 8/21

1. If you want to see the wines that I am currently holding (waiting for consumption) you can go to this link. The link has a permanent home in the "Links" section in the sidebar. I think its a pretty good collection for someone who is far from rich.

2. There are only 3 of those wines that are staying in my possession for the long haul. Anytime you come by the apartment looking for a nice glass of wine I am likely going to take you up on the offer. Most wines don't age that well. I think there are several that I could hold for 5-7 years, but I would rather drink them.

3. Tomorrow is my last day in my 20s. I feel like I should do something that you should really only do while in your 20s. Any ideas?

4. Stamps. We have a buttload of stamps, none of which are enough to send a letter or bill. At this point I am sending out bills and stuff with more than 70 cents worth of stamps. Am I lazy or is it really not worth going to the Post Office to load up on 3-6 cent stamps.

5. Libraries are weird places. They let you borrow books for free. That's very trusting of them.

6. Summer has killed my ability to listen to Podcasts. I am way behind without the 30-minute drive to and from work.

7. Did you know that the NFL is in the middle of pre-season. I just figured that out yesterday. The only thing more boring than a 3+ hour NFL regular season game is a 3+ hour preseason game. Well, that and any NBA game. Basketball puts me to sleep.

Based on the short list you can probably tell that my day was relatively uneventful.

Bringing camping to the next level

As a kid growing up in a relatively poor family, camping was one of our most common vacations. (Side note: poor only lasted until I was maybe 11-12. Nothing against poor, but I don't want anyone thinking that I had a rough childhood financially). Once we hit the late teen years we were more likely to hit up places with hotels, although we still camped every so often. Nonetheless, camping is still one of my favorite vacations. Unfortunately, most of my camping stopped around college. I did camp in the middle of nowhere once during the summer after my freshman year in college. It was with the friends of a friend in Northern California. We passed the night drinking Keystone and Coors Light, throwing knives, and practicing roping a fake bull. It was a good time.

I have been re-introduced to camping by Amanda's friends in the last couple of years. They have been doing regular trips for something like 20 years (when their parents took them). However, the days of whiffle ball and running through poison-oak have been replaced by drinking absurd amounts of domestic beer in cans (usually Bud Light and Coors Light), walking down to the beach, reading, a little Sorry (in which I think I am undefeated), and talking shit around the campfire. Again, good times.

This year I am stepping it up a notch - at least for myself. Due to my somewhat recent obsession with wine, I am going to bring some quality wine to camping this year along with some plastic wine glasses. So far, my only choice is a 2005 Marquis Philips Sarah's Blend. Its a blend of shiraz, cabernet sauv., merlot, and a little cab franc. Being from Australia, it should be a complete fruit bomb, which should be just right for camping. I may also bring a bottle of Four Vines Naked Chardonnay (naked means that it was not aged in oak) for the daytime.

Don't get me wrong. For the most part I will be drinking nice cold domestic cans during the day, but the 14-15% alcohol found in these wines sound pretty good for the night.

Today's List - 8/20

So I'm back from my trip to New England and have a few ideas/comments/annoyances to share.

1. New England is old. I guess old means that you don't have to have street signs. We got lost a number of times. I think old also means that you can randomly change the name of streets. One street had three different names in the course of five blocks.

2. People in Massachusetts are serious about two things: the Red Sox and Dunkin' Donuts. We spent two days in Falmouth, MA. I saw no reference to Starbucks, but there were two Dunkin' Donuts - one was a drive-thru.

3. During one of our experiences being lost we drove through the ghetto of Providence. Their houses are not in very good condition, but they are really neat old Cape Cod style houses. However, we just missed witnessing someone rob a Burger King.

4. Downtown Providence has little parking. However, for some reason they don't put meters next to spots where the sidewalk has bricks, thus creating a few free parking spots. I'm not sure why.

5. Have you ever heard the rule "don't shit in an RV"? I think there should also be a rule "don't fart on an airplane". Someone dropped as maybe four times during our flight from Providence to Cleveland.

6. A lot of people like lobster. They served lobster at the wedding reception. It was a great idea and loads of fun to see people all dressed up wearing lobster bibs and making a mess. However, that's a lot of work to get to your food. Cows are much more suited for eating.

7. I like kids and wouldn't mind having a few of my own in the near future. However, kids on airplanes are annoying. Especially kids whose parents can't teach them that they don't have to whine constantly to get a drink of water and then kick the back of your chair.

8. Humidity sucks.

9. I got a call from the manager at BevMo while I was in Providence. I'm not sure he ever actually apologized, but he sounded apologetic and wanted me to call him back and let him know what happened so it won't happen again.

10. Most parks (and public places in general) have laws that require you to keep your dog on a leash. A lady in one park on Martha's Vineyard didn't follow that law. Her dog got its ass kicked by another dog. That dog was on a leash and the owner did a great job getting his dog away from the other dog. Then, just ten minutes later, the lady let her dog off the leash again. Oh, and the dog was wearing a pink bandanna.

11. During the fight, someone kept yelling "dog fight!". I'm not sure why, but it was funny.

12. We walked around Martha's vineyard for 3 hours or so and I never saw a vineyard. If they named places after the most common resource available they would change it from Martha's Vineyard to Martha's Ice Cream Shop. I saw maybe 20 of them.

13. Don't get me wrong. Martha's Vineyard was beautiful. Very relaxing. People in the park flying kites. Amazing 100+ years old homes. Clear water on the beaches. I enjoyed my time there.

14. Human beings were not meant to fly. 5 hours on a plane is just not comfortable. I've been to Italy and that was 9+ hours. We really need to invent teleportation soon.

15. This video is funny:

Today's List - 8/13

1. This will be my last post for a few days.

2. This is officially my 300th post.

3. E-mail. I am used to getting somewhere around 20-30 e-mails every day. In the last 3 days I got maybe 15 total. Weird. I'm not counting spam either.

4. Did you hear Karl Rove is quitting at the end of the month? What the hell is Bush going to do? Think on his own? Scary. Good riddance though.

5. Baja Fresh really went skimpy on the steak tonight in my burrito. Very disappointing. They forgot the sour cream too.

6. My homie Randy is moving to Alaska on Thursday. I wish him well. Watch out for the bears and moose. Randy is a good guy and I'll miss having him around to harass and make fun of when he gets really hammered. I'm not sure the 49th state will be able to handle two Moe brothers at once.

7. Did you know that Tim Burton directed Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. I did, but I guess its not really common knowledge. Caught the last 30 minutes tonight and I enjoyed it for entirely different reasons than when I was 9.

8. I am slowly approaching 7,000 visitors to this site. I may have a prize waiting for #7000 (or the person that comes closest to being #7000 that I can actually give the prize to.

Today's List - 8/12

1. Thanks to those that came by my/Steve's b-day gathering at the Crown last night. I think we made up half of the total customer count.

2. My body simply does not recover from drinking at an acceptable rate. I had the "ring of fire" all day. I mean, I drank a lot of beer, but it was only beer. There has to be a solution. B12 or something.

3. After watching hours of Shark Week I decided that I would never go in the water again. Just now I watched a repeat of another show on Discovery that talked about irukandji. They are a super-small (almost microscopic) jellyfish whose sting is 100 times more deadly than a cobra. You simply can't see them. I know that they are most common in places like Australia, but it reinforces my decision to only swim in pools. I may swim in lakes though as they don't seem to have as many deadly predators.

4. Galaxy suck. Becks may not help.

5. Anyone else watch Entourage? Really disappointing season in my view.

6. There's another cool ocean show on Discovery tonight. I think its called Deep Blue. It makes me wish that I had HD.

Today's List - 8/11

1. BevMo can eat my ass. I went yesterday to take back a bottle of wine that I bought there last week. When I opened the bottle the cork was falling apart because it was so soaked with wine and the wine smelled funny. I'm no wine expert, but I do know when a wine has been cooked (exposed to high heat). All I wanted was a new bottle of the same wine. They decided to give me attitude about it like I was trying to cheat them out of $11. In any case, my shopping days at the Pasadena BevMo are done and I wrote the company an angry letter.

2. Premiership opened today. Liverpool claimed 3 points with a win over Aston Villa. Steven Gerrard hit a brilliant free kick in the 87th minute to give us the win. Man, its really nice to have some EPL to wake up to in the mornings again.

3. Saw Bourne Ultimatum last night. It was OK. They seemed to rip off some ideas from other sources like X-Men and Steven Seagal movies. The other two were better.

4. People are lame. When you show up to a movie on a Friday night just as its starting don't expect to get a great seat. Also don't whine about those of us who arrived early not moving over so you can have the end-of-the-aisle seat that we arrived 20 minutes before to get.

5. Last night Randy, Pete, and I were trying to come up with the ideal cast for the always pending G.I. Joe live action movie. I found several places on the net that have mentioned Mark Wahlberg playing the role of Duke. I can see that. The article for #6 also says that the role of Roadblock will be played by Ice Cube. That would get him redemption in my eyes for the "Are We There Yet" Fiasco.

6. Thundercats movie? That's also a rumor, but it seems much further along in the process than G.I. Joe. Hugh Jackman as Lion-O. Jessica Simpson as Cheetara. Micheal Clarke-Duncan as Panthro. That's what I've read.

7. Both Thundercats and G.I. Joe are slated for a 2010 release, but He-Man is slated for 2009. Joel Silver of the Matrix is involved.

8. I usually don't talk about movie stuff this much. Have you noticed how crappy the movie selection is these days? Honestly, three years ago Amanda and I would never have seen Bourne Ultimatum. There's always Harry Potter in another 18 months. And the teaser for the next Batman (The Dark Knight) is up on the net in a few places.

9. Next time you're at the movies make this drink: in a cup just less than 1/2 full of ice - about 10-15% Sprite, then about 70% Lite Lemonade, then top it off with more Sprite. Its delicious.

Enjoy your day.

Today's List - 8/10

1. I finally got called into jury duty. However, I was there for less than an hour and they let me postpone until my winter break. Word on the street is just before Christmas is a good time to get called in because judges don't like tho be there before Christmas.

2. People are annoying. This lady explained, very clearly I thought, the reasons one could get excused from jury duty and the reasons/methods/consequences of postponing jury duty. Essentially, you just had to step outside and talk to the "postponement interviewers and give them a good reason to postpone and pick a new week up to 90 days away. Easy, right? I guess not. The first question asked was "Can I get postponed for a vacation?" Answer: talk to the interviewers. Next 5 questions: "Can I get postponed for ___________?" Next 5 answers: talk to the interviewers. At this point she said "Let me clarify. I can't grant your postponement. Whatever your reason is, you will need to talk to the interviewers." Next question: "Can I get postponed for maternity leave?" I feel bad for that baby because her mom is retarded.

3. There are a lot of tall buildings in Downtown LA. They create this sort of wind tunnel that feels like a good breeze, but I think its filled with pollution.

4. David Beckham made his MLS debut last night. Exciting? Meh. They lost and played like complete shite until he came on. However, at that point Galaxy had lost one player to a red card and 20 minutes wasn't going to save us. We'll see what happens next.

5. Anybody ever been to Providence or Cape Cod? We're looking for stuff to do. I'm thinking about a pirate museum in Salem. Amanda says that the Salem Witch Museum is corny and the pirate museum is loosely affiliated so my expectations are pretty low. I would also like to visit the JFK library. I've been to the LBJ library in Austin, TX. However, I've never been to the Reagan library which is really close. Or Nixon, which is also really close. Maybe its because they are Republicans.

6. I made a list of things to do this summer. There are maybe 40 things on the list and I've only done 4. I need to get crackin'.

7. Amanda Tivo'd this really strange kids show(?) that involves dogs dressed up like people. Its one of those its-so-bad-that-its-awesome things. Here's a really crappy YouTube version that is clearly some guy recording it off his TV, but you'll get the point. We saw it on HBO Family.



8. Is "Tivo'd" really a word. Can I "tivo" something even though I don't have Tivo? (I have Time Warner DVR)

That's about it for now. Enjoy the weekend.

Today's list - 8/9

Now that we are in summer I have a little extra time to blog and a lot of things that I want to say. Therefore, for the rest of the summer, I am going to write a list of the things that I have on my mind. They may best based in anger, mired in hate, soaked in positivity, or completely devoid of emotion. So here's today's list.

1. Went to the Angels vs. Red Sox last night. Pops used the company seats and we sat maybe 15 rows back of the visitors dugout - nice seats. I love baseball - grew up playing it. But man, this game takes FOREVER. First pitch was at 7:05 and the game ended about 11:10. Over four hours. Soccer is 90 minutes plus extra time (maybe 5-6 minutes) and you're done. No timeouts, commercial breaks, etc. Makes your life so much easier.

2. I hate Orange County. My Dad and I went to a bar/restaurant before the game for a pint and some food. (since I definitely don't want to eat at Angel Stadium anymore). There were no less than 6 guys in there with feauxhawks and it seemed to be part of the uniform for waiters. All of these OC people look the same. Its like communism or something. Orange Curtain.

3. People from Boston are lame (except the ones that I know - Jodi, Fr. Mark, etc.). I would guess that maybe 1/3 of the people at the game were Red Sox fans. Why? If you like Boston so much why do you live here in So Cal? And, if your team is so great why have they only won the World Series once in like 90 years? Shit, the Mets have won it twice and they've only been a team for 46 years. Stick with hockey. Oh wait, your hockey team sucks. Football? Well, they actually play in Rhode Island. Basketball? KG is not going to save you. Even your soccer team, which also plays in Rhode Island, can't win a title.

4. The Angels suck. Yes, I know they are in first place, but I don't think I saw one Angels player show any sign of emotion last night. I guess losing isn't a big deal. Maybe you could have done more to put it in the faces of the 20,000 annoying Bostonians? Well, with 162 games in a season I guess one loss is no big deal. At least they're not the completely useless Dodgers.

5. Jury Duty update. Well, its Thursday morning and I'm blogging so you can probably figure it out for yourself - no call-in yet.

6. Just finishing City of Falling Angels. Good book. I like his writing. However, with about 50 pages to go I am not sure that there will be an ending. Its part of that genre of books that is non-fiction written more like fiction - narrator, dialogue, etc. There's a couple story lines that I want to see closed out, but I won't necessarily die if they don't. I'm not sure what kept me going on this book, but its really really good.

7. I liked Harry Potter too.

8. Birthday party - Saturday 5-? at the Crown. Come by and meet my family.

9. Thursday drink-'til-your-vision-blurs day.

A couple of funny things

First, there is a website that Arianna Huffington set up where you can do a search on a name, address, or zip code to see how much money people have donated to campaigns and to whom they gave this money. My birthplace, Redlands, is home to a Mormon super-temple (not the official name, but its more important than a regular one) and there are two really big Mormon families that I know of who maxed out on donations to Mitt Romney. I'm not poking fun, it was just interesting to see.

Second, Slate has a story about Rudy Giuliani's daughter and how her facebook page showed that she was a member of a facebook group called "One million strong for Barack" D'oh!

Finally, check out the new awesome license plate that you could have if you lived in Oklahoma:


Why oh why do I have to live in California?

A few notes to keep you/me entertained

1. Barry Bonds can eat a dick. I'm just glad A-Rod will pass him in a few years.

2. Have you been the recipient of an e-mail saying that you got an e-card from either Colleague, Neighbor, or some other non-descript well-wisher? Me too. Don't go to the link - its a virus of some sort. No, I did not learn from my mistake. I learned from my brilliance which said "very few of your neighbors or colleagues like you and the ones that do wouldn't send you an e-card." So be warned.

3. This is my week for jury duty. So far I have not had to report. I feel my luck running out. However, I am flying out Tuesday for a wedding in Massachusetts so I'm thinking that will get me out. If not, I will make some racist comments.

4. I turn 30 this month. There's a rumor floating about that I will be celebrating early on the 11th due to my absence on the following 2 weekends. This rumor also says that we have the back room at the Crown reserved.

5. English Premier League starts Saturday. Liverpool open against Aston Villa. I may have to open the season at Lucky's for breakfast. Kicks off at 9:00.

6. Lynlee says that she only visits Escape from the Rat Race to use the link to get to this blog. Please go visit Rat Race so Pete can stop drowning his tears in Sapphire and Tonic.

That is all.

Note to self...

...don't try to clown Kevin Smith - a man who has made a living being witty. If you do, this could happen. In fact, it did happen at ComicCon this year.

Who rocks? Iraq!

In one of the more inspiring sports stories of the year, Iraq's national men's soccer team completed a major upset yesterday beating Saudi Arabia to win the Asian Cup. In their path to the title they beat regional powerhouses Australia and South Korea. The Saudis were favored in this match, but Iraqi captain Younis Mahmoud scored the games only goal in the 71st minute to give the Iraqis a win and also qualified them to play in the FIFA Confederations Cup where they may end up playing against the U.S. Currently Brazil(Copa America winners), Italy(World Cup winners), the U.S.(Gold Cup winners), South Africa(host), and Iraq(Asian Cup winners) are the teams playing in the tournament. There will be three more spots awarded to the winners of the African Cup of Nations, Oceania's Nations Cup and UEFA's European Cup. Confederations cup will be played in 2009 as sort of a World Cup practice for South Africa, hosts of World Cup 2010.

This Iraq team was made up of Sunni, Shiite, and Kurd players. They had to live in neutral countries to train because of the state of war in their home country. In fact, they won't even be able to bring the cup to Iraq because of the dangers they would face. 50 people were killed by car bombers while celebrating the semifinal victory over South Korea.

In any case, congratulations to Iraq for a greatly earned victory. I couldn't be more pleased.

One of my heroes

I do post a lot on this blog about soccer, but I have to confess that my first love in sports was baseball. I played all the way until college, against teams from as close as San Bernardino and as far as Australia. I learned to love the game that is widely proclaimed as our national pastime. However, after the 1994 Major League player strike I lost a lot of my desire to watch the game. Add to that the recent conflicts over steroids and I honestly barely watch baseball any more (except when my Mets knock the Dodgers out of the playoffs).

Yesterday, one of my heroes in baseball was inducted into the Hall of Fame. I have always respected Tony Gwynn as a baseball player. He embodies everything that I think a baseball player should be- he had fun, he always made time for the fans, he worked endlessly to improve his game, and he never sacrificed his dignity. Statistically, he ended his career with a stunning .338 average and 3141 hits. I think his most impressive stat is his batting average stayed nearly the same with two strikes. When he was inducted, there was no question as to what team he would be connected to - he was a Padre his entire career. This simply does not happen anymore.

Living in San Diego for just over 4 years, I was able to see Tony Gwynn play on many occasions. It never escaped me that I was watching one of the greatest hitters ever to swing a bat. And although I don't care much for him otherwise, Bill Plaschke of the L.A. Times did a nice story on him yesterday.

I want to end with a quote from his induction speech yesterday. I think it sums up what Tony Gwynn was as a player and remains to be as an ambassador for baseball.

"I think people, we make a big deal about work ethic. We make a big deal about trying to make good decision and doing things right, and you know what, we are supposed to. That is what they pay us for. When you sign your name, I'm a big believer when you sign your name on a dotted line, there's more than just playing the game of baseball. I think if you look out here today, you see all these people out here today, they love the game too and there's a responsibility when you put that uniform on that those people, the people who pay to go watch you play, you're responsible, you've got to make good decisions and show people how things are supposed to be done."

As we wait for Barry Bonds to break Hank Aaron's home run record by cheating, its nice to remember that there were - and are - very classy hard-working players in this game.

I am a media whore

Listen to my short appearance on ESPN 710 radio continuing the Beckham hype. Keep in mind that I was in the middle of Guinness #3 during the interview.

That's one handsome devil

Check out these stories from Fox Sports and The Sun (UK News) on the welcoming of Beckham to the Galaxy. There is a pretty handsome looking guy in the pictures doing something on his cell phone. Probably calling one of his many girlfriends. Seriously - one stunning example of a man.

L.A. meets Becks

Yesterday I ditched summer school to attend the "unveiling" of the Galaxy's new player (and savior?) David Beckham. The event was open to season-ticket holders. I also went so I could get my hands on a new jersey - we changed colors and logo to welcome our $250 million midfielder.

Side note: I was once asked why I use "we" and "us" and "our" when talking about the Galaxy when I don't play for the team and am not employed by the team. Well, there are two answers: #1- I have probably given this team somewhere in the area of 5,000 of my hard-earned dollars in the last 6 years or so (season tickets, 6 jerseys, extra tickets, hats, scarves, t-shirts, beer) which I consider a pretty heavy investment. #2- You are obviously not much of a sports fan if you ask that question and shouldn't be bothering me with such quibbles.

Back to the point: So I got to the Home Depot Center, bought two new jerseys (without Beckham's name) and one t-shirt that looks like a jersey (which has a big 23 and Beckham on the back). Needless to say, there are a crapload of people buying this stuff. Yesterday was supposed to be the first day that anybody saw these new uniforms. I saw a leaked picture about a month ago. Someone at Adidas leaked official pictures on Monday. So they released them in Sports Authority (exclusive rights to sell new Galaxy stuff) stores on Wednesday. From Wednesday to Friday there were 250,000 sold. That is how the Galaxy has already made back what we paid for Beckham.

Moving on. It was hotter than a mofo inside since we were seated in the one section of the stadium without shade. I have the sunglass tan only on the right side of my face to prove it. I join my regular gametime friends - the L.A. Riot Squad - and they are already singing and chanting. (also, many of them were in the parking lot before 8am drinking). There are cameras everywhere


This picture shows maybe a third of them.


Then Posh shows up. In case you live in a cave, Beckham is married to Spice Girl Victoria "Posh" Beckham. In any case, she is one skinny-ass chick. As you can tell from the picture, the camera guys like her a lot.

Eventually we got down to business and Becks came out. They showed him on the jumbotron (or whatever you call the giant scoreboard screen) walking out from the dressing room with music blaring. It was all very exciting and I'll admit that I got a little excited and maybe a little emotional (my eyes may have watered up a bit) but I'll explain this later.

Former player and current GM Alexi Lalas spoke, AEG Pres. Tim Liewiki(sp?) spoke, MLS Commissioner Don Garber spoke, and Galaxy Coach Frank Yallop spoke. Finally, they introduced Beckham officially and we all went nuts. They shot out a buttload of confetti and played some loud music while Becks posed with is new kit.

Oh, but it gets better. Of all the people in L.A. that love getting attention, but who should really avoid it right now, guess who showed up? Yep, Mayor Villaraigosa (or maybe its Villar again?). When he is introduced, the crowd boos. Don't believe me? Here's the video. Then, just as it got perfectly quiet, one of the Squad yells "is your girlfriend covering this?" There's no way he missed it. Hell, the comment even made the New York Times. Let me explain. First, obviously most of the heckling was directed at him for being a cheater. However, this douche showed up at the first Galaxy-ChivasUSA game with a Chivas jersey on, which is why most of us were giving him a hard time.

Finally, a comment. You might want to practice getting used to soccer in the U.S. It will take over. The World Cup final got better ratings than the World Series. Soccer is the #1 sport played by American children. The entire civilized world is now watching Galaxy games. The most recognizable face in the sports world plays here in the states.

Will David Beckham save the Galaxy? In a sense, he already has. However, in our last game, only 3 of the starters were with the team last year. One of those three joined in mid-season last year. 5 of the 11 starters were added in the last month. Now that becomes 6 of 11. This is a team that has been struggling. One player won't change that right away. Galaxy may not win the title this year. Beckham is not over-the-hill. He still starts for England. Only after being put back in the starting 11 did Real Madrid come back and win the Spanish title. He may not be in his prime, but he has showed that he can make an impact on a team.

Its going to be a fun ride and it starts Saturday with Beckham's debut against Chelsea. And I will have an extra ticket to three Galaxy games starting on September 23rd. Line up now with your bribes.

In the bar that I will someday open...

Pete over at Life Outside the Rat Race came up with a prompt: What will the bar that you open look like (even if you never plan on opening a bar)? Here's my thought:

1. It will be called The Jack Russell or Point E (see Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy).
2. There will be no neon signs.
3. Anybody wearing clothes purchased at HotTopic will not be permitted.
4. no fauxhawks.
5. There will be an entire section of red leather chairs.
6. If you scream - you leave (a.k.a. the sorority girl rule - applies to men and women)
7. jukebox: VIP customers can upload songs from their iPods, but any iPods containing Panic at the Disco will be given a virus.
8. Beers on tap: Guinness, Harp, all variations of Sierra Nevada, XX amber, Firestone Double Barrel, all variations of Stone, Tetley's, Murphy's, Piraat, Boddington's, Bud Light (for those kind of people), Coors Light (for my family from Texas), Fuller's ESB (for Pete), PBR (for Marlon), Dixie Crimson Voodoo, all variations of Craftsman, and a rotating selection of whatever I feel like getting hammered on at the time.
9. All of the tables will have 80's video games in them.
10. There will be an adjoining bookstore where we will have a political book club. Drunken reading will be encouraged.
11. Soccer matches will have top priority on the big screens, but every table will have its own small TV so people can watch the boring sports (i.e. basketball).
12. Every person that brings in their ballot stub on election day can trade it in for one beer.
13. Sunday/Saturday afternoon happy hour in the summer: $2 sapphire n' tonics
14. There will be a selection of really good wines, but they will be cheap and delicious - like Pillar Box Red.
15. Teachers that teach in ghetto high schools will get 50% of food at all times.
16. Chicken wings will be served in two flavors: "hot" and "mother-fucking hot".
17. Rule #1: no bitches (applies to men and women)
18. Drunk VIPs get free rides home in the Point E hybrid car.
19. St. Patrick's Day = only people I know get in.
20. If you start making out in my bar you are banned for life
21. Schooners
22. high-fiving is strictly prohibited unless you are watching a sporting event
23. Show up dressed as a ninja or a pirate - free drink!
24. Costumes will be encouraged on Halloween, but it you show up as a slutty _______, we get to pour beer on your head and throw chicken bones at you until you leave - and no themed costumes for couples.
25. Wednesday movie nights featuring Big Lebowski, Army of Darkness, Bubba Ho-Tep, Red Dawn, Rocky IV, Old School, Office Space, Fear of a Black Hat, Indiana Jones, Star Wars (4-6 only)

Its a long list, but I have high standards.