Photo for Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Posted: 12:30 am, Wednesday, July 29th

Man, I love vacations, but I love being home, too. (It helps that I don't have to return to work right away.) Returning to New York from the West Coach is a special hell, also - we left the perfectly lovely Ace Hotel at four fifty in the morning, after only being there for about seven hours, and went from the best airport in the country to what has got to be the worst. LaGuardia is only rated #5 on this list, and O'Hare ranks first, but they're weighing delays too heavily in comparison with overall shittiness of the airport. LaGuardia is a fucking embarrassment. I have to assume its existence helped keep the 2012 Olympics the hell out of NYC. (By the way, what a disaster it would've been, given the economy, if we has "won" those things.)

Anyway, Portland. Awesome things included Por Que No, the YouCanHazCheeseburger, Ace Hotel, the Kennedy School, Clyde Common, the Japanese Gardens, the Grotto, the Oregon Brewer's Festival, the Ten01 happy hour (macaroni and cheese with lamb! for five dollars!), the incomprehensible cavernousness of Powell's, and the Tri-Met webpage, that puts anything the MTA has ever done to shame. We also scooted up to Olympic National Park in Washington in a rented hybrid Camry, which had an on button instead of a key, and made not a single damn sound when it was started. Bummers on the trip? 2.0's wallet got pinched. That's about it. Oh, we had a really overpriced and thoroughly mediocre meal up at Olympic, and I read a really bad YA novel about witches. But aside from that, we hearted Portland.

I had to hit an ATM yesterday, and imagine my surprise when the machine gave me tens! I don't think I've gotten a ten from an ATM in at least five years. Very exciting!

I am reading a totally delightful book right now called King Dork. It oozes sarcasm, specifically about Catcher in the Rye and high school. I love it. (As you can see from that site, it's been out for about three and a half years, so, yeah, I'm totally on top of shit.)(I actually just finished the book. It is awesome. I highly recommend it.)

The new season of Mad Men starts up soon, and 2.0 and I are burning right along through season 2 right now. I don't talk about that show much on here (actually, I s'pose I don't even talk about Lost a whole helluva lot, now that I don't post the day after), but Mad Men is Goddamn awesome. And here is a cartoon, Mad Men version of myself. I do not think it is as accurate as my Mii, but what can you do?

bullfrog

Miyaa -- Wednesday, July 29 2009, 10:25 am

As God is my Witness, as soon as the unemployment rate goes down to the single digits (preferably 6% or less), I will strive to find a job and live in Portland, Oregon. And then I can start saving for a small cottage on the Pacific Coast. Which last I checked was going for just over a million bucks.

(And having just made that pledge, I'll probably end up spending the rest of my days as a casino worker at the Sun Mohegan.)

Hey, just a question, if Delaware gets through the gauntlet of major college and professional sports teams opposing their desire to have legal sports gambling (I can understand Oregon, Nevada being exempt. I don't understand Delaware, Wyoming and Montana.) would you consider making a trek to Dover to plunk down a bet against the Yankees?

Wow, Joan Holloway is checking you out, good for you dude!

Is anyone concerned about Pete's drinking? Yikes.

Joan Holloway is the first ever cartoon character to be significantly less buxom than the real-life character she is based on.

good grief:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/health/28well.html?hpw

Without actually commenting on the article - which I guess I can kind of see the author's point, without particularly caring about it myself - I love that the section header is "Well," because it sounds more like a dismissive Church Lady than it does a reference to living well. (Which I assume it is. But maybe the Times has a section where people get to write in from atop their moral high horse. Which would be awesome.)

I assume everyone has seen Shatner reading Palin's farewell gobbledygook?

http://www.avclub.com/articles/late-night-2-gop-0,30967/

I can't decide if I should be surprised that Shatner would publicly read something like this or that not surprised since he once read the words to the song Rocket Man.

Wasn't he singing that? I guess I can't tell the difference.

Here's his Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds cover.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1744084049066286748

I had never heard this before - thanks to This American Life, I now know the history of the ridiculous concert rider.

http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/vanhalen.asp

more on hipsters.....

http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1913220,00.html

Mister, you look like the Mad Men version of that dude from Green Day. ;-)

Don't wanna be an advertising idiot...

At home today with a mildly sick child. Just flexed me an awesome cappuccino, utilizing my DeLonghi Caffe Sorrento, acquired as a wedding gift in 2001 from none-other-than this site's fine author. It's the gift that keeps on giving.

Holy crap, you just hit eight years last week, didn't you?

Oh, geez, I just realized I missed Reggie Ho's birthday while I was on vacation.

And Big Papi goes down.

Were you going for a "Falling Down" sort of vibe in this one? Cuz that's what I'm getting.

You speak the truth - eight years on the 20th. I'm a lucky dude.

And quite well-caffeinated, too.

With the strip? Not particularly. I just had mentioned a while back that Ron had gotten a new job - thought I'd address that.

Yeah, I saw that, Tree. Grand, but I guess I can't say it's unexpected at this point.

Bud Selig is 75? Holy shit.

I'm SHOCKED to learn that Big Papi got a little help going from a mediocre platoon player to a hulking MVP-candidate! Shocked!

I'm SHOCKED that you're the only reader dickheaded enough to bring that up. Shocked!