so while it may not be 15 march 2007 here (and by here i mean gloriously soggy east-central texas), it is 15 march 2007 somewhere (and by somewhere i mean gloriously exotic guam!) which means exactly ONE THING:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SKYLAR C.!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARIANNA C.!!!
one whole year old today! kinda! as i mentioned in the previous space, don't worry about the particulars of being born -5 GMT last year, but now being +10 GMT. that's a 15 GMT swing! and let's not even get into the whole "it was EST last year but now it's EDT on the ides!" which i think makes it a 14 hour swing...
either way, make a mess of some cake, have the pops and the mom read some shel s. and in general have a great birthday!
speaking of messes, i made a complete and utter mess of my early month shout-outs. to writ, this from devoted reader katie w. of los angeles, ca:
I have to tell you I was greatly disappointed that Mommy W didn’t get a shoutout for finding your sweatshirt in the depths of
it was indeed a grand oversight. with that said, onto the ides shout-outs!
BELATED SHOUT-OUTS 2x to MW of aforementioned los angeles, ca. for finding my usc sweatshirt and getting it back to me. well, it hasn't arrived yet but i'm sure it's somewhere. and that's what's important! not to mention, as devoted fans of troy, i'm certain they are excited to remove all elements of goose from said premises. i leave my sweatshirt in their "car" (that is so not an apt description for their family vehicle) and usc goes and loses the next week to fucla. unacceptable. but given the good fortune and my long-standing habit of "leaving" things about "Fort W", perhaps they have come across:1 dark blue wool coat, size boys medium (presumed lost since some Sunday ca. 1987 when i was an altar boy, but maybe it's tucked in the back of the suv...)
1 key ring with keys to my apartment in new haven (presumed lost at some social function ca. 1999-2000...)
1 nice black leather jacket, sized mens ML (presumed given to my brother from his Philly days ca. 2003 but since lost to the winds of time. Note: one button is disturbingly loose and close to falling off...)
1 animal, stuffed, dog named "Freckles" (presumed given to some girlfriend ca. 1995 or possibly some other girlfriend ca. 1997...)
1 animal, stuffed, dog named "King Oliver" (presumed given to some other other girlfriend ca. 1999...)
1 US Minted bill, $20 (thought to have been given to a Hari Krishna ca. 1994, but may be behind the orange tree...)
A VERY SPECIAL FIRSTIE SHOUT-OUT TO Iceman, codename "Hambone" on his last spring break. to the dominican republic, no less! i've been there. too bad i forgot to tell you how to handle the bribe-seeking police and soldiers. If you see a gun: speak spanish and pay up. if you don't see a gun AND you're all alone on the road: i'd pay. if you don't see a gun AND you're in a city or there's lots of german tourists nearby: pretend to speak russian (i said different vodka names over and over again in a thick accent) and don't pay up. in between all that, enjoy the barcelo and brugal!
THE NCAA'S ARE HERE AND THAT MEANS ONE THING SHOUT-OUT TO: usc basketball! do i pick you to upset texas? or are you the proverbial "year away"? hmm... in related news, dear friend and self-described bball addict nara w. of los angeles is again forming "free" pools on various web sites, like espn and stuff. unlike last year, when he had about 5 of the 8 entries (and still managed to come in last...) he's gone legit and (so far) has only one bracket. of course, i will not be watching the action this weekend, as i have a very special guest arriving for the weekend. though it really is too bad that bravo (the town, not the tv station) isn't having their "running of the vacas" this weekend, i've managed to find the best paintball arena AND hog roping lessons in the greater brazos county. so she best be impressed!
and finally: IT'S CRICKET WORLD CUP SO GET IN ON THE ACTION SHOUT-OUT TO: the west indies team's big win over pakistan to start the tourney. pakistan has a legit team, but the windies went 241/9 to win by 54 wickets after pakistan's middle of the order bottomed out. in a blow-out, scotland got WAXED by australia, with MOM (man of the match) ricky ponting clearing a century as the aussies scored 314/10 to win by an astounding 203 runs. but the cricket moment of the day goes to ireland, courtesy room/office-mate eugene f. aka "the good irish lad". apparently, the irish cricket union forms from both rep.ireland ("the good ireland") and northern ireland ("absentee landlord bastards!") which is why they don't show the irish flag. though euge knows cricket, he was immediately turned off by the fact that the irish team fields: 4 guys from "the 6 counties" (aka northern ireland), 1 from south africa, 3 from australia, and 5 from dublin, including 2 sets of brothers. of the up-and-coming niall o'brien, euge said, "i bet he went to school at trinity. rich bastard." and once i noted the 2 sets of brothers, he said, "you sure they aren't husband and husband?" the rule, as always, don't bring up a divided ireland to eugene.
with that said, HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY! pionta guinness, ar meisce!
