Ain't cross-promotion grand?

Two of Wisconsin's most famous products, the Green Bay Packers and cheese, have officially joined forces.

The Packers have named Sargento the official cheese of Lambeau Field, it was announced Wednesday.

I still buy my cheese at the Wisconsin Dairy State Cheese Co. in Rudolph, WI.

On a completely unrelated note, I saw the Good and Evil Watertowers on the way up to Lake Du Bay last time I went up to Wisconsin. Luckily, my mom and dad's place up there gets its water from a well, so we're free of the influence of the Evil Water Tower.

When I finally do realize my dream of owning a bar, I think that "Gimpson's" would be a cool name for it.

When I first read football.espn.go.com/nfl's training camp report on the Packers, I got a bit excited. It sounds like we could have a decent team this year.

Then I read some of the others, and they all seemed to be glowing reviews. Are they only reporting the best of each camp and ignoring failures? Well now that I've read the training camp report on the Lions, I know that is not the case. They're going to suck again this year.

All is right in the world.

The opponents of Sunday Liquor sales in Kansas are failing miserably.

As it should be.

My personal hero Gilbert Brown has signed a contract with the Packers and it looks like he'll finish out his career in Green Bay.

I got the birthday calls from the folks just after I got to the park for last night's game. The folks live in Chicago, and pop had some smack to talk about the currently hot White Sox. It turns out that the smack of which he spoke was justified. We lost the game 6-9.

I'm no manager, but you'd think that once your starting pitcher gives up one homer, you'd think about pulling him. You'd probably think a bit harder about it after he gives up a second. Personally, I probably would have pulled him after the third. But he didn't get yanked until after he had given up four blasts, two of which came with two runners on base.

We got to answer back in the 8th when Angel Berroa smacked one out, but at that point it was too little, too late.

The Royals did get 12 hits, so we got a free dozen donuts from Krispy Kreme, of which I've eaten too many this morning. No lunch for me.

Well, we're now only three games ahead of Chicago, and two more games left in this series. I guess I'll be watching this evening after racquetball.

Go to friendster and register to be my friend, now. I demand this of you.

And yes Gurney, today is my birthday. Let's see... 2003 - 1975 = 28. I guess I'm 28 today. Yay for me.

Well, two weeks ago I played the last week of my first darts league. I took third out of six in the B division. I didn't think that was too bad for my first try. Last monday, we had the standard post-league tournament. I didn't do too great there, I think I took fourth out of five two-person teams.

Last night was a day off. We start the next league next Monday. Having nothing better to do last night, I went out to the bar. We normally hold an impromptu tournament if there isn't a league or we're missing too many league members. Last night was slow, people wanted their week off before the league next week. We only had seven people, enough to have a four team tournament if somebody played by themselves.

I got picked #3. #1 and #2 didn't want to play by themselves, and I didn't think anybody else would want to play by themselves either. I volunteered, assuming that I'd make my $5 donation to the pot and head home early. We have some pretty good players there on Mondays.

Well, I got through my first game, one that even I thought was winnable. The second team I played went to a tiebreaker, but I managed to pull it out. I had to sit out a round to wait for the winner of the losers bracket, and they finally came up to play me. (Of course, in the meantime I've been sitting at the bar drinking, hardly improving my game.)

I really thought I was doomed in that final match, and the first games made it seem that way. I got beat in 501 when I still had over 250 points on the board, and beat in cricket leaving 19s 18s 17s and 16s open and only having thrown one bull. Since they came up through the losers bracket, we had to play another match. I managed to take them in the 501 after throwing well early and throwing 97 points to close. Lost the cricket badly again, so we had to play a game of 301 double in/double out for the tournament.

To make a long story short (too late), I did manage to pull it out. I actually managed to hit a double with my frst dart and follow it up with a bullseye, so I was off to a good start. I threw over 100 my next round, and the round after managed to leave myself 16, only needing the double 8 to win. It took me three rounds to find it, but I finally was able to pull it out while the other team tried to catch up.

Last thursday, I threw my first hat trick, and yesterday I won my first tournament. Rock on! Maybe I finally have found something I'm good at. Good-bye IT, hello professional darts circuit.

What would Monday be without the latest story about stupid EU regulations.

This week, trapeze artists are forced to wear hard hats.

Jugglers, tightrope walkers and other acrobats with the Moscow State Circus, which is currently touring Britain, have also been instructed to don safety head wear because of European regulations covering workers employed at heights greater than the average stepladder.

I never liked the circus anyway...

OK, I said I was going to wait until the Yankees come to town next week, but we're only four games ahead of the White Sox and they're coming to town tomorrow night. Anybody want to head out to the ball game?

Details:

Chicago White Sox (Mark Buehrle) @ Kansas City Royals (Darrell May)
7:05 Central

Tickets range from $5 - $22, and I don't really care. Even the most expensive seats aren't too bad, but I wouldn't mind getting the cheap seats either.

Email me if you'd like to head out.

I need to come up with a name for my Fantasy Football team. Any suggestions?

I keep forgetting to invite people, so I'll throw an invite up here. I suppose I'll make some phone calls later.

Party at Fort Awesome Saturday, August 2. Come one, come all. Mail me for details, or just show up whenever you want, around 8:00 or so if you want to eat some burgers.

And bring your own beer, you cheap bastards. Unless you want to drink my Champagne of Beers.

The Royals extended their lead over the Twins by beating Minnesota 8-3 last night. I missed most of the game, but caught the final innings, including watching Mike MacDougal fail to get three outs when put in in the ninth. Mike, you need to chill... Shoot me an email sometime when you're in town again and I'll buy you a beer.

The Royals play a noon game against the Twins today, then head to Detroit for a three game lead extender against the pathetic Tigers. They get a day off on Monday (Perfect day for me to buy you that beer, Mike...), then they get the White Sox at home for three days. Good thing, too... Minnesota has actually dropped to third and it's the Sox five games behind us in second place right now. Anyone want to go to a baseball game on Tuesday?

In football, football.espn.go.com/nfl's (Seriously, can you do something about that URL, guys?) camp tour crew is up at Green Bay's camp today, so I guess we'll get their camp report sometime today. Packers.com has been posting some news from camp, and Favre is expecting a good season this year.

Of course, you wouldn't expect him to say anything else, but I'm happy with some of the changes I've seen so far. Terry Glenn is gone, off to Dallas where he probably belongs. We still have Donald Driver and Javon Walker, Ahman Green and Bubba Franks. Offensive Tackles Chad Clifton and Mark Tauscher are practicing again. Tauscher sat out almost all last season after lousing up his MCL and ACL, and Clifton of course was hospitalized by Sapp on that interception return late last season. We'll see if they're ready for this season, and it'll be interesting to read football.espn.go.com/nfl's slightly more unbiased take on this year's team later today.

It also sounds like Favre wishes people would just shut the hell up about retirement. It sounds like he isn't even ruling out another season after this year. I'm sure we'll keep him around as long as he wants to play.

In racquetball news, I actually won a couple games last night. I was beat 15-12 in the first game, schooled 15-3 in the second, then fought back in the third game to win 15-13. We started a fourth, and I was up 13-3 and still serving when the gorgeous mother/daughter combo who had the court after us knocked and kicked us out. I guess that's not technically a win, but pretty damn close. So I won't even have to serve first on Sunday.

Anybody that's been lucky enough to see Big Smith or Steve Kimock in Fayetteville, AR has a special place in their heart for Chester's Place.

Well, this weekend Bue and Margie are retiring and it looks like Chester's will close its doors for the last time. I'll be heading down for the yard sale on Sunday. I'm really hoping to get the blanket that hung to the right of the waitress station and maybe a barstool. Chester's will be missed.

Update: Well this is a bit confusing... It looks like the club will be under new management, but Steve's website has been updated recently, and it claims that the weekend of Sept. 11-13 Steve Kimock and Friends (Steve, Rodney, bassist Reid Mathis and pianist Pete Sears) will be playing a "Farewell to Chester's" sort of show.

Looks like this will be the LAST time Kimock will return to Chesters as we all know (and love) it. Chesters has changed management and will close for renovations after the new year. For those of you who have never been to Chesters for Kimock, now is your chance! And for those of you who have been there with your continued support, don't miss this one!

This seems to run a bit counter to the text on Chester's own website. I don't see how they're going to stay open after having sold all their tables and barstools. Stay tuned, music fans... I'll get the details.

And if Steve is playing a show Sep. 11-13, I'm sure as hell going to be there...

Michele at A Small Victory shares her story of why she is a Green Bay Packers fan. Her story is much better than mine...

Personally, I'm convinced it's genetic. I've never lived in Wisconsin myself, but my parents are from Wisconsin Rapids and Junction City, and I grew up a fan. I'm just happy that in the time I've been paying attention, we've never had a Randy Moss type Jackass on the team. Honestly, I don't think we ever will. I don't think that the staff or the fans would put up with it.

Anybody know a center where I can get myself cryogenically frozen for the next 12 days? I'm not sure I'm going to make it to Hall of Fame Weekend. I bet I'm going to end up camped out at Mulvaneys by this Saturday.

In today's bleat James throws off this line:

Then it was off to the Apple Quicktime Trailer site - hey ho, another Desperado movie. This one looks good.

Another Desperado movie? And you don't give me the name? You bastard...

Oh, there it is... Once Upon A Time in Mexico... Rodriguez directs, and it has Johnny Depp and Mickey Rourke. The trailer he talks about can be found here.

“It’s kind of a ’Star Trek’ convention, but without all the geeks,” suggested Jon Cook, a 28-year-old Louisville salesman.

Sorry Mr. Cook, but you're only geeks of a different flavor. Nevertheless, I do wish I could have attended the second Lebowskifest...

Hopefully they'll have another next year.

Five? Is that right? I've only managed to attend one so far...

This is just a reminder to myself to attend the St. Louis based Midwest Blog Bash V on August 9.

I'm baking a pie, but I'm still waiting on somebody to choose a location. Also, I'm still waiting to hear if any of these folks are going to head out.

Come on out Stephen... The drive isn't that far from Colorado...

We are quickly approaching the start of football season. How do I know? I've found the first story of the year calling Randy Moss a slacker. (Well, not really... I suppose it's actually his defense against charges of being a slacker...)

Yet Moss, who said twice previously that he only plays hard when he wants to, still battles the perception that he is a loafer.

"I might have lifted more than I have since I've been in the league. I'm ready to go," Moss said.

Well, we'll see you at Lambeau on Sept. 7th, Randy-boy...

Ugly baseball out of the Royals last night. With a 5-0 lead going into the 7th, Royals pitching tried its very best to give the game away. The Mariners scored two in the 7th, one in the 8th, and two in the 9th to tie the game up. In almost all three of those innings the pitchers were only able to get their third outs after loading up the bases. But a two run Beltran homer put the Mariners down in the bottom of the 10th.

The Royals took this four game series with the Mariners 3-1, only losing after a late grand slam on Friday. Minnesota's been keeping pace, though. They're still only 6 1/2 games back, with the White Sox only a half game back from there.

We get the A's at home tonight and tomorrow, then division play for about a week. I'm going to have to make sure I watch Wednesday and Thursday's games at Minnesota.

Well, not really... But when I do head out that way someday, I'll definitely have to check out what sounds like the coolest BBQ joint ever.

Memepool points to a site including translations of The Lord's Prayer into over 1200 languages.

Memepool specifially mentions Ebonics and hieroglyphics, but how could they have missed Klingon?

Of course, there will always be different translations...

I'm all for open borders, particularly in cases involving political persecution. I say, grant them asylum...

Separated at birth? You decide...

The training begins
for giants of the two bays...
First kickoff draws near.

I was just thinking thinking about the Squirrel Nut Zippers and wondering if they're still recording or touring. Their tour section of their website hasn't been updated since last year, so I'm wondering if they're now defunct.

Which got me to thinking... We're all getting old now, right? What are some of your favorite now-defunct bands? I'm still kicking myself over going to see The Smashing Pumpkins when I had a chance to see Pink Floyd on their last tour, and now they're done. Other than that though, I can't think of a whole lot of bands I used to enjoy that are now defunct. Particularly ones that I remember enough to miss.
I suppose I'd have to put on the list Nirvana and Alice in Chains (though I think the only album of theirs I really liked was Jar of Flies). Who are some of yours?

If dreams of impotence are good for your sex life, does that mean that my dream last night about my Camry's transmission going out means that I'm not going to have to spend money on car repairs for a while? Rock on!

I heard about this on the radio yesterday. The Robot Balloon has escaped.

Fortunately, there's far, far less to the story than meets the eye. The "flyborg" was being moved without batteries in its horrible machine brain when a gust of wind ripped it from a handlers handling hands. So this story is pretty much the story of a 13 foot long helium balloon on the loose.

Interview today with Sir Mix-A-Lot in The Onion A.V. Club. Choice bits:

O: You were one of the first popular entertainers to talk about asses in a sexual way, whereas that happens all the time now. Do you feel validated by the current focus on asses?

SM: Sometimes I feel validated, and sometimes I think, "Oh, shit, did I open Pandora's box?" I don't really try to take credit for it. I just think it's about time. I had somebody tell me today that J. Lo owes me royalties. I thought that was great, because I always thought that curvy women are beautiful. It's weird how America would say that these asses are terrible. Marilyn Monroe had one! She was considered America's darling, and she had one. It's kind of weird.

New album is on the way. Now I need a copy of Swass more than ever...

I want to be upset that Rush Limbaugh is joining NFL Countdown, but I guess I just can't muster the effort. From what I remember when I used to listen to Rush's show, he is a real football fan. During the season, he probably talked about football almost as much as he talked about politics.

I guess the thing I'm most upset about is that hearing about Rush made me get that damn "Tom Sawyer" song stuck in my head.

Now pardon me while I go home and shoot myself.

Didn't Google have a Bastille Day graphic up on their site last year? Their French site has one, but it's not on the main page.

Looking at The Wayback Machine I can't find last year's Bastille Day. But they do have archives of some Classic Google sites.

If you're interested, Democratic Presidential Candidate Howard Dean will be guest-blogging here this week.

This weekend I saw Dave Matthews for the second time in just over two weeks. As Raj pointed out, we saw him for the first time the Friday before last while we were in Chicago. As we were waiting to get into a pizza joint in Chicago, Raj and Gurney's girlfriend developed heartburn from smoking Cuban cigars earlier in the evening. Rookies... Well, I suppose they'd better get their practice in now or they won't be able to make deals in smoke filled rooms once they become lawyers.

Anyway, since the wait for the restaurant was going to be a bit, the three of us took a walk to a drugstore down the street to get antacids. On the way back we walked past a hotel and a crew of people. Raj was the only one that noticed that Dave was in the crowd, but when he pointed it out to us, sure enough it was him. I guess he claims that that's his first celebrity sighting since he's lived in Chicago.

Well, Saturday night I went to see him with the band at Sandstone here in Bonner Springs, KS. I guess Sandstone is about the size of the Woodlands Theater down in Houston, maybe a bit smaller. The paved vendor area is up on the hill behind the lawn, and by the time we got in there the lawn was fully populated. We did get a spot just at the edge of the pavement where we stood for the duration of the show. The show was excellent, even if I didn't get to hear Two Step. Setlist.com claims that they got their Two Step in Little Rock last night.

Well, I enjoyed it anyway. This Thursday is Phish, and I'm honestly not looking forward to it too terribly much. I'm not a huge fan of any of the recordings I've downloaded, but I figure I'll give them a shot in person since the're in town and I actually have folks to go with for once. We'll see.

I'm too lazy to do it, but can somebody start a campaign to get Scarborough Country taken off MSNBC? I don't know if you've ever caught the show, but he's even more annoying and smug than O'Reilly, if you can believe that. He must be stopped.

Hey CNN, give me some late night Lou Dobbs up against Scarborough. Or CNBC, move Kudlow & Cramer an hour back on the late-night repeat.

Hell, I just need to get myself a Tivo so I'm no longer subject to the whims of the cable news programming directors. Eden told me that there's a Tivo out now that can get its programming information over ethernet and doesn't require a phone line. Is this true? I can't seem to find anything about it on Tivo's website, and I have found people complaining recently that even the network-equipped Tivo boxes use a regular modem to get their programming updates.

Everest Communications offers digital cable boxes with built in PVRs, but as of a couple of months ago they wouldn't give them out unless you signed up for one of their package deals, which include land line phone service, which I don't need or even want. So same story, you need a phone line to get the PVR.

Wow, the Royals are in better shape than I thought... We're currently up 4 1/2 games over the Minnesota Twins, and 5 1/5 over the Chicago White Sox. I seem to remember having looked at the schedule early in the season and noticing that we had a much tougher second half of the season than the first. Looking again, I don't know what I was thinking.

Tonight is the third game against the Anaheim Angels. We then get the measly Texas Rangers for three games going into the All Star break.

After the break, we have:

4 games vs. Seattle (Tough, but they are at home)
2 games vs. Oakland (Again tough, but home games)
6 games vs. Tampa Bay (Should be winnable)
6 games vs. The Yankees (Ouch)
3 games vs. Texas (At home, winnable)
6 games vs. Anaheim (Winnable)

And in the division:
9 games vs. Minnesota (We seem to be splitting these, but we're on right now...)
13 games vs. Chi. White Sox (We will bury you!)
6 games vs. Cleveland (Ha!)
9 games vs. Detroit (I will be unhappy with anything less than 8 wins)

We're doing very well against division opponents (29-9). I think we're going to the playoffs this year...

Today is Don Herbert's birthday. Happy Birthday Mr. Wizard!

When I was in junior high, a rumor went around that our geography teacher, Mrs. West, was Mr. Wizard's ex-wife. I'm not sure if it was true or not.

But I do know for a fact that Tiffany went to Sequoia Junior High one year before I started there.

Wow! At 3:00 yesterday, Yahoo! Sports hadn't made Fantasy Football signups available. At 3:15, I made a post asking them to get it in gear. At 9:40 this morning, it's time to sign up.

All right Yahoo!... Pre-season football is less than a month away, and we're jonesin' over here. Get your shit in gear and let us register for Fantasy Football....

Speaking of which, who's in this year?

The last time I bought an extra concert ticket in the hopes that I would have a friend to go with was earlier this spring when I bought two tickets for the Dave Matthews Band. This is a mistake I haven't made since, but the show is this Saturday. (Damn, guess I won't be using the smoker this weekend...) As it stands right now, I have a very wobbly maybe for my extra lawn seat. If anybody is intersted, please email me.

Another friend also has some tickets, but doesn't think he'll be able to make it up for the show. So if you're passing on the one ticket because you don't want to head out without all the friends that you have (you bastard!), there may be up to another four tickets available. Again, email me if you're interested. Details:

Dave Matthews Band
Sandstone Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
Sat. 7/12/2003
7:00 PM
Sold Out

I've spoken on here before about my generally low opinion of Kansas City barbecue. Two places I hadn't been to but are consistently recommended to me are Oklahoma Joe's and Arthur Bryants. One of the guys over at Burnt Ends strongly recommended Oklahoma Joe's.

Well, I still haven't been to Bryant's, but when picking up my car from the shop the other day I noticed that Oklahoma Joe's was right across the street. I took the opportunity to sample their Burnt Ends lunch special. Verdict: Terrific. Best I've had in town. Gates now moves into second place, and Bates City BBQ moves into third, though I still patronize that establisment on a regular basis due to its proximity to Fort Awesome. I may just be changing that soon, though. I think Oklahoma Joe's is worth the drive. As a matter of fact, I think I may even rank it above my previous favorite, Goode Company in Houston. I'll certainly have to head back to see if it is deserving of such a rank.

However, at the Kansas City Gastronomic Appreciation Society's website I see that I still have a lot of exploring to do...

I had an excellent weekend, though things were a bit rushed. I flew into Chicago Thursday afternoon. My parents and sister were spending the weekend up at the house in Wisconsin, but two friends from Houston were up in town for the weekend visiting two other friends who now live in Chicago. My parents have lived in the Chicago area for at least five years now, and in that time I've only really gone out in the city proper once. I decided to take this opportunity to get Raj to give me a downtown livers perspective on the city.

We ate at a really nice breakfast place called Orange. I had an excellent omlette, good orange flavored coffee, and a nice freshly squeezed orange/tomato/carrot/ginger juice. Yum. Very good.

We took a train back to their place, played some cards for a while, then headed out for pizza, followed by beers and trivia at Timothy O'Tooles. We then made it back to Raj's place where I rudely imposed myself, sleeping on the couch and I'm sure keeping the entire apartment up all night with my snoring. Sorry 'bout that...

But I was up early in the morning to head up to Wisconsin and visit the folks. I made it up there by noon, drank several beers, ate too many chips, took their new boat for a quick spin, and ended up sleeping through most of the party. I did get to see all the relatives, though not for as long as normal when I'm up that way.

I completed the near-full Young Pups reunion on Sunday when I stopped in Madison on the way back to visit Eden, who I hadn't seen in I suppose close to seven years. She seems to be doing very well up there and Madison seems like as fun a town as I've always heard it was. We ate at a Nepali restaurant, did a bit of thrift store shopping, and wandered around in the Capitol and Monona Terrace, a Frank Lloyd Wright inspired/designed community center. That's also where Michael Feldman broadcasts Whad'ya Know from. I had always assumed that Monona Terrace was a generic University of Wisconsin auditorium, but it's actually a rather nice convention center overlooking the lake. I'm definitely going to have to make sure I get down there for a show now. Maybe I'll try to catch it when I'm up there for the Green Bay/Kansas City game on October 12.

All in all an excellent weekend. I hope yours went as well as mine.

I'm driving home from work yesterday, step on the gas and I get nothing. I manage to get myself over to the shoulder, but the car won't restart. I have it towed to my repair shop. (I'm sure I'm going to get to be good, good friends with them...) There was oil in the car, so I was able to relax past my immediate thought that the engine had seized. Nevertheless, I got the idea that this was going to be expensive.

Well, I just got a call from the repair place. I need:

Timing belt replaced
Water pump replaced
Reseal various seals and such
Replace muffler bearings
Rebalance Johnson Rod
Flush headlight fluid
Change hamster litter

Well, some of those are made up... The not-made-up part is the $650-$750 pricetag. Ouch. At least I'll have a car again tomorrow, though...

Thanks to Matt for bitching about something that I shold probably be bitching about myself a bit more... Over the last couple of years, I've found myself identifying a bit more Republican than I had in the past. I guess I had forgotten what a bunch of bigoted fuckwads they still are.

The Senate majority leader said Sunday he supported a proposed constitutional amendment to ban homosexual marriage in the United States.

Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said the Supreme Court's decision last week on gay sex threatens to make the American home a place where criminality is condoned.

Thanks there, Fristy-boy. I'm sorry to admit that for a bit I was buying all that "the culture war is over and we won" talk. Now that the legal basis for much of anti-gay discrimination has been struck down in the courts, if you're thinking that the fight for adoption rights, marriage/civil unions and the like is going to be a slam dunk, you have another thing coming.

I find these comments from the Senate Majority Leader completely unacceptable. Unfortunately, as the Santorum "controversy" has already proved, anti-gay bigotry is perfectly acceptable in the Republican party.

Ick... Am I actually going to have to campaign for a Democrat next year? Well, we'll see if Sen. Brownback has anything to say about Frist's comments first...

Stupid Republicans...

New laws take effect in Kansas today:

Motorists convicted of drunken driving could have their vehicles impounded for up to a year and would have to pay a storage charge to retrieve it.

That could happen even if the convicted driver was behind the wheel of a car owned by a friend or relative.

Drive safe this weekend... I hear the storage charge for a year of impound is $9000.

This is probably a really stupid question, but what is the point of parking lights? In what situation should you have your parking lights on but your headlights off? Is that setting on the switch on there just so you can get your dash backlight on without having to turn the headlights on? What is the point of parking lights, anyway?

Sweet! I got a Lileks reference I wouldn't have gotten a couple of months ago... On the subject of his union dues being used to support his silly union paper:

Money is taken directly from my paycheck for this purpose. It’s a dime or two, so I’m not going to march down to the Union office and pull a Patrick McGoohan, pounding on the table and making the tea cups dance. Life’s too short to get pronged over every little thing like this.

Somewhere in my room I have Disk 4 of The Prisoner rented from Netflix. I really need to clean my room and find that so I can get it back and finish up the series.