A Great Excuse to Drink More

One little hitch that came along with my move to the new place is the washer/dryer situation. My old place included a washer and dryer, where the new one only came pre-equipped with w/d hookups.

What to do?

Well I could drop $700 or more (actually lots more if I wanted to) to become the proud owner of the latest fabric-cleansing machinery, but the way I see it, I'll probably be in the market to buy a place after another year or so, and that would just make more crap to move. And if I were to buy my own condo or something, I'd probably want to pick a setup that actually worked there as opposed to lugging over old crap from my little apartment now.

Also, the space where the washer/dryer would go in here makes a great little storage area, where currently my bicycle, surfboard, snowboard, and my heavy winter clothes all reside.

So about the small problem of washing my dirty apparel?

Fortunately, this place is right around the corner from me. It's called Soapbox, and it's basically a bar/concert hall/club/laundromat. Here's the current schedule of bands coming through. So basically you toss in a load of whites, grab a beer, and then sit back and listen to some music.

I was in there on Sunday, and it's a very cool place. Kind of a Amsterdam coffee shop/indie rock club/Swiss youth hostel vibe - all of which are fine by me. There were no bands playing at the time, but most of the music coming from the jukebox was straight out of my own CD collection. Beers were reasonably priced and there was an impressive selection, and all of the bartenders/bouncers were very cool.

The patrons were sort of a mixed bunch...but come on, what kind of hooligan do you really expect to see out drinking at 1:00 on a Sunday afternoon?

Err, well, besides myself.....

Sad Day to be a Tar Heel

And, no, I'm not talking about the late-game collapse against Georgetown yesterday. Unfortunately what I'm talking about happened prior to that ill-fated game. Jason Ray, the UNC student who played Ramses for the men's basketball games, was hit by a car Friday, and passed away this morning. Here's the SI link to the story. His family is definitely in the thoughts and prayers of the Carolina community.

NCAA Tourney Post...A Week Late

Well, the NCAA Tournament started during my moving-induced internet outage, so I didn't have a chance to post thought/predictions before the first two rounds wrapped up. In case you were curious, my original Final Four picks were Florida-UCLA and UNC-Texas A&M, with UCLA beating A&M for the title.

Kind of random, I guess, but I think the Pac 10 was very solid this year and kind of underrated. It did pain me to not have UNC go all the way, but just as I've though since this season started, I don't think we quite have the total package with this year's team. There have been flashes of brilliance throughout the year, but there have also been plenty of lows as well.

Based on last weekend's games, however, I think I have to change my pick to win it all to Ohio State. Because they have the best squad in the tourney? Absolutely not. Because they should have lost to Xavier, and every eventual champ has that one game they should've lost but somehow end up pulling a W out of their ass anyway? Bingo

It just always happens that way*.

My god, just foul the guy when he crosses half court! You're winning by 3! Two free throws are meaningless! The only thing that can hurt you is a......D'OH!

Enjoy the Sweet 16!


*Maybe it doesn't, but it seems that way to me.

Yes, I'm Still Here...

Geez, moving sucks. Granted, I now live in the heart of downtown within walking distance of everything interesting this town has to offer, AND my new place is actually cheaper since it's a bit smaller than the old one, BUT the crap you have to deal with just to relocate my possessions about 3.5 miles is insane. The boxes. The putting-things-into-boxes. The truck. The putting-the-boxes-into-the-truck. The realization that you have so much junk that you have no need for, but yet you box it up and move it anyway. The joy of attempting to clean the old place sufficient enough to get even a shred of your security deposit back. The one week delay in getting my cable and internet account transfered over. The absolute most shit-tastic week at work in months, that just so happened to coincide with said move.

So that's what I've been up to. I'm about 80 - 90% settled in now, so hopefully I can put up some interesting posts shortly (or at least stuff on par with the pointless thoughts and observations I usually have up here). I'll try to get so pics up shortly too.

Blood Orgy!

OK, so I kinda dropped the ball by taking this long to put up on a post on the UNC - Duke game from Sunday. But in short, we won AND many of the more casual fans out there got a first-hand look at the kind of sneaky bullshit Coach K and his "squeaky-clean" Devils have been pulling for years. Anyway, ESPN's Page 2 has a brilliant article up now devoted to the all-time most hated Dukies. Check it out here.

ACC Tourney this weekend!!!

Ain't No Party Like a Scranton Party...