Christmas Day isn't quite what it used to be. This year, I slept in until 11am (still early for me but far from the 6am when I was a kid) and my sister wasn't even there to spend the night. She was sick, remember, so my dad when and picked her up about when I was starting to awaken. Once she got here we had a nice, relaxed Christmas morning opening presents. Nothing too exciting, so I'll get right to the pictures:

Someone was happy to get a digital camera.


The kid's gift to the parents. Included wine from Italy, fancy chocolates, fancy tea, and more.


Just like the good ol' days.

Soon after that both of my grandmas came to eat dinner. My aunt Lena was supposed to be there too, but got sick. So that was kind of disappointing. More awkward 1-on-1 time with the MoeMoe and the gang.

Anyways, we had Capino (sp?... sounds like CHUP PEEN OH). If you don't know what that is, just think of it as a cooked seafood graveyard in tomato sauce. It's a soup with a bunch of seafood floating around in it. Now, I like seafood, I don't go wild for it... I dunno, I'm just SICK of this meal on Christmas. I basically ate a lot of bread. But I think my mom for trying.

Anyways, it was pretty uneventful. As for the presents I got... I got a toolset from my dad, a Beavers hoodie sweatshirt... uh... god what else? I don't even know. Some money. I don't really care about Christmas anymore, everything I want it too expensive. Nice to be with the families and whatnot though.

The grandmas opening their presents.

So another Christmas Eve is down in the books. I could just copy the post from last year and call it good, but I'll actually write about what happened.

What we did was very similar to last year. The main differences are:

1) We did not go out for cocktails before dinner, breaking a 2 year tradition (it better start up again next year!)
2) We did not get hit-and-run rear ended by a drunk driver.

So all in all the changes were a wash. To review what happened last year, you can click here.

Okay, so we pick up my sister and head out to eat dinner. We decided to go to Il Piato again since we liked it so much last time. Our reservation was at 6:00pm, right when they opened, so it wasn't very busy but it was pretty damn cold. I remember it being packed last year for Christmas Eve, but this year it never got above three quarters full while we were there (over two hours).

Here are some pictures (we sat about 5 feet (one booth) away from where we sat last year):

Looking over the menu.



My sister, looking happy. She actually was pretty sick.



Parents smile despite the bill.



Me and my sister.

Next we went to church. Adrienne didn't go because she was sick, which she was, but also because she hates it more than anything in the world. We arrived pretty late this time, right before the service started, so we were kinda stuck out in the boondocks.

Our view of the church.



Picture from last year, showing where we sat this year.

The church wasn't as gloomy as the first picture shows, it was just dark and so I brightened it up artificially. The service wasn't too long, just over an hour and I kind of enjoyed it. I just like the choir, the songs, the candlelight atmosphere. Once it was over we drove home... without my sister. She wanted to stay at her own place since she was sick so my dad will pick her up in the morning.

Stay tuned for Christmas Day!

We have an update to the "Robert" saga. Same guy calls me today, from a differnt number and asks for Robert. Real hesitant like. I go, "There is no Robert here, this is Thomas" and then he goes "I'm sorry" and hangs up really quick.

He sounded scared. I know I am pretty scary in the morning, especially at 7am. Oh the drama.

Ok so I was wikijumping tonight (moving from one article to another on Wikipedia, the start and end points of your chain can be completely different). Anyway so I started at "The Office" and ended at "Dakota Fanning". Nothing special. I started to read her page though and had to laugh out loud:

"Fanning was born in Conyers, Georgia as a three-eyed pie monster, to Steven Fanning (a former rapist who now works as a hobo in Los Angeles)"

I know people vandilze certain pages in Wikipedia, but this was the first time I ever read something ridiculous. It looks likes its been like this for a few days too. Just found it funny.

To the douche who called me at 7:23am (*cough* (503)530-2658 ) there is no Robert here. Never was. After you ask five times, Robert is still not going to suddenly appear. Ugh.

Reminded me of Family Guy when they play Pictionary and the guy keeps guessing a jackel and Stewie goes apeshit on him.

As you all probably know, I went to the Civil War last Friday. It was the 110th rendition between the Ducks and the Beavers and a lot was on the line (other than bragging rights... the most important), much like 2004. Winner goes to the Sun Bowl, loser goes to some lower tier bowl. It took a while but Reser sold out for the first time since 2004, so over 44,000 people soaked in the action (probably 4,000 of them Ducks).

I recommend going here to see pictures of the game and a couple of videos I took as well. Should give you a pretty good idea of what it was like. So yeah, remember that I woke up at 3 am for those tickets near the 40 yard line, but needless to say it was worth it.

For the game... first of all it was raining, steadily. It never let up. It was cold as hell. Last Civil War in 2004 it was dry and cold so it wasn't as bad (but I still remember being frozen) but this time around the cold soaked into your very soul (in the form of water!).

It didn't matter though. The Beavers were playing the Ducks, and that's all people cared about. Oregon looks like shit early, and the Beavers go into halftime up 20-7. Their kicker missed two 34 yard-ish field goals, including one that clanked off the upright. So extra demoralizing! But the Beaver defense looked solid enough and the offense was moving the ball as necessary.

Third quarter they exchanged touchdowns. On Oregon's first drive they took it all the way for the score. 20-14. Shit? No. Beavers respond with a drive that yields a touchdown to make it 27-14. After that neither team scored for a number of possessions.

Fourth quarter rolls around and nothing happens until we're under seven minutes. The Ducks go on a scoring drive to make it 20-27. The extra point attempt was blocked however, something that thrilled me because now they wouldn't be in the lead with another touchdown (yet they found a way). The Beavers can't get a first down on their next possession and have to punt. Reser is now very, very nervous. Ducks move the ball down the field quickly and score. 27-26 Beavs. Do they try the extra point?

In one of the main storylines, Ducks coach Mike Bellotti loses faith in kicker Paul Martinez so he decides to go for two points. Takes everyone by surprise. Brady Leaf runs the ball in and the Ducks lead 28-27 with about three minutes to go. Shit.

But out come the Beavers and quarterback Matt Moore, one ripped on, now celebrated. He leads them on a quick drive that will go down in Beavers lore. A couple of strikes to Sammy Stroughter and the Beavers are in field goal range. They run the clock down to 1:20ish before they have to take the field goal.

At this time I'm so nervous I'm just standing there quiet and not saying a word. Once Alexis Serna puts the ball through the uprights though, I, along with everyone else, goes nuts. Beavers lead 30-28 with just over a minute to go!

Kickoff. Ducks returner fumbles it! Everyone is thinking this is a break... instead it disrupts the rhythm of the coverage and the Ducks returner goes 40 something yards with the return. A couple of down field strikes and the Ducks have a field goal to win it.

Shit, shit, shit, shit. I was so scared at this point. Instead of sending out the kicker that missed two FGs and had a PAT blocked however, the Ducks send out the backup kicker. When he lines up to hit it, the whole stadium is just roaring. Probably the loudest its ever been. Little backup kicker, trying a 44 yard field goal to win the CIVIL WAR.

SHANK! He slams it so low it bounces off a Beaver player's helmet! Game over! Beavs win! Students rush the field (that's me!). Total bedlam. We are in the middle of the field in a mob, jumping around. Steam is rising from our wet but now warm (due to the huddle) bodies. We lifted a few players into the air and carried them off, including Matt Moore. Good times.

Here is a video showing those final plays for your enjoyment!

So I hung around the field a little longer, just soaking in the victory. Any victory against the Ducks is special. You know how much this shit means to me, for the next year I'll be happy as a clam no matter what.

Now some more personal pictures:

Thomas has a Civil War ticket (at the 40 no less!)


Being cold and looking like the Emperor in Star Wars.



Boo ya! Scoreboard!

So yeah, that's it. Awesome, awesome, awesome game and it was certainly sweet to beat the Ducks AGAIN.

Tomorrow is THE CIVIL WAR. Ahhhhhhhhhhh! Yesssssssssssss! This only comes once every 730 days (at home against Oregon)! It is the most exciting time in my life... tomorrow will either be the worst day ever or the best day ever. The best day of my life so far was the 2004 Civil War game. But honestly, racking through my brain I cannot imagine a day I was happier. Maybe when I have a child born.... mayyyyybe.

Anyways the whole week I've been freaking out. Ever since Sunday my stomach has felt a little weird and I'm anxious. It's just this sorta excited/stressed feeling over my body thats pretty annoying. But yeah, I'll get these random bursts of happiness, where I crack a huge smile and shudder in pleasure. Oh man, I cannot wait. It's going to be AWESOME.

Before I left for home Tuesday I played a Civil War game in NCAA Football 2006. It was a really great game, I turned the difficulty was up and it was a battle. So I was up 34-31 with like two minutes to go, it was 3rd and 3 on my own 30 yard line. Basically if I get the first down I should win (they only had 1 timeout left). If I don't get it, they were moving the ball pretty good on me and when the computer needs to score it often does with ease.

So I call this running play up the gut and pray that it will get enough yards. I spring it for a 70 yard touchdown. Ok, wow a video game right? I don't know, but that game was so close and fun to play, and then to bust it open and win it on that, it was exciting. Ever since that I've just been ready.

I sound like a dork, I know. But I didn't wake up at 4am and wait for three hours in the rain and wind and cold for nothing. I'm on the 40 yard line and the Beavers are playing the Ducks. What more could I ask for?

Sigh. A little over 12 hours till kickoff!

R.I.P. Quinn <3


Only picture I can find with both of us, Quinn is middle right (next to pink shirt guy after me).

http://www.katu.com/news/4715466.html

We weren't the closest of friends, but some of my best friends were pretty close to her. It's really sad to lose someone especially at such a young age. :( Also scary that they veered off the road and into a body of water... same thing my parents did a few weeks back. They were able to espace, but still it brings it very close to home. Life is precious, enjoy every minute of it.

So I drove home Sunday night in a pretty big wind storm. Turns out the winds got up to like 80mph in some places and I was feeling it. Freeway travelers were slowing down, I think I was doing 50mph the entire way (down from the usual 70). Some people were still going crazy, I had freaking semi's passing me, swinging from side to side. It was crazy. Turns out 3 people died on the road that night from wind related stuff.

My other option was to stay home but I'm glad I didn't. I had two midterms that next morning and they would have been brutal if I woke up early to drive home. Anyways, it was pretty intense, my hands glued to the wheel and being extra careful the entire way but me and the 'lil Protege made it home. So phew.

I'm back alive and safe. Yay!

Tomorrow kicks off Dad's Weekend festivities at OSU. My dad is going to come down with Kenny's dad after work so they should get here around 5:30 or 6:00. Then they're going to take us out to dinner (yay!, just not Mexican food I hope... idk, it sounds gross lately) then we're going to try to find something to do (pool, bowling, etc). Then they're going to stay the night at our fabulous apartment and wake up...

... for the USC football game! It's at 12:30pm, so pretty early, but that's so it could be on National television. The Trojans are ranked #3 in the country and haven't post a Pac-10 game since... get this... 2003. They have been dominating our conference but look vulnerable this year. They've had a bunch of close calls against some crappy teams, so maybe the Beavers can pull this one out and shock the world.

Our tickets are in section 212, the nosebleeds, but this will be wayyy better atmosphere than last year's Dad's Weekend game simply because USC is in town and not Stanford. Plus, it's during the day and should be about 70 and sunny. Can't get much better than that. I'll have a report on how it goes.

Then the dads are going home sometime after the game.

I've gone home the last two weekends to go to Portland State football games with my dad. I'm happy to report they won both, against Idaho State, then a shutout against Eastern Washington. Mind you, that was the second time I saw Eastern Washington play this year, the other being on the 31st of August when the Beavers blew them out.

School has settled back into a routine. Guess that's why I'm not really motivated to post much, it doesn't seem like very much is going on.

We have discovered the magic of WinCo foods for our shopping. It's really cheap, so me and Kenny loaded up $107 dollars worth of groceries there. So hopefully that will last us a couple of weeks... lots of frozen stuff to say the least. Hopefully I'll still feel up to making real meals once in a while, they're just such a pain in the ass.

So I thought I should tell you about an experience I had earlier in the term. Gather round kiddies, it's story time.

So I was thinking of doing Economics as a minor for my degree (not so sure anymore). So I signed up for a class I would need to make that happen, it was ECON 329 which is called "Introduction to Mathematical Economics." Interesting huh? Well so anyways, the prerequisites were only the basic level macro and micro courses (plus MTH 241, which I took), so I thought I should be prepared right? Wrong.

I walk in, the class has capacity for 30 people but only 12 have signed up. Hmmm, so I sit down and look around, I don't recognize anyone, everyone seems kind of intense. Turns out they combined the graduate and undergraduates course into one, and most the people in there were graduates.

So the teacher comes in and gives his introduction. Was a nice enough guy. Then he gets started. Oh. Dear. God.

He's using some weird ass form of calculus to make a proof (wtf is that) of some random shit economic model I don't get, everyone is nodding and rolling their eyes like, duh. Turns out most of them were graduate math majors. By now I'm flipping out because there's no way in hell I belong in here.

After doing that and seeing the four of us undergrads were about to shit our pants he goes on to talk about how our midterms will be easier and stuff and he won't expect as much out of us, but still, we'll have to learn everything the grads do and be prepared to "work your ass off." Yeah, no. Bye.

Literally five minutes after that class was over I got on a library computer and dropped that class faster than Zach Randolph runs after a cheeseburger. Ended up I replaced it with an introductory Political Science course to get some credits and its turned out to be really interesting, albeit a lot of work in itself (but at least I'll get an A probably).

So yeah, that's my story. Just wish I would have had a picture of me when he was doing that proof on the board (it took up FOUR CHALKBOARDS)... it was priceless. Basically I looked like a deer in highlights with my mouth gaping open. Good times.

Took me a good part of four months but I finally won the trophy in FIFA 2006. Yes, I know, exciting.

Yesterday Oregon State played California in football and got killed. Was a lot like the game back in 2004 when we lost 7-49, only this time it was 41-13. Now that's what I call progress.

Here are some pictures.

I stayed the entire game, of course, and it was pretty painful. The weather was awesome though, if it were cold and rainy I probably wouldn't have stayed. I forgot to put on sunscreen and got a little burnt but not too bad.

Kinda funny, Oregon State got down 14-0 after about five minutes and the whole stadium groaned. Thousands of people left halfway through the first quarter. On the webpage if you take a look at the video of Cal scoring you can see a bunch of students leave after. It was a few minutes into the second quarter.

We'll see how next weekend against Washington State goes. California could be a very good team, BCS worthy.... so that may take some of the sting away. Or we could just be really terrible (starting to lean that way).

Oh well, games are still fun... just wish the team would be decent at one point during my four years here.

With the first week now over (I don't have school on Fridays) I'll give you an update on my classes:

BA 271 - Technology in Business
Another technology class, seems we will be focusing on creating webpages and working with Microsoft Access. The professor is interesting and I think I'll like the class better than BA131 last year, as that professor took things really seriously.


BA 211 - Financial Accounting
My most dreaded subject... accounting. It will be nice at first, I took two years of accounting in high school so that background will definetly help out. I can't even imagine never taking an accounting course and then stepping foot in there. We'll see how it goes, it doesn't look like there is too much homework, but you never know when they'll stick a simulation on you (noooooo!).

PS 201 - Intro to US Government and Politics
A class I added on Tuesday after going to a Economics class on Monday and finding it way over my head. I'll blog about that later. But this class should be at least interesting. It looks like I will have to read and do a few projects, but the material shouldn't be too challenging to understand. Plus, the professor likes to make his lectures liberally biased so it's all good.

PAC 116 - Basketball I
A Physical Activity Course... basically an automatic "P" and 1 credit. Should be fun and I'll fine tune my skills for Muskrat season.

COMM 111 - Public Speaking
Your basic speech course. I already did this in high school god dammit.

And there you have it. Not the hardest schedule ever, but I see challenges in Accounting and Political Science. BA 271 will require a bunch of work, but it should be easy.

Moved in yesterday. Kenny came to my house around 11:00am with the truck and trailer again to move the rest of the big stuff. This included my bed, desk, computer, dressor, TV stand, kitchen table, and others. Was surprised by the shear amount of stuff that needed to be moved. When you picture it in your head its never as much as what really is there. I remember thinking this when I moved out of the dorm last year. Man that was work for such a tiny room.

Anyways we got rolling and moved all the stuff in. I was really dreading it because I hate moving, but actually it wasn't that bad. My dad came along and Kenny's dad was there so they helped out too. We assembled the table and TV stand and all was good to go.

It was kinda sad moving out at first, I mean, I lived in that same house for 20 years. I guess I still consider it my home, like when I was in the dorms. I'll just miss my parents a lot, we had fun during the summer. Just sitting down being slobs and watching Raymond is fun. Sigh. Hopefully we'll talk on the phone more than once a week this year... heh.

That being said, living on my own is awesome and the apartment is cool as well. Would you like a tour? Good!

Let's start with the bathroom. Your typical fare. Probably should have put the seat down for the picture, oh well.


Our ginormous living room. Still looking for stuff to fill it with. Some friends of ours have an extra chair they are giving us, so that will help.


Adorable kitchen table.


Kitchen, complete with George Foreman Grill and microwave. The oven/stove work well too, much more consistant than the 1986 appliances found in Tualatin.


Other side, weird angle. Snapping pictures at 1:00am will do that for you. The sink and whatnot... oh, and we have a dishwasher!


The bachelor pad. Yeah, not very interesting.

So there you have it. Overall its like 990 square feet so we shouldn't complain. Much, much nicer than the dorms last year. And although its not walkable distance from campus, its comparable to going to work at PWC... in that you can make it there in like 7 or 8 minutes. All my classes fall so that I don't have any large breaks, so I just have to go to/from once.

After moving, it was time for the game against the Idaho Vandals. Details will be in another post.

If there was any doubt on who recovered the ball Saturday in the Oregon/Oklahoma game:

Oops. Still boggles my mind they can undo the pile/scramble for the ball, find no ball there, and then just reward the ball to Oregon. Amazing. #23 had it all the time, the guy was walking away thinking the refs saw him recover it and it would be OU. What was he thinking once the ball was rewarded to Oregon?

If you're not familiar with this story, then where the hell were you Saturday?

Just wanted to post and say hope all is well with you Lena. I'm thinking of you, Ella, Andrea, and her entire family. Keep fighting and I hope to see you soon. :)

Yeah, I think it was about time I did laundry, wouldn't you say?

Okay, so a couple of days ago we drove up to Seattle to go shopping for our apartments at IKEA. Originally it was going to be me, Adam, Courtney and Laurel. Then Phil wanted to come along so it was going to be the five of us. Then Courtney's mom decided to come along so Phil and Adam dropped out, so it was just us three. I wasn't really wanting to buy too much, all I had in mind was a TV stand, but Courtney and Laurel wanted a bunch of stuff for their condo.

Well, let's see the highlights of the trip. We drove up on Saturday and went straight to IKEA in Renton, thanks to the help of Sue (our GPS dealie). So we shopped. A lot. I think all told it was a little over two hours. The store was GIGANTIC, way bigger than I expected, it was like its own little city. They have a lot of stuff, some nice, some kinda ugly. Some seemed really well priced, others were kinda iffy. It was crowded and I felt like I was in Disneyland. So basically you had to browse around a lot. I just hate shit like:

"Would these curtains work?"
"Maybe, I don't know. For what window?"
"I dunno... like the on the left?"
"Which left? Our left or the left if you're in the yard?"
"Ummmm... I think our left. You know that one with the wood panel."
"No."
"Oh come on. Next to the heat thing."
"What?"
"Nevermind. Wait... how wide is our window?"
"I dunno, do you?"
"Nope, why did I ask then? I thought we measured."
"Don't think so."
"So we don't know what size we need?"
"No."
"Oh damn."
"This is cute though."
"Yeah, I like this one too."
"Yeah, that's pretty. It would go well..."

AHHHHHHHHHHHH, KILL ME. Anyways it was bearable and we got out soon enough to watch the Duck game which I really wanted to see (unfortunately they won). So then we went out to dinner, then back to the hotel room. We stayed in Bellevue... so yeah.

The next day we woke up and headed towards Seattle to explore a little. We went to the Public Market thing... browsed around a little, watched the fish place. So that was fun, I hadn't been there in a couple of years so it was fun to see again. The parking/traffic was insane though, but understandable since it was a Sunday.

Next we wandered over to the University of Washington to check things out. Went and looked at Husky Stadium:

It was big, but pretty basic. Looked like all bleacher seats, was surrounded by a track, etc. The seats way up high seem like they'd be tough to sit in... I thought Reser inclined quickly... yeesh. I could see how 70,000 some people packed in there yelling though would be intimidating, very big and steep, like you're in a canyon (with a track around it).

We then walked past where the Mutts play basketball, Bank of America Arena:

Couldn't go inside but looked nice. Sure it puts Gill to shame.

Anyway, we hung around a little, trying to meet up with my friend Max but couldn't, so decided to call it a day and go home. On the way back I got to pump my own gas, and let me tell you, it was quite the exciting experience.

How the hell does this work?

Little Oregon boy figures it out!

And aside from the gas nothing else special happened. The End.

Thursday was my birthday, and wouldn't you know it, it just so happened to be the Beavers football opener as well! The game was against Eastern Washington, so you knew it wasn't going to be the greatest, but still any Beaver football game is totally worth it.

I actually went to work for a few hours in the morning on Thursday to get things all caught up. Since I'm now co-in charge of inventory with another person while Timeea is in Romania I have more of a set schedule. I did take Friday off though because the game started at 7pm and there was no way in hell I was booking it down I-5 at 1am.

Laurel drove, so we pimped out her car. Not quite as extravagant as last year's pimpage, but still tackalicious.

So we arrived in Corvallis around 3:30pm I think. We each brought some stuff to move into our apartments so we did that. After meeting up with some people we headed to the fairgrounds for free parking and a shuttle to the game.

We arrived with about 45 minutes to kill before the game, so it was just perfect. We all got seats around the fifty yardline, so it was a good place to watch the Beavers kick the Eagles ass on my birthday.

Excited for her first Beavers game!

A little over 38,000 orange clad Beavers filed in for the contest.

As for the game, it was a blowout. On the second play of the game the Eagles fumbled the ball. A few runs later, Yvenson Bernard was dancing in the endzone. I think they fumbled their next time too. Then Joe Newton snared a TD. Then Sabby picked the QB off and Ev hit paydirt once again. Needless to say, it was 42-7 at the half and the Beavers were completely dominating.

By the end the Beavers held EWU to 84 total yards and only 17 points. Those were allowed as such:

1) Punt Return TD late in the 4th quarter with scrubs playing and a crappy kick from the freshman punter.
2) Bad kickoff coverage allowed them to get into field goal range for 3.
3) Two personal fouls aided a drive where the Eagles actually looked decent and ran the ball for a TD.

The Beaver defense looked great but then again it was a 1-AA team, and not a very good one at that. Special teams were shaky at best... Serna missed a field goal and the new punter Loomis looked awful, not to mention the crappy kick coverage. Oh where oh where is Keller Christensen when you need him?

(From left) Stephen, Phil, and Meg enjoying the ass kicking by the Beavers. Arman is right above Meg's head and then Brian is right in front of him.

Oh, and there was a game, here is a picture of it!

Final score.

So the Beavers let up in the second half to be all classy and not be poor sports. This gave a lot of the young guys a chance to play and it was fun to see them in there because they will be the ones eventually starting.

After the game we met up with some other people and just hung out for a while, ordering pizza because we were so hungry. The night ended up watching the USA lose to Greece in the FIBA World Championships, so woot. That's why I dislike the NBA, the style of play is not true basketball. Even with all these "All-Stars" they can't beat a group of players playing fundamentally as a team. Thus why I like college basketball five million times better (aside from the Blazers of course).

All in all a good birthday. We crashed in Corvallis and headed back on Friday.

More game pictures

I got a haircut.

I didn't realize how terrible this picture was until I saw it on the computer. Oh well.

Thursday night I went to the Portland Beavers game. My boss has season tickets and gave me two "Flex" ones meaning you could redeem them for any home game. I chose this one because it was a Thursday night, aka "Thirsty Thursday". They are typically the most attended and wild due to half the stadium being plastered (cheap beer).

I took Laurel and we had another night of fun, they are getting to be so many I've lost count. Wish I was 21 because then we could have drank our brains out, but oh well. Laurel could've gotten some but chose not to.

As for the game, the Beavers looked like they were going to win it, going up 4-1 after seven innings. It's at this time I spotted my boss and another co-worker she took to the game. My boss was sober enough (she's built up a tolerance) but the person she was with was smashed. She kept saying things like "you're sooooo cute" and "Thomas is sooooo smart" and shit like that. It was weird, but oh well.

I need a haircut.


Swwwwing and a miss. Notice the packed beer garden... there was one along third base as well.

Speaking of which, Laurel just called me from the Mariners game smashed. They just won after a nice little rally in the bottom of the 8th. For some reason she thought I was a big Red Sox fan and called to rag on me... I dunno. Glad she had fun though, I'd love to take in a game at Safeco.

As for the Beavers game, they blew it and ended up losing 8-4 after Las Vegas scored 5 runs in the 9th inning. The relief pitcher allowed SIX consecutive hits to start the inning on about 9 pitches. 4 of them were extra basers. The home town Thirsty Thursday crowd was not pleased and booed him loudly.

Despite the loss, good times were had. 12,679 people were at the game, the second highest attendence of the season second to the 4th of July crowd.

Okay, just had a little heart attack there. When I went to blogspot.com it automatically redirected me to beta.blogger.com or something because when I logged in my blog wasn't there. So I got kinda frantic... but its because I logged into the beta service, not the normal one. They are going to have A LOT of people confused if they just casually redirect you like that. I mean, COMMMME ON! (tribute to Rob Corddry).

Mainly I want to tell you about Monday. Me and Laurel went down to Corvallis to get tickets to the football game and also bring some stuff to my apartment. Well I didn't really get that together because most the stuff was either really big or small and scattered, so oh well. I did finally put the fan I bought at the garage sale in my room.

What I did so was rearrange some furnature and get it looking like it might in the fall. Not for sure, but it was better than scattered everywhere like it was:

Yes, no, maybe so?


Finishing touches.


The kitchen.

So after that we ventured on down to the dollar tree down the street to see what it was all about. I ended up spending four bucks on household stuff and got:

-Kitchen Soap
-Shower Curtain Rings
-Shower Curtain
-Something else? Can't remember.

What a perv.

Then it was onto get our tickets. Oh wait, actually this happened first but its too late to go back now. So lets pretend it happened after. We got our tickets at the box office and then checked out the Beavers practice:

Brandon Powers goes up for the catch... he got creamed and didn't make it.

Skeleton drill... receivers vs. secondary.

So that was my first experience of a Beaver football practice. It was kinda interesting to see how things worked, what drills they ran, who made good plays, etc. Some of the coaches were really vocal but Riley was pretty low key. All the practices are open to the public, one of the cool things about OSU. A lot of schools now don't even let reporters in, but Oregon State likes to keep the community feeling or whatever going, because they had bleachers and a good 50 or so fans were watching.

Anyways, that all took place after getting off work and leaving around 2 in the afternoon.

Let's see... what has been going on lately? Last Sunday I golfed and did terrible on the front nine but decent on the back nine. I think my total was in the 120s but I know on the back I shot in the 50s, which is good for me. It was at Tri-Mountain so I lost a lot of balls but also found some, so in all my score was about -4 (balls).

Work has been the same, nothing new really. Next week on Thursday Timeea (the girl who took over for me when I went to college) is going to Romania for a month, so I am covering for her. Another co-worker is going to help me out, but I'll still be working probably 7 hours or so a day. We'll see, I don't really know until it happens, but it will be nice. Much better than sitting in the closet fixing this part number process IDs, I'm about to kill myself over it... but not really. Normally I mix some other activities into the day and its not so bad.

Beaver football season is almost here! They start Thursday the 31st (my birthday!) against Eastern Washington. While the game probably won't be very exciting, the atmosphere, crowd, sea of orange, silent fireworks when we score, chainsaw, etc. will be. College football is the bestest time of the year.

Today we hauled a bunch of stuff to our new apartment in Corvallis. Kenny's dad's company had a trailer they could hook to the back of their pickup that we could use, so we ended up hauling A LOT of stuff down there. That trailer was really useful and saved us a bunch of trips or the hassle of renting one.

Anywho, a lot went down but there's still a little bit to go. My bedframe went down, along with the TV (see post below) which was another fiasco, although not as wild this time. Our couch is in there, the recliner we bought is in there, all the kitchen stuff, lamps, table... etc. Here is the basic floorplan of our apartment:

And here's what it will look like once everything is in there... plus we might get a few more things to fill it up:

Thank you "Sims 2" for those shots.

Gather round everyone, it's storytime!

So I've been scanning Craigslist for TVs to buy for the new apartment. Kenny has a 19" but that wasn't going to be big enough for the main room, I wanted something more impressive. Anyways I checked a lot at work, even went after a 27" one but the reply e-mail was sorted into the junk mail folder and I didn't discover that until too late. Thank goodness for that though, or else I wouldn't have this story to tell.

I see this great 32" TV at work at something like 10:50am. Getting really excited I reach for the cell phone to call the guy because he just posted it like 20 minutes ago and I knew I was going to be first. But hell, I forgot my cell phone at home. Gah. This guy wanted a call too, no e-mail. So I facebook/myspace messaged Laurel (who hadn't woken up yet) to call the guy for me. Anyways she got up soon and got on it (gracias). Anyways, we had the TV saved for us and were to pick it up later that night.

The TV was up in Vancouver and we were supposed to pick it up at 8:00 so we (Laurel came with to keep me company) left around 7:30pm. Anyways we sail through Portland and are about to cross the Interstate bridge but its up to let a boat go by!

Blast! Click for bigger version.

Turned out to be only a few minutes so it wasn't that bad. As we are getting off the freeway (exit 5) I realize I never took money out of the bank. It was $100 and the guy wanted cash, so oh shit. Anyways, Umpqua Banks aren't extremely common, I knew there was one somewhere in Vancouver but it could be anywhere. So we spotted a WinCo Foods store and stopped in. Withdrew cash from an ATM with fees of course, so it ended up being $102.50. Whatever, what's two and a half dollars?

So we head back over the freeway and in the correct direction of their house, and what do you know, three blocks later there is THE ONE FUCKING UMPQUA BANK IN ALL OF VANCOUVER. Oh well, at that point I just laughed. What else could happen? A lot.

Anyways we get kinda lost but eventually find the house after calling the guy and having him lead us into their driveway. It was a nice house occupied by this guy, his wife, their two kids, and their black lab dog. The 1950s would be proud. But really, their kids were really cute (Sam and Holly, I think) the dog was nice, and the guy was very dedicated to getting the TV hoooked up to something so I could see the picture and make sure it worked.

Anyways the thing was huge and I was impressed. Finally we moved it into another room and hooked it up to the cable. Everything looked good so I paid the people and then we tried to load it into my car. Therein lies the problem.

Wouldn't fit in the trunk. Wouldn't fit in the back seat. The only option left was try to wedge it in the front seat with the seat way back (gangsta style yo). So somehow we managed to shove it in, but still its not completely in. There is a corner on the top that just won't fit. It's already encroaching on the driver's seat so it wouldn't go in any further. Laurel then points out we could roll down the window and see if it fits what that corner sticking out.

Sure enough we roll down the window and managed to shut the door. So there is a corner of the TV sticking out the window as we fly south back down I-5.

It was hard to make right turns.



Not so good for the aerodynamic aspect of the car with the corner sticking out.

So finally we get back to Tualatin and have a dandy of a time getting back out of the car. Finally, with my dad helping, we manage to shove it back out. It was basically like giving birth, but was much shorter at about 10 minutes. We moved it upstairs into my room where it will stay until I go to college.

Did not think that one through.

Anyways, victory.