oh thanks

oh god.

thanksgiving was ridiculous--it was a 2 day food overload. some highlights:

i went over to tom's this year, where plans were in place to host 2 days of thanksgiving celebration. day 1 was for katie's dad's side of the family. because i fell asleep earlier in the day for about an hour between loads of laundry and then had to take the bus from the Beac to West Seattle after waiting for it to finish, I arrived and walked in the door late (while everyone was actually eating at the table). no one cared, because katie's family is awesome. bonus points: 1

tom made this ridiculous gravy with the turkey brine, peaches and brown sugar. oh, sounds gross? wrong. "ew, fruit in your gravy?" yeah, that's right, baby. i'm one of those people that automatically awards a combo multiplier to the king of all flavor interminglings, the sweet/savory one-two punch, and this one was an instant-kill finishing move. bonus points: 3, including the hat-tip to the fact that there were 2 kinds of meat to smother in this delicious ambrosia disguised as what mortals know as "gravy."

since the whole deal went down at a Wils' brother's house and both Wils bros happened to be in attendance--as well as a large group of people, natch--round 1 culminated in a session of rock band 2. bonus points: 2.

after the festivities ended i resumed the game of Fable 2 i had started the week prior. bonus points: 6, one for every hour of Fable i played before falling asleep on the couch. total points for day 1: 10.

day 2 was planned out for katie's mom's side of the family, and katie's brother's in-laws (tom was friends with katie's brother ben before he began dating her, which is why this was all going down at tom's). i began my preparations for this stressful day by waking up at 8 am and resuming my game of Fable right where i left off and played until family members started showing up; about 2 o' clock. since fable is only very slightly less fun to watch than it is to actually play, katie hung out on the couch with me the whole time and gave me tips from the strategy guide.

once the fam started showing up i migrated to the kitchen to help tom out with food prep (i have mad knife skills; i bet you didn't know). tom had been figuratively pulling his hair out about being able to replicate the gravy from the night prior but was ultimately able to pull it off. two kinds of stuffing were prepared as the vessel to facilitate the transfer from plate to mouth.

there was dinner (oof), there was pie (ouch). and then there was Scrabble, with 20 bucks on the line for the winner. i was pretty confident in my ability to trounce all oncomers as i'm pretty good at scrabble but tonight it was not to be. STORING right out of the gate (double word score and a 50 point bingo bonus) and J_BILAN[T] (J on a double letter plus a double word score plus a 50 point bingo bonus) were both kickass plays that were both, unfortunately, not made by me. I came in third place.

night 2 was capped off with wii bowling and wii golf, and after all family members went home, I watched katie play fable for 4 hours before falling asleep on the couch again.

i woke up at 8 again on day 3 (which turned out to be a leftover extravaganza of sorts) to play more Fable 2. katie and I played in shifts with tom supervising until about 10pm at which point we switched to Fred Claus (highly recommended). Then I went home.

probably the best thanksgiving i can remember having in years and years. there was that one family thanksgiving we had in a condo in carlsbad, california, but this topped that even though we had a deep-fried turkey that year.

many happy returns, master wayne.

want it from behind while you play super mario brothers?

i mean, the question is legit. i guess.
dude just needs a girl that is looking to get pwned hard.

hyped.

i was playing rock band on sunday at tom's house and i went to the music store just to see if they had any new tracks. as it turns out pixies' entire doolittle album is available as a download, which is fucking awesome. my favorite pixies song is on that album so you know i copped that shit right away. natch.

ever since i first got rock band i was always kind of bummed that "here comes your man" was the pixies song harmonix decided to include in the game--there are so many better pixies songs that they could have included but finally my dreams have come true. the song is not super complicated, even on expert--obviously, if you watched the video--but it doesn't really need to be for it to be fun in-game (see "say it ain't so"; "creep"). hopefully The Internet can perform this on their farewell tour. i wanna try this bitch on vocals.

i bought 2 tickets to black kids this morning. they're coming to neumo's october 10. that's it. some dj on kexp played one of their songs and i liked it, so i bought tickets.
does this count as blog hype, idolator? tards. i promise if i like their performance i won't talk about it anywhere.

NERD ALERT

excuse me while i geek out for a second.

i've been playing god of war for PSP on "spartan" on and off now for about 4 days.
i was kickin it on the couch last night, playing with my earphones in so as not to disturb anyone and i got to this part:

i managed to make it almost all the way down to the bottom when emily (who was studying on the couch next to me) tapped me on the shoulder. i continued to play until i died (about 30 seconds) and took my earphones out to ask her what was up.

"um...you're breathing really hard."

this game is awesome.

i've been commuting to and from work via bicycle every day for a couple weeks now and i was thinking about most of the cyclists i see between seattle and bellevue. most are wearing actual bike kit, like bike shorts and bike jerseys and stuff. more and more i've been getting a little bit of discomfort from my saddle while riding in just jeans and am not helped by them (or my t-shirt) flapping in the wind while crossing lake washington. i'm kind of torn between the convenience of just wearing whatever i want--jeans with a tee and hoodie or whatever--vs the benefits of something a little more purpose-built (e.g. ass padding) and aerodynamic so i started looking around for jerseys.




i think that if i were going to wear any sort of bike jersey i might as well rep some of my favorite brews and snacks while i'm at it. the jury is still out on the whole jersey thing but i gotta say that i love that long sleeve duvel jersey.

i've also been thinking about inclement seattle weather that we will inevitably be experiencing. aside from the fact that earlier this year i purchased some leg warmers and some booties that i were told were waterproof when they actually WERE NOT (thanks for nothing velo bike shop, i am not even sure why i'm linking to you), i don't have much riding-specific clothes with a high degree of protection from shitty weather. luckily performance is having a sale on clothing right now and i found a jacket--a jacket that is designed to cover your ass-crack while riding--that's good. especially for anyone that ends up riding behind me because my ass always hangs out. right renai?? also on the bike gear tip, my buddy will linked me to chainlove.com today; i'll be keeping a sharp eye out on that site for some killer deals.

not that i've played rock band anytime recently (you know i be clappin niggaz and coppin whips in gta4. smarten up nigga) but i was pretty stoked to see this video on on comedy central insider. every time i play tom sawyer in rock band you know i holla at it on expert and i've always wondered if rush could even play it on expert. turns out, they tried when they were backstage at the colbert report. turns out, someone got it on video. peep:

turns out, the answer is no, because that shit doesn't even look like it's on hard and they still failed out at 31 percent. i'm betting The Internet can play rush better than rush can play rush. discuss.

i'm still looking for suggestions on places to eat in san fran. as in, i want to put together a 2-day mini tour of restaurants--breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

"San Fran's food makes Seattle look like a culinary shithole."
     - Angela

i'll believe it when i see it (with my mouth). anyone care to lend credence to this claim?