Last night my friend Carrie and I went to the They Might Be Giants concert at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC. We got there surprisingly early, got prime parking, and most importantly – got a foam finger.

The show was pretty good. They played a bunch of new songs that I hadn’t heard before, and judging by the reaction of the crowd, most people hadn’t heard them before. The good news is, they made up for it by playing a bunch of really old songs. It’s amazing how well “Number 3″ sounds with the sampled sax and a full band. Other classics included “We’re the Replacements”, “Everything Right is Wrong Again”, and “Rhythm Section Want Ad”.

Oh, and the opener was Michael Leviton, a eukulele playing singer who takes the stage alone and sings songs about his favorite places to drown (off his CD of the same title).

Last night we went to the 2006 World Men’s Curling Championship in Lowell. It was the first time I’d ever attended a curling event and I must say it drew a decent crowd. Downtown was packed and was showing signs of life once again. The crowds in the arena were great and so were the Swedish cheerleaders (aparently the bra has yet to find its way to Sweden). Unfortunately, Canada beat team USA 9-6, but it still looks like we’ll make the finals.

Countries like Australia had their own unique cheer, which was pretty cool. The Canadiens would sing their national anthem. Sweden, well we already know they had cheerleaders. And the Americans? Well, as one fan noted, the Americans couldn’t even get a syncronized cheer going (think U-S-U-A-S-U-A-S…). It was pretty pathetic.

I always knew there was a reason why I kept two cases of bowling pins laying around my basement. Up until last night, I was never really sure what that reason was. My brother and I bowled in the Dexter Tournament of Champions Pro-Am at Bradley Bowl. The format has you bowling 3 games with 6 different pro bowlers. I brought one of my bowling pins and a Sharpie, hoping to snag a few autographs. Upon arriving at Bradley, we noticed signs posted on the walls advertising a bowling pin and marker for $25. What a rip off!! Anyway, I got a number of autographs and only missed Brian Voss out of the ones I wanted.

The above picture was taken with all of the amateurs on our pair of lanes (my brother and I are ones on the right), plus two of the pro bowlers (Walter Ray Williams, Jr. and Lonnie Waliczek). I thought I did fairly well, throwing a 740 series (268, 252, and 220), which is by far my best scratch series. With handicap that put me at 818, which was well ahead of everyone else on our pair of lanes. I’ll have to wait until the final scores are published to see how I did overall. Oh, did I mention that the tournament was 9-pin no tap? For those non-bowlers, that means if you get a 9 on your first ball, it counts as a strike. My brother and I had a great time and it definitely builds some false confidence to see those high scores up on the board… until you realize that’s with counting 9′s as strikes. Oh well. I did have 5 real strikes in a row in my second game.

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