If you are planning to stay at the Crowne Plaza and take advantage of the discounted rate, you must make your reservations by Friday, June 2nd (yes – that’s tomorrow!!). Simply click the link on the right side of this page to book your room while there is still time… and we’ll see you on the 24th!
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.
During one of my random web pursuits today, I stumbled upon Lora Brueck’s 1984 history of WPI’s Higgins House. It made for some interesting reading and even had some nice pictures of how the house used to look on the inside.
A handful of Filene’s stores around here are closing because they are in close proximity to a Macy’s store (Macy’s parent company bought Filene’s parent company). So, the stores that are closing are having clearance sales. One would think there would be some good deals.
Think again.
Most items are 60% off, but they are 60% their “regular” price, which seems a lot like a jacked up price.
Also, the stores that are closing no longer deal with wedding registries at all. In fact, the entire registry computer and anything associated with gift registries has been removed. There is a small sign instructing people to call a Filene’s that isn’t closing. The annoying part is we opened our registry at Filene’s a few weeks ago and the lady said nothing would change until the end of May, when they would automatically transfer the registry data over to Macy’s. Aparently she left out the part about how our guests wouldn’t be able to shop at their local Filene’s if it was closing. Grrr… 
The bowling theme continues… I talked to my brother last night and he was telling me how he bowled a 300 the other day. YAY!!! Congrats to him! Ok, so the downside is he bowled it during a practice game before his league. He’s pissed that he doesn’t get the ring out of that deal.
This weekend, we bowled in a city tournament over in Lowell. It was a two day, 9 game tournament consisting of 3 games each in singles, doubles, and team events. I figured I would be in good shape, since I entered with my “book average” from the end of last season (a 173). My current average is 180, so I falsely assumed this 7 pin advantage would be in my favor. Not so.
In the doubles event, which was up first on Saturday, I bowled horribly. I was 9 pins below my tournament average… ugh. I brushed it off as 3 practice games as we moved on to the singles event. Aparently I needed 3 more practice games, because I barely reached my tournament average. As I turned in the scoresheets, I told the tournament director “he’s two for the bottom of the pile”.
On Sunday, we had the team event. I fared considerably better, averaging almost 187 for the three games. Unfortuantely, our entire team did not fare as well. We ended up with a decent total score, but I’m not too optimistic because there is another team squad again this coming weekend. Oh well, there’s always next year.
Yay! We’ve found a JP and started going over the ceremony. They’re actually going to let us play with fire (a nice unity candle). How could we pass that up? Judy (our JP) has graciously offered to read poems, greeting cards, or anything else we want her to read for us……… if we’re too nervous to do it ourselves. Hmmm……… I just hope she doesn’t talk as fast during the ceremony as she did in the meeting, otherwise it’ll be a 5 min ceremony.
Anyone want to do a reading???? There are openings.
I’ve had this old wooden wall shelf lying around the house since we moved in, thinking one day I’d hang it up and put some stuff on it. Well, the day finally came. Yesterday I got off my butt and mounted the shelf to the wall and quickly filled it with some of my Whalers memorabilia.
