Herding Cats

The Vegas comments have gotten rather unwieldy and seemed to have tailed off. Not sure if we will ever be able to get everyone on the same page here, but I'd still like to do this if we can get a critical mass for at least one of the weekends.

So far this is what we've got:

AUg. 26-28: Will - Yes, Bill-Yes, Eddy-No, Reed-No, Alan-?
Sept. 2-4: Will- Yes, Bill-Yes, Eddy-?, Reed-No, Alan -No
Sept 9-11: Will - Yes, Bill-No, Eddy-?, Reed-?, Alan - Yes

As a final option, I will put forward Columbus day weekend (October 7-9), which at least tentatively should work for me.

Thoughts?

Vegas Baby Vegas

Since it sounds like the weekend is preferred, what dates are people thinking. I'm free the first two weekends, September 2-4, and 9-11. Any preference on those two (the first one is Labor Day weekend)? It seems like there are a bunch of places with reasonable ($170 or less) rates that weekend. Reed and Will have already commented on being in -- Alan, Eddy, Brad, Patrick, Ted???

She's got nice melons.

So the rumor I heard is true. Walking around the streets of Kyoto, I came across my first square watermelon. Apparently the Japanese came up with them because you can pack more of them in a shipping crate than round melons. Just about all the fruit here is imported and expensive, a bunch of grapes, $5, and apple $4. Some fruit is so expensive itﾕs gift wrapped and given as presents. Most cantaloupes here are about $20, but you can find the most perfect cantaloupe youﾕve ever seen going for $80 in a department store.

Speaking of Beltway Insider (carnal) knowledge

I meant to mention in my response to Will's post that I'm reading Washingtonienne by Jessica Cutler.

You may remember her from the major sex scandal she caused in beltway circles a year or so back. Althouth Ms. Cutler would like us to believe that this is a work of fiction, I'm fairly certain there is a lot of personal experience being displayed. Will, if I was you, I'd be down on the hill, playing up my Syracuse roots to any girls that will listen (Jess is an alum, as is her female protaganist). If these are the typical post-graduate activities of SU Journalism students (threesomes, coke binges, hooking up with multiple high elected officials), then it explains why people can take the snow for 4 years.

In other entertainment news, did anybody else notice that Cooter is urging a boycott of the Dukes of Hazard movie? I'm not sure what's funnier, that Cooter is trying to stop people from seeing a movie about something that basically made his career, or the fact that he was elected to congress.

Reality Check

Just curious -- outside of Washington, do people really care about things like this Karl Rove flap, or the Supreme Court nomination battle?

I fear I have become a Beltway Insider, albeit a horribly apathetic one. It's kind of the worst of both worlds...I feel obligated to pay attention to these things, but don't care enough about them to make the time I spend keeping abreast of them worthwhile.

On an unrelated note, anyone interested in Vegas, perhaps sometime in September? I feel the urge to do something self-destructive.

Doing the Wild Thing

Laura and I spent our Friday night Pete Rose style, at the racetrack. We headed over to Hollywood Park to play the ponies. I hit it big in the 6th race, when a 15-1 long shot placed, but more importantly than that, we went to see the last of the free summer concerts Hollywood Park puts on after the races, featuring Coolio and Tone-Loc.



There was much debate in advance as to who would open for whom. After all, can you imagine the indignity of having to play second fiddle to Coolio? Perhaps that fate is nearly as bad as being second to Mr. Loc (which was the order the proceedings went down on Friday). Regardless, both put on quite the fine show (I had totally forgotten that Coolio did Fantastic Voyage), and there was smell of pot was so thick that I was beginning to think even the horses were smoking up.

MOCKBA (axxxxxx)

Considering that last time I was in Moscow there was a terrorist attack here, I didn't really expect that coming here from London would lessen my chances of being blown up. But I guess it was a good week to go to Russia afterall.

It's cool to be back in Moscow. I don't have as much time for tourist stuff as the last time I was here, but I did get out this weekend to wander around the downtown area, Red Square, Arbat, etc. I bought a couple of matrioshkas and USSR t-shirts, in usual tourist fashion. The work here has been cool too, though. There are a couple of really interesting deals going on here right now. Being a lawyer here seems rather different from what I've seen in London so far.

Unfortunately I don't have any stories like Ted's story about dried sea-horse snacks. Most things here are potato or cabbage flavored. But I'm having a good time nontheless. I'm getting Russian lessons from the firm while I'm here too, which is cool. I think re-immersion in the language is definitely helping improve my Russian too. It's still fairly basic, I'm hoping I can keep up with some Russian lessons in the fall. Especially since I'll be a 3L, and not have as much to do.

Party Opinion

Reed -- opinions from all the Morris girls in attendance at the party were that you should "not fuck it up". (i.e., Emily seems pretty cool)

Brandon Bowman Away Message

So, I was talking to Jeff Goldstein a few months back, and he noted that most of the current Hoya players had their IMs listed somewhere, and that he loved to check out the away messages. Anyway, in appreciation of his not going pro, here is what Brandon Bowman's (AOL IM: yngkly1) away message showed today:

Away Message:
Name: Brandon Bowman
Height: 6'9"
Weight: 223lbs
Hometown: Santa Monica, Ca
School: Georgetown University
Position: all FUCKIN purpose

My #1 goal is to lead my team to the ncaa tourny, not only da tourny, but deep in da tourny. Be a heavy contender for the Big East regular season and tournament Championship.

"When you win, everything else takes care of itself and you will receive your rewards" ★Coach John ThompsonJr.★
Top five college coaches ever
Da F.A.M.©_get down, lay down, or die down