Some of my favorite Xmas themed commercials.... :)

I stop at Starbucks every morning after getting off the Metro. I need my Latte... especially if it looks like there may be Drama in the office.

Way back when I was getting into the office around 7am I rarely noticed what I am getting ready to rant about, probabaly because it was so early, there were never that many people in line.

First up seems to be a problem at all Starbucks if they are busy..... People laying all over the drink counter, effectively cutting off the counter from other customers. Hey guess what people... if you just ordered and Starbucks is busy.... your drink is not going to be the next one ready.... hang back and wait until you order is called.

Second.... is a problem due to the layout of the store. Once more than 10 people are in line, the way the line snakes around teh store, the door to the outside CAN be blocked if rude people are in line. People with a clue about the world around them leave the space around the door unblocked, (so a space between them and the person in front of them), and the line continues to snake around the store. The only problem this can cause is when someone comes into the store and jumps into line in the "open space". This is usually cleared up by telling them.... "The line actually starts back there...".

This morning the scenario above happened, complete with me having to tell a line jumper where the line actually started. But the guy behind me apparently wasn't man enough to be able to tell someone where the line started because when I crossed over the empty space, he stayed with me, blocking the door. As someone was coming in. And then to make it odder, this tool would not move away from the door to let the person in. He did this weird scrunch up thing with his arms and then was trying to step on me! I was this close to 1)Telling him to not touch me and 2) Suggesting that he not block the door. But since I knew I'd come off sounding like a b*itch I decided I didn't want drama that early in the AM, so I just focused on my BlackBerry while feeling morally superior :D

Watch Pearl Jam on this weeks Austin City Limits! (Check Local PBS listings!)

*note you may have to reload the page to view the embedded file...

I set out to pick up some soup for lunch at the Au Bon Pain inside L'Enfant Plaza's La Promenade set of shops, to find the store all closed up. In fact all of the shops around it were also closed. It looks like they are finally getting read to renovate that cluster of shops/eateries. (Hopefully a good Happy Hour spot will move in ... SW DC near my office is sorely lacking in the bar department). And while it appeared that most of the other eateries had moved to another location... Au Bon Pain seems closed for good :(

On the plus side.... I came across a pizza joint that has NYC by the slice pizza.... and it was GOOD! Its called Pizza Autentica..... 300 7th St SW.... basically kitty-corner to the HUD building.

(according to People :D Guess they agree .... 21 Jump Steet stands upto the test of time!!!)

This past weekend I raked leaves for the first time in my life.


Luckily the town I live in vacuums the leaves left on the curb so I didn't have to bag anything....


This is what my backyard looked like prior to raking





This is an in progress shot...... the orange thing is the tarp I used to carry the leaves from the backyard to the front curb...





They started piling up quickly.... I thought I was going to run out of room! After about 2.5 hours I broke for lunch... and then didn't want to go back out after I sat down to eat ;)


But I gave myself a short nap and went back....And after one more tarp trip where the backyard seemed slightly more than halfway done, I busted out the lawnmower and proceeded to mow (thanks to a previous hint/suggestion from a friend).


Backyard done!





Then I moved on to the front yard which is much smaller, and really only has leaves at the very front... I raked the front and mowed the rest!


After about 4 hours of work I was done.




Final Damage - 2 blisters ... one on each hand (Guess I should have worn gloves!) and my forearms ached sooooo bad I could barely concentrate on anything else. I also have some tightness in my shoulders and back..... but oh well.... better than paying someone!

Less than a week to go!

Google has had some awesome images over the last week to celebrate...

But I'll always remember Big Bird and Mr Hooper dying :(

The Halloween show had been hyped for months before on the PJ fanboards....

The week before it picked up into almost unseen frenzied levels. They will play every song they know, They'll play until 2am, Bruce Springteen will be a special guest... and all kinds of other rumors picked up at a frenzied past as the date drew closer.

By this point there was no way the show could have lived up to everyone's expectations....
Which is why I try to usually have none (aside from really wanting to hear 1 or 2 specific songs)...

The SEPTA train ride was more packed than Friday due to the World Series game across the street, but it was fun... a ton of people were dressed in costume (including me!)

Picked up 10 Club tickets... this time 12th row on Mike's side... woot!

Beer Tent time.. and another cover band outside the venue! People watching time..... I saw a dude waiting in line dressed as JT from the SNL "Dick in a box" skit; a guy in a banana suit; Bee Girl; guy dressed as Bret Michael's (he gave me a high five when I laughed at him :P); too many Elvis's to count; Jesus; it was fun to see people get into the spirit!

Then it started to rain, so C and I headed inside.

Up first Bad Religion... Guitarist dressed as skeleton... YAY!



Then its Pearl Jam time! (as before full setlist can be found on any other Pearl Jam site).

Here are the stand out moments, probably in a random order :)

Due to someone I follow on Twitter... I was alerted to Balloons up in the rafters....



Opened with Why Go ... so glad they have resurrected this live... its AWESOME!

Pilate!


Rats!! (A person in a Rat costume appeared onstage ... I thnk they were part of the crew.... various members of the crew were in costume)




OUT OF MY MIND!!!!!!! -- as Vedder said "this isn't even a song" . This is a live improv that was released as the Not For You b-side. Only played twice before....It was awesome because I love this song, and thought I would never hear it live :D


** Bathroom Break*** Bathroom situation at the Spectrum was ICKY!

BUGS!!!! w/accordian :D took a few tries but it was cool to see :)



The Final Encore may have well been perfection from start to finish.... but I think at this point most in the Venue knew the Phillies were losing so I think the crowd lost some steam....

First part....just may have been worth the price of admission for those 5 minutes....

Pearl Jam came out on stage ...Dressed as Devo and performed Whip It! TRULY AWESOME!!



Sweet Lew - Jeff singing and Eddie Basketball dribbling...too funny!


Smile - :)


RITFW - A minute or 2 in and Confetti came shooting out in all directions .... the Spectrum was filled ... and made for some AWESOME pictures.. Then the balloons dropped too cool!






I got a poster :)


So glad I was at this show ..... for all the one-off moments

This show start to finish was amazing. It may be my favorite all time....even counting when I was front row center back in 2000 @ Merriweather :)

The drive up to Philly from DC was not bad... considering it was Friday traffic (Special thanks to EZ-PASS!!!! and my Navigation System.... though DC to Philly is pretty much a straight drive up I-95......)

Anyways... my friend C and I arrived at the venue around 6:30 I think and picked up my tickets.... 7th row center! Haven't been that close in a while ... usually averaging row 12 in DC and NYC shows, so we were stoked!

We wandered around to one side where a beer/drinks tent was set up and got some drinks and proceeded to watch the Pearl Jam cover band that was playing in front of the Spectrum.... Then made our way inside.

Bad Religion was playing and were pretty good... (I admit I only know one of their older tunes...) They finished and it was time to chat with fellow 10 Club members (after so many years.... seated by number you start to see the same people over and over.. which makes it fun!)

You can find the setlist on any Pearl Jam fansite, so I won't go into the whole thing, but they played a good mix.... and the new stuff sounded AWESOME.. especially The Fixer , Got Some, and Unthought Known, I was also happy to hear In My Tree, Off He Goes, Breath, RVM, Mamasan, and Sonic Reducer!!

It really was a perfect night! band and crowd energy was great!!

(Until we got back to the Hotel, and found Friday's with doors locked at 12:40PM.... Late night eating in Philly is a #FAIL)

Next up... thoughts on Philly the city!

Admittedly I do not watch many shows on NBC (obviously chances are if you are reading this you don't either cause the network is in the toilet... ratings wise).

Last season I watched ER, Law & Order and SouthLAnd.

SouthLAnd started well, and seemed to get better each week.

I especially liked the Regina King and Ben McKenzie/John Heard storylines and was happy to C Thomas Howell back on my screen (I am a huge fan of The Outsiders - Book and Movie!).

So imagine my surprise a few weeks ago when NBC announced that they were canceling SouthLAnd. Apparently they said their was no room in the schedule with Leno sucking up all the 10pm slots (oddly they found room for L&O on Fri at 8PM....WTF?!?!? way to start killing that show). Twitter erupted! I deleted the only new NBC show I had picked up this season... Mercy... from my DVR series recordings.

Word came today that TNT has picked up SouthLAnd to start airing in Jan 2010...YAY!

Which brings me to my point..... sick of NBC and Leno? Turn your TV on at 10pm and set it to any channel other then NBC (I'll be setting to TNT if I don't have a conflict in the 10pm slot) or set your DVR to record anyother channel at that time)... Apparently most local NBC affilaites are ready to revolt against NBC any minute due to this Leno fiasco causing a sharp drop in their 11pm newscasts (and ad revenue based on them).

Maybe this could help push them over the edge :)

The hotel in Philly was 4 miles from the venue so my friend C and I knew we'd be using public transit (or cab) to get to the venue. So I started perusing the PJ fanboards to find out what was the best option. And promptly came across a post about SEPTA getting ready for a walkout ...Zoinks!


Add to that Game 3 of the World Series was in Philly the same night as the last PJ show at the Spectrum (right across the street from the baseball stadium) and all signs pointed to transportation being a clusterf*ck. (Driving to venue from hotel could been done with my AWESOME navigation system... which made this road trip way better than the 2000 jaunt to Jones Beach, NY... I don't ever want to hear about a POW/MIA highway ever again! - but this was a way way way last resort option).


Before leaving Friday I checked online and the general consensus was a walkout wouldn't happen until Saturday.....so I setup a Google Alert and headed out!


Friday evening arrived in Philly checked into the hotel, changed and headed for the SEPTA station. The SEPTA system is much more like NYCs Subway system (none of this farecard/exit fare crap), you use tokens.

Point SEPTA.

The machines to buy fares only took $1, $5, $10, and $20.... and you couldn't adjust the value you wanted to buy if you inserted a large bill.

Point WMATA.

(Luckily I just bought $20 worth of fare for me and C and hoped the strike didn't happen!) Other people were trying to get change from the SEPTA station manager.... no dice! And don't even get me started on the morons that didn't buy roundtrip fare... the line to buy it after the show each night was worse than Gallery Place after a show at the Verizon Center) Some time on Saturday afternoon I got a Google alert that SEPTA would not strike while the World Series was in town... YAY!


SEPTA stations smell like piss... and each station I was in had a fare share of homeless people sleeping in them.

Point WMATA.

The actual ride on SEPTA was fine..... and I don't recall any jerking to a stop. Bonus... on Saturday after the show... the train headed uptown...EXPRESSED!!!!!!!!

Two Points SEPTA!

Also on Saturday.... there were Balloon arches at the SEPTA exits and a SEPTA Employee directing people up the steps with a big foam finger :D (obviously the Nats are no where near being in a world series... but i just can't see WMATA decorating like this... so.....

Point SEPTA.

Looks like SEPTA wins :)


*has WMATA ever gone on strike? (the week long - we will be following all rules craziness that happened about a week ago does not count :P)