Monday night I hatched a plan to have a Poker Night here at the House... then, for various minor reasons I won't bore you with, I sort of let it fall by the wayside/dropped the ball, and it wasn't until tonight I realized what a good idea it would have been. Now I am formally trying to put something together for tomorrow night.

I've been "working" for "the man," most of thise week -- aka the Shelton family, aka the family to which my Landlord is a member, and on a property which my landlord (aka Grandma Betty) owns.

I watched a bit of the Sonics-Bucks tilt tonite... what a weird feeling... Brent Barry was piling up assists like crazy, and Reggie Evans was piling up rebounds like crazy... it seems like the Sonics have been a weird team that has some great role players , but just aren't a good team all-around. Now, with the Glove gone, it seems like that will only be accentuated. We'll see what happens from here on out.

Rich and I lifted weights, then picked up his Jeep from the Garage (in for oil change), went to the store, came home and grilled up some steaks for dinner, along with some home fries I made. Yummy! I like steak, I just don't eat it much (which is probably a good thing). It made me long for those glorious Summer BBQ days. After that, I drank beer and watched Iron Chef.

well, the Sonics traded Gary Payton... ugh.. but what Really adds to the stomach-punch is the fact that also included in the trade was Desmond Mason... suddenly, I don't feel so good...

on the positive side, we got Certified All-Star Ray Allen back from Milwaukee (as well as a conditional 1st-round draft pick, and a couple back-up guards). I don't know much about Allen, except that he was one of the "bright young up-and-coming stars" of the NBA a couple years ago, and he starred in the movie "He Got Game."

In a seperate trade, the Sonics shipped off Kenny Anderson, who never really had a role on the team, to New Orleans for 4/5-man Elden Campbell, a "savvy veteran." I don't know much about him either, except that he has, at times, been a solid low-post scorer and rebounder.

So, The Franchise is gone. It's a sad day in Seattle Sports, truly. Payton was one of those rare guys, in Any professiona sport, that just plain, flat-out Brought It Every Night. He played hard and rarely missed a game. On the floor, he was Everything you wanted, as a fan, out of a player...

so, about the Weekend...

Ostensibly, there was to be a "gathering" Friday night to honor Chris's birthday (Chris being a friend of Tad's from High Schhol, a guy who went to Western, and one of Tad's Many former roommates). A few of Tad's other friends, namely Kris (another guy altogether) and Marcus, both guys I had spent time hanging out with before, were also heading over soemtime Friday.

Tad had been bugging me about heading out to visit for a while, so I decided to hitch a ride with Chris at noon on Friday.

I don't know much about the Tri-Cities -- I've been there a couple times, but that's it. I've been to Eastern WA plenty of times, so the remarkable climate change on the Eastern Slopes isn't much of a shock to me anymore, but it's still a little surprising to experience the (relatively) flat terrain and paucity of trees in the Tri-Shitties area.

Tad's "neighborhood" is a dense subdivision lying amidst empty fields, some of them looked to be irrigated or agricultural purposes, some of them were just... empty, but for the low lying semi-arid brushy vegetation. The most notable feature of Tad's immediate surroundings was a tall water tower, which was actually visible for miles around.

As I began to get my feel for the "lay of the land," I realized that each of the Tri-Cities has it's own distinct "downtown" area, and the outskirts sort of belnd into each other. I began to realize that Tad lived in the "outskirts" of Pasco, on the east side of the river (Kennewick and Richland being on the West side) which is why his neighborhood seemed so isolated. It didn't take long to drive into "downtown" Richland or Pasco, however.

Anyway... Friday night didn't turn out all that exciting. We went to Costco and bought a bunch of beer, then proceeded back to the House to drink it and eat the dinnner Tad had cooked. Tad's roommate is only 20, and he had a few of his friends over, but I wasn't vibing off the atmosphere. Neither did Chris, aparently, who just wasn't feeling it that night, and sort of pussied out, considering it was His b-day.

Saturday, after some morning recovery and coffee acquisition, we roamed around most of the day, hitting an Excellent Chinese buffet (why don't we have any of those around here?) for lunch, and a very mediocre Mexican buffet for dinner. At some point in the afternoon we stopped into the Atomic Ale Brewpub and Eatery (sorry, no website) where I had a Pint of their IPPA, and also sampled their Blackberry Porter (!).

Sat night, after Marcus left to go home because he had to work Sunday morn, we, as mentioned below, went out and got fitshaced. If I had any singing ability whatsoever, i woulda been karaoke-ing up a storm. But, frankly, I Know how horrible I am, and when it comes to Karaoke, it's not that I'm sacred to do it (hey, after a couple beers, who cares?) but that I am such an awful singer it isn't fair to put the other fine bar patrons through the hell of having to listen to me.

Sunday we pretty much got up, cured our hangovers with coffee, Lots of water and some great breakfast, then Chris and I headed for home...

I don't know much about th

Friday afternoon I headed on over to the Tri-Shitties (lovely Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland, along the shores of the mighty Columbia) to hang out with Tad and some other members of his 206 posse (although one of us is a snooty 425). Right now, i'm just feeling too tired to ramble on aboout things, as last night we all went out to Duke's Pourhouse, a nice W.T. bar in Pasco with pool tables, Golden Tee, and Karaoke, and we all got shitty, sloppy drunk drinking pitcher after pitcher of Chinook Copper (from Red Hook). Needless to say, I spent all day hung over, and have just finished up a TV-watching session that started with the Simpsons Triple Feature at 7:30, and now am going to bed... I promise more on the weekend later...