My new favorite.

Went to Washington, DC for Thanksgiving. Had an incredible time with Mike, Julie, Ethan, Kelly and Jeff.

The boys went out on Saturday night for a cocktail (Ethan excluded). Mike had stumbled upon this place in his first weekend there after a satisfying day of unloading a moving truck. It's called Shelly's Backroom. Unremarkable from the street I would have passed it a million times without a second glance. Open the door and the intrigue begins. The light is dim, but warm and that feeling is helped by the natural looking log walls on one side, and matching wood doors of the humidors on the other. Yes, it is a cigar friendly bar, which is a total plus because who doesn't enjoy a cigar every once in a while? Seating is comfortable and classy, tables and couches in the main area not cramped, but it certainly wouldn't promote standing around between them, and a separate bar area. The music was predominately jazz standards with Christmas carols. All the greats were singing them, Sinatra, Bennett, etc. Most people my our age would say they can't relate, but I freaking LOVE that music. I could listen to it all day, and probably should set aside a day soon. In addition there are a bunch of HiDef TVs to enjoy football on. If you don't have HiDef, you need it. Food: Get the wings they are delicious. Drinks: Mixed to perfection. Put it all together and you've got an easy-paced bar with laid back folks, and none of the frat boys or future go-go dancers of America I prefer to avoid. So if you're in the DC area it's on F street you won't be disappointed.

Welcome to the Bill.

Kansas State University head coach Bill Snyder retired today after taking what Sports Illustrated called "the worst program in college football" to the brink of a national title. Cat fans everywhere appreciate the great things he has done, and will continue to do. Plans to rename KSU Stadium to Bill Snyder Family Stadium are underway, and it will be rechristened this coming weekend. I can't wait.

At least the dinner was free...

My former roommate Will, who works for one of the finest accounting firms in the land was out at a recruiting dinner last night when the topic of conversation turned to surgery. Now, I've known Will for about three years now, and never knew him to be the weak-stomached type. Apparently he is, because as they conversation continued between the recruit and Will's boss Will became quite queasy. Trying to fight hit, he sipped water, and let his mind wander to places other than the operating table. He tried, and tried, up to the point where he exclaimed, "That's it, I think I am going to pass out." As he said it his eyes rolled back, and down he went. The recruit, an attractive young lady by Will's account, rather than catching him as he slumped sideways in the booth, slid out of the way, and let him fall his head bouncing against the vinyl booth.

Thanks for the great story Will. I would recommend not hiring someone that won't catch a guy that passed out.

Graphing a relationship....

"Be Specific" with an akward flat-handed-arms-at-an-obtuse-angle gesture is how it all started about six months ago. What did it mean, we pondered. How does this fit into the bigger picture of the male/female relationship?

Well, as David and I were sitting at lunch enjoying Dos Reales the conversation turned to relationships, existing or potential (mostly potential) and perhaps we discovered it.

I'm not going to sell the farm, but I'll let you see the cattle. Basically, a relationship in all phases, can be explained graphically. We focused on the potential relationship. The x-axis is labeled time. There are two y-axis' one describes time spent together (increasing from bottom to top), the other describes thinking about/desire for the person of interest (also increasing from bottom to top). As the lines converge the 'red zone' is entered where action must be taken. In the red zone the male must decide if the desire and time spent have been matched by the corresponding female. If they do not match, clearly the potential relationship needs to be taken to the landfill, but if they do match the relationship must be defined in conversation and both must 'be specific'.

Obviously, there are other external factors, which can be graphed in squared and cubic functions. There's not enough room on blogger to explain variations, but you get the idea. Also, granted it's not perfect, but I'll let you chew on that for awhile and rip it apart in the comments section. Cheers.

Boston, we have problem.

Just when I was sure the Red Sox were going to entrench themselves atop the AL East and Major League Baseball (not that they've been far away recently) with Theo Epstein at the helm, he went ahead and turned down $1.5 mil for the next three years, and walked away from the Red Sox. There's a lot of speculation, but with the money reportedly left on the table there has to be way more than most of us will ever know. What I do know is that I am nervous for the next chapter. The checkbook is always open, but will the hand writing the check bring another championship to New England?