I have never been a supporter of toy machines, the kind with the claw that never grabs anything, and that breaks more kids' hearts then when Steve from Blue's Clues got busted for smoking pot. You could go on a piggy-bank smashing spree all over town, and you wouldn't steal as many kids' allowances as those machines. Just a giant rip-off all the way around. Consequently, I haven't put a dollar into one of those things in probably 18 years, despite the fact that I work around 30 hours a week in very close proximity to one. I don't even look at the monstrosity, to be honest. Which is why I was unaware of the crown jewel that was laying innocently next to the exit hole for an unknown period of time. That is, until the other night, when the 17 year old kid I was working with, a hockey fan at that, commented matter-of-factly, "Huh. Dallas Mavericks 2006 NBA Champs. Pretty sweet hat." It didn't register for a few seconds, as I was currently deeply entrenched in ignoring him for the last couple hours. When I did realize what he said, I immediately ran over to the machine to inspect it. Sure enough, Dallas Mavericks, 2006 NBA Champs. I have always coveted sports memoribilia like this. One of my buddies from elementary school had an older brother who would always score stuff like this in the days before ebay, and, as a 10 year old, I was insanely jealous of his Buffalo Bills Super Bowl Champion shirt, among other pieces of relative crap. I wondered what they did with all the loser's gear, being told everything from "They drop it off in third world countries" to "They give it all to the losing team and they decide what to do with it." All I knew for sure was that they sure didn't sell it at Scheels or Gerrells. So, needless to say, this hat was gonna be mine. After putting in 50 cents and giving it the ol' college try, I quickly resorted to rounding up a couple guys and tipping the machine over until I had the hat (and about 9 stuffed animals.) Worth it.
The third annual Boston trip has been finalized, but this year T. Nels and I are bringing Kristin and Alex, which will undoubtedly de-emphasize the Sox juuuuust a little bit this time around. This was probably inevitable after last year, when we spent roughly 60% of the whole time at or around Fenway Park. As long as we get one full day at Fenway we'll be happy.
The last two years we stayed with Nikki Chu, but partly due to her moving to a different apartment (previously it was just a 20-minute walk, or 10-minute drunken sprint while racing the T, from Fenway) and partly due to the girls coming with, we got a hotel room this time. We had initially chosen the Ramada package, and were happy with that, as we were looking to cut costs rather than stay in a great hotel. However, to make a long story short (although why bother at this point; I just wrote a huge paragraph about fucking toy machines and worthless hats) the internet screwed up and we ended up walking ass-backwards into the Boston Park Plaza Hotel and Towers, which, from the pictures, will be one of the nicest places I've ever stayed at. It's closer to everything we want to do, and somehow decidedly cheaper than the Ramada. Jim 1, Internet 0.
Vegas has the odds at 3-2 that we stumble back at 3 AM and I try to play piano while T. Nels pees in the Christmas tree.
Ummm, do you think they have Schmidt's on tap at this bar?
