Out with Matt, Bill and Kim at Memory Lanes. This place used to be Stardust Lanes as featured in Let's Bowl and even earlier was Hiawatha Bowl. Our waitress was trying to learn Spanish and wasn't doing so well although apparently "el jarro" is what a bunch of beer goes into when you order for four people or so. Bill owned everyone in Ms. Pacman afterwards.

Out with Krista and Seth who are in town for the holiday weekend. They're in the Minnesota National Guard but have been training down in Mississippi the last few months. They're getting sent to Iraq in the spring. I haven't seen too much of them lately as it wasn't long ago that they were serving in Kosovo. Strange saying goodbye again knowing I won't see them for a year even though their home is in Columbia Heights, MN.

Out seeing Rob Dewey and Test Type Trio. A strange rap group and The Feelin opened. I left around 12:30am before Guitarzan vs Bazzilla featuring Drumasaurus Rex played. Never thought you'd see a good show at The Annex, a venue I generally associate with top-40 dance club crap.

Out with Vanessa. She gave me a Bad Cat calendar with a cat driving a car. Meow.

She wanted to give a shout out to Rick Murray, the Free Movie Ticket Empresario of the City Pages Alternative Weekly, 1997-1998. She also gives a shout out to Timmy D and Meredith in the C-Grove.

I give a shout out to all the rockin' Texans with a toast of Lone Star Beer: Michael, Shelley, Shaun, Donna, Ben, Ben's Mom, Regan, Sami, Janna and former Texans Jenn and Elaine along with Totally Scrabble Hamil who is currently in Texas tonight.

Vanessa had an Easter Islander and I had a Paralyzed Polynesian. Arr num num.

I was able to get an exclusive behind the scenes pass to the MTN studios for the live broadcast of Totally Scrabble Tuesday. While it may be hard to believe, the entire show is run by two people: Totally Scrabble Hamil, the host, and Martin, the everything else guy.

A three camera setup: one for the board, one for the tiles belonging to the Minneapolis team and the infrequently used long shot of the studio are all that are needed, 100% unmanned.

As a lot of college students are away for the holidays, a number of new callers came in along with some very young children made plays. Sadly, a board that looked like "SIAL_RS" (underscore being blank) could have been an easy bingo with the word "SAILORS," pluralizing another word and using a double word score but the kids decided to build "TAIL" instead for an amazing six points. Martin cringed off-camera seeing how easily they could have locked an early strong lead.

Frequently callers would laugh and giggle and another asked the host what he was doing. Hamil said, "I'm playing Scrabble on television, with you!"

Another guy, who sounded high tried to spell "SNAIR. Like a snair drum." Of course, it is not in the Scrabble dictionary spelled that way. After it was looked up the verdict was announced, the caller said simply "Shit."

Lots of very intelligent callers tonight in other words and surprisingly Minneapolis held a lead on Hamil most of the night. Then again, Hamil's tray at many points were all vowels.

Another caller prematurely fired out his word "JIZ" when it wasn't his turn. When it was his turn, it was looked that up and it is not a valid word. The caller said "How about JUD?" Hamil replied while flipping through the dictionary, "I have a bad feeling about this one too."

The game ended in a tie and with a few extra minutes to spare where I was able to take Hamil's chair and answer random people calling.

Good times, and the show was followed by drinks at Mortimer's where we closed them out.

Back to the office today after a 4 day weekend and a good percentage of my co-workers are either on vacation or out ill. My cousin and aunt and other relatives are sick now too. We're not sure if it was something we ate or what. Either way, it is panning out to be a slow day at the office.

This morning I find that City Pages listed me as Minnesota Blog of the Day today which I think is reflective of what Rex said today on his Today's Miscellaneous Local Links post on MNspeak.com: "The [Minnesota] blogosphere is pretty dead right now." My friend Bill, who was Blog of the Day two weeks ago had better insight via AIM: "There are 365 days and less than 300 blogs on their list."

Either way, I appreciate the nod from City Pages.

Now I am proofreading Alex Eaton's forthcoming lit piece on health care designed by Tod Foley. While Alex has been spending the majority of his campaign at a very grassroots level -- talking with neighbors and delegates one-on-one and becoming a true conduit between the people he will be representing and the Minnesota Senate -- I am really impressed seeing Alex's ideas and plans being put into a solid piece by Tod. While many people that have talked to Alex about Health Care already understand where he stands and what he wants to do, this will help people in Senate District 62 that haven't yet met him or been able to talk with him about the issues. I can't wait for this to get released to the public as well as put on the website.

Tonight, I will be an in-studio guest of sorts on MTN Channel 17's Totally Scrabble Tuesday. If you have cable in Minneapolis, tune in at 11pm! I will post about it after the show.

Not many places open tonight so I'm sticking in with the cats and their new toys. Playing Literati with my cousin Deanna and playing Navy Commander with Lori. Matt is downstairs watching football. Everyone in the house enjoying Sparks.

Highlights:

My uncle drew my name for gifts and one of the gifts was a pair of coordinates that had me running around North Saint Paul on a multi-cache wild goose chase which eventually had me running back to the house to find a 6 pack of Sparks and a case of Fat Cat Lager.

Having my 14 year old cousin chat with this "girl" on AIM via my hiptop for a half hour and then he didn't believe my cousins and I when we told him she was a bot.

Losing twice at a very easy dice game while drinking Beaujolais Nouveau.

Getting a new popcorn popper from my grandparents and popping popcorn for everyone.