Shortly after returning from Denver where we celebrated a Red Sox World Series victory, Phil and I were on our way to Boston to see the much anticipated arrival of Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen as they joined Paul Pierce to take on Agent Zero (Gilbert Arenas) and the Washington Wizards. I believe Arenas had already predicted victory on his blog.


So we buy beer for the drive into Boston where we pick up our friend Rick and go to dinner at Bukharra, a fine Indian restaurant in Jamaica Plain. I had the Ghost Vindaloo with a Singha.

After dinner Rick went to use his points from his frequent Bukharra card but the processing machine wouldn’t work so we had to argue with the manager, and in the end all we got was a promise of $15 of our next meal if we bring back the receipt.

Afterwards we took the Orange line to North Station, and we drank more beer on the Subway. As it so happened we weren’t the only ones drinking on the subway either, as the Hispanic guy across from me had some bottle of hard liquor he was nursing.


So the TD Banknorth Garden gave us those towels to wave and we took our seats in the balcony and paid $6.25 for a beer. Before the game some of the Red Sox players came out with the World Series Trophy. I think we saw Tim Wakefield, Clay Bucholz, Manny Del Carmen, and Jacoby Elsbury.

TrophyPic1
TrophyPic2
TrophyPic3

We also saw some of the Celtics Dancers entertaining the crowd.

Dance Girls
Better view of the Dance Girls
A dark picture of Celtics championship banners

Warmup shots:



The Celtics played a good game with solid performances of the Big three as well some of the supporting players like Kendrick Perkins (whose cousin’s wife used to work with me).


Rick decided to repeatedly enforce his message to dismiss head coach Doc Rivers by yelling “Fire Doc!” throughout the game, much to the dismay of the guy in front of us who called him out on it. Rick then gave a thorough explanation of Rivers’ mediocre coaching and decision making throughout his career, and all three of us continued to yell “Fire Doc!!!!” just to annoy that guy the rest of the game. The crowd also seemed to enjoy starting “Gilbert Sucks!” chants at any opportunity.

KG

Lazymeatball


Phil has a scam at every sporting event where he signs up for the Boston Globe in full knowledge that they won’t deliver to his area (and thus won’t charge him) and in exchange he gets free stuff. This time he managed to negotiate the newspaper girl to give him a hat in addition to the usual jersey so I got to keep the hat.
Free stuff:

Phil then took a picture of some girl in the same row of us.
Celtics fan in our row

Afterwards we went to the Charles Playhouse for karaoke where I sang Foreigner’s “Cold as Ice.” I don’t mean to brag, but I did f*cking rock. Afterwards the DJ proclaimed that he had never seen anyone stop to do pushups in the middle of a song before.








Later we saw a place called Wang

Boston sports are the new evil empire, afaik.

Please take all your sport teams and bandwagon "I've been a fan FOREVER" fans and start losing.

Patriots go 10-0 at Buffalo Bills

After working 10pm Saturday until 7am Sunday I drove to western mass to meet up with Phil. The Pats@Bills game had been flex scheduled into the NBC Sunday night game which gave us a little more travel time.


At his house we loaded up on Jim Beam before we took off onto the New York Thruway until we made it to our hotel suite in exciting Rochester (where we took a few swigs) before continuing on to Buffalo. When we got close to the stadium we found some homeowner who was offering parking in his backyard for $15. It seems everyone on this street had an operation selling parking for the game, the guy we found offered Port-o-Potties and bonfires so we layered up and took a few more swigs. I packed a flask in the pocket of my thermal underpants and Phil stashed his thermos down the back of his leg as we walked into the stadium. The Bills fans in the parking lot were having a good time tailgating and booing us as we walked by. There weren’t any jerks, just devoted fans so I respect that. They were probably incensed by Phil yelling “10-0!” at any available opportunity (for reference, the Pat’s were 9-0 at the time).

Security was no problem for us and Phil began irishing up his coffee in the bathroom while I got a hot dog. The weather was fair in the low 30’s w/ some light precipitation but some of the ramps were pretty icy. Our seats were in the upper corner, but they were free through a friend of Phil’s business contacts so no complaints.


There were a number of Pats fans around us and the Bills fans seemed very loyal to their team as well as respectful to all the Pats fans at the game. We got to see O.J. Simpson,


and the Bills fan in front of us was outraged the entire game about how much time Brady had to throw the ball. Tom Brady

and Randy Moss


did their thing much to the chagrin of Phil’s fantasy team, while I used the Bills fan towel to conceal my flask as I did my thing, much to the chagrin of the chick in the seat next to me who found my public alcohol consumption amusing.



The bathrooms at Ralph Wilson stadium still have the long stainless steel troughs, and the sinks also somewhat resemble the communal urinals. Apparently management felt the need to paint this sign above all the sinks.


Now Phil who can out drink just about anyone I know apparently has a hard time pacing himself with hard liquor and got obscenely drunk. He then engaged the surrounding French Canadians in conversation using what little French he knew, which mostly consisted of the time he watched the Uncle F*cker song from South Park with French subtitles. The French-Canucker seemed confused when all Phil could talk about was ****ing his uncle, but seemed to enjoy conversing in his native tongue none the less.
The French Canucker with and without buffalo hat




Anyways, after witnessing the greatest performance of the Patriots all season in a 56-10 rout,


Phil felt the need to scour the stands for souvenirs, including this nifty rubber elvis mask as people around us called him a scavenger. We exited the stadium yelling “10-0!” this time to the tune of Zombie Nation’s Kernkraft 400 (the song that goes “who-a oh oh, oh whoa oa oa oh, ohwhoah oh-oh”)

From there we crashed at the hotel.

The next morning it turns out the only booze in our room was this weird Tequila Liquor which was totally gross but hey, it had booze in it so I was compelled to drink while I hit up the complimentary breakfast in the lobby.


Here is my tribute to the Ralph Wilson stadium bathrooms.


We went to a nearby Red Robin’s for lunch and got beer, and buffalo wings, and this crappy cheeseburger dip with pita and nachos which was pretty gross.

I also had a couple 22oz Killians. We told the waitress we would decide on our entrees after we finished our appetizers, so every ten minutes she came by and asked us what we wanted and we told her we were still thinking. We never ordered entrees. Also we managed to see Saved by the Bell’s Screech, played by Dustin Diamond working as a busboy.



I guess he never sold enough of those “D-Shirts” to save his house. W drunkenly wandered the mall for a bit then drove back to Mass.

Last year I went to a Mariner's game, but didn't take any pictures. I'll start on a trip report. Oh oh oh, when I was little we used to go to Sounder's games over by the Space Needle, that will make a hella current trip report!

excellent.

loved the sink tribute and approve of the green sweater. you are like a trip report machine lately.

The crowd seems riveted by your performance...


Seriously though, I always enjoy your TRs.

Drilled again.

Why no pictures of the mid-karaoke pushups? Great TR as usual.

TJ Eckleburg12,
Seriously, what are you talking about?

diddyeinstein,
I wasn't taking the pictures, but if it ever happens again, I'll get someone on it.

LM,

Pretty solid TR, and compared to anyone else brilliant, but I must admit that this was a bit of a letdown as far as LM trip reports go. Mainly, it was due to the relative lack of food, drink, and chick shots as compared to "standard" event shots.

Having said that, it was all worth it just for this. ****ing brilliant: "Phil has a scam at every sporting event where he signs up for the Boston Globe in full knowledge that they won’t deliver to his area (and thus won’t charge him) and in exchange he gets free stuff. This time he managed to negotiate the newspaper girl to give him a hat in addition to the usual jersey so I got to keep the hat."

These always deliver, well done. Although I have to say, going to Buffalo and then stopping at a Red Robin for wings is just wrong on so many levels.

Yeah, I much would have preferred getting authentic Buffalo Wings but for business purposes we were staying outside of Buffalo. I am never going to Red Robin again, its like an annoying version of Chuck E Cheese for adults.

And i really do reccomend Bukhara in Jamaica Plain. As much as we dick around with the management the food is always top notch. Especially compared to my dinner at Paradise of India in Amherst last night, not going there again.

Awesome, awesome, awesome!

I enjoyed the trip report.

LM,

Can you give an estimate of how expensive these trips are. It seems like you do these quite often, and in my experience these kind of trips can add up to a lot of money!

I gotta get me one of those buffalo hats

Outstanding. Your smuggling and public consumption of liquor is highly respected.

For Buffalo: a friend had free tickets and hotel room for busines purposes, as well as a company car and deductible mileage, we smuggled in whiskey, so costs for that were minimal.

11/07 Celtics game: cost of tickets $77 for balcony, + $6 beers and normal cost of dinner, about $20.

10/07 World Series was considerably more expensive:
Game 4 tickets $700, airfare $350, hotel $100 night for 2 nights (split by 2) plus heavy cab costs ($100) and 2 meals. then add in strip club.

10/07 Cleveland: travel costs of whatever 600 miles (each way) is in a 4 cylinder turbo (93 octane) +3 nights hotel (~$100/night split two ways) + playoff tickets $100/game for upper deck + meals and strip club. in city transport was minimal due to Cleveland's efficient subway system.

8/07 Baltimore: travel costs of 370 miles (one way, split 2 ways) + 2 or 3 nights hotel at Holiday Inn (~$100/night split 2 ways) game tickets were relatively cheap, around $20 for 2 games. then cost of meals ranging from $8 to $30 and individual booze purchases.

8/07 Yankee Stadium: $80 for upper deck seats, $10 beers in the stadium and $6 hot dogs. drove the 3 and a half hours there and back in one night.

6/07 San Diego: cost of renting a car for two days (~$30/day) plus gas from Las Vegas to SD and back. $50 for game day tickets.

1/07 Indy 2006 AFC Championship tickets $300, hotel for two nights, airfare around $250, meals around $12 per. + booze and stripclub costs.

Can't remember last years Toronto trip, plus Philadelphia, and the couple of NYC Mets game trips, plus Montreal bachelor party trips, oh and ft Myers spring training/ bachelor party trip (drove for 24 hours straight each way, gas costs/4, 3 nights hotel + lapdances at Babes).

Most trips are 2-4 nights, with hotel and travel costs split 2 ways. I predict away Red Sox game tickets to be in much higher demand this year. In the process of going to Japan in March.

bump

Solid bump imo. Always appreciate effort. With that said, I ****ing hate everything Boston.

EDIT - lol, assumed this was SE. OOT? Whatever, still liked the pics