We have a tradition around the Howell house that every Monday we go to our favorite German pub Prost!, one of Seattle’s four authentic German pubs. Only German beer on tap, served in its authentic glass by the 0.3L, 0.5L, and 1L.

I implore you to not only attend an Oktoberfest in your area, but to drink authentic German when you go.

Our German favorites, regardless of the time of year…

Spaten Lager
Bitburger Pilsner
Paulaner Hefe-Weissbier
Ayinger Oktober Fest-Märzen
Spaten Optimator

I’ve lived in Seattle exactly 4 years and 1 month. Next Friday, I will be moving for the fifth time. That’s nothing… Chelsea’s been here for 3 years and 3 months, and this will also be her fifth time to move. Between the two of us, we’ve lived in 5 neighborhoods, and 6 placed, in 4 years.

The good? We think we’ve secured a place on the side of good ole Queen Anne Hill, with a best view yet.

I open the live video feed of the Southern Miss-Louisiana Tech game, and this is the first thing I saw.

Yes, this is real.

WWJDITWNPBRATDB? (What Would Jesus Do If There Was No PBR At The Dive Bar?)

The Daily Mountain Eagle was in rare form yesterday, and I cannot let this opportunity pass me by.

You may remember when I put out a request for a Walker High Vikings Football hoodie. My wish was granted.

Friday afternoon I had a package arrive at work. Upon opening, I freaked out out. Seriously, I did an in-office fist pump, putting the hoodie on immediately despite the fact that it was already quite hot at my desk.

Big thanks to WHS Head Coach, John Holladay for making it happen.

Much thanks to my mother and father-in-law whose Christmas present was used Saturday. The Argosy Lunch Cruise was one of the more fun things we’ve done since we’ve lived in Seattle.

41 days until Halloween.
67 days until Thanksgiving.
96 days until Christmas.

In short: I don’t feel good about Kansas tonight. I don’t care if they lost to North Dakota State… our defense is worse than most high school teams’.

Southern Miss football is a fickle thing when it comes to the national TV spotlight. Therefore, I have a grueling stomach and headache every time we’re “blessed” with a national audience. Here’s some of USM’s good and bad when all of America is watching.

The Good

- Alabama in 2000 on ESPN?? We put up 21 points in the 1st quarter, holding on for a 21-0 win.
- TCU in 2003 on ESPN?? We knock off a Top 10 team, winning the conference at the same time.
- Illinois in 2001 on ESPN? Hard fought battle in the rain… and we win 23-20.

The Bad

- Nebraska (at home… we got NEBRASKA to come to HATTIESBURG) in 2003 on ESPN2? Lost 38-14.
- The Liberty Bowl against Utah from 2003 on ESPN2? We lose 17-0 and our quarterback kicked a guy in the chest.
- This little game from 2 weeks ago, which was only the first flipping televised football game of the entire NCAA football season.

Being 2,500 miles from home it’s difficult to get back to the South as much as I would like. This past weekend I dropped below the Mason-Dixon line for the first time since Christmas. In 2009, it was 10 months between trips to Mississippi and Alabama.

Being away for this amount of time makes for quite the memory-jogging session once we hit the tarmac. On our most recent trip I wrote down things that “stood out” as they happened. My top 3 are as follows:

1. Parking spots are huge. A blind man driving a semitrailer can effortlessly park in any space without fear of so much as a nicking of others’ doors. It’s heaven, and a luxury that larger, non-Southern cities aren’t afforded. In our first apartment in Seattle, Chelsea and I had a compact, tandem spot… as in literally bumper to bumper, door to door. It took the accuracy of a sniper to park, much less to enter and exit the vehicles. By month number two both Chelsea and I were trained assassins. Being in the South is like a vacation for my automotive habits.
2. People can still smoke indoors. This is where I’ll be openly judgmental. Allowing smoking indoors is senseless and makes every participating municipality to look quite foolish. Whether you’re a smoker or not, most of us loathe the covered-in-soot feeling we get after leaving a restaurant with a smoking section. And guess what… there’s no actual division between the two. No divider. No wall. Nothing. Change your ways, Desoto County. (You too, Jasper, AL.)
3. Chinese & Mexican food is on every corner. Not a bad thing. One can never have too much General Tso’s chicken chicken or fresh salsa. I just wonder how some of them stay in business. The strip mall next to our hotel had three (three!) Asian cuisine options of the seven storefronts.

Of all my favorite events from the wedding weekend, tweeting from Walmart was by far my favorite.

Here’s the story: I was in Olive Branch, MS. I got bored. I went to Walmart. I tweeted, with pictures some of the items I found. Glory.

You can view the session by searching the term #TweetingFromWalmart. It was an abbreviated session due to the dying iPhone battery that mine and every iPhone possesses.

My favorite item – Budweiser and Bud Light pajama bottoms – is above. Don Draper could sell these products with the tag line: “Budweiser pajamas… have on you, what’s in you.”