Money well spent?

A combination of work, weather, lack of anyone to go with and just general exhaustion kept me from going to the Trey/Matisyahu show tonight. I'm a little bummed, but the fact that I'm seeing Coldplay on Friday night takes away any sting from missing this show. If I had to miss a show this week, tonight was the one to skip.

But rather than let tonight's ticket money go to waste, I made a few more entertainment purchases, picking up the newly-released Madden NFL 06 for XBox. As part of the release date deal, I was also able to get Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic for the low low price of $4.99. Not bad for a game I've been wanting to play for a long time but have just never gotten around to renting or buying. Madden should be interesting. They've revamped the play this year, with a new passing system as the main selling point. Todd bought it today as well, so we should be able to learn the new features together with some online games. He feels the new passing mode is more difficult, so I'm curious to see what exactly it involves. As much as live pointyball can bore me to death sometimes, when it comes to fantasy football or NFL video games, I'm all about it.

I also purchased Nickel Creek's new album, Why Should the Fire Die?, and a 4-song live EP recorded for iTunes. I'm listening to it first time through, and so far, it seems a little more traditional than their last outing, This Side. Obviously, I'll need to give a few more run-throughs before I can really evaluate it, but anything that Sara Watkins sings on automatically gets at least a "good" rating. Highlight so far is "Can't Complain". Looking forward to their show here in October.

Also, good timing by Nickel Creek, since their release date happened to fall on my mom's birthday, thus making for an excellent and timely present. Happy Birthday, Mom. :)

MLS Alert: The Golden Boy suffers his first injury. Depending on who tells it, Freddy either twisted his knee last Saturday trying to dribble through two Chicago Fire defenders, or was cruelly scythed down by said defenders. Either way, sounds like he's recovering well, but it's a shame to see him get hurt just as he was starting to play the best soccer of his young MLS career.

And finally, because it's what I just ate for dinner, I just wanted to mention how much I love Panera's Sierra Turkey sandwich. The Bacon Turkey Bravo used to be the one for me, but since I've been trying to go a little easier on the old stomach lately, I'm trying my best to cut out bacon and onions. So these days, it's Sierra Turkey all the way.