Bellingham just won't be the same without...

Casa Que Pasa (those of you thinking "Paolo" get points, too). According to the Bellingham Herald, which receives points as well for writing its own story, rather than stealing one from the AP (but loses points for spelling Matt DeVeau's name wrong in the article):

"The restaurant, owned by Abel Jordan under the name Advanced Renovations LLC, owes the Department of Revenue $44,452 in unpaid taxes and penalties, according to documents filed at Whatcom County Superior Court. The company also has several federal tax liens, including $42,123 filed against it by the Internal Revenue Service in May 2005 and a $6,625 lien filed in April."

As a result, Casa had its business license revoked by the Washington State Department of Revenue and was shut down earlier this month.

Casa gained some press last December for openly detesting the state-wide smoking ban and earned international respect for its high-quality, low-cost burritos. I have fond memories, some blurred by tequila, of the restaurant. After meeting in the dorm, Matt and I ate our first meal together there. It was at that meal when I decided I would groom Matt into the womanizer he is today.

Let us all have a moment of silence for Casa's potent margaritas and potato burritos.

I had an eventful weekend. My band focuspoint recorded a demo on Saturday. You can listen to the songs on our MySpace page. We'd love some feedback. Thanks to those who already gave us their ideas. I think we'll be back in the studio next month to finish the job.

Later Saturday night, after some drinks at Boundary Bay, we played a great show at Chiribins. Our set was tight, and we stuck around to listen to the other bands, Bad Lucas and Armonikos. After closing the bar, most of our group went to our friend Luke's house for a party, but Chris (guitarist), Kristen (groupie), Danny (drummer, groupie) and I were tired and opted for Russian dumplings from Pel'meni instead.

On Sunday I did go over to Luke's house for a small party. There I met Luke's roomate named Stabbin Hobo. Make your mental pictures now, and be sure to include a kilt. Stabbin Hobo just got back from Flowmotion's Summer Meltdown, which is basically a retro-psychedlic concert/hippie festival near Arlington. Several thousand (often naked) hippies attended the concert and, combined, could have filled a pharmacy with recreational drugs. Stabbin Hobo said he got his orgy fix at the festival, which couldn't have been too hard. Naked hippies + drugs = sex. Needless to say, Stabbin Hobo's stories kept me entertained.

My rock stardom weekend has come to a close and I'm back in the work week. I'm looking forward to seeing roomates-to-be Katrine and Moos tonight. Hopefully, we'll have a celebratory drink for landing a house or apartment in Ballard today or tomorrow. We're keeping our fingers crossed.

Sometimes you have to break the monotony of work by pretending to be a dog, just before the CEO of the publicly traded company that just bought your company introduces himself.

As many of you know, my days working at the Ferndale offices of PRWeb are counting down. I'm in awe of the resistance my co-workers have had to my departure. It's a Che Guevara-esque spirit. I was flattered when they put "Paolo Can't Leave" signs up around the building. I am in slight fear that Cari & Co. will hold me at knife-point and threaten my life for leaving, but this has yet to happen.

I'm having no trouble at all finding people to take over my lease in Bellingham. I live at a very, very popular place. I put up an ad on craigslist.com the other night and within 12 hours I had eight people who wanted to see the apartment. I think I'll have someone locked in early next week.

I'll be moving to Ballard and living with Katrine and Moos. Katrine is working her ass off trying to get us a place and I really appreciate her hard work in between making out with boys and brewing coffee. Moos and I are in talks about sharing a U-Haul to move our stuff down, but we have to learn about move-in dates first. Moos, have your people call my people.

This is a good move for me to be closer to the friends and family I love and swim in a bigger pond, if you will. Watch out Seattle, here I come!

I'd like to give you all some short-term notice that my band focuspoint is playing a show in Bellingham this Saturday night. The show starts promptly at 10 p.m. The cost is $5 and, sorry children, you must be 21 to get in the door.

If you'd like to see Chris's face, instead of the back of his head in this picture, I'd recommend you come out. We'll be premiering one of the new songs I wrote in Greece. If seeing us play live isn't enough, we'll have free stickers available. What a deal!

Expect gas prices to jump on the West Coast, and global economics aren't at fault this time.

According to the AP, BP Exploration Alaska announced late Sunday it had begun shutting down 400,000 barrels of daily oil production at Prudhoe Bay in Alaska as a result of a corroded Alaskan pipeline owned by BP. This cuts Alaska's total crude oil production in half.

"Alaska usually supplies 800,000 barrels of oil a day to the West Coast refineries, or 30 percent of all the oil processed daily in that region, the Energy Information Agency said in its outlook — which should cause gasoline prices all over the country to rise," the article reports.

BP was already the target of a federal grand jury, the Environmental Protection Agency and congressional investigators for letting its Alaska pipeline crumble, resulting in a spill last March.

According to USAToday.com, "Even before the spill in March dumped 270,000 gallons of oil onto the Alaskan tundra, BP's maintenance of its pipelines had come into question. Company whistle-blowers reportedly raised concerns about how the company dealt with pipe corrosion as early as 2004, eventually leading to an inquiry into possible violations of the federal Clean Water Act by the Environmental Protection Agency's office in Seattle — an investigation that intensified after the March spill."

All that said, how is it that major oil companies are producing record-breaking profits, but no investments are made in maintenance that would have saved this lapse in production?