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Don't you miss the days when you received a trophy just for participating? Awards seem harder to come by as an adult, which is why I'll toot my horn for this one. It's signed by the two guys who are in charge of all Microsoft practices worldwide for my PR agency.

I must be doing something right, or at least I talk about the band enough for them to notice.

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Yesterday I had a good day at work. We had a suprise "off-site meeting," which turned out to be a wine tasting tour.

Wasting no time, we got on the Party Bus and started drinking.

We started at the classy Chateau Ste Michelle. Then we went to Columbia. We made our final stop at Silver Lake. After all that drinking, this group of innocent PR professionals got back on the Party Bus... to continue drinking and head back to the office. With 8 or 9 glasses of Washington's finest wines in our systems, we decided it was best to afterparty at The Elysian.Hooray for photo essays! More pictures are here.

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Huge news for local music: The Blue Scholars are releasing their highly anticpated new album "Bayani" June 12 under the Rawkus label. Rawkus is best known for putting out albums by Talib Kweli, Mos Def and the two rapper's duo effort as Blackstar.

Rawkus gave Blue Scholars mucho props in its press release:

Rawkus sees Seattle group Blue Scholars (MC Geologic and DJ/ Producer Sabzi) and their label MASSLINE being a huge part of this new movement. The momentum behind this group and the scene they come out of in Seattle is undeniable. Armed with a purpose beyond creating music for music's sake, Blue Scholars take the classic form of the emcee/DJ duo perfected by groups such as Gangstarr, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, Eric B. & Rakim while carrying the essence of militant, yet personal struggle shown by hip-hop luminaries such as Public Enemy and KRS-One.

This "Bayani" album is going to put Seattle back on the hip hop map. Sergio and I got to preview the record and it is cooler than a polar bear's toenails.

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I just received an email from Carol Brach, WWU journalism department manager. It reads:

Something funny happened here last week -- I would have taken a picture if I'd had a camera. The walls of Wright's Triangle, the sculpture just south of the art building were covered in snow. On each of the three outside faces, someone had traced the name PAOLO in the snow in letters five feet high. I thought of you and wished you could have seen it.

Well, well, well... It seems I still have some secret admirers on my old stomping grounds. Coincidentally, the wives are spending today in Bellingham.