PHOTO: Reuters/Michael Dalder

Day 18

PAYING THE PIPER

When was the last time you paid for ketchup or mayonnaise at McDonald’s? For me, it was a few days ago in Frankfurt. It actually set me back 15 euro cents if you can believe it! And yes, you can get mayonnaise at McDonald’s to dip your French fries into. It’s an even bigger deal in Holland where I spent a whole month dipping everything into mayonnaise years ago.

Argentina fans alive and kicking.

I didn’t have the Royal with Cheese (a la the Pulp Fiction reference), but Baby Bruce did and liked it until I smacked him in the back of the head for finishing before I did. No word on how Ron is doing, I emailed him, but he hasn’t replied. Ron, if you’re out there…hope you’re okay. And don’t think your little episode got you out of the tab you owe me!

To the soccer…the Brazilians still haven’t extended themselves, but I do think that France is going to give them a heck of a battle in the quarterfinals. It was good to see France play some nice soccer and finally start putting the ball in the back of the net. But I was disappointed that it was at the expense of Spain, because I was really enjoying watching them play.

It's the new ketchup.

Still getting up butt-ass early…today was 5 a.m., but laid there until 7 a.m. thinking about how I missed out on getting to Amsterdam. Don’t know what to do with myself in the evenings, because I wasn’t even starting my days until late afternoon in Germany. It’s good to be home though, went and got a cup full of ice the other day to go with my soda (only little bit of ice in Germany). I’m ready to go back to Germany for the rest of the tournament now though, but don’t think I’m going to have too much luck convincing my publisher that I missed out on anything while over there.

Tomorrow: Beer-Cola.