Today is July 1st...which means I can finally crack open my Led Zeppelin II and give it a listen.

Making room on my phone and I discovered some photos I meant to post here. The first couple are of advertisements that were up on the Whisky a Go Go club on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. Next group are from the Led Zeppelin displays at Amoeba Records in Hollywood. By the way, there are still plenty of Numbered Limited Edition Super Deluxe Box sets available at Amoeba. $129.99 each.

You bet it's American! Natch! Not taken the wrong way at all, Charles. I proudly ate every bite. P.S. That beans on toast thing sounds veddy British.

Spending the day with the godson, whose birthday is this week. Treating him to all sorts of goodies, hopefully watch the U.S. beat Belgium later this afternoon, and then meeting up with his dad and going to the Dodger game.

Robben may have accentuated a bit at the end, but don't forget the referee missed a clear penalty earlier, so it balances out in the end. It seems Jozy Altidore will go for the U.S.today, which is a good thing. Altidore is one of the few players on the U.S. side that looks like an elite athlete and not just some happy-sack-playing hippie they found at a Phish concert. U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

I miss Jack Handy.

^^^ I trust it was with your wife and not Jenna Jameson. Maple bacon doughnut and coffee to start the day.

DEUTSCHLAND!!! Germany vs. France in the quarterfinals. Should be a whopper.

Grrrrr. Extra time. Wo ist Klose?

^^^ I waa wondering when you would get around to posting a Maria pic, Rick. Grunt-grunt. Wimbledon seems to be Federer's last remaining hope in adding to his Major totals. Nadal OWNS the French Open and even seems to be Federer's equal on the hard courts of the US and Aussie Opens. The grass courts of Wimbledon are Roger's last stand.

Hup Holland Hup!!! Indeed, Kiwi...that was a helluva turnaround in the last five minutes or so of the match. Thankfully Netherlands vs. Mexico was the morning match so I was able to watch it before going into work yesterday. I was about the only one in the place cheering for the Orange...me and a waitress. Everyone else and definitely all the restaurant employees were going for Mexico. Nice win by France this morning. I thought Nigeria would handle the heat of South America better than France, and also use their size advantage better. From the ashes of South Africa in 2010 France Football rises again. Ok, at risk of ridicule, while waiting for Germany vs. Algeria to begin, I will publicly expose my World Cup incompetence by revealing my original WC brackets that I filled out before the WC began. Group Play Group A - Brazil, Mexico Group B - Chile, Netherlands Group C - Columbia, Ivory Coast Group D - Uruguay, England (yes, chillumpuffer and plantpothead, I truly believed) Group E - Ecuador, France Group F - Argentina, Nigeria Group G - Germany, Portugal Group H - Belgium, Russia Quarterfinals Brazil over Columbia Germany over Nigeria Mexico over Uruguay Argentina over Portugal Semifinals Germany over Brazil Argentina over Mexico Final Germany over Argentina in the rubber match...Argentina beating West Germany in 1986 in the WC Final and West Germany returning the favour in 1990. Of course, since 5 of my original Group Play winning teams didn't make it through, and some teams finished higher or lower than I predicted, I have had to make a new, revised bracket for the Round of 16 onwards.

^^^ Play "The Rain Song"...it'll make you feel better. Upon us all...

^^^ Yes Paul, I will.

I'm not a 15 year old girl...I don't even play one on TV...but might I suggest a day of frolicking at the beach, maybe rent some beach cruiser bikes to ride around in? Then at night take in a show...maybe take her to see the musical "Wicked"? Follow that up with a post-show nosh of coffee and tirimasu or cake and ice cream or whatever dessert you prefer. If the beach is out of the way for you, maybe take her horseback riding at your local equestrian center. I have never met a girl who didn't love horses. Good luck and have fun this weekend, E!

So once again, Mrs. CP comes to the rescue. You've got yourself a keeper CP. It warms the cockles of my heart...or the heart of my cockles...to see a happy couple such as yourselves, CP. I get the same warm, fuzzy feeling from planted and slavetozep and their respective beaus.

Every cloud has a silver lining. Typical good news bad news Angels...Trout BLASTS one out of the stratosphere but Halos still lose to Royals. http://m.espn.go.com/mlb/story?storyId=11147281

Damn. Missed the NHL and NBA drafts. All I know lately is that the Kings re-signed Gaborik for seven years.

It's Brazil vs. Chile first up today and as Robert Plant would say, I don't know which way to go. When in doubt, go with the home team I guess. Isn't there an Octopus in Germany that is famous for correctly predicting World Cup matches? Columbia will trounce Portugal now that the Biting Dog has been sent off the pitch.

Ann Coulter usually has me rolling my eyes but I was actually somewhat bemused by her attack on soccer: http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2014-06-25.html#read_more

What? You don't comprehend geek-speak?

I hate when that happens. Hope it doesn't happen to you often. Greetings and welcome back Ugra. Were you Ugra before or did you have a different username? Cheeky chap you are, CP! It is said "idle hands are the work of the devil", so good onya for getting some work. Congrats and may this lead to long-term work and a promotion in the future. TGIF!

Oh no. That is a long wait. Hope it is not too expensive. So I was writing up some Led Zeppelin posts for the 77 tour when an inadvertent elbow wiped out the lot. Entire afternoon wasted. I need a drink.

My copy...and yes, it sounds killer!!!! One of my favourite "Dazed and Confused" ever.

And "Pocketful of Golden" references his line in "Over the Hills and Far Away". Yes, the "Rainbow" track is pretty mellow (being in the U.S., it won't let me listen to "Little Maggie" so I cannot comment on that song yet), but that doesn't necessarily mean the entire album will sound like that. Some people seem to be in a rush to bury the project before it even comes out without giving it a fair listen. And frankly, Robert Plant is nearing 70...I really don't need any more lemon-squeezing and inches of his love anymore. There are plenty of young bands out there singing about drinking and fucking, if that's what you're after. I don't require my interest in Robert Plant to be predicated on him re-enacting 1973 in perpetuity.

This is the second or third article that Forbes has published recently about the Stairway lawsuit that truly shows intelligence and a sense of context, legal and otherwise, and doesn't just regurgitate the same old hack innuendos and misconceptions and inaccuracies that most of the other media outlets have relied upon. Well done Forbes, and thanks for posting it here, dimestoreguru.