Fifty-three, oh five for french toast??!?

Random Thoughts & Observations

2010-09-14T10:42:00.000-04:00

Ok. Now that week 1 is over, a few random thoughts in no particular order:

1. HELL TO THE YEAH!! Redskins beat the Cowgirls!! WOO HOO!!

2. Sorry. Had to get that out. So the team won, but got statistically outplayed. They had fewer run yards, fewer pass yards, fewer first downs, less time of possession and worse third and fourth down efficiency. But guess what? We also had a better turnover ratio. Then, of course, there is the most important statistic of all: points scored. That was where we brought it home.

3. Coach Shanahan spoke in his press conference about the importance of playing the game for 60 minutes. I agree with him that evidence of this statement is demonstrated in the last play of each half. The first half ended with DeAngelo Hall stripping the ball from Tashard Choice, then picking up the fumble and running it in for a touchdown. The game ended with Brian Orakpo being held while rushing the QB, nullifying a TD pass and ending the game. The two most important plays of the game, each played in the last seconds of the half, when many players could be thinking of packing it in and heading to the locker room. That's what a coach like Shanahan brings to this team: discipline.

4. I noticed, watching the highlights, that Hall and Choice are both #23. Funny coincidence. (Not "ironic." That's not what that word means. Just interesting. But I digress...). I also thought it was sweet that, after the TD, Hall ran to the stands and gave his mother a kiss.

5. The hold on Orakpo was a result of his charge to Romo on the last play of the game. If Alex Barron hadn't held Orakpo, it sure looked like 'Rak would have at least reached Romo and most likely sacked him. Game over anyway. Romo might have slipped out (like he did last year), completed the pass (like he did last year) and won the game (like he did last year). We'll never know. You know what? We don't need to know. Because we won. That's the difference between this team and the Redskins of the past five or so years. Incidentally, the guy who held Orakpo, Alex Barron... most penalized player in the league last year.

6. Graham Gano kicked a 49 yard field goal! Wow!

7. Speaking of field goals, early in the 3rd quarter, Skins kicked a short FG but Dallas committed a penatly. Shanny took the penalty (giving up the three points), which gave us 1st and 10 on the five-yard line. We were unable to convert the TD and so lined up for an even shorter FG. Unfortunately, the holder fumbled the high snap and we gave up the ball on downs. People are second guessing the Coach saying, "You never take points off the board." I have no problem with Shanahan taking the penalty. You get a chance for four downs to get five yards and a chance for seven points instead of three? Hell yeah! No one expects, even if you can't get the TD, that you'll not make a 15-yard FG.

8. Now, it's on to the Houston Texans. Kyle Shanahan, our Offensive Coordinator, held the same position with Houston last year. They're still running the offense he installed. So they know our scheme and we know theirs. Should make for an interesting matchup!

Brothers of the Legacy, and My Defense of Jim Zorn

2010-08-27T17:05:00.002-04:00

There was a very good show on Comcast SportsNet called Brothers of the Legacy. It chronicled the friendship of two Redskins legends, Sonny Jurgensen and Sam Huff. It was very good. One thing that struck me was something Sonny said about the one year that coaching legend Vince Lombardi was the head coach of the Redskins. Sonny said, "Lombardi, of the nine head coaches that I had, he was the only coach that simplified the game, instead of trying to complicate the game. It's executing plays. And that's what impressed me about him from the very get-go. Boy, this is a simple system, and it's successful, and why isn't everyone doing this?" I immediately thought of the last two years of the franchise under Head Coach Jim Zorn. Now... by no means whatsoever am I trying to compare Zorn to Lombardi. However, I was and still am a fan of the Z-Man. While I don't completely disagree with those who say that he was probably in over his head as a Head Coach, I do not believe he ever got a fair chance to demonstrate whether or not he could make it. From Day One, he was set up to fail.

A little background, for those who don't know: In the NFL, owners hire General Managers to manage the franchise, as owners generally know whatever business made them their money, and are fans of football. The GM, who knows football, then hires a Head Coach to run the team. Together, the GM and Coach hire a coaching staff, look at the personnel, cut players, bring in free agents, draft players from college and develop and implement offensive and defensive schemes. In the Zorn era (after Joe Gibbs resigned), owner Dan Snyder released heir apparent Greg Williams (who went on to be Defensive Coordinator of the Super Bowl champion Saints) and hired Greg Blache to run the Defense. He hired Jim Zorn (a QB coach) to be Offensive Coordinator. This was with Vinny Cerrato already in place as the de facto GM (I forget his actual title... EVP in Charge of Football Operations or some such nonsense). Then, he went in search of a Head Coach. Given his (apparently well-earned) reputation for interference, and his haphazard method of building a staff, he was unable to find anyone willing to step in to the top spot. So, he took a chance, and hired Zorn, who had helped build schemes for the Offense in Seattle, but had never been anything but a position coach, to be Head Coach, Offensive Coordinator and QB Coach. Many people harped on the fact that Zorn had three titles as a reason for his failure, but many NFL Head Coaches run the Offense, and Zorn had an Assistant who helped with the QBs, so I don't put much stock in that.

As I watched the team struggle through ten wins and twenty losses under Zorn, I listened to various fans and analysts expound upon the many reasons why they thought Zorn was inadequate as a coach. I don't think I ever heard anyone hit on what I believe to be the true primary cause of our woes. "It's executing plays," Hall of Fame QB Sonny Jurgensen said about the success of the team under Lombardi. Of the scheme, he said, "[T]his is a simple system, and it's successful." Vince Lombardi, a man who is thought of by many as the greatest Head Coach in the history of NFL football ran a simple system... and the players executed it. I can't even remember how many dropped passes, missed tackles and missed blocks I saw over the past two years. I can't count that high. I don't need to. The point is that the players played sloppy. They didn't execute. That is the true failure of Jim Zorn -- he wasn't able to motivate the team. Even that wasn't entirely his fault, though. It is common knowledge that many big name players (who shall remain nameless) had a direct line to owner Dan Snyder. How can a Head Coach maintain discipline when players can go over his head? He can't. People also point to the team's 6-2 start under Zorn and subsequent 2-6 record in the second half of the 2008 season, and say, "It was Zorn's system. By that point, everyone had figured it out." In my many debates about Zorn's tenure with the team, I have told people, "You could have ten basic plays, but if you run them well, you will win." Hyperbole? Perhaps. But my point is exactly the point that the legendary Sonny Jurgensen makes about the even more legendary Vince Lombardi. It's executing plays. For the past two years, the Redskins haven't been doing that. So a man with no experience is put into a losing situation with no support, and isn't able to succeed. Does that make him a bad coach? I don't think so.

Happy Birthday!!

2010-07-20T09:16:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday, Gail! Love you BIG!!

Salsa, Part III

2010-06-30T15:22:00.002-04:00

Ok, I know it's been a while. Shortly after the last post, I did indeed make my second attempt, as planned. The one change I made was partly planned, partly a happy accident. I wanted to make it a little spicier, so I was thinking I'd use the whole peppers, and not seed them. When I got to actually making the salsa, one of the two peppers I had bought was kinda mushy and discolored. I threw that out, and just used the one pepper, seeds, membrane and all. Wow, was that good! Just the right amount of heat. Very tasty. I haven't made any salsa recently, because we had some Screamin' Mimi's Sweet Hot Salsa left over from our Derby party. That's almost out, though, so round 3 should be coming soon! Hopefully, I can duplicate round 2's success...

Salsa, Part II

2010-04-26T17:23:00.003-04:00

So a couple of weeks ago, I finally did my salsa experiment. It turned out pretty decent. Not fantastic, but good. I brought it to a family get-together at my Mom's and everyone who tried it (including my bro-in-law, the chef) liked it. I kind of tweaked & adjusted as I went, but these are the ingredients and about the proportions that I wound up with:

8 roma/plum tomatoes, seeded & chopped
1 sprig cilantro
2 jalapeno or cerrano, seeded & chopped
2-3 cloves chopped garlic
1/2 chopped white onion
juice of 1/2 lime

I put it all in the food processor and pureed it, then simmered it in a pan for about 10-15 minutes. Only about half the recipes I saw called for the cooking at the end. I found it really added depth to the flavor and smoothed everything out. Much better.

So anyway, I got the ingredients, and I'm going to give it another shot. I think this time, I'm going to leave the seeds and membrane from the peppers in. I want a little more bite this time around. I think I'll puree it for a little bit longer, too. It was a bit thick last time. We'll see how goes round 2!

I'm Torn...

2010-04-04T23:36:00.002-04:00

Wow. The Skins traded a 2nd round draft pick this year and a 4th round pick next year to the Eagles for Donovan McNabb. On the one hand, I feel really bad for Jason Campbell. That guy has put up with a ton of shit from this team in the past few years. Anyone who has talked Skins football with me for more than 30 seconds knows I'm a big Campbell fan. On the other hand, I'm really excited about the possibilities of a QB of McNabb's level being on this team! With the way the young guns in the receiving corps coming on in the later part of last season, one has to wonder how much better they'll do with an offense like Kyle Shanahan's in place, and with an elite-level QB like Donovan throwing to them. I'm guessing this is the end of the Redskins part of Campbell's career. I can't imagine him staying after this. Hopefully, he can go to a team that will appreciate him, and give him some protection. Hopefully, he goes somewhere with a strong offensive line and kicks some major ass. Hopefully, in another division...

Salsa

2010-03-11T17:08:00.002-05:00

Ok, so for ages now, I've wanted to try an experiment in making my own salsa. I don't like the chunky, pico de gallo-type salsa. I lean more toward the pureed (mostly) type of tomato salsa (not salsa verde). Most recipes I'm seeing online don't specify the type of tomato. I'm thinking of using plum tomatoes, which I seem to recall someone saying was good for salsa. Some white onion, cilantro, jalapeno (or serrano) pepper, lime and probably some garlic. So I ask anyone who has made their own salsa, or even anyone who just likes salsa or knows anything about making it: Does that sound pretty decent? Any particular recipes out there that you particularly favor? Any proportions I should keep in mind, or warnings I should heed (e.g. use gloves for the peppers, add lime juice slowly)?

Kiwee Toolbar and Unlocker

2010-02-13T18:33:00.003-05:00

Ok, maybe someone out there can help me. Does anyone know what this damn Kiwee Toolbar is? It popped up a couple days ago. We did not download it, or anything else that it could have been piggybacking on. It just appeared one day. We used Control Panel to uninstall it, and it just popped back on the next day. Every time, it keeps doing the same thing. I tried Googling it, but every item that mentioned it either involved individually removing about 120 lines of code from the registry (which I don't want to mess with), or downloading another unknown program called Unlocker. So it's either deal with unknown, unwanted toolbar, or load questionable unknown, unwanted program to remove unknown, unwanted toolbar. Any suggestions?

Zorn Era Ends, Shanahan Era to Begin

2010-01-05T09:21:00.000-05:00

Well, it should be official today. Or, as rumor has it, if Buges announces his retirement today, then it should be official tomorrow. That would be the classy thing to do, so as not to overshadow someone who has been with this team for so long and has meant so much to it. So, they'll probably announce Shanny today. It will be interesting to see what he does, once he gets here. The scuttlebutt is that he's cleaning house in the coaching staff. Not shocking. I think we could stand some new blood with the assistants. Supposedly, he's bringing his son in as Offensive Coordinator, and Mike Zimmer from Cincinnati as Defensive Coordinator. Not bad. Cincy's got the 6th overall defense in the league. And.... really? The Texans (where little Shanny currently is OC) is the top passing offense? And 10th overall offense? Wow. Ok. Anyway, given our dismal record, and the flashes of talent we showed, I think a shake-up may do some good.

The real interesting part will be seeing what Shanahan does with personnel. GM Bruce Allen said in his press conference yesterday that the new coach (he refused to name him yet) would start off with the players here, implying that wholesale change is not in the cards. This could be good news, or this could be disaster. Word is that Shanahan likes to draft young QBs and mold them to his system. This could be a fiasco if he tries to do that here, at least right away. It seems glaringly obvious to me (and to 95% of the announcers and analysts on TV & the Internet) that our top priority needs to be the O-line. If that isn't addressed this offseason, it won't matter if we put Peyton Manning in at QB. Well, maybe not Peyton, but nearly anyone else. I've made my case for Campbell here previously, and my opinion hasn't changed. He was running for his life nearly all season and still managed to throw for over 3,500 yards, 20 TDs and only 15 INTs. If you look at what he has done when he got protection, you can see he's thisclose to taking his game to the next level. I say give JC the protection he needs and keep him around. If coach wants to mold a young QB, draft one in a few years and begin the process. If Shanahan comes in and addresses the line, I will be hopeful. If he comes in and tries to draft Bradford or Claussen, then my suspicion would be that Snyder's still pulling the strings and we're in for another tough year.

Decisions... Decisions....

2009-12-18T16:20:00.002-05:00

Well, it's that time of the year again. I have a Christmas gift card and Christmas cash. Now, I just need to decide what to spend it on. The first thing that popped in to my head was to buy a Nintendo Wii. Now, I'm not a huge gamer, but a few months back, I was at my friend Keith's house, and he has a Wii. We played Star Wars: Force Unleashed, and it was bad as a MoFo! That would be my primary reason for getting the Wii. Not only could I play alone, but I could connect over the Internet and play against Keith, and others who have it. Also, Wii has the Wii Fit games that you can use to get exercise & burn calories. However, as I understand it, the Wii does not play BluRay, like Xbox and PS3 do. I believe Xbox and PS3 will also stream Netflix movies. But PS3 is also $100 more expensive. There also remains the option of simply getting a BluRay player, and bag the whole idea of a game system. Or I could go another direction entirely. So, I pose the question to you, the audience. Which way do I go? Thoughts, please?

City of Brotherly Love

2009-11-30T18:18:00.002-05:00

Well, I had something exciting happen this weekend. We were in Jersey for Thanksgiving and Chrissy's Aunt Fran's 90th (!) birthday party. The original plan had been to head home late Saturday night, hopefully after the traffic had eased. However, at the party, we were talking to Chrissy's cousin Joe, who lives in Winchester, VA. Joe shares Eagles season tickets with a friend of his, and had been planning on taking his brother Mike, who was at the party too, to the Eagles/Skins game on Sunday. Unfortunately (for him), Mike had a flight leaving out early in the morning. Joe's wife, much like mine, would go with him and enjoy the game, but would rather him go with another real fan who will enjoy the game. After a little discussion, he asked if I wanted to go to the game! I'm sure he would rather have gone with an Eagles fan, but at least this way, he didn't have to find a sitter for the kids.

Fortunately for me, we had brought laundry to do, so I had one of my Redskins jersey's. And, of course, I had my Skins hat. So, steeling myself for plenty of ribbing, I met up with Joe and we headed to the Linc. I wasn't overly fearing for my safety for two reasons: 1) I'm not the type to come back at drunken idiots yelling at me. I'll just let it lie. 2) What were they going to say that I didn't already know? "Redskins suck"? I'd just shrug and say, "And?..." While I certainly think we have potential to play much better than we have, we are currently 3-8.

So we head to the park and look around for a parking spot. On our 3rd side street, we finally find a spot and pull in. There are two guys sitting in lawn chairs enjoying some pre-game beverages. Of all the possible spots on all the streets and all the fans milling about, guess what? One Eagles fan and one Skins fan! So we chatted with them as we ate the Wawa hoagies we picked up on the way in. Once we were done eating and pontificating, we headed to the stadium. As many people as we passed, I was surprised not to hear any comments until I was about a block from the stadium, when a police officer directing traffic shook his head ruefully, sighed and said, "I know you can't help it." This brought me to attention of another fan who called out, "Here's an asshole!" After that, I made it the rest of the way to the stadium relatively unscathed. A few times, I hears "Redskins... mumble mumble..." muttered under someone's breath behind me.

Before the game, Joe showed me around the stadium a bit. A little mini-tour. It is a very nice stadium. A lot more character to it than FedEx Field. There was HeadHouse Plaza, an area where various vendors hocked their wares while a band played on stage. In addition, there was an Interactive Zone with activities for kids, including Play 60 activities. I even saw a few Skins fans milling about, though not nearly as many as there were Eagles fans at FedEx four weeks ago. Inside, next to the pro shop, there was a hall of fame area that had names on the walls of past players, glass towers showing notable past players, photo collages showing key moments from each decade. In the South corner of the field was the Miller Lite Phlite Deck, where a band played at halftime.

After the tour, we headed toward our seats. Upper level, row 5. However, in our section, there is what I believe was an area for handicap seating, which took up the first four rows, and was lower than where our seats were. So, for all intents and purposes, we were in the front row of the upper level! Naturally, on the way there, I heard "asshole!" a couple more times, as well as "Redskins suck!" Once we made it to our seats, the people around us were very nice. The one exception being a Redskins fan two rows behind us. He was so annoying, I wanted to smack him, and we were rooting for the same team! He was much louder than I was, and repeatedly called for Philly players to get injured or killed. I'm all for healthy competition, and good-natured "insults" between fans, but he crossed the line. I don't want anyone (even Cowboys players or fans!) to get hurt or killed. I just want a good game, hopefully that the Redskins win. I did get a good game. Unfortunately, we lost 27-24. Not a huge surprise, but disappointing. On the way out, one Eagles fan in the row behind us even tapped me on the shoulder and said admiringly, "You guys played a tough game!" Guess that's about the most we're going to be able to hope for this season...

Letting Go and Moving On

2009-11-20T10:39:00.003-05:00

I was looking at my sporadic blog, and at my earlier post about our new cat, Mister. I realized I hadn't posted a picture of him here. I had put some pictures of him on my Facebook, but not here. There may be some people who see this who don't see my Facebook, and vice versa. So in any case, this is Mister:

This segues nicely into the subject of my post. I've been struggling recently with letting go. I saw a comedian (I think) a while back talking about friends who have died, and how long you should wait before deleting them from your cell phone. Oh, wait. It was George Carlin. It was his last special on HBO before his passing. Interesting. Anyway, in a similar fashion, I don't know how soon is too soon to change my digital presence to reflect Buddy's passing. I have a picture of Buddy for my avatar on several different sites to which I regularly post. I have a pic of Buddy as the wallpaper on my phone. A few times, I have gone to change it, wanting to put a pic of Mister on there. But I always stop before I do. I feel like somehow I'm betraying Buddy's memory by doing so. I know that's completely irrational, and strictly an emotional reaction, but there it is. So, how soon is too soon?

Some Stats on Jason Campbell

2009-11-17T18:19:00.004-05:00

Toward the beginning of the season, I had a discussion with another Redskins fan regarding Jason Campbell. Like many others, he stated that he thought Campbell needed to go. I disagreed, saying that the problem was the Offensive Line, not the Quarterback. We agreed that we would see who was right by mid-season. Now that we're into the 2nd half of the season, I went through some stats and put together an argument for my side as follows:

During the Kansas City game, when Campbell was benched at half, and Collins came in:

- Campbell was 9 for 16 for 89 yards. 1 sack, 1 INT, 0 TD. QB Rating 46.1
- Collins was 6 for 14 for 75 yards. 2 sacks, 0 INT, 0 TD. QB Rating 60.1

Last week against Atlanta:

- During the first half, the Offensive Line gave no protection. Campbell was sacked 5 times. Portis had 4 runs for 4 yards. Then, Portis went out with a concussion. Betts came in and had 4 runs for 14 yards The team had 1 FG. No TD.

- By all counts, Zorn and Bugel completely ripped the team for playing terribly (stating, among other things, "This is not Pop Warner football!"). During the 2nd half, the O-Line began blocking much better. At which point:
- Betts had 11 runs for 56 yards + 1 reception for 23 yards. Cartwright had 7 runs for 16 yards. The Line gave up no more sacks and team scored 2 TDs.

This week agains Denver, the O-Line blocked better than they have all year, and:

- Campbell went 17 for 26 for 193 yards. 1 TD, 0 INT.
- The Skins rushed for more yards than they had all season, and scored more points than they had since week 2 of last season.
- Campbell's QB rating for the Denver game was 100.3, which was better than the week 10 ratings for Joe Flacco (98.1), Payton Manning (97.4) and Donovan McNabb (93.7).
- Campbell's current QB rating for season is 87.9, which is better for the season than media darlings, such as Matt Ryan (78.8), Jay Cutler (76.0), Matt Cassel (75.3).

All of which is to say that I think Campbell is a good QB. I'm not saying he's Payton Manning or Tom Brady, he just needs an Offensive Line that protects him. He got that in the beginning of last season, and the Redskins went 6-2. He didn't get it at the end of last season, or the beginning of this season, and the Skins went 4-12 for that period. He got it on Sunday, and we beat the 6-2 Broncos, who were and are still at the top of the AFC West. I rest my case.

Mister Update

2009-09-25T11:46:00.002-04:00

First big kitty news, Mister had his first vet appointment yesterday. Well, not exactly his first, but his first with us. He had two vet appointments in NJ before coming down here. But this was his first time seeing our vet, Dr. Shah. It was so cute. We walk in a couple minutes after 8:00 a.m. (our appointment was at 8:00), and there is half the staff waiting to see our new boy! They all loved Buddy so much, they were all excited to meet Mister. Naturally, they all thought he was adorable.

He was very curious about the new surroundings. He jumped on the exam table, jumped down, did a few laps around the room, jumped on the counter, jumped down. At one point, he tried to jump up on the top edge of a corkboard on the wall. That didn't work out so well. But he was able to push off before falling down and he landed safely back on the exam table. Best of all, though, he got a clean bill of health from the doc. Yay!

Even though he was really good while he was there, he still wasn't too happy about the whole experience. When we got home, he pretty much ran for the bed and stayed there most of the day. He seems to have settled down now, though, and he's looking forward to a visit from his Aunt Noelle this weekend.

Vacation and New Beginnings... and New Beginnings?

2009-09-14T13:44:00.001-04:00

Well, we're back. We spent last week at the beach in Wildwood, NJ. Naturally, it rained almost every day there. Of course, except for Friday, when we were packing up to head back. But, as the old saying goes, a bad day at the beach is better than a good day at work. Seriously, though, vacation is vacation. I always feel that you can't control your circumstances, you can only control how you react to them. Whether we were able to sit out on the beach, or were stuck in our room, or wherever else we went, it was up to us to have fun. And so we did. We went to the Naval Air Station Wildwood Aviation Museum at Cape May Airport. We went down to the Boardwalk one morning when it hadn't started raining and rode rented bikes. We played Rummikub. We visited Douglass Fudge for the first time, where I found that the fudge well exceeded that of any other I have tasted. In fact, they have sugar-free fudge that tastes better than any other regular fudge I have ever tasted! (sorry James). We finally got to try chocolate-covered bacon from Laura's, after seeing it on Dinner Impossible! Everything really is better with bacon.

We did finally have to come back. But we were not alone. As you know if you read this blog, last month, we had to put our beloved Buddy to sleep. Well, about four or five months before that, a young cat began loitering in my mother- and sister-in-law's garage. After a several phone calls, discussions and back-and-forth decisions, they decided to keep him. Not for themselves, but for the unfortunate, inevitable time after Buddy was no longer with us. We knew we would want another cat at some point, we just weren't sure how soon. Well, a month later, we knew we would be in NJ for our shore vacation, and decided to bring Mister home with us when we came back. They had taken him to the vet, so we knew he was a healthy, neutered male about two years old (sadly, many people in that area drop unwanted pets off in the countryside, rather than find homes for them or take them to shelters). It has been just over a day, and he seems to be adjusting pretty quickly. After the initial lap around the apartment looking for the way back to the garage he knew, he worked is way under our couch. He stayed there for about an hour, before finally coming out. He walked around again, trying to figure out where he was. He eventually got used to us enough that he sat in my lap for a few minutes. Then he wandered again, eventually ending up on the couch. He spent most of the afternoon sleeping (he had a rough morning), with periods of waking up to explore. He still hasn't eaten or drank much, but we're hoping that, as he gets used to the fact that he is safe here and his food is safe here, his appetite will pick up.

The other, fortunate-yet-unfortunate new beginning was the new football season which began this weekend. The Redskins lost their opener to the Giants 23-17. The game really wasn't as close as the score and stats might indicate. They looked fairly outplayed in many aspects of the game. I don't know what happened to the much-touted West Coast Offense that we displayed to great effect against the Steelers' 1st team in preseason. It looked like Zorn had abandoned the passing game and reverted to the Gibbs run run run game. The "upgraded" defense looked like it got some of the big plays (a sack and 2 turnovers) it wanted, but at the expense of basic good play across the board. DeAngelo Hall got an INT, but missed several tackles that let big plays get by him. Haynesworth created some pressure, but not enough to collapse the pocket on the QB as we wanted. Orakpo was virtually invisible all night. I certainly hope this was just a rough beginning and we'll shake the rust off next week. There's no reason we shouldn't beat the Rams next week, but then again, there was no reason we should have lost to them last year!

Sad News and Angry Letter

2009-08-26T15:00:00.002-04:00

As I'm sure most of you are aware (especially those on Facebook), we had to put our beloved Buddy to sleep. To make a very long story short, he was at least 15 years old (we never new for sure exactly how old) and diabetic. Toward the end, he stopped eating and drinking, and was so weak he could barely stand. We really did try everything we could (antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, testing his blood sugar) to give him (and us) as much time as possible. We finally had to let him go. It got to the point where it was not going to be fair to him any more. It was a difficult decision, and the first time either of us had to make that decision, but it had to be done. By the time we actually brought him to the vet, his condition had deteriorated to the point that neither of us had any doubt that we did the right thing. It was tough for us, but right for him. *sigh* Very sad.

Ok. That was the sad news. Now, the angry letter. An angry e-mail, actually. A while back, I had been noticing some delays in the turnaround of the movies on our Netflix queue. I went back & forth with Netflix customer service sending me non-responsive form letters that had nothing to do with my problem. Someone finally answered me personally, that Netflix was sorry, blah blah blah, if it happens again, let them know, more details, yadda yadda yadda. It happened occasionally after that, but for the most part was fine. Recently it has gotten worse again. So I did a little looking on my history and wrote back to them. Maybe you can tell me if this happens to you, too. When we return a movie, we put it in the mail, Netflix receives it the next day, then ships out the next movie later that same day, we receive it the following day. Three day cycle. One day each for shipping each way. What I have noticed is that during periods when we watch a lot of movies, suddenly, it takes two days for them to receive our returns. This month, we have returned eight movies (with a ninth on the way back). Our last four movies were mailed on two consecutive Mondays, but Netflix didn't show them as received until Wednesday, which means we didn't get the next movies until Thursday. This only seems to happen when we exceed about five movies in a month. What I suspect is that, when our frequency of return becomes to high, they will receive a movie, but hang on to it for a day before officially marking it as received. The more movies we can get out of them in a month, the more processing they must do and the more postage they have to pay. If they can slow us down a little, it saves them money. Maybe if we get fed up enough, we'll upgrade our membership and they can make even more money.

Hmm. Just thought of something else. I didn't think about until I was just writing this post. I'm sure they will say that they have no control over the Post Office, and it's probably just random delays. The one problem with that, which I did mention in the e-mail, is that the delays only occur when our frequency of rental increases. The other problem, which just occurred to me, is that the shipping delay never occurs when they ship us the movies. Only when we return them. That would be a pretty big coincidence...

Borrowed Time

2009-08-10T00:27:00.003-04:00

Well, we got some bad news from the vet today. It's a pretty safe bet that our Buddy has an abdominal lymphoma. In other words, a cancerous tumor. It was a fairly emotional morning. Our vet, Dr. Shah, is really wonderful. I think he's really trying to get us to realize that it's not going to be much longer. There was some discussion as to whether we should put him to sleep today. The other options consisted of nothing (where he would waste away to nothing), Prednisone (which would have had too many side effects), Metacam (an anti-inflammatory, which would hopefully alleviate some discomfort or pain he may experience, and allow him some quality for what time he may have left). So we decided to go with the Metacam. We'll see how that does for him. We also got an antibiotic, since he seemed to be displaying some of the same symptoms he had before when he had a mouth infection. We hope that between the two medicines, he'll start to feel a little better and start eating better. When we can get him to eat, he seems to perk up quite a bit. The problem is getting him to eat. If all goes well, and everything works as we hope, we're still probably only looking at a couple of months. But for now, he's home, and he doesn't seem to be in any pain or discomfort.

Redskins Training Camp

2009-07-28T10:09:00.002-04:00

Well, it's almost upon us. Camp starts this Thursday, I believe. (Why it starts on a Thursday, I have no clue.) I've thought about going to Fan Appreciation Day, but I think I'll pass. a) Don't want to go solo. b) It's going to be hotter than Hades, not to mention humidity roughly equal to that of the Atlantic. c) The older I get, the more crowd averse I get.

As we get closer to the season, naturally, all the prognosticators have to put in their $0.02. Not too many people are giving us much of a chance. I think the collapse of the O-line in the 2nd half of the season is looming large in everyone's mind. I, on the other hand, think we'll do much better than last year. I certainly hope so. Of course, I am optimistic. I am a fan, no? In any case, it's not entirely without cause. Our defense, already ranked 4th last year, has added Albert Haynesworth. He should draw double, sometimes triple coverage in the middle, meaning someone else should come free to go after the QB. His presence also should effectively shut down (or at least limit) the middle lane for RBs. We also added Orakpo on the line and Daniels is back and healthy. In the secondary, we re-signed Hall and Rogers has had a full offseason of working on a healthy knee. No question our defense should be greatly improved over its already spectacular performance last season.

The greatest question marks appear on the offense. Here's why I think we'll do better this season. Campbell is in his 2nd year under Zorn. His handling of the off-season shenanigans of Snyder & Cerrato shows his maturity and determination to be the leader of this team. I think he will make great strides this season. Last year's rookie receivers are now healthy, know the system, have adjusted to NFL speed and have had an entire offseason to work with Campbell. I think they will step up and give defenses someone to cover other than Moss. Portis, as usual, is a machine (though I don't get the new look...). Another 1,000+ season. The O-line is the only area of concern. They've certainly gotten younger, with the release of Jansen & Kendall and the return of Dock. The question is, will they gel as a unit and stay healthy? If they do, I think there's no limit to what this offense can achieve. Apparently, Madden 10 agrees with me...

Two for Two!!

2009-06-23T20:36:00.003-04:00

For the second night in a row, Larry Michael read one of my questions on Redskins Nation!! Last night, I asked if the Skins would consider putting Rock Cartwright in on punt returns. Tonight, in response to the recent press release regarding the changes in the parking and tailgating rulse, I asked what the shuttle situation would be this year. This time, they didn't use my last name, but they still said "Michael from Crofton." Those were my only two emails so far, so I guess I'm going to have to come up with some more questions.

I'm Famous!!

2009-06-22T22:18:00.003-04:00

Most people who know me (and many who don't) know that I am a big Redskins fan (and season ticket holder!). There's a show I've been DVR-ing and watching on Comcast SportsNet called Redskins Nation. It's a nightly show, hosted by Larry Michael, who does the play-by-play on the Redskins radio broadcasts. Every show, they do a segment with fan questions. People can write in and ask questions, and Larry and the Official Redskins Blogger, Matt Terl, answer. Tonight, they led the segment with a question I sent in last week! They even said my full name and location, so there was no doubt it was me! Yaaayy!!

Double Lobster

2009-06-22T13:27:00.002-04:00

I guess any weekend where you have two lobster meals can't be all bad. On Saturday, Chrissy's company had their annual summer gathering. This year, it was at the National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland. They have a Fosters Clambake tent right by the water. I think I heard that the clambake goes on every weekend, but they rent out for groups on occasion, too. In any case, they had the company picnic there on Saturday.

They served clam chowder, steamers, lobster, grilled chicken for the non-shellfish peeps, corn & potatoes with blueberry cake for dessert. The weather in the morning was very cloudy and icky, and "they" were predicting possible intermittent showers through the day, and temps around 91. I think that scared some people away, as somewhere around 1/2 the people who had RSVP'd that they were coming didn't show. Fortunately for us, that meant that, as we left, there was lots o' lobster leftover, and they began giving it away! So we each took one home with us and warmed them up yesterday! Yummy!

Facebook v. Blog

2009-06-05T10:04:00.002-04:00

I was updating some info on my blog, when I realized I hadn't updated in forever. I realize a lot of this is due to now being on Facebook. I hadn't realized quite how long it had been, though. I guess all I can say is that I'll try to do better... Right now, though, I need coffee.

Back from the Bluegrass!

2009-04-10T15:07:00.002-04:00

Granted, it was only 5 days off (2 of which were the weekend, so we had them off anyway), but a vacation is a vacation... even if it's just a mini. Chrissy and I took a few days off work and went to Kentucky to see some horsies. We left early early Thursday morning from BWI and flew into Louisville. We picked up a car there, and headed to Churchill Downs, where they run the Kentucky Derby. We did the walking tour, and visited the Derby museum, where I ran into a woman who was doing research and taking photos for a book she is doing on things to do in Kentucky. She took my picture on a racehorse simulator, so I may appear in a photo collage in her book! Then we went to Woodford Reserve distillery. Woodford is the official bourbon of the Derby. Nice tour and nice tasting there. I won't go into full details on everything, or this post will be more like a novel.

Highlights - we visited the following stables: Vinery, Three Chimneys and Darley. We visited Old Friends, which is a retirement farm for former thoroughbred race horses. Spent quite a bit of time with Michael Blowen, who started and runs Old Friends. We went to Keeneland race course on Saturday. Went to the Kentucky Horse Park on Sunday, and took a horse park tour (including Winstar Farms). We had dinner at Malone's steakhouse (a Top 10 in the Country on a few different lists). I tried bison for the first time, at Ted's Montana Grill, not Malone's (pretty good - not as tender as beef, but similar flavor). One of the funniest things that happened was when we were at Vinery. We saw a horse there named Repent. I went to pet him, and he moved his head around. Didn't quite try to nip my fingers, but not far from it. Then, I went to scratch his chin. Well, that must have just been the magic spot for him, because the moment my fingers made contact, he about fell into a trance. He became perfectly still. After a bit, I stopped, and he began moving around again. Then I went for the chin again, and sure enough, he froze. Cracked me up! Check it out...

Anyway, overall it was a very good trip. Saw lots of horses, had lots of good food. Did a lot of running around, though. Now, we're trying to catch up on our sleep. Not doing a very good job, I might add. I think I need another vacation.

P.S. Congrats to Sharon & Steve! They finally made it home yesterday after a long, arduous process to adopt their new daughter from Russia. Welcome home, Victoria!

Happy Birthday Buddy!

2009-03-24T17:06:00.003-04:00

Today is the 15th birthday of our cat, Buddy! Actually, since Chrissy was his 3rd or 4th owner, we don't really know how old he is, but based on estimates from his vet records, and pictures of when he was little, we estimated. Also, I'm not sure how, but I seem to remember having some sort of indication that this was the time of year he was born, so we just picked this day... He's getting up there in years, and he's definitely slowed down a bit, but he's still doing pretty well. He's still seems happy. He's still interested in food. He eats, drinks, and uses the litter box. He still sleeps on my chest every night. Actually, he starts on my chest, then moves down to my legs, then (usually) will move on to the bed at some point, but not always. Occasionally, the alarm clock goes off and he's still on my legs. :-) He's so sweet...

Country Week

2009-03-18T11:02:00.001-04:00

I'll keep this brief, since I'm home sick. It was country week on Idol, with mentor Randy Travis. Oddly, no one sang a Randy Travis song. Michael sang Garth Brooks. They're always saying they want to see what kind of artist someone will be, and Michael showed it. Good job. Allison sang Blame it on Your Heart. The song was a bit old for her, but at least none of the judges mentioned her age! Woo Hoo! Kris, Danny, Anoop and Megna all kicked ass! Lil was ok, but seemed a bit uncomfortable. Scott wasn't great, but he keeps going through, I think, because no one wants to vote against a blind guy. Alexis did pretty well, but the judges weren't crazy about her performance. Matt did well, but not as great as the judges thought. Adam was just weird. He sang some weird middle eastern arrangement of Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash. I hated it, but then I'm biased. I can't stand him. We'll see what America thinks. I'm hoping he goes home, but I could see Allison or Lil going home instead.

What the Hell is Wrong with PETA?

2009-03-13T11:27:00.001-04:00

Did you hear about this? PETA wants to make Clooney-flavored tofu, called CloFu. Seriously. Not a joke, people. They apparently got a hold of a gym towel that he had used to wipe down after exercising. Now, normally, what would be your first thought upon finding such a trophy? Sell it on eBay! I'm sure some fanatical Clooney stalker would pay $300 for a hermetically sealed baggie containing a moldy towel dripping with George Clooney's sweat. But no. Some genius at PETA decided a better use for the towel would be... to... take the sweat and make... tofu? Yeah. That makes sense. Aside from the fact that making anything edible from anyone's bodily fluids is enough to make the average person vomit, I don't see the connection. Clooney doing voiceovers for Budweiser? That, I get. He's a man's man. Men want to be him, women want to be with him. So an all-American beer is the kind of product people might associate with him. But tofu? Sweat-flavored tofu? Aye yi yi...

Group 3

2009-03-04T13:04:00.001-05:00

I don't know if previous seasons were like this and I just don't remember, or if it's just an odd season. Lots of lackluster performances by very talented singers. Lots of bad song choices. Not a lot of clear cut favorites. Von was good, but still a bit shouty for my tastes. Taylor was ok, I think. Don't really remember, which isn't very good. Alex is nice, and a good singer, but it was a bad performance. Arianna was just a mess, and I think she knew it. Ju'Not was very good, but I don't know if it was good enough to go on. Wild card, maybe? Kristen took all the soul out of Gimme One Reason. In her intro clip, she introduced herself as a karaoke host, and it absolutely showed in her performance. Nathaniel can actually sing, but is very very annoying. Big time Drama Queen. Ick. Felicia, on the other hand, was fantastic. Great performance, great look, great vocals. She's my first pick to go through. Scott sang Bruce Hornsby, big surprise. I think he struggled. Lots of pitchy parts. He seems nice, but I think he gets by in the competition because of the blindness. Based on his performances in Hollywood, I wouldn't have sent him through to the finals. If he could see, I don't think he would be where he is now. Kendall was hot. That's about all I can say for her. Jorge was great. Best of the men's performances, I think. He's my #2 pick. Lil Rounds finished off the show with a bang. Smokin' hot, fantastic voice. She's my 3rd pick to go on. Easily the best of the night.

Second Group of Twelve

2009-02-26T16:04:00.000-05:00

Another night of underwhelming performances and poor song choices on Idol. Jasmine started off with a disappointing perfomance of a poor song choice. Matt, the dueling pianist, stunk up the joint. Jeanine, who I never even heard of before last night, struggled through Maroon 5. She did have nice legs, though. Nick... aye yi yi. What can I say about Nick/Norman? Great voice, fun to watch, but definitely should not be going through to the next round on this singing competition. If I were in this competition, singing my heart out, and he went through and I didn't? I'd be pissed. Allison did a serviceable job on Heart, but it's not 16 Year-Old Idol. They must have mentioned her age about 10-15 times. They did the same thing with Jordan Sparks. They should not be judging based on how well the do for their age. They should be judging based on how well they sing. Period. Kris, I thought, did an excellent job singing Man in the Mirror. I thought it was among the best vocals of the night, and liked the arrangement even better than the original. Megan did a fantastic job singing Corrine Bailey Rae. I really like her. She's soulful, unique, memorable. Definitely the best of the night. Matt did ok singing Tonic. I like Matt and he seems like a nice guy. I just don't know if he did well enough to go on. Jesse did pretty well with Bette Davis Eyes, but I can see Simon's point. Not the most memorable. Kai is another nice guy who just picked the wrong song and had a pretty boring performance. Mishavonna did the same. I don't see the attraction to Adam. I think he's very annoying and shouty. I didn't care for his performance at all. I think Kris and Megan were tops for the night and Jesse should be the next highest. That's what should happen. What will probably really happen will be Allison and Adam will get the most votes and Megan will go through in 3rd.

Quote of the Day

2009-02-18T16:37:00.002-05:00

From Entertainment Weekly's summary of last night's Idol: "Since my surest bet of the night is that two men will advance to the top 12 on Wednesday night, that means only one woman will be able to join 'em, and I'm putting my money on Alexis Grace, a contestant whose transformation from perky young mom to black-slip-sporting sexpot won't be seemingly complete for the judges until Alexis installs a stripper poll [sic] at center stage and works it like a nine-to-five. Seriously, how many ways can this woman be asked by the judges to dirty herself up, or to make love to her fiancé before she's got a legitimate sexual harassment suit on her hands?"

Too funny! Seriously, though, Alexis was hot. Not just physically, but the performance. She should definitely go through for the ladies. Danny should be a lock for the guys. In fact, he's my early pick to win the whole shebang (not to be confused with She Bang, by William Hung). My money's on Noop-Dawg for the #3 spot. I pray to all that is holy that tonight is the last we see of Hyena Girl (a.k.a. Tatiana).

Star... Wars...?

2009-02-09T22:02:00.002-05:00

This absolutely cracked me up! Apparently, this guy found out his friend had never seen Star Wars. He was going to show her, but she decided she had seen enough of it from clips and such, and she didn't need to see it because she already knew what happened. So, like any good friend, he recorded what she said, and created a brief animation showing what she was describing.

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

I think my favorite part is when Amber mentions The Force, and we see the formula F=MA (Force = Mass * Acceleration, for those that don't know). Followed closely by when she mentions the "dark side" and Joe shows the album cover for Dark Side of the Moon. This is a must see for any Star Wars fan!

Ok, Now THIS Really Ticks Me Off

2009-01-30T16:32:00.002-05:00

Apparently, some folks are upset with President Obama because he thinks Washington overreacts to ice. Well it's true! People in this town f-ing flip out over one snow flake! Hell, last year, they cancelled schools one day because snow was predicted for the next day. As usual, the weather people were wrong, and it was a clear blue sky the next day. Have you ever had to go to the grocery store and suddenly realized that someone had predicted snow? It's a madhouse! Bread milk toilet paper! Bread milk toilet paper! It's like a mantra that shoppers chant. You would think people would be housebound for a month the way they act.

The worst snow I've seen in this area was the blizzard of '77, when the snow was around 5 feet deep. There were drifts up to the roof of our cape cod. My sister and I dug a maze in our front yard. We dug a trench by the road so we could throw snowballs at cars (at least until our dad came out and yelled at us for doing it). Even then, the roads were cleared by the end of the week. One week! I've lived more or less paycheck to paycheck most of my adult life, and it's been a rare time that I didn't have enough food in my apartment to last me through one week. Granted, it might not have been stuff I would be thrilled about eating. I might have had to live a week off of year-old soup, peanut butter (with or without bread & jelly) and ramen noodles, but I could make it.

I used to work at Blockbuster and it was just as bad there. People would run each other over to grab the last copy of Gator Bait II ("Cajun Justice"!) off the shelf, just so they would have something to watch. These are people that if, a week before, you had said to them, "I will give you $10 if you watch Gator Bait 2," would have told you to take a hike. Seriously. Gator Bait II: Cajun Justice.

I've heard all the criticisms. I don't buy 'em. "It's because he's new here. He just doesn't understand." Well, I've been here 35 years and I don't understand. "People here come from other areas that don't get snow. They just aren't used to it." I came here from Hawaii. "We don't get that much snow here, so we're not prepared for it." I get just as much or as little snow as anyone else in this area and I still think it's absurd. People. Here. Just. Friggin'. Panic. Plain and simple.

Oh, back to what really set me off about the Post article. The quote from the Associate Head of Sasha & Malia's school, "No question, the president is right. The next time it snows, we would like to invite him to help us make the decision. His involvement will make it much easier to explain to our students why they won't be able to spend the day sleeping and sledding." Maybe the president should rethink where he sends his kids if the administration at Sidwell Friends thinks that's what school is all about.

I Am Brilliant

2009-01-25T22:47:00.002-05:00

Ok, I know it's not very modest... I'm just feeling pretty good right now. We recently had some computer issues, and had to buy a new one. When we got the old one back from the shop, and had to get our data off it and on to the new one, we had a problem. There were mother board issues with the old one, but the hard drive was fine. We just couldn't get it to boot up. After doing a little research online, I thought it would be possible to move the drive to the new computer and set it up as a secondary drive. Upon opening up both computers, it seemed it might not have been as easy as I thought to access some of the cables necessary to move the drive. However, I was able to unplug the drive on the old comp, disconnect the drive on the new comp, then connect the old drive to the new comp. This allowed me to copy some files onto a flash drive I had purchased, then, upon reconnecting the new comp drive, to move the files there. Granted, I had to move the files in batches, since the old hard drive was 80G and I the flash drive was only 4G. The drive wasn't full, and a lot of what was there was Windows and other programs. I think the actual data took probably 10 switches or so. It was a little slow & tedious, but given that I have virtually no formal computer training, I was pretty impressed with myself!

Post Office

2009-01-24T18:23:00.002-05:00

Y'know... usually, I'm the first one to defend the Post Office. I think that, if you consider the number of articles that travel throught the postal system every day, and the fact that you can drop one small piece of paper in a box on one side of the country, and within about 1-4 days, it can reach any address in the entire country, all for $0.41, that's pretty damn amazing. I think most people take it for granted. Really, if you think about the number of letters, post cards and bill payments you send out every day, and the number of letters, fliers, bills and such that you receive every day... when was the last time you sent something that never made it to its destination? Doesn't happen too often. Last month, however, on December 15, I spend %5.45 to send a letter by Priority Mail with Delivery Confirmation. I realize it was during the holiday rush, but still. The guy at the Post Office actually took the letter from my hand, entered everything in the machine, and put the envelope into the bin. So I had no chance to screw it up. He did everything for me. Well, guess what? To this day, the track and confirm page only shows that my envelope was accepted for shipping. I have called 3 times to have the envelope investigated. Each time, I have been told that someone will contact me by the end of the next business day. Twice now, I have received no call. My third call was Friday, so they have until COB Monday to call me. I'm not holding my breath. What's even more frustrating is that, when I called yesterday, I asked if I could speak to someone directly, rather than waiting for someone to call me back (since that obviously wasn't working too well). I was told that they couldn't put me through to anyone, but that if I didn't get a call, I could call back and ask for the Consumer Affairs Division. So guess what I'm doing Tuesday? I still think that the Post Office is a good deal in general, but I think the next time I have an important letter that needs confirmation, I'll send UPS for FedEx. It might be worth the few extra dollars.

Rom-Zom-Com

2009-01-08T15:55:00.002-05:00

Who ever heard of a Romantic Zombie Comedy? Apparently S.G. Browne has. In fact, he may have invented it. He just finished writing Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament (to be available on Amazon on March 3, 2009). Breathers is a story of Andy Warner, every day guy just like you and me. Except that he recently died in a car accident. To most people, that would be it. Not for Andy. Three days later, he woke up ("reanimated") and got out of his coffin. Fortunately, his parents, despite the social stigma of having an undead son, picked him up from the SPCA and took him back home. Check out Scott's website for the book, and you get an idea of his style. From what I can see, he's dark, sarcastic and pretty damn funny. The book reads kinda like the dark shadow to HBO's True Blood (though Scott wrote his short story, A Zombie's Lament, a year before Charlaine Harris wrote her first Sookie Stackhouse novel). Of course, that's just my initial impression, based on the site. Long story short, check it out. Looks great. While you're there, enter the contest to win an autographed Advanced Reader's copy of the book. I am!

Merry New Year!!

2009-01-06T13:53:00.003-05:00

Ok, so I'm a few days late. One major reason is that our computer is currently in the shop. We dropped it off just before we left for New Jersey for on New Years Eve. My mother-in-law doesn't have a useable computer and we're used to that, so it wasn't as big a deal for the 4 days/3 nights we were there. When we got home, though... Eeee. So weird. It's scary how quickly and easily we become dependent on computers. In the meantime, email, web surfing, Facebooking and blogging suffer.

So the Redskins finished 8-8. Could definitely have been worse. We really had no business losing the games to the Rams, the Bengals and the 49ers. By all rights, we should have finished 11-5, second in the NFC East and with Philly's wild card slot. But... we didn't. I'm actually ok with it. If you had told almost any Skins fan at the beginning of the season, with a young QB and a rookie coach, that we would have finished at .500, I think they would have been estatic. Then, we went 6-2 to start, beating the Cowgirls and Eagles on the road. Everyone got unreasonable expectations which, being the Redskins, we naturally failed to live up to. Overall, I don't think we did bad. Our defense finished 4th in the league, I believe. Campbell, in his first full season, made vast improvements over last year and finished right around the middle of the league. Portis finished 4th in rushing. Zorn had some growing pains, but acquitted himself rather admirably IMHO. I think we have a good foundation on which to build next year. I think our biggest focus in the offseason should be shoring up the O-line. We got some great veterans, but for linemen, they're too old. Either through free agency or definitely through the draft, we need to get some guys in there that won't tire out as the season goes on. The D-line probably needs some work, too, but offense is what needs the most attention. We'll probably lose a few high profile players, and we'll certainly need to renegotiate a few contracts. If Taylor, for instance, isn't willing to step back from the $8M that he admitted he wasn't worth, I doubt he'll be around next season. It's a shame, too. I really would like to have seen what he could do if he stayed healthy and focused.

In other, somewhat football-related news, I got 2nd place in my office football pool. Yay! Not much else going on in non-football news. Guess we'll see what the new year brings...

It's Official

2008-12-14T16:15:00.003-05:00

We suck. I realize we're only 7-7, but this is the second time we've played pathetically against a sad, lousy team. Previously, we lost to the winless (at the time) Rams. And now we lose to the Bengals, who had only one win going in to today's game. It's really sad. I don't know what the problem is. We've got the 2nd or 3rd rated RB in Portis. We've got the 2nd rated TE in Cooley. We've got a top 10 WR in Moss. We've got a top 10 QB in Campbell. Our defense is one of the tops in the league in several categories. But our offense just can't seem to get it together.

Stephen King's Dark Tower

2008-12-10T16:20:00.002-05:00

I'm a little sad... Anyone who has read one of my various online profiles knows that one of my favorite books (or series of books) is Stephen King's Dark Tower series. In said series, there exists in our world a vacant lot in NY City. Amid the rubble and garbage of this lot is a solitary rose. If you have read the books, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, it would take too long to explain the significance of the rose in this lot. When people walk by the lot, it's like they hear a choir of angels singing in thier heads. It puts them in an inexplicably good mood. They don't know why they are happy or where the joy comes from. They just know the world seems a bit brighter when they walk down this particular street.

Anyway, for the past few months, there has been a vacant lot next to my office building. This lot is strewn with rubble and refuse. On the fence in front of this lot is a sign for the company of Greenbaum & Rose. When I walk by this lot (about 2-4 times a week), it reminds me of the significance of this rose in the vacant lot in the books. That is, to say, its importance is that of the survival of all reality.

When I walked by the lot yesterday, for the first time, the fence door was open. there were workers laying down blacktop. When I walked by today, the job was complete. No more rubble. No more glass. No more garbage, though knowing D.C., that will soon change. The fence is half hanging off its posts. No more fantasies about the rose in the vacant lot. Now, it's just another section of D.C. street.

Too Funny!!

2008-12-02T14:38:00.002-05:00

Ok, so I'm reading a list of E-Exclamation Point's Best of 2008 Top 10 whatevers. The last one is Top 10 Time Sucks. Lo and behold, two of my favorite pastimes are at #'s 9 and 10! Love! It! Of course, posting this, I am now thinking that this makes my life sound pretty pathetic... Oh well. If you're reading this post, you've probably read others on this blog, and already knew that.

Say, that reminds me, I know my last post seemed a bit random. I don't know what made me think of it, and looking back, I realize that without some sort of context, it seems an odd thing to post about. Then again, as I said above, if you're reading this post....

"I sweat when I eat"

2008-11-26T13:54:00.002-05:00

My favorite NYPD Blue quote, and one of my favorite all-time TV quotes. Ever the smooth talker and ladies' man, Andy Sipowicz tells his future wife, A.D.A. Sylvia Costas (whom he had previously told, "'Ipso' this, you pissy little bitch!") that he sweats when he eats. They're having dinner, on their first date no less, and he doesn't want her worrying that he's having a heart attack or dying on her, but simply that he sweats when he's eating. Naturally, she falls for him hook, line and sinker. Who wouldn't?

Speaking of flawed cops, and really, Sipowicz was the prototype for the modern flawed police detective, the series finale of The Shield was last night. My God, this show kicked ass. As is par for the course, it wasn't the ending I expected, and it wasn't the ending I thought might happen because it was the opposite of what I expected. As usual, they come up with a third option that is more fitting for the characters and the story and completely blow me away! It wasn't exactly a happy ending, but it wasn't as slam-bang an ending as one might have expected, given how the series started off, but damn if it wasn't a fine piece of writing. It also appeared that the writers put in little tidbits for the loyal fans to let them know that they appreciate the people that stuck around for 7 seasons. Not huge scenes, but just little asides. For example, toward the end, Julian is riding down the street with his partner, Tina (who will always be Maria Quesa Dilla to me). He looks over and sees a gay couple holding hands and playfully laughing. It is a reminder that, while it was not something that needed to dominate his character, or become the defining characteristic, the writers haven't forgotten who he is. He is a cop. He's the senior officer to his rookie partner. He's a black man. He's gay. He may not be open about it, in fact, he is in denial. But it's there. I thought it was a nice touch. One among many. Damn, I'm going to miss this show.

Hopefully, Just the Beginning...

2008-11-25T17:10:00.002-05:00

We've done it before. Hopefully, the Redskins' 20-17 win over Seattle on Sunday will be the beginning of our end-of-the-season win streak. Hell, I'll settle for 4 of the last 5. That would put us at 11-5, which would probably get us a wild card berth. Unfortunately, the way the Giants are playing, I think they'll clinch the division. We'll see. Maybe this Sunday will be the beginning of the Giants' downward spiral. *crosses fingers* I won't be holding my breath. We just weren't looking crisp. We did well enough to win, but Seattle was 2-8 and struggling. We can't do "well enough" against a team like the Giants. We gots to bring our "A" Game. Fortunately, we tend to play to the level of our competition. Earlier in the season, we beat the Eagles by 6 (when they were still playing well), and the Cowboys by 2 (both on the road). Then we get beaten by the Rams at home. So who knows?

In non-football news, I'm very sad that one of my favorite shows, The Shield, is ending tonight. After seven seasons, the finale is tonight. For seven seasons, Michael Chiklis has been portraying Vic Mackey, L.A.'s toughest, most morally ambiguous cop (this, from the guy who played The Commish!). He sums it up perfectly in season 1, when a suspect asks if he has come in to play "bad cop" and he responds, "I'm a different kind of cop." He really manages one of the most subtle, nuanced characters on TV. He does things that make him seem irredeemable, yet he doesn't completely lose our sympathy. It is a credit to the writers as well as to the actor that the character is as good as he is. It is a crime that in 6 seasons so far, he has only been nominated for an Emmy 3 times, and has only won once.

It's Snowing!!

2008-11-21T13:57:00.002-05:00

Yaayy!! Ok, it's just a light flurry, but it's snow nonetheless. I love snow. Chrissy keeps saying she hates it, but I keep trying to tell her it's not snow she hates, it's ice. And, of course, the idiot drivers who freak out when they see one flake and drive 10 mph in a 55 zone. Or the idiot drivers who think just because they have an SUV, that it's safe to drive 85 in a 55 zone in 3 inches of ice. Or the jackasses who freak out when there's even a forecast of snow and run out to the store to buy bread, milk and toilet paper, like they're going to be holed up in their homes for the next three weeks... But the snow itself, I love it! Yaaayy!

I guess if this is my worst problem....

2008-11-21T12:05:00.005-05:00

I'm doing ok. So, as you can see from the list on the right, I have a TV few shows that I watch. Well, the list is about to get shorter. The other day, My Own Worst Enemy got cancelled by NBC. Yesterday, it was Pushing Daisies. Then, as I type this, I realize that the last episode of The Shield is next week. *sigh* Well, at least 24: Redemption is on this weekend (are we going to have to call it 26 now?). Then Lost and Big Love are coming back in January. I guess I'll be fine.

Of greater concern, however, is the Redskins' loss to Dallas on Sunday. It was nice to see CP in the game, but I'm not sure what's up with our O-line. No pass protection for Campbell whatsoever! D-line isn't getting any pressure on the opposing QB, either. Though I read an article yesterday about Defensive Coordinator Greg Blache, and he said not to expect a bunch of sacks this year. His philosophy is basically to stop the run and guard against the big plays in the secondary. As long as we do that, he's happy. I guess since our defense is ranked 4th overall, I can't complain. Now if only our offense can pick it up...

Facebook

2008-11-14T11:46:00.003-05:00

I think I'm beginning to see the fascination of Facebook. It's kind of like mini-blogging, but more immediate. People don't have to actually go to your blog page. Any updates just pop up on their own home page. I can't even imagine what those pages look like for people with hundreds of friends. I only have 15 (at last count) friends on my Facebook. Is that sad? I'm sure I will accumulate more. I've only been playing with it for less a week now. Chrissy went berserk on her page last weekend, so I thought I would check it out. I'm enjoying it so far. We'll see if the interest sustains.

I'm excited about the Skins game this weekend. This will be my first Skins/Cowboys game. I'm in my 2nd year as a season ticket holder, but last year, I threw my back out the day before the Dallas game and watched from an emergency room bed. Fun times. Turned out being Gibbs' last game at FedEx Field, too. Bummer. But, God willing, I will get to see Zorn's first Dallas game at FedEx!

Colin Powell

2008-11-07T14:53:00.002-05:00

Ok, I will be the first to admit that I am not overly knowledgeable about politics. However, a few weeks back, when I watched Colin Powell announce his support of Barack for President, one of my first thoughts was, "In return for the support, I'd love to see Obama appoint Powell as Secretary of Defense." I think he'd do a great job. He would certainly be a popular choice. I don't think anyone could claim that he wasn't capable. I just wonder why his name hasn't come up yet. The only other name I am familiar with that has been coming up has been John Kerry for Secretary of State. Works for me!

Happy Anniversary!

2008-11-05T11:14:00.002-05:00

Today marks three years of marriage to my wonderful, beautiful wife. Between that, and the election results, this has been a pretty good week. Only thing that could have made it better might have been a Redskins win Monday night. But that might have been bad news for Obama. Ah well. Given the choice, I'll take the loss if it means Obama wins. So here's to the last three wonderful years and hopefully an even better next four years!

President Obama!!

2008-11-04T23:51:00.002-05:00

Wow. I am speechless. I was so nervous tonight. When the initial numbers started coming in, at one point, with nearly 40 million votes in, there was only 320,000 votes separating the candidates! As the night went on, the numbers separated and President-Elect Barack Obama pulled farther and farther ahead! As I type now, Obama is projected (by CNN) to have 338 votes in the Electoral College to McCain's 155. I really hope that he can accomplish even 10% of what I think he is truly capable of. It is an amazing day in America. It is a great day!

Blache-isms

2008-10-31T22:40:00.003-04:00

Since Coach Zorn has come to town, much has been made of his open enthusiasm, and frank style. Lately, though, Greg Blache has been giving Coach Z a run for his money. After we beat the Lions (holding them to 57 yards rushing, and 274 yards overall!), he said that, "We played like the south end of a northbound skunk." Did I mention he holds the defense to a very high standard? In reference to how beat we looked after the game, he said we looked "like the Confederate army going home." In reference to the fact that the Skins have sacked the QB 10 times this year, he said, "We applied for a job at Giant and couldn't get it because we couldn't sack groceries." Then, to describe our general style of play, "We've got to wash our face, put on our makeup and comb our hair, or nobody's going to ask us out. We’re not that good looking." Then, of course, my favorite, when someon asked him if he had aspirations to a head coaching job, "I have no interest in a head job. All I want to do, I want to win Dan Snyder and the Washington Redskins a Super Bowl championship, that's my goal. Past that, a good glass of wine, a good Cuban cigar, and hell, life is beautiful." Gotta admire the man's taste...

Ugh...

2008-10-30T12:20:00.000-04:00

Someone Has Way Too Much Time on Their Hands!

2008-10-29T13:27:00.002-04:00

I don't know which is worse, that someone took the time to create this, or that I took the time to post it. You make the call... Say, that reminds me, does anyone else remember those old "IBM Presents: You make the call..." snippets during NFL games? They would show a clip of some controversial call from a football game, and ask whether the ref made the right call or not. Then, they would pull some obscure rule out of their asses to justify why the ref made the right or wrong call. Those were pretty cool. I'd like to try those again, now that I actually understand the game. Back then, I just watched because my Dad was watching.

A Skins Win is Like Pizza and Sex

2008-10-27T21:43:00.002-04:00

Even when it's bad, it's good. It may not have been pretty, but yesterday's 25-17 win over the truly pathetic Lions was still a mark in the W column for the Skins. We tried like hell to give it away (8 penalties for 67 yards, 2 fumbles, 1 lost), but in the end, the Lions couldn't overcome the fact that their entire team did not cover as many yards as Moss (140 yds receiving and an 80-yd PR) and Portis (126 yds rushing and a 6-yd reception). Did I mention Campbell (230 passes w/ out an INT - knock wood) had a near perfect game (23 for 28, 127.4 QB rating)? Did I mention CP became only the 2nd player in NFL history to run over 120 yards in 5 consecutive games twice in his career? The first was OJ. Even with all that, we went in to the locker room at the half down by 4 points. Not only that, but we were the first team all year to allow the Lions to score in the first quarter! Previously, they were outscored 55-0 in the 1st Q. Yet, somehow, we managed to pull a win out of our asses. I worry about next week's game against the Steelers, but hopefully, we will continue to play to the level of our competition, and bring the pain.

Dare I Say It?

2008-10-12T08:34:00.002-04:00

Ok, so we kicked ass in a way that I didn't think possible against the Eagles. I was worried after that 14-0 start. Forget that the 2nd TD should have been called back due to penalty. It wasn't. Who knows how the rest of the game would have gone if it was? Now, we're going into a 3-game run (2 at home) against teams with a combined record of 1-11! That means there's a better than good chance that (dare I?...) we're going 7-1. Especially if we can stick to Coach Zorn's mantra of Playing Medium. We didn't get down on ourselves after going down early in the Eagles game. We didn't get too full of ourselves after beating the early Super Bowl-favorite Cowboys.

Every week, I'm increasingly impressed with Jim Zorn. I like the aggressive play calling. I like the honesty when he gets to the microphone. I like the enthusiasm for the game. I really like his willingness to let banged-up players rest, so that they'll be healthier for the long run. Along with that, he has the confidence in the 2nd and 3rd string players that they will pick up where the starters leave off. Most of all, I like the attitude he instills in the players. He loves the game, has fun with the game, and he lets the players know that yes, he wants them to have fun too, but most of all, he won't accept anything less than their best on and off the field.

So. Not to be overconfident, but I think we'll win today. And the next two weeks. I won't go into predictions past that. GO SKINS!!

Skins/Eagles

2008-10-05T12:54:00.002-04:00

Well, it looks like it's gonna be a tough day today. Big win against Dallas last week, but today's going to be rough. First off, there's the drop-off after such a big win last week. It's going to be difficult to sustain the energy after that. Second, Westbrook is back for the Eagles. So is LJ Smith. For us, Springs is out. Taylor and Heyer were expected, but Springs was iffy through Friday. Also Marcus Washington's inactive for today. That's a lot of injuries. Key for us is going to be our O-line. Johnson's D is aggresive and one of the toughest in the league. Our line has got to open holes for Portis to run and keep Philly off of Campbell. If we can keep our QB off his ass, we will have a shot. Unfortunately, I think our streak of 0 offensive turnovers will end today. I hope not, but I think it will. Our secondary is going to have its hands full without Springs.

Cool Weekend

2008-09-22T17:43:00.006-04:00

Well, I would say this was one of the better weekends we've had in a while. As background, back in April (I think), we went on a behind-the-scenes tour at Pimilico Race Course. During this tour, we were taken to one of the training stables, which due to budget restraints, have now moved to Laurel. Anyway, we met an adorable and sweet horse named Gammy's a Winner. Of course, once everyone found out that Gammy was racing that day, they crowded around him, fussed over him, got him all riled up and so on. So naturally, he got worked up, kicking his stall, wasting all his energy, and came in last. Chrissy and I still thought he was adorable, though, and continued to follow his progress. Well, we found out he was racing this past Saturday at Laurel, so we decided to go see him. Our friend Tonya joined us. Tonya didn't bet, she was just there to see horsies. Chrissy and I bet some, but realized early on that it wasn't going to be a good day for wagers. Fast forward to the 9th race - Gammy won! Not only did we basically recoup our losses for the day, but as we're cheering, his owner, Donald Metzger looks up from the Winner's Circle. We asked if he was Gammy's owner, to which he said he was. We told him how we met Gammy on the tour and had been following him ever since, so he says, "Oh? Well come on down and get in the Winner's Circle with me & Gammy for the winning picture!" Our jaws dropped! We immediately ran down into the Circle for the picture. After the photographer (Jim McCue - good guy) took the pic, Mr. Metzger told us he'd get an extra copy of the win photo for us! What a cool guy and what a cool day!

Then, as if that wasn't cool enough, the Redskins beat the Cardinals 24-17! The offense looks like it's coming together. Campbell is looking poised in the pocket, and best of all, is showing some pocket awareness. O-Line is giving him some time to scan through his options. Defense is looking good. D-backs are, for the most part, covering well. They're up for a challenge this week, though. Because this week is... DALLAS WEEK! We have two tough games back to back, against division rivals, on the road, against two of the best teams in the league. If we can really step it up, though, I think we have a shot.

Here are my "4 Keys to the Game." 1) The secondary really needs to jam the receivers at the line and cover TO like nobody's business. I'd rather give up five 10-yard receptions to Witten than one 50-yard pass to TO. Keep the long ball out of TO's hands and he'll be pouting like a baby on the sidelines. 2) D-Line needs to shut down Barber. He's too explosive to let him get a head of steam on his runs. 3) Most of all, we need to pressure Romo! Drop him on his ass a few times, get in his face. Make him make bad decisions. For all the talk about how wonderful he his, let's not forget that this is only his second full season as a starting QB. Watch any Dallas game when the opposing team can get pressure on Romo and you'll see that he will get flustered. 4) Finally, Durant Brooks needs to play like he's in the NFL. If we have to punt, we can't let the Cowboys start off with good field position. Pin them back in their own end zone! I know we have the ability to do all of the above. The team has demonstrated all of these abilities at one time or another. Now, we just need to bring it all together at once. I know we can do it. Hail to the Redskins!

Well...

2008-09-18T22:07:00.002-04:00

It's been about three weeks, and hardly a day goes by that I don't think, "Oh, I'm going to need to blog about that." Three weeks later, I've blogged about nothing and damned if I can figure out one thing that I was planning on blogging about.

Ok, one thing - The Redskins. We lost the first game against the Giants. We played pretty piss poor in the first half. The second half, the offense was still struggling, but the defense picked up a bit. As an optimistic fan, I look at the game like this: We were playing the defending Super Bowl champs, we had a new coach and our young QB was learning his 7th new offense in 8 years. We held the Giants scoreless in the second half and only lost by 9 points (7-16).

Second game was our home opener at FedEx Field against the Saints. Being a season ticket holder, I went to the game. I took my sister Gail, who is a big Chris Cooley fan. It was hot as balls out there! It was also insane!! Today (Thursday) was the first day my voice started to sound normal. Actually, someone did ask me this morning if I had a cold. Again, the defense looked pretty good. Offensively, we had a fairly lousy first half. I don't know what happened, but about 2/3 of the way through, Campbell connected to Cooley and BANG!, our offense started working. We were able to run. The vaunted West Coast Offense began connecting. It was amazing. We beat the Saints, 29-24.

I'm sure there's more, but it's late and I'm tired. More later.

Redskins Game

2008-08-28T15:03:00.003-04:00

Yow. We got our asses handed to us by the Panthers last week! That one hurt. But, as I said before, maybe it's a good thing to get such a horrendous loss out of the way during preseason, where it really doesn't matter. Hopefully, now, Coach Zorn can get on with the business of winning some games! Now, don't get me wrong. I don't expect him to come in, wave his hand and take us to the Super Bowl. I realize Campbell, as talented as he is, is still a young developing quarterback learning his, what, seventh offensive system in eight years? I realize we have one of the toughest schedules in the league. But I'm still a fan, and I still hope to win every game we play, and still root for them to win, no matter what! Hail to the Redskins! I am, however, saddened to see that my favorite cheerleader from last year is not on the squad this year. (Yes, I am pathetic enough to have had a favorite cheerleader). Katie, I will miss you! :-p But seriously, I just hope we make it through the night without any injuries and looking not quite as pathetic as last week. We need to build some momentum before taking on the World Champion New York Giants in the NFL Season Opener (told you we had a tough schedule!).

Grandma

2008-08-20T12:05:00.002-04:00

Today would have been my Grandmother's 100th birthday. She passed away six years ago. Six? Has it really been that long? Hard to fathom. My sister, the writer, is much more eloquent than I am, and spent much more time with Grandma than I did (to my lasting regret). So, at the risk of appearing to pass the buck, I will allow her to express what I would not have adequate words to express.

Today - She would have been 100!

I Know It's Only Preseason

2008-08-11T23:02:00.002-04:00

So we're up to 2-0. I know it's only preseason, but two wins is two wins. Although Rob and I were saying that maybe Favre will light into us this week and Zorn will get his first taste of defeat. Naturally, we don't want the Skins to lose, but maybe it would be better if he lost his first game when it doesn't really matter.

Well, we couldn't sell our tickets, so Rob and I wound up going to the game. We took his step-daughters, and had our first IHTD day with the girls. We had a good time.

First team looked good. Campbell still looked sharp. Portis looked good. Betts looked good. Taylor made his first appearance on the D-Line. He & Carter looked good (I'm sure I'll get no argument from Gail). Collins didn't look great. Once again, Brennan came out to thunderous applause. And once again, Derek Devine came out in the 4th basically to hand the ball off. We'll see how the Defense looks against Favre & the Jets. Jeez, that sounds weird.

Hall of Fame Weekend

2008-08-04T22:48:00.002-04:00

A few observations on the Pro Football Hall of Fame weekend. Darrell Green & Art Monk are a couple of class acts. I was glad they both made it in. I liked what Darrell Green's son had to say about setting an example for future generations of young athletes, in work ethic and off-field behavior. It speaks volumes to Green character that his son seems so level-headed. Hopefully, he'll stay that way as his career progresses.

The team looked pretty good. Granted, there's only so much to see when half the starters are on the bench, or still rehabbing from off-season surgeries. Still, we got to see a little of the Zorn influence in action. Campbell looked very good. Quick, sharp, decisive. Much more confident than last year. It was great to see a healthy offensive line, too. Made all the difference in the world! Third string and backup RBs going 17-20 yards? As Monty Burns would say, "Eeeeeeexcellent." *steeples fingertips together*

One area of concern I did have was on Defense. I noticed in the 1st quarter seeing Reed Doughty all over the field on every play. I don't know if this is a design of Blache's defense, or if this was Doughty fighting hard for a starting position, but it's not something he will be able to keep up for 4 quarters every game. Hopefully, he just saw some opportunities to make some plays and took them.

Colt Brennan actually looked really good. Very comfortable in the pocket. Not at all thrown off by the speed of the game. He may give Todd Collins a run for his money as the #2 QB. Collins has the experience, but after his good but not spectacular performance last night, I wonder how much of his impressiveness last year was due to his familiarity with the Al Saunders system. Not that Collins did poorly by any stretch. It's just that Campbell and Brennan looked so good, it made Collins' solid performance look mediocre. I felt a little bad for Derek Devine, since basically, he just came in to hand off the ball and run down the clock.

Ugh Ugh Ugh...

2008-08-03T11:04:00.001-04:00

Ok, so I've been a little out of it lately. I'm not sure why. I was doing very well for a while. I seemed to be more focused. I was getting things done. Then, the last month or two, I've been a bit out of it. Not just blogging, but obviously, if you're reading this, then this may be where you noticed it. I'm going to try to get my shit back together. I won't catch up everything all in one post, but I'll try to ease back in a little at a time.

First off, my "What I'm Reading" section. I have updated for what I'm reading now, but in the past month, I have been through the next two books in the Star Trek: New Frontier series, Stone and Anvil and After the Fall. In addition, for nighttime reading, in honor of the new movie trailer that was just unveiled, I have been reading the Watchmen trade paperback of the series by psychotic, but brilliant Alan Moore. Now, I'm on to Stephen King.

Second, tonight marks the return of football! After the Hall of Fame inductions last night of Darrell Green and Art Monk, tonight, the Redskins take on the Colts in the Hall of Fame Game. I'm not expecting much, since many of the starters won't even be playing, but it's a chance to see Coach Zorn in action, and it's Redskins football! Woo Hoo!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

2008-07-20T09:41:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday to my sister Gail! Love you BIG!!

HAPPY FOURTH EVERYBODY!!

2008-07-04T10:31:00.000-04:00

False Advertising?

2008-06-27T00:01:00.002-04:00

Ok, at the end of last week's Hell's Kitchen*, we got the standard "Next week on Hell's Kitchen..." Announcer guy says that someone loses their temper with the wrong person, and Petrozza was shown yelling at someone to do their job. The implication, of course, is that he's yelling at Chef Ramsay. We knew that couldn't be the case. But they did show Christina in the kitchen crying while someone was yelling, "You lied to us!" So we thought maybe she sent something out raw, then denied responsibility for it. Regardless of what we thought was going to happen, nothing remotely like it occurred during the episode!

***spoiler alert***
In fact, despite a rough service, Christina made it to the final against Petrozza. Corey went home. I was surprised at first, because I think Corey was a stronger cook than Christina, but Christina has a better palate, and was better working the pass. After Bobby was eliminated two weeks ago (when Jen should have gone - pain in the ass), I didn't doubt that Petrozza would make it to the final. He has kind of flown under the radar. He hasn't won any challenges, but he hasn't gotten nearly kicked out of the kitchen like everyone else has. His biggest problem is that he's messy in the kitchen. He kicked ass at the window (after missing the lack of peas in the risotto, that is). I hope he wins it. I really think he could do the job, and he seems like a really cool guy.
***end spoilers***

*I'm sure Jackie is disappointed in me that I watch, especially since I actually watch it and not just as a drinking game. Problem is, drinking games aren't much fun when your spouse doesn't drink. If there's no one to compete against, you're just drinking alone, and that can be kinda sad...

Big Brown Belmont Blunder

2008-06-25T22:23:00.001-04:00

I love alliteration. Anyway, over the course of the past few weeks, there have been a ton of theories as to what happened the day of the Belmont. There is some new information that leads to a possible explanation for Big Brown's Triple Crown loss. Upon leaving the gate, another horse (Guadalcanal) stepped on Big Brown's right rear (there's that alliteration again) hoof. Slow motion of the video shows BB jerked his head as Guadalcanal stepped on his foot, and BB's shoe came loose. As apparently happens sometimes, the horse often steps on the shoe and drives the nail right back into his hoof. This is nothing new. A new picture has surfaced, however, of Big Brown running into the final stretch with the shoe still hanging off. This would mean that he ran the entire race with a shoe dangling off and possibly with a nail digging into his foot. Was this enough to cripple him? Of course not. But it certainly would be enough to annoy him, throw off his stride, piss him off, and irritate him to the point of not wanting to keep running. It's also absolutely possible that it had no effect whatsoever, and he just wasn't feelin' it that day. We'll never know.

Babies & Boxing

2008-06-24T22:13:00.003-04:00

Well, we had a pretty good weekend. We went to our friends' place (hey Mike & Colleen!) for a bbq yesterday. (Ironically, they live in Ashburn, home of Redskins training camp, yet know nothing and care nothing about football). They have a 3 year-old boy, so most of the attendees' had kids of similar ages. The kids were all very well behaved, and the parents were all very nice. Gee, go figure. They're great people, and their friends are great people. Shocker. We spent most of the time chatting with the the only other childless couple there. Raakay and Carol were very cool. They tracked with us on a ton of things. We would quote a movie, and they actually got it! Fun times! Not that we wouldn't have enjoyed ourselves if it was just us and 14 babies, but you know what I'm saying.

I finally finished watching the boxing matches I recorded from Showtime on Saturday night. In the undercard, 37 year-old veteran Raoul Marquez handed young favorite Giovanni Lorenzo his first defeat. After a slow start, Marquez showed his experience by adjusting to Lorenzo's game plan and increasing his pressure. Despite getting three separate cuts on his face, including a bad one over his right eye, Marquez showed heart. He stayed in there and showed young Lorenzo what it takes to be a title contender.

I think his win earned him a fight against the winner of the evening's main event: "King" Arthur Abraham v. Edison "Pantera" Miranda. In their first fight, Miranda broke Abraham's jaw in the 4th round. Since they go to the score cards only in the event of an accidental head butt, Abraham had to either continue the fight, or lose by TKO. He went on! (Miranda is a hard puncher, too - 26 of his 30 wins are by KO). Despite fighting for EIGHT ROUNDS with a broken jaw, Abraham won! There was some controversy due to five (!) points being taken away by the ref for intentional head butts and low blows, but given the final scores, they wouldn't have made a difference in the outcome. Miranda was determined not to leave any doubt about the outcome this time. He came in lean and mean and ready to kick some arse. Miranda came out jabbing. He was definitely more active. Abraham had said before the fight that he was expecting Miranda to wear out later in the fight, so it wasn't a surprise that he wasn't more active early on. By the third round, Abraham picked up a little. Then, in the fourth round, the same round when Miranda previously broke Abraham's jaw, the "King" unleashed a vicious straight right that landed "Pantera" on his tail. Two more knockdowns, via powerful left hooks, and the ref rightly stopped the fight. Unfortunately for Miranda, if he couldn't beat Abraham with a broken jaw in eight rounds, I think that says something about the match-up and I think the outcome was inevitable. So, I think I saw that Abraham will defend his middleweight title (this fight was at super-middle) against Marquez. Either that, or he will go for the unification bout against Pavlik. That's the one I want to see. Marquez looked great against Lorenzo, but I don't think he would last long against Abraham. But a man who can fight with a broken jaw for eight rounds? That's a man I want to see take on The Ghost.

P.S. Belated congrats to Sergio "The Latin Snake" Mora on his victory against Vernon Forrest to take the WBC Light Middleweight title!

HULK SMASH!!

2008-06-18T22:56:00.001-04:00

Well, this weekend, we went to the The Incredible Hulk, Marvel's franchise reboot, and the second movie produced under Marvel's financing deal that allowed them to make their own movies rather than licensing them out to other movie studios to butcher. In case you couldn't tell from the title of this post, I thought it kicked ass. Now, don't get me wrong, I did like Ang Lee's version (entitled, simply, Hulk). I just thought this one was much better. The special effects were better, the action was better, the acting was better (Ed Norton - go figure) and the emotion between Bruce & Betty was better.

I was actually surprised that it didn't do better in the box office opening weekend. We went to a 10:30 a.m. show on Saturday and the theater was half to two-thirds full. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and I thought it kicked ass. I was thinking the gross would be about equal to the 2003, or maybe a little more. I'm hoping it's got some legs though, like Iron Man has, and avoids the almost 65% drop that Hulk experienced in its 2nd weekend. Iron Man has been out six weeks, is still in the Top 10, has dropped 50% or less every weekend and is breaking $300M worldwide as I type this. It's a good enough movie, and should avoid the nosedive. Which leads me to my rant. Above was the good. Below is the bad.

What pisses me off about this movie is what pissed me off with the first one - the media. For the past two weeks, the mainstream media has talked about nothing but whether this movie was necessary, and how terrible Norton's feud was with Marvel over the final cut of the movie. If the jackasses actually read anything by the people who were actually involved in the "feud," they would know that there was no huge battle. There was a disagreement on the first cut of the movie, which ultimately went in the studio's favor. Norton rarely, if ever, does publicity for his movies, but the media kept saying he was "boycotting" doing it for this one. The media kept claiming that the studio was keeping Norton's name off of the writing credits (despite his extensive rewrites of the script - at the studio's request), but the Writer's Guild made that call. I think they really hurt the grosses on the movie. They did the same thing with the 2003 version. By the Saturday night of the first weekend of release, the media was reporting how the box office was plummeting for the Hulk, and how terrible fan reaction was. I think people stayed away on Sunday as a result. Go to Mania (a "genre" (read fantasy/sci-fi) website) and read the comments on any Hulk article. You will see that there were quite a few people who thought Lee's version was good. Maybe not the direct copy from the comics that many fans expected, but an interesting and entertaining movie nonetheless. You didn't hear that from the media, though. Not until this movie came out, then suddenly critics who drubbed the first one when it came out are saying, "Oh, this one is an action-filled mess, the first one was so intelligent." Grrr.

In any case, if you like a good superhero movie, go see Iron Man. Seriously. It rocks so much more than either Hulk movie. Probably one of the best superhero movies ever made. BUT... If you've already seen IM (twice, in my case), go see The Incredible Hulk. It's worth the time and money.

Big Brown

2008-06-15T22:33:00.002-04:00

Well, it's been just over a week now since Big Brown missed winning the Triple Crown, and everyone who followed (or knew I followed) him asks me the same thing: What happened? Given what I saw, and the subsequent testing and such (he checked out physically healthy), my best guess is: He didn't feel like it. See, that's the problem (and the exciting thing) with horse racing - you're dealing with a living, breathing creature that has a personality, emotions and moods. Because of that, there are no guarantees. You can do everything right, have the right jockey breaking from the right post, and you can still lose. Many of the anti-horse racing groups (*cough*PETA*cough*) say that it's cruel to "force" horses to run. Well, the Belmont was a perfect example of why that is ridiculous. If a horse decides he doesn't want to run, you are not going to make him run. It could have been the heat. There have been rumblings that there was no water in the barn that morning. There are rumors that Rick Dutrow asked advice from Bobby Frankel (another trainer) and was told to withhold electrolytes (WTF??). People who know nothing about horse racing are theorizing that "the fix was in." If you watch the break from the front view, you can see BB was fighting Kent from the beginning. Unfortunately, until we can figure out how to talk to the animals, we'll never know what really happened. Regardless of what happened in the Belmont, we shouldn't forget how easily Big Brown won the Derby and the Preakness. In my book, he's still a champion.

Fifty-Three, Oh Five for French Toast??!?

2008-06-12T21:57:00.003-04:00

Ok. In posting a comment on another blog, I realized I never posted any sort of explanation on my blog about the origin of the name. Does anyone care? Probably not. But that hasn't stopped me from blogging about my life, the Redskins and movies for the past four (!) years. So anyway, here's the story.

Back in the day (sorry, Noelle), Rob (best friend for 25+ years and best man at my wedding) and I were taking our college classes at night after work. I would pick him up after work, we would play a few games at the arcade, grab McD's, get stomach aches from the food, then go to class. After class, most of the time, we would go to Denny's and have breakfast food at 10:00 at night. Rob's order would vary on occasion, but without exception, being the picky eater that I am, would get the same thing every time. French toast with bacon, side order of hash browns, large ice water.

One fateful night, it was my birthday. We hadn't yet turned 21, so we couldn't go out drinking. Ergo, it must have been '87 or '88. We decided that, perhaps, we were in a rut. We ALWAYS went to Denny's. Maybe we were missing out on something better. Maybe, as much as we liked Denny's, someone else had better food. We decided to try IHOP. [N.B. This is the IHOP on Rte 1 in Laurel which later was closed by the Health Department, and has since opened up in a new location a block away with a new building]

IHOP was a mistake from the moment we walked in. There was construction going on, and there was a jackhammer running for much of the time we were there. As a result of the construction, there was a huge hole in the floor in front of the men's room. Assuming you made it past the mini-Grand Canyon alive, the bathroom was filthy and smelly (to put it nicely). The service was slow, and the food was mediocre.

We finally finished eating. We decided we would get our check and write off the night to experience. I asked for the check. Unfortunately, about 15 minutes passed with no sign of our waitress. I finally got up to look for her and found her huddled over the register with her manager. "I'm sorry," she said, "the computer is down and we've been trying to find your check. I'll just write it up by hand." After watching her struggle painfully with paper and pen for about 5 minutes, she handed me a check with an amount circled at the bottom: $53.05.

At this point, in a raised voice which was about as loud as could be without shouting, I exclaimed, "FIFTY-THREE, OH FIVE FOR FRENCH TOAST??!?" The dining patrons around us turned their heads in unison like an E.F Hutton commercial, looking at me in disbelief. Then they turned their heads to their dishes as if to say, "How much is MINE going to cost??" The waitress said apologetically, "Oh, sorry. That's the tax." I shrieked in shock, "WHAT???" At which point, she took back the check, moved the decimal point over to denote $0.53 in tax and totaled the check. I promptly paid, and we got the hell out of Dodge.

Thereafter, any time anything seemed to cost too much, it became a standard expression of disbelief. We'd see a new car that costs $150,000 - "Fifty-three, oh five for french toast?" We'd see a $15 bottle of shampoo - "Fifty-three, oh five for french toast?" You get the idea.

Then, when I first gained access to a computer, I went by default to AOL to get internet access (this was pre-Comcast-or-Verizon-in-every-home). I decided to use an abbreviation (5305fft) of the expression as a screen name, but AOL would not let me start my screen name with a number (I think they do now, but it's irrelevant because I don't have the account any more). Therefore, I used fft5305!

Nazgul v. Labradoodle

2008-06-06T17:03:00.004-04:00

Ok. I've you've seen Lord of the Rings, I'm pretty sure you remember the Nazgul. They were the creepy guys on horseback who had been warped by the power of the Nine Rings of Power that were given to the Kingdom of Men. They were extremely well done, IMHO. Or so I thought. This guy is apparently very similar to me in that he thinks about things like this far too often. In any case, he blogged about the Nazgul (God, how geeky does that even sound?), and I'm not so convinced about their bad-ass-ness any more. In any case, I think I've found a new fun website to follow. This dude sounds a lot like me.

P.S. Go Big Brown!

Obama is The Man

2008-06-04T14:04:00.003-04:00

It is official. Barack Obama is the Democratic candidate for this fall's Presidential election. Yay! Now, we'll have to wait to see who the VP candidate will be. Regardless of who the Veep will be, it is truly historic that he's the Presidential candidate. I really think he's got a shot at going all the way!

Let's see. What else is going on? Speaking of historic occasions, it looks like this weekend, we may very well have our first Triple Crown winner in 30 years. Big Brown looks to be the real deal. Unfortunately, I think I will have to back down on my previous prediction regarding the size of his margin of victory. I didn't realize that Secretariat had set the record in 1973 when he won by 31 lengths! I think Big Brown is looking at 10-12.

Idol finale was a surprise. I am amazed that Cook won it, and not Archuleta. I think he'll do pretty well commercially. Probably better than Little David would have. We'll see.

Saw Indiana Jones last weekend. It was good. I don't think it was as good as the previous movies, but very enjoyable. Lots of fun and lots of nostalgia. I enjoyed the various nods to the previous movies (similar scenes/images etc.). I highly recommend. Although (and I almost hate to admit this, but), I think I would recommend Iron Man first. I went to see that with Rob & the boys (IHTD) the previous weekend. It kicked just as much ass as the first time. Next weekend is The Incredible Hulk! Wahoo!!

P.S. Congrats to Captain Chaos himself, Chris Cooley, who married his former-cheerleader girlfriend (who got kicked off the squad for dating him) Memorial Day weekend. Way to go, Dude!

Catching Up

2008-05-21T16:33:00.003-04:00

Ok. So I've been getting lazy lately. What else is new? Big news of the day - it looks like we may be getting our first Triple Crown winner in 30 years! Go Big Brown! I don't see, barring any catastrophic circumstances, how he can not win the Belmont. When he won the Preakness (sans whip, I might add), he looked exactly the same after the race as he did before the race. He didn't even look winded! When he came out of the last turn in both races, it was like he just kicked into another gear. With the Belmont being the longest race of the Triple Crown, it just gives him more time to pull away from the rest of the pack. My prediction is that he will set a record for the biggest win in Belmont history.

Idol final is tonight. Kind of anti-climactic. I don't see any way Archuleta doesn't win it. The primary voting demographic for the show is 13 year-old girls who can text message 150 votes an hour, and they're the ones in the audience screaming for Archie. Cook is a more versatile singer, but Arch is more technically proficient and has the teenybops going for him. Honestly, my interest took a nosedive once Michael Johns and Carly Smithson got booted. They really deserved to be in the final.

There was something else I was going to mention here, but I can't remember what it is. Oh well. Guess I better get used to it. I'm not getting any younger.

Penultimate Idol and Fall TV

2008-05-14T14:08:00.002-04:00

Ok, Idol has gotten a bit boring now that Michael Johns and Carly Smithson are out. The votes have proven time and again that it is less a singing talent competition than it is a teenage popularity contest. I'm sure the same will hold true this week as we narrow down to the final two contestants. David Archuleta demonstrated why, especially with the field narrowed as it is, that he will be in the finals and, most likely, win the whole thing. The only thing that may hurt him is backlash about his stage dad getting barred from backstage for meddling. I doubt it will have a significant effect, though. Syesha performed very well and looked fantastic. I do think she thinks a bit much of herself, though, and I don't think people like her personally, no matter how she sings. I disagree with Randy, though, about her lack of a defining performance. She had it three weeks ago on Andrew Lloyd Webber week when she sang One Rock & Roll Too Many. It showed exactly what her performance of Fever showed last night - she belongs on a live stage doing musical theater, not in a studio recording a pop song. When the show and the tour are over, she'll have a fine career for herself on stage, probably on Broadway. David Cook did his typical Cook performance. He also thinks a bit much of himself, but people like him. I personally don't care too much for him, but I seem to be in the minority. He completely tanked the 2nd song last night, and it was a terrible song choice (Dare You to Move by Switchfoot?). He did better with Aerosmith on his 3rd song, but not well enough to win the night, as Simon claimed. Based on performance quality, it should be Archuleta and Syesha going on to next week. But based on popularity I think Syesha will go home and Cook will be in the final.

In other news, post-strike Fall TV schedules are being released by the networks. Moonlight, New Amsterdam, Bionic Woman and Journeyman are all getting the boot. Former on-the-bubble shows Reaper, Sarah Connor Chronicles and Supernatural got picked up. No surprise that Chuck, Lost, 24, Idol and Pushing Daisies will be back. Most of them had gotten pick-ups pre strike. Not too many new series that have grabbed my attention so far. Looking forward to Dollhouse and Fringe, by Joss Whedon and JJ Abrams, respectively. Of course, they're on Fox, so they'll probably show the first 4 episodes out of order, then yank it. And, naturally, these are only the shows that I care about. That's about it.

Pot Candy, Idol and Iron Man

2008-05-07T17:36:00.000-04:00

Ok, this story is mildly amusing. I didn't even know that "they" made candy that tasted like pot, but it doesn't surprise me. It doesn't surprise me that someone wants to ban its sale, at least to minors. What does surprise me is the name of the state senator who introduced the bill - Doug Stoner! Too funny! I think if I were him, I would work a deal with another legislator, "You intro my bill, and I'll intro yours." I can't believe he was even taken seriously enough to get this bill passed.

Idol was a mess last night for Rock & Roll Hall o' Fame night. In the first round, the mics were turned up too loud, and you couldn't hear the music or background singers on any of the selections, until, guess who? David Archuleta! Far be it from me to promote any conspiracy theories, but come on... Anyway, Cook started the night with Hungry Like the Wolf. Just didn't do it for me. Then came Syesha with her Tina Turner impression on Proud Mary. Vocals were pretty good, and she looked good, but just seemed like she was trying to hard to be Tina. And she's not. Jason followed with I Shot the Sheriff. This should have been a gimme, but it was all over the place. I don't know how different it would have been if we could have heard the background singers, but it just didn't seem right. Archuleta followed with probably the best performance of the night (shocker) with Stand By Me. I thought he would hyperventilate while Ryan was giving out the #s. Second round started with Cook singing Baba O'Riley. Shocker, I thought it was just OK, judges loved it. Syesha's 2nd was A Change is Gonna Come. Again, technically good, but not a great emotional connect with the audience, despite the total breakdown after Paula's critique. Jason missed the boat and a whole line of the lyrics with Mr. Tambourine Man. I think he's just gotten to the point in the competition where he's out of his league, and he can't keep up. Archuleta finished the night with Love Me Tender. It was fine, but not as good as his 1st. My prediction? I'm going for the upset. Despite Jason practically standing up and begging to be sent home (and he should be after last night), I'm guessing Syesha will go home tonight.

Finally, Iron Man ROCKS!! It kicks ass! Great story, great actors (of the 4 main parts - 3 Oscar nominees and 1 winner), great f/x! I could go on for pages about how cool it is, and how many easter eggs are in there for the fanboys, yet it is perfectly accessible for casual viewers etc etc etc. Suffice it to say the movie is great. Go out and see it!

Missing In Action

2008-04-30T17:10:00.002-04:00

Ok, so I missed my Idol analysis last week. First off, I threw my back out again last Monday. It wasn't nearly as bad as it had been before. I was out of work Tuesday and Wednesday. And while I was still able to make it to two previously-scheduled appointments, and to see my GP about the back (thank God for Mobic!), it meant that as soon as I got home, I went straight to bed. So I was able to watch Idol, but not to sit at the computer to blog about it. See, this is why I need a laptop. Well, one of the many reasons. Also, since Michael & Carly have been booted, I'm not nearly as interested in who wins. It will probably be Archuleta, who I don't think is the greatest thing since sliced bread, as the judges and teen voters apparently do.

Ok, so Neil Diamond night. We're at the point in the competition where each contestant gets/has to sing two songs. The producers try to switch things up by having the judges hold their critiques until the end of the first round. All that did was serve to confuse Paula. First round, they all were boring, so I won't even bother. Second round. Jason starts with September Morn. I thought it was good, but safe. Cook followed with All I Really Need Is You. I didn't know either of the songs Cook sang, and didn't really care. I thought he was fairly dull. He should be worried, but I'm sure he'll get the votes. Brooke moved behind the piano for I Am I Said. Much better peformance for the second song, but her first was far from the "nightmare" Simon said it was. Archuleta sang America, which I thought would have served Cook better. America is a rocking song, and little David is not a rocker. But I'm sure he'll get the most votes he's so good he's so cute yada yada yada. Syesha closed out with Thank the Lord for the Night Time. I didn't know the song but she kicked it with the performance. I think it was the best of the night. She's really starting to find her groove. As Simon said (and she agreed a bit too quickly), she's a good singer-slash-actress. She will do well on Broadway once the show & tour are over. I think bottom two will be Jason and Brooke (though it should be Jason & Cook). Jason will go home.

P.S. If you follow my "What I'm Reading" section on the right, you may notice I have two books listed there now. Since my back was hurting, and Dark Tower is such a ginormous book, I began carrying White Night (a smaller paperback) to work and reading Dark Tower at home. I should be finished with both soon, and will be back to one book at a time.

Mariah Night

2008-04-16T13:40:00.002-04:00

Well, last night's mentor on Idol was Mariah Carey. Personally, I liked Mariah better when she started out. She didn't seem so full of herself and didn't dress like a slut. But, she's a very talented singer, so I was looking forward to seeing what she would do with the contestants. Despite the fact that she's got more number ones than the binary code (let's hear it for geek humor), I wasn't overly familiar with a lot of the songs. Archuleta started off with When You Believe. It was wonderful, he's great, yada yada yada. Carly followed with Without You. I understand what the judges mean about her confidence, which has been shaken over the last few weeks with lackluster performances, but I thought she did great. I often wonder what the judges are hearing that I am not. Syesha was Syesha singing Vanishing. I'm sure she was happy not to have to worry about the judges saying she was trying to sing Mariah. As usual, Simon gave her the backhanded compliment that she was technically very good. He was right. She's just missing something. But I think she was technically good enough to make it to next week. Next, Brooke struggled singing Hero. It was weird. It seemed like she started off a little shaky, then decided to just rush through the end of the song to get it over with. Kristy surprised everyone by actually doing a good job singing a Mariah song (Forever). I would never have guessed that she would have done well this week. But she did great - better than Simon & Randy gave her credit for. Looked hot, too. I know you'll be shocked, but I didn't care for David Cook's version of Always Be My Baby. I didn't think it was a "haunting rock ballad." I just thought it was slow and boring. Jason did a good job ending the night with I Don't Want to Cry. Not fantastic, but good. Should be good enough to bring him through to next week. I think we're getting to the point in the show where even really good performers are going to get eliminated. There's just not much choice at this point. I think Syesha, Brooke and Jason will be bottom 3 (David Cook and Jason should be there instead of Syesha and Kristy, but they won't). Brooke will go home.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

2008-04-14T22:06:00.001-04:00

Happy Birthday to my niece & nephew!! Today, they turn 22 and 16! Hope you guys had a great one!! Love you BIG!!!

P.S. Hey Bub, when are you getting your license?

The Sweet Science

2008-04-11T23:33:00.002-04:00

Ok, I'm trying to be very supportive of my sister's sports blog (The Sixteenth Minute - plug plug). I understand, perhaps, her not following NASCAR or horse racing. But two posts on boxing (about the same fight) since going online in November of last year? Come on, Jack! Boxing is the very pinnacle of athletic competition. Two warriors, face to face, with but the slightest bit of fabric to separate fist from jaw. Now, I don't hold myself out to be an expert in the sport, but this is a very exciting time, for me at least, as an amateur viewer.

Oddly enough, at the same time as I write this, ESPN has just announced that they are not renewing The Contender. Last season (the 3rd) ended with a knockdown, drag-out fight between Jaidon Codrington and Sakio Bika that was considered by many to be one of the best fights of 2007. Other alums of the reality show include Alfonso Gomez (1st season), who is fighting Miguel Cotto tomorrow night for the WBA Welterweight title. K-9 Bundrage (2nd) just decisioned former title holder Kassim Ouma. Brian Vera TKO'd up-and-coming Andy Lee. Steve Forbes (also 2nd) is getting a shot next month against none other than Oscar De La Hoya. Finally, Sergio "The Latin Snake" Mora, season 1 champ, gets his title shot against Vernon Forrest in June. Hopefully, this level of competition from their contestants will demonstrate to another network that this show is worth picking up.

Outside of The Contender, in the "real world" if you will, Antonio Tarver will attempt to unify the IBF and IBO titles tomorrow night. Next weekend, Joe Calzaghe moves up to light heavyweight in an attempt to shut B-Hop's mouth. A tall order for anyone. On May 31, Ruslan Chagaev puts his heavyweight title on the line against the Russian Giant Nikolai Valuev. The following weekend, Kelly Pavlik puts his unified WBO/WBC middleweight title up against Gary Lockett. Finally, in July, Wladimir "Dr. Steelhammer" Klitschko (Chrissy and my personal favorite) has his first mandatory defense of his unified WBO/IBF/IBO title against Tony Thompson. If he is successful, he will then defend against Alexander Povetkin. Hopefully, then he will go on to unify all the heavyweight belts for the first time since Lennox Lewis. Like I said, a very exciting time!

Idol

2008-04-09T22:21:00.002-04:00

Ok, so Idol Gives Back is over. It was interesting seeing all the celebrities and all. It's just that it all seems so contrived and manipulative. Yes, I did give. Just like I did last year. Not because Miley Cyrus told me that there were starving kids in the ghetto... but because there are starving kids in the ghetto. Not to sound cynical or jaded (which I am), but these things just seem a bit much. But enough of that. On to my weekly analysis/prediction.

Well, I think we will have a first tomorrow night. I think Kristy Lee "Smokin'-est-contesant-ever" Cook will stay out of the bottom 3! Michael started off the night singing Dream On. Now, I don't know that I would necessarily go straight to Aerosmith for "Inspirational Night" but I would qualify this song... one of my favorites. Michael knocked it out of the park! He kicked ass. I still don't know what he's doing with the scarves/ascots, but the boy can sing. He even did the high pitch wail at the end. Excellent. Syesha followed with I Believe, by Fantasia. I wasn't familiar with this song, but I absolutely agree with Randy & Simon. She was technically proficient, but completely emotionally detatched. I think she's in the bottom 3 this week. Jason went off the charts with his song choice singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow, arrangement by some Hawaiian dude named Iz. It was an odd choice, but he made it work. He played the ukulele and made it work. Don't know if I loved it as much as the judges did, but definitely good enough to make it to next week. KLC stayed country with Anyway, by Martina McBride. Perfect song choice for her and she looked hot as usual. She should sail on through. I predict David Cook will make his first appearance in the bottom 3 this week after choosing to sing Innocent by Our Lady Peace. Not only is it too obscure a song without a good hook, it seemed like he gave up halfway through. I think there's a chance he will go home tonight, but I think he has enough fans to keep him around. Unless the voters have the same reaction to the white jacket that Simon did. Carly also struggled with The Show Must Go On. By now, you know my feelings about contestants singing Queen. Normally, I would have said Carly was an exception (she did pull off Heart), but she had the same problem Cook did - gave up half way through. I think she will round out the bottom 3. Archuleta sang Angels by Robbie Williams. Another one I don't know. Very weak start, but strong finish. Naturally, he'll sail through. Brooke finished out the night with You've Got a Friend, by Carole King. I only know the James Taylor version, but it sounded pretty close. Brooke did well. Not the most memorable or original performance, but good. She should be fine. Overall, I think Syesha, David Cook and Carly will be the bottom three and unfortunately, I think Carly will go home. I think she's one of the best and could win the whole thing, but she had a poor performance on a poor song choice.

Weekend and Idol

2008-04-09T13:54:00.002-04:00

Well, we had a fantastic weekend in Lexington, Kentucky. We left early on Thursday from BWI, landing in Louisville (Loo-uh-vull). We rented a car and headed out. We had planned to stop on the way at Woodford Reserve Distillery (Woodford is the official bourbon of the Kentucky Derby). They have a "Picnic on the Porch" lunch, which we thought we'd check out before taking a tour. Given my penchant for pickiness, I wasn't sure I'd find something I liked, so we stopped for a snack on the way there. For the snack, I had my first White Castle burgers! While they were no Five Guys burgers, they were pretty tasty. I can see why they became Harold & Kumar's objects of obsession. The tour of Woodford was great. We got too see a brief film of the history of bourbon in America, the fermenting tanks, and the distilling machines ("machines" plural - Woodford is triple distilled). Then we saw where it is loaded into the casks, which are rolled to the aging house (it's aged 6-8 years), then the building where it is bottled and labeled. Finally, we went back up to the main house where we got to taste a sample. Naturally, since Chrissy doesn't drink (though she did try a tiny sip), I got two samples! :-) We left Woodford to head back to our hotel. Just next door to the hotel was Malone's Steakhouse. Malone's is one of Tom Horan's Top Ten Steakhouses in America. It is a reputation that is well deserved. The food and service were amazing. I started with the fried mozzarella appetizer (little balls, rather than sticks, of cheese in panko bread crumbs, thick marinara). For the main course, I had the Kobe NY Strip. This was my first experience with Kobe beef and it was delicious. Though, I think I should have gone with the Filet Mignon. The steak came with a house salad (no dressing, natch) and 1 side (the 1-lb. baked potato). Did I mention that I added the lobster tail on the side? Wash it all down with a glass of Fat Bastard Cab and you got yourself a damn tasty meal.

Friday, we met up with our friend Dianna (from Ohio) and made our rounds at the various horse facilities in Lexington. I don't even remember it all (though Chrissy remembers every detail), but it was great. We saw Derby winners (Smarty Jones), Preakness winners (Bernardini), and Belmont winners (Point Given). We saw movie stars (Popcorn Deelites - one of the horses who played Seabiscuit in the movie) and famous sires (Dynaformer - who was Barbaro's father). We actually got to witness a breeding, which was a little weird, but very interesting. We got to see Stormello, who was one of the main reasons we went to Kentucky. We finished up the day going to Old Friends, a home for retired thoroughbreds. We got to get a tour from the President and founder, Michael Blowen! He was a newspaper movie critic until he heard about Ferdinand, the 1986 Kentucky Derby winner, who got shuffled around until he was killed in a slaughterhouse in Japan in 2002. He then decided to open a "retirement home" for thoroughbred horses. It was very sad to hear about the shape some of these horses were in when they came in, but they are all happy, healthy and very much loved now!

Well, this has taken the better part of my lunch. Since Idol has their whole Idol Gives Back thing tonight, and the elimination show isn't until tomorrow night, I'll wait on the recap of the show until tonight or tomorrow. I hope you will find it in your heart to forgive me...

Dolly Parton Night

2008-04-02T13:34:00.000-04:00

It doesn't happen very often, but last night, I agreed with Paula. She said, and I agree, that even though people may not know a lot of the songs, Dolly Parton is such a great songwriter that the performances would be enjoyable and the songs great. I knew about 2 or 3 of the 9 songs sung last night, but enjoyed pretty much every one. I also knew it would be a rough night for Simon, as it is painfully obvious that he simply does not like country music. Any time someone sings a country-ish song, he is much tougher on them. Brooke started off singing Jolene (which I did know). I disagree with Simon, and thought it was a very heartfelt performance. I liked it. Cook, after the obligatory disclaimers about whose arrangements he's using on the songs, sang Little Sparrow. Dolly loved how "confident" David was. I think "arrogant" might be a better word. But he did fine. I'd like to see him do one song without his crutch... I mean, guitar. Ramiele, thoroughly starstruck by Dolly, sang Do I Ever Cross Your Mind. She did well (certainly better than she has to this point), but it's getting to the point in the competition that even if you do well, it may not be good enough. Jason also did well with Traveling Through. Same thing for Cook and Ramiele apply to Jason. He needs to do a song without the guitar and needs to do better than "well." Carly sang Here You Come Again. I thought it was a great performance. Much more restrained and controlled than we're used to with Carly, but showed that she doesn't need to belt in order to be good. Archuleta followed with Smokey Mountain Memories. I hate to admit it, but this was David's best in weeks. Fantastic performance. Excellent vocals. Kristy had the unenviable task of following the 17 year-old Wonder Boy, singing Coat of Many Colors. However, this being a country week, I expected her to have her best week so far. She did. I think she looks better more natural and less glammed out, though. Syesha, predictably, sang I Will Always Love You. Also predictably, she sang well, hit the big notes well, and Simon didn't like her because she's not Whitney. Michael finished up the night with It's All Wrong, but It's All Right. Wow. Holy moley. That was Michael's best performance so far and the best of the night. Hands down. That was the breakout performance Simon had been waiting for. Overall a good night for all. But like I said, good may not cut it. My money's on Ramiele to go home tonight.

Laurel Park

2008-04-01T21:22:00.002-04:00

Well, we had a great time on Saturday. Today, April 1, is the fifth anniversary of the passing of my father-in-law. So Saturday, we had a race named in his honor at Laurel Park. It was the first running of the Tim Sinck Memorial Classic! We wanted to remember Tim, but not have a sad, mournful memorial. He was such a great guy, we wanted to honor him in an equally great way. The day began shortly before noon. Everyone met in front of the Clubhouse entrance, but since it was much colder than we had anticipated, people quickly began moving inside. Once everyone was there, we were brought up to the Brass Horse, which is a section of the dining room. We had the Brass Horse to ourselves all day, with our own teller, too! We had a sandwich lunch, with chips, potato salad, pigs in a blanket and cookies. Just after the third race, we were escorted down to the paddock to watch the horses being brought out for the fourth race (ours). After the horses were saddled, we were brought to the Winner's Circle. Fifteen or so people from our group were allowed to actually watch the race from inside the Winner's Circle! The rest of the group watched from around it. Abel Castellano, Jr. won the race on Dynamic Dan, a gray. Chrissy's grandad always said, "Always bet on the grays." After the official photo, our group was allowed to come back in to the Circle and get our picture with the winning jockey. Then, we went back to the Brass Horse to watch and bet for the rest of the day. It was a very fun day, and a good way to remember Tim.

I Love Stupid People...

2008-03-27T16:05:00.003-04:00

No, I'm not insulting my wife. She's smarter than I am. I'm laughing about the 18-year old guy in Chicago who tries to rob a muffler shop, only to be told that the owner has the combination to the safe and he's not in yet. So naturally, he does the only logical thing he can do. He gives them his phone number (two, actually) and tells them to give him a call when the boss gets in so he can come back and rob them. I love it!

Top 10 Night

2008-03-26T13:17:00.000-04:00

Some interesting choices this time around. The contestants chose songs from the year they were born. It seemed like everyone was born in 1987. Made me feel very old. Ramiele started off with Alone. I have made my feelings clear on people trying to sing Heart songs. This is why. Jason followed with Fragile, by Sting. Didn't know this one, but he did a good job with it. I can see what the judges are saying about Jason, but I don't think he has the range some of the others do. He knows what he's good at and he's sticking with it. Syesha sang If I Were Your Woman, another one I didn't know. She did well with it. No bottom 3 for her this week. Chikezie did If Only for One Night. Not bad, but I think he should have listened to the judges about the ballads. It was technically proficient, but boring enough that I think he'll be bottom 3. Brooke did very well with Every Breath You Take. I thought the arrangement was fine. Another artist, David C. perhaps, when the band came in for the uptempo part, could have kicked back the piano bench, grabbed the mike and moved around the stage some. Wouldn't have worked for Brooke, though. Michael killed with We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions. He is an exception to the Queen/Heart/Celine/Whitney rule. There aren't many, but he's one. He does great with Queen. Probably 2nd best of the night. Carly did well singing Total Eclipse of the Heart. I kind of agree with Randy & Simon. Not sure what it was, but it wasn't great. There was something missing and I can't put my finger on it. But it should be good enough to get her to next week. Archuleta did another song I didn't know, You're the Voice. Simon nailed this one. Theme park performance. Absolutely. Kristy had the best song choice of the season with ubiquitous God Bless the U.S.A. Not the best of the night, but her best performance. She won't even be in the bottom 2. Maybe even bottom 3! Excellent. I hate to admit it, but Cook turned in the best peformance of the night singing a slow rock version of Billie Jean. I still don't care for him, but I do have to give credit where it's due. He's original. Still don't think he's as good as he thinks he is, though. My money is on Ramiele, Chikezie and Carly to be in the bottom 3 and Ramiele goes home.

My New Toys!

2008-03-24T23:49:00.002-04:00

A few months back, for Christmas, we got a gift certificate from GiftCertificates.com. After almost three months of deliberating, I finally made my choice. I bought a Swissco 5-piece, Nickel Shave Set. I've always wanted to try a fancy shave set with the bowl (or mug), shave soap, brush and ideally a straight razor and strop. I have always heard/read that a straight razor gives the best shave, hands down. Unfortunately, I couldn't afford that yet, since straight razors alone can be upwards of $150-200, up to $1,000 or more! In my research on the matter, though, I did discover that, next to a straight razor, the best shave you can get is from an old-fashioned double-edged safety razor. It seems to be fairly unanimous that modern disposable/cartridge razors are crap. So, since all the shave kits seemed to come with the crap razors, I went ahead and bought a Merkur "Hefty Classic" Double-Edge Safety Razor. I haven't used it yet, but I am hopeful. The brush that came with the set is a badger brush. Some day, I may get a silvertip (or superbadger) brush, but, as with the straight razors, they can run upwards of $80-200 or more. So far, I have used the badger brush and soap and am loving that! Definitely a better shave than the with cream or gel out of a can. No environmental disposal concerns, either. Bonus!

Beatles Week, Part II

2008-03-19T16:17:00.001-04:00

Well, I think the producers were pushing their luck to do a second Beatles night in a row. But they didn't ask me. I think the performances prove my point. Amanda started out singing Back in the USSR. This should have been great for Amanda, but she just seems bored with the competition. I don't think she cares if she goes on and it shows in her vocals. Not great. Kristy improved on last week, singing You've Got to Hide Your Love Away, but still is having trouble putting together a memorable performance. Or for that matter, a very good one. I hate to admit it, but Archuleta had the best performance of the night singing Long and Winding Road. At least he didn't forget the lyrics this time. Michael did pretty well with Day in the Life. Very hard song to compress into 90 seconds, but did a decent job of it. He did have one early pitch problem (with a falsetto note?), but brought it together by the end. Unnecessary, though, to bring up the recently deceased friend. Blatant attempt to get sympathy votes. I thought Brooke did a very good job with Here Comes the Sun. She obviously is not comfortable moving around and "dancing" on stage, and I think the judges took that out on her. But she killed with the vocals. Paula actually noticed the same thing I did that Brooke is one of the only ones who is vocally strong in the low range. Cook did the rocker thing with Day Tripper a la Whitesnake. One of the top 3 performances of the night, but I absolutely agree with Simon - it wasn't nearly as good as Cook thought it was. The voicebox thing was completely pointless and stupid. Carly rocked it with Blackbird. Not sure I cared for the arrangement, but her vocals were great, as usual. Jason did well with Michelle. Not fantastic, but as the judges said, he's got charm. And, I think, in the top 3 of the remaining contestants (behind Carly & Archuleta). Syesha did ok with Yesterday. Kinda boring. Though that dress may keep her in the contest until next week. Wow. Chikezie did pretty well with I've Just Seen a Face, but it felt like a replay of last week. Only not as good. Still, should be enough to make it to next week. Ramile finished the night with I Should Have Known Better. She had the same problem Kristy did - kind of forgettable. Not worth of the ability we know she has. I think as we eliminate contestants out of the top 12, we won't be getting rid of bad singers, just bad performers. All the top 12 can sing, but they won't all be able to keep getting the votes to move on. I'm going out on a limb and saying Amanda will go home tonight.

Beatles Night

2008-03-12T16:11:00.001-04:00

Well, I think on the whole, the contestants did much better this week. They generally did much better on song choice, perhaps because of the quality of the songs they had to choose from. Syesha started off with Got to Get You Into My Life. While my bro-in-law Caleb thought it was terrible, I thought it was fine. Not great, not her best, but should be enough to get her to next week. Chikezie went next with She's a Woman. It started with, as Paula put it, an O Brother, Where Art Thou vibe. Then he kicked it into the stratosphere with this sort of rock and funk fusion that blew me away! Easily the best performance of the night. Big risk, huge payoff. I felt bad for Ramiele following up with In My Life. Regardless of who she followed, it was a boring performance. Technically fine, but pretty forgettable. Jason went next with If I Fell. Excellent song choice, very good (but not fantastic) performance. A little breathy for me. Big shock, Carly rocked her version of Come Together. I think she's going to make it to at least the top 3. Probably the final. She's that good. David Cook sang Eleanor Rigby. I think I must be missing something. I'm not overly crazy about David. He's good, but I seem to be in the minority of people that think he's not the second coming. I thought he struggled with the low notes, and screamed the high notes. Brooke sat behind the piano and sang Let it Be. Wow. She's getting better and better each week. Just like Elliot Yamin did last year. He made it to the top 3, and if she continues the way she is, so will she. David Hernandez casually mentioned in his film clip that he worked at Pizza Bistro. Is that what they're calling the gay strip club these days? He sang a cabaret version of I Saw Her Standing There. I think he's bottom 2 this week. Amanda sang You Can't Do That, which I don't believe I have ever heard. She was fine, but I'm getting bored with her. It's one thing to "make a song your own," it's another thing to do the same performance week after week. Amanda's got to mix it up a little. Michael did well with Across the Universe, but I don't know that it was the right song. A little lethargic. He's capable of much more, and if he doesn't step it up to where he's capable of performing, he won't last to the top 2, where I think he belongs. Kristy. [sigh]. Kristy made 8 Days a Week into a country song. I think she took Simon's previous comments a little too far. She needs to keep her country spin on the songs, but not change the songs entirely. Her arrangement didn't really work and she could be in trouble tonight. On the other hand, she's smokin' hot. That could save her with the teenage boy vote. David Archuleta finished the night with We Can Work It Out. He said in his film clip that he was nervous because he wasn't familiar with the songs. He then proceeded to prove he it by forgetting the lyrics in 3 different places! If anyone else did that, they would be out tonight. No question. I think David's past performances and present cuteness will probably save him. Unfortunately, I think Kristy will be the one to go home tonight.

Top 8 Ladies

2008-03-06T13:25:00.000-05:00

Well, Ladies' Night wasn't quite as clear cut as the guys. At least not for one of them. Asia'h started the night singing I Wanna Dance with Somebody. It's always risky singing Whitney Houston. As a general rule, no Idol contestants should sing Whitney, Celine, Heart or Queen. Just don't. They rarely can pull it off. Asia'h did pretty well, though. Good enough to make it to next week, at least. Kady bombed singing Who Wants to Live Forever (see above re: Queen). It brought to mind McPheever's iffy performance of the same, and she's 10 times the singer Kady is. Amanda did her Rocker Nurse thing with I Hate Myself for Loving You. Perfect song selection, but she seemed like she could have cared less to be there. Maybe she's doped up on something. Her attitude may hurt her this week. Carly killed it singing I Drove All Night. Not the best song selection (I agree with Simon), but she always nails it. She's great. Kristy finally brought the country twang to Faithfully. Definitely improved the performance, and she looked great, but I don't know if she's got the talent to make it to the top. I hope I'm wrong. Ramiele did OK with Against All Odds. I was shocked that David A. didn't sing this on guys' night when it was announced that he was singing Phil Collins. I was positive that he would. Oh well. I knew someone would. She did OK. She shouldn't have worn that short of a skirt, though; it made her legs look a bit stubby. When they went to a commercial saying they would be back with Brooke singing Love is a Battlefield, I winced. I thought it was another poor song choice. Boy, was I wrong! She sang a beautiful acoustic arrangement that was easily the best performance of the night. Perfect song choice, perfect arrangement, perfect execution. I could not have disagreed with Paula more. It was the right move to keep the band out of it. Syesha finished the night with more Whitney (Saving All My Love for You - see above re: Whitney). They must have been running short on time by now because the judges kept their answers to "good." In comparison to Whitney, Syesha wasn't great, but on its own, I think this performance will be good enough to get her to next week. No question Kady should go home this week (she should have gone last week and she knew it). I'm guessing Kristy will be the other to go this week. I wouldn't be surprised with Amanda or Ramiele either, but sadly, I think it will be Kristy.

Last Week Before Idol Finals

2008-03-05T13:13:00.001-05:00

This was the last week of eliminations before the contestants are narrowed down to the top 12. As I said last week, I think absolutely the wrong people went home. This week I think will be much easier with the guys singing songs from the 80s. Even more of a clear-cut line with the guys as to who should leave. Luke started off singing Wake Me Up Before You Go Go. Aside from the fact that Wham should generally be stricken from the memory of the American public, Luke was just all over the place. Very karaoke performance. David A. has the judges so enamored with him that Paula says she enjoys when he sucks (not in these words) because it proves he's human. He did fine technically (singing Another Day in Paradise), but I agree with Simon. David needs to show a little more personality and energy, not be so depressingly earnest. I also agreed with Simon on Danny Gay Elvis Noriega. Awful. When he tried to sing the low notes on Tainted Love, it sounded like his voice hadn't changed yet. And the attitude is getting old. "TMTH"? Please... David H.'s most embarassing moment is having a picture taken with a booger in his nose? Somehow I doubt that. I can understand them not harping on his male stripper fiasco, but I admit to being a bit distracted when he sang the line, "When you touch me like that." I don't know how the audience didn't laugh at that. Thought he sang the song (It's All Coming Back to Me Now) pretty well, though. Michael sang (Don't you Forget About Me). I don't particularly care for that song, but I thought he did a good job with it. Again, I agreed with Simon, Michael hasn't had that defining performance. For me, one of the best performances in all of Idol, and a perfect example of what Simon is talking about was when Chris Daughtry sang Hemorrhage (In My Hands). That was amazing! David C. sang an interesting arrangement of Hello. I didn't like the performance as much as the judges did. It was good enough for him to move on, though. I think he should have ditched the guitar. I was more entertained however by the story of Simon running in to Lionel Richie at the Whole Foods. Too funny! Jason finally ditched the guitar and sang a restrained Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen. I thought this was a bit of a risk, to sing an overtly religious song on Idol, but he did a great job. It wasn't his best performance, but it was one of (if not THE) best of the night! Awesome. Chikezie finished out the night singing All the (Wo)man I Need. I thought he did very well with it. Again, not fantastic, but should definitely be good enough to make it to the finals. In the end, Luke and Danny should go. I'll be pissed if they don't.

Oh What a Night!

2008-03-04T21:43:00.004-05:00

Wow. Chrissy and I went to see Joshua Bell last night at the Kennedy Center. It was a wonderful night all around. It started when we left work an hour and a half early. Always good. We drove over to the Kennedy Center with almost no traffic. It was easy to get to; we just followed the signs. We got there a few hours early. We spent a little time looking around at the gift shops. Then we spent some time out on the balcony. Washington and the Potomac don't look nearly as dirty at a distance, not to mention how wonderful the weather was! As the sun set, the town actually looked quite lovely. We finally decided to go in and grab a bite to eat around 6:00-6:30. We were debating between the Roof Terrace Restaurant & Bar and the KC Cafe. We decided to go with the Cafe. We were thinking it looked like a basic cafeteria style restaurant. I was thinking I'd get a slice of pizza or a ham sandwich and a soda. I wound up having garlic rubbed prime rib, roasted potatoes, couscous, chocolate mousse for dessert and a glass of Chateau St. Jean cabernet. This was all before we even got to the concert!

When we finally decided to head to the concert hall, they weren't letting people in yet. So we were forced to wait outside and enjoy more of the gorgeous weather! When the time came, we went in and followed the signs to the Parterre Orchestra Boxes. Now... we knew we had paid a healthy price for these tickets and that they were good. But when the usher walked us through the door and we saw the edge of the stage five feet away from us, our jaws dropped! We looked on the stage, saw the piano in the middle and realized that he was going to be standing in front of it. Playing the violin some 40 feet away from us! He was unbelievable. There were times when I swore there were five other violins on stage with him. There were other times that I thought I must have been imagining things, because a human beings can't move their fingers as fast as his appeared to be moving. To put it in layman's terms, to make a heathen comparison, it was like watching Eddie Van Halen play guitar. Like watching Michael Jordan slam dunk a basketball. Like watching Meryl Streep act. In between each passage that he played, Chrissy and I just looked at each other and shook our heads. We couldn't believe that: a) someone was physically able to create such beautiful sounds; and b) we were able to be there.

Wrong Wrong Wrong

2008-03-03T16:00:00.002-05:00

Absolutely the wrong people went home on Idol last week. Even the people that should have gone home were surprised that they didn't. I felt bad for Alaina. I keep forgetting that she's only 17. A lot of these contestants who are very young do so well on stage that I forget that they're really just kids. After her initial breakdown, though, she composed herself very well. I didn't think they should have pushed her to sing, and she struggled at first, but pulled herself together well by the end of the song. In general, I think it's very mean to make these people sing after they get booted off. I feel like they are saying, "Ok. We know you're very emotional right now, because America just told you that you're not good enough. BUT... we'd like you, one more time, to sing the song that wasn't good enough to keep you in the competition. Just in case you or anyone else forgot just how bad you were!" Kinda mean.

Oh, and Wladimir Klitschko won the unified Heavyweight IBO/IBF/WBO belt last weekend. Not the most exciting fight I've seen, but a dominating performance. Before the twelfth and final round, his trainer, Emmanuel Steward, told him he needed to knock Ibragimov out, or it would look bad. Well, by that point, it was too late. If he had said something around the 6th round, Klitschko could have done something. As it was, it didn't look so hot. But I still think he showed his dominance. Now he needs to grab that WBC belt and be a true unified champ!

Week 2 of the Gals

2008-02-27T23:54:00.000-05:00

Song choice seemed to be the big issue for the ladies. The ones that struggled did so because they chose the wrong song. Carly, on the other hand, started out with the perfect song, Crazy on You, by Heart. I was worried when she started. When people sing Heart and Queen, I always think it's a mistake. But Carly pulled it off. Amazing performance. Nailed it. Syesha chose the wrong song with Me & Mrs. Jones (though, she sang it as "Mr. Jones"). As was pointed out with Syesha, with powerful voices like hers, singers tend to struggle on the soft, low notes, then bring it around on the big notes. That's exactly what happened with Syesha. Brooke then kicked ass singing You're So Vain. Though she never came out and admitted it, everyone seemed to agree that she was singing straight to Simon. And he loved it. Brooke was rockin' the Carly Simon vibe. It absolutely worked for her. Ramiele struggled with Don't Leave Me this way. Very awkward performance. Not natural. It seemed like someone else showed her this song and said, "Hey, this would be perfect for you." It wasn't. Kristy looked hot, but struggled with You're No Good. It wasn't terrible, better than last week, but it wasn't good. As Simon said, I think she needs to get back to her country roots. That's where she shines. Amanda the rocker nurse stunk up the joint singing Carry On Wayward Son. She started rough and never seemed to recover. She looked like she was uncomfortable the entire time. She will be lucky to make it to next week. I thought Alaina did fine singing Hopelessly Devoted to You. Not perfect, but good. Alexandrea also did fine singing If You Leave Me Now. It was odd to hear a woman singing Peter Cetera's falsetto, but she sounded good. Not a good song for her, though. Last week's was much better, more upbeat. Kady Malloy absolutely chose the wrong song with Magic Man. Struggled with the low notes, couldn't find the melody anywhere. And I can't believe Simon didn't know the song. Asia'h turned in what I thought was another powerhouse performance singing All by Myself. Aside from a brief loss of voice in the beginning, apparently due to lingering illness, I thought it was a fantastic vocal. Looked great, too. I think Kristy would be a little worried, if not for the fact that Kady & Amanda did so much worse this week. She really needs to pick it up if she wants to make it past next week.

Week 2 of the Guys

2008-02-27T14:15:00.001-05:00

Well, last night was the guys' night of week 2 on Idol. I thought they should have switched off and had the ladies go first, but they didn't ask me. Michael started off singing Go Your Own Way. I have to agree with Simon that this was easily his weakest performance to date. I don't know that it was the right song choice for him. Jason C. followed with some Andy Gibb. Again, not the best choice of song, but in this case, I'll have to disagree with Simon. I thought Jason did very well with it. Not his most dynamic performance, but good vocals. I do agree with Paula, though - I'd like so see Jason without the guitar next week. Luke was very uneven singing Killer Queen. I always wonder what goes through people's minds when they sing Queen. Almost always beyond their capabilities. Luke did very well in parts of the song, though, when he was singing straight. When he tried to add the little theatrical flourishes ("Yeah... c'mon..."), it came across as very cheesy. Definitely better than last week, though. Robbie sang Hot Blooded. Aside from reminding me physically of Bo Bice, Robbie has the same problem as Bo did - because of his look (esp. the long hair), he gets classified as a "rocker." He really isn't, though. I think that's what Simon is referring to when he questions Robbie's authenticity. Robbie hasn't claimed to be a rocker, that's just the label they put on him then judge him based on that label. Aside from all that, I thought the performance was good. Danny (or, as my friend Keith called him last week, Gay Elvis) tried to sing Stevie Wonder. I'm not particularly fond of Danny. Agreed, he's got more personality than most of the other contestants, it's just not a personality I particularly care for. David H. rocked the house singing Papa Was a Rolling Stone. I haven't cared for some of David's previous performances, but this one was one of the best of the night. Jason Y. struggled with Long Train Running. I think Simon summed it up perfectly that Jason is "a quite good singer who can't perform very well." He should be worried this week. Chikezie turned in what I thought was the best performance of the night singing I Believe to My Soul. I thought his vocals and personality on stage were the bomb. He kicked it. Unfortunately, he blew it in the interview again. I think he thinks a little too much of himself and it will hurt him in the long run. David C. seemed more of a rocker than Robbie did singing All Right Now. I see what Simon was trying to say about the video, because David does seem a bit more of a rocker, but the whole "word nerd" thing goes against that image. He also seemed to have the same problem Chikezie did in that he was getting attitudinal with Simon. A lot more of the contestants are doing that this year, I think because they think it will win people over if they come back at Simon. But I think the majority of times, it just makes them annoying. David A. finished the night singing Imagine, by John Lennon. I thought it was a very good performance, but I don't see what the judges see with this kid. I think he's a talented singer and performer, but not the best of the group. Based on crowd and judge reaction, he'll probably make it to at least the top 5. We'll see. I thought his, Chikezie's and David H.'s were the best of the night. My votes are on Jason Y. and Luke to head home tomorrow. I think Michael and Jason C. should go on at least one more week based on past performance. Everyone needs to make better song choices and watch the attitudes.

Boxing at the Garden

2008-02-23T17:06:00.002-05:00

For the first time in 23 heavyweight championship fights at Madison Square Garden, dating back to 1882, an American is not vying for the title. Wladimir Klitschko (Ukraine) will put his IBO and IBF titles on the line against the WBO tile of Sultan Ibragimov (Russia). I'm looking forward to it. I've been a big fan of both Klitschko brothers for years. Always a good fight when there's a Klitschko involved. I'm predicting Wladimir will KO Ibragimov in the 8th round.

In other boxing news, Jessie Brinkley (semi-finalist from the first season of The Contender) beat Otis Griffin (winner of the only season of The Next Great Champ). Too bad. I was rooting for Griffin. I never watched the show, and I had no clue who Griffin was, I just couldn't stand Brinkley. I think he is an arrogant jerk, and not nearly as good as he thinks he is. I was hoping he'd get his ass whooped. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be.

Finally, speaking of The Contender, fan fave (and one of mine) from Season One, Alfonso Gomez, is getting a shot at the welterweight title. On April 12, Gomez is fighting the current WBA champ Miguel Cotto. I think this will be Gomez's toughest fight to date. I would love to see him rise to the occasion and take the title. I think Gomez is a talented fighter and all-around good guy. He deserves the best. Go Alphonso!

Idol - The Ladies

2008-02-21T14:06:00.001-05:00

Well, contrary to what the judges seemed to say at the end of the show, I don't think the ladies did as well as the guys did the night before. Also, I won't beat a dead horse, but Randy needs to let it go. Stop mentioning age, Randy!! Kristy started off well with Rescue Me. It wasn't a spectacular performance, and you could tell she was nervous, but she was good. And damn, she's cute! Anyway, Joanne followed with I Say a Little Prayer for You. I don't care for the song and it wasn't a very good performance. I worry about her. I really like Joanne, but she's got Mandisa syndrome. Because she's a bigger girl, and America basically has a prejudice about size/weight, she has to really bring it every week or risk getting booted. Not fair, but reality. She may get by on past performance, though. Alaina sang More Today Than Yesterday. Chikezie sang this the night before, and Alaina blew him out of the water. Her voice in the interview was a bit annoying, but her voice in the song was amazing. Great performance and no nerves showing. Amanda the Rocker Nurse sang Baby, Please Don't Go. I don't know this song, and it wasn't a powerhouse vocal, but it was fun enough that she'll make it through this week. I disagree with Paula, though, that Amanda has proven she's not a one-trick pony. She hasn't proven it yet. She will need to show some range if she wants to make it past next week. Amy stunk up the joint with Where the Boys Are. Bad song choice, bad performance. Not just struggling with nerves or the flu, but Bad. If she sang like that at the audition, she would not have made it to Hollywood. Brooke the Nanny sang a fun rendition of Happy Together. Not quite as good as David C.'s version from the night before, but good enough to make it to next week. Alexandrea (regardless of how you pronounce it) gave the best performance of the night to this point singing Spinning Wheel. This girl is a force to be reckoned with. I'm not sure what show Simon was watching last night. 99 times out of 100, I agree with Simon. Every now and then, though, he gets PMS or something and goes way off the reservation. Last night was one of those nights. Kady was a bit bland singing Groovy Kind of Love, which I've always thought was a bit of a bland song anyway. She's cute, though, and with the Britney impression, will probably make it another week. She'll have to step it up to make it past that. Asia'h (hate the weird spelling) had the best performance of the night with Piece of My Heart. If she continues at the level she has been, I think she'll make the top 3 along with Jason C. and Michael. Ramiele sang a restrained performance of You Don't Have to Say You Love Me. Given the expectation for her to belt it out, I think it served her well to keep it in on this song. It could have come across as shouting. That's a danger with a voice as big as hers. Syesha kicked butt singing Tobacco Road. I've heard this song on Idol before, but I can't say I'm familiar with it aside from that. However, Syesha made me not care. Girl can sing. Carly finished with The Shadow of Your Smile. I like Carly, and the performance was good, but not anywhere close to best of the top 24. Don't know what Randy was smoking. Best of the night were Alexandrea and Asia'h. Amy's definitely going home. Not sure about the second. Hate to say it, but I think Joanne will go, too. I hope not, but I can't think of who else I think would deserve it based on last night's performances.

Idol Finals Kick Off

2008-02-20T15:03:00.002-05:00

With the top 12 guys. David H. started off the night singing In the Midnight Hour. I haven't been crazy about this guy. I think he's good, but not as good as he thinks he is. He puts too much flourish into his vocals when he should just be singing. Fortunately, he sings well enough; he'll make it through. Chikezie worried me right off when he dropped the last name. I liked him in the auditions, but the one-name thing seems a bit pretentious for a reality show contestant. Got a little more worried during the pre-performance clip when he almost blurted that he was glad the judges recognized his talent. Seemed a bit arrogant. He recovered and said "hard work" instead of "talent." He worried me more when he started singing More Today than Yesterday, not a good song choice or performance. The icing on the cake came when he started snipping at Simon and getting a bit of attitude. Really turned me off. David C. followed with Happy Together. I haven't been a big fan of this David from the beginning - not sure why, something just rubs me the wrong way - but he did a good job in this round. Good song choice, good performance. Jason Y. then performed Moon River. I absolutely agree with Simon (as I usually do) that he was forgettable and not at all contemporary. Robbie sang One (by Three Dog Night, I believe?). Rocked it out! Easily the best performance of the night at this point. David A. sang Smokey Robinson's Shop Around. I think he had trouble hitting the low notes in the beginning because his voice hasn't changed yet. Overall, though, another good performance. But again... Randy. Dawg. It's American Idol, not 17 Year-Old Idol. I don't want to hear it. Just comment on their performance, not their performance relative to their age. Thought he would hyperventilate whilest talking to Ryan, though. Danny I-look-like-Jessica-Alba's-twin-brother Noriega then performed Jailhouse Rock. I actually agree with what Paula was trying to say here. I think he chose a relatively easy song that just allowed him to run around on stage and ham it up. I don't think it was grotesque, but I don't think it was a great singing performance. I think he's this year's Sanjaya. Let's just hope he doesn't try the faux-hawk. Luke sang a relatively forgettable rendition of Everybody's Talkin'. But given his resemblance to a cross between Hugh Jackman and Orlando Bloom, I think he'll get by this week on looks. Again, I agree with Simon regarding Colton's performance of Suspicious Minds. Not as bad as the other Elvis song, but not very memorable or relevant. Garrett struggled through Breaking Up Is Hard to Do on Valium. Paula was right when she told him he shouldn't be afraid to work with Ricky Minor to change things up. Simon was right that Garrett looked a bit washed out and haunted. He looks like he hasn't been out of his mom's basement in about 12 years. Jason C. brought the house down with What a Day for a Daydream. Hands down the best performance of the night. Chrissy and I don't care for the dreds, but he looked incredibly comfortable on stage - at least while he was singing. He seems a bit like one of those shy people who blossoms when performing, then draws back into his shell during an interview. Johnny Depp seems like that. Michael finished the night with Light My Fire. If it weren't for coming right after Jason C., Michael would have had the best performance of the night. He looks so comfortable on stage and on the mic, it's almost not fair to the other contestants. Then again, so was Chris Daughtry. If Michael continues how he has been, he'll cruise his Aussie ass to the top 5. My prediction is that Garrett and Jason Y. will go home on Thursday. We'll see how the ladies do tonight.

Idol

2008-02-15T13:33:00.001-05:00

Well, we're fairly happy with the American Idol Top 24. Chrissy's a little disappointed that her cowboy didn't make it, but like he said, at least he won't miss turkey season. My favorite so far (not to win, just the cutest) is Kristy, the farm girl/cage-fighter. Girl can sing, too. Don't know if she can sing well enough to compete against the level of competition that's in the finals this year, but we'll see. Early favorites (to win) are Asia'h and Syesha. I like Joanna, too, but she struggled a bit in Hollywood. I like Amanda, the rocker nurse, but she needs to show some range beyond 60's/70's rock. I think Carly and Brooke are cute and can sing, but they may not have the goods to make it to the end. Michael (Australian dude) is easily the one to beat from the guys. David A. and Danny (who looks like Jessica Alba's little brother and is gayer than Liberace) both suffer from what I call Jordin Sparks syndrome - they're great.... for their age. If I had to hear Randy gush about David being 16 one more time... I like Chikezie, both personality and name, but don't think he'll make it. I don't care for David C. Something just rubs me the wrong way with him. Not sure what. Maybe some hidden attitude? David H. need to tone it down a bit. There's making a song your own, then there's trying to show off. I'm glad living-in-his-car boy didn't make it. I think he had a bit of an attitude. I worry about his mental state, though. He seemed a bit desperate and pinning his future on winning the show, which I think he absolutely thought he would. Josiah. That was his name. Given, though, that the process took place months ago, if something had happened to him, I would think it would have happened by now.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

2008-02-11T23:21:00.000-05:00

Well, the Redskins have a new Head Coach. Jim Zorn, the former Offensive Coordinator. Well, as of the 25th, he was the Coordinator. Before that, he was the QB Coach in Seattle. Interesting choice. I don't really know much about him, so I can't form much of an opinion of him yet. I'm curious to see what he does with personnel. It makes me nervous that he's already talking about hiring Stump Mitchell for Running Backs Coach when just last week, Earnest Byner signed a one-year extension to his contract. Unless Byner is bumped up to the Coordinator position. That would be interesting. On a side note, speaking of interesting, Bill Lazor, the former Redskins QB coach, signed with Seattle to replace Zorn as QB coach there. Funny.

Also, R.I.P. to Roy Scheider, who passed away this weekend. Cause of death was not reported, but it was confirmed that he had been battling myeloma for the past two years. To me, he will always be Police Chief Martin Brody from Jaws. When I think of him, I think of my sister Gail and our endless joking about the line, "You're gonna need a bigger boat," and the cigarette in his mouth bouncing up & down on the alliterative b's.

It appears as though the writer's strike is over. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, naturally, I'm quite happy. While I don't know all the details about the deal, I think it comes down to (as I speculated before), if the network or studio is making money on it, the writer gets a piece of the action. Sounds pretty simple. Two problems with the strike ending now: 1) Since we are still partly through the season, I'm sure the writers will be rushed back to the shows to try to crank our some crap to tack on to the end of the season. I would rather they simply leave this season short, and put their energy into creating good episodes next season. 2) I was looking forward to making more progress on my Netflix queue. Since there was a dearth of new programming on the networks, I was actually starting to see some movement on the queue. Hopefully, I'll see some more before the new shows return.

Super Bowl

2008-02-03T15:51:00.000-05:00

Well, today is the big day. What to do? I just don't care for the Pats (sorry, Jackie!). I think Belichick is an arrogant jerk. I think the team should have an asterisk next to their "perfect" record. I don't care what anyone says about the Jets coach snitching, or other teams cheating. The fact is they cheated and got caught. That taints it for me. I have nothing personally against Brady, I just hate how much the media dotes on him. I wish they would simply invite him into the booth, bend him over, drop his pants and kiss his ass. At least that would be more honest.

On the other hand, I just can't bring myself to root for the Giants. Anyone who knows me (or has read this blog) knows I'm a Skins fan, and as such, I can't root for a rival NFC East team to win the big game.

So what do I do? I'm going to hope for a good game. I think the Pats will blow out the Giants, so I hope the Giants will put up a good fight. And I hope we get some good commercials this year. The commercials are typically the best part of the day, and the past few years, people are actually talking about the game the next day! We need better commercials this year; and hopefully a good game.

P.S. Congrats to Darrell Green and especially Art Monk (!!) for making the Pro Football Hall of Fame! Yay!!

Changing Perspective

2008-02-02T20:50:00.001-05:00

This past week, I have been thinking a lot about the implications of the title of this post. It began during our vacation at Disney World last week. Though we did have a great time, it will not go down in history as our best Disney trip ever. The entire time we were there, we had to deal with these Brazilian, high school tour groups running around like they owned the place (we think they were Brazilian, and they were about the right age and behavior for high school kids...). Then, (I don't know if anyone other than me notices the space on the right where I state what I am currently reading, but...), this train of thought picked up a few more cars as I was re-reading The Gunslinger, book 1 of Stephen King's Dark Tower series.* It picked up a caboose when I read my sister's column (shameless plug) about her thoughts on Eli Manning.

It got me thinking about how I was at the age these kids were, and though I don't always feel I am a vastly different person than I was then, there are times when I can't believe how different I have become. Given how much I have changed, and I'm sure others have undergone similar transformations, it's amazing that I continue to hold friendships with people that I was friends with then, and continue to have good relationships with family members that I felt I had good relationships with then.

As perhaps is typical of many young people, I used to see things very black & white. When I began driving (23 years ago!!), I felt that the speed limit was the law. If the sign said 35, and you were going 36, you were breaking the law, and may as well have been going 70 (you can't be a little bit pregnant). Well, anyone whose been in a car with me in the past ten years or so knows I see a little more gray area now. There are a lot of gray areas I see now. I remember seeing The Color of Money back in '86 when it first came out. Not a bad movie, if you enjoy watching 9-ball and don't expect much. (Definitely a make-up Oscar for Paul Newman. Much as I like him, it wasn't an Oscar-worthy performance). Anyway, I remember a couple of years ago talking with Rob about it. He had recently seen it again, and so had I. We both had the same experience of identifying more with Newman's character now, when we had identified more with the Cruise character when we were younger. Our perspective had shifted.

While I am enjoying the Dark Tower books every bit as much as I did when I began reading them ten years ago (thanks to Ian Raymond, who I worked with at Harbour Spirits - Thanks, Ian!), I was in a very different place in my life than I am now. I had just lost a job of ten years, a girlfriend of five years, and any hope of financial stability, all in the span of about five months. Since then, I became gainfully employed on two separate occasions, gotten back on my feet financially (though I hope to be doing better in the coming years), and I have experienced ten more years of life, including almost - and then in a very real way - losing my father, getting married, my grandmother passing away, dealing with various health issues, and gaining, then losing, another second father in my future wife's father (if you follow). Needless to say, my frame of mind from then to now is a bit different. Therefore, while my enjoyment of the books is just as great, if not greater, my experience while reading them is much different. That almost makes it like reading them again for the first time. When I was watching extras on one of the LOTR DVDs, I found out Christopher Lee (Saruman) has re-read the trilogy every year, possibly since they were published. He's that big a fan. As I read what I typed about the Dark Tower, I wonder if he has experienced the same thing. As much as I love some books, I thought it was a bit excessive to read the same three books every single year. It may be. But possibly not as excessive as I once thought. My perspective on that has changed.

So... where does this lead us? What conclusions have I drawn as I have pondered the topic over the past week and a half? None. Save, perhaps, one more changed perspective from my youth. There aren't always solutions. There doesn't have to be a conclusion drawn. Maybe the examination in itself (of one's own self) is the whole point. To look inward. Analyze. Fix? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe just see things from a different perspective.

"Luke, you're going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view." -- Obi-Wan Kenobi, Return of the Jedi

Yes, I just quoted a Star Wars movie. Some things never change...

*"Wait," you say (if indeed you do pay attention to what I'm reading), "I never saw that. It looked like you started with book 2, The Drawing of the Three." Well, half right. While I did start with The Gunslinger, I whipped through it so quickly (and at Disney, no less), that I never had time to indicate on my blog that I was reading it.

Happy Birthday, Wifey!

2008-01-14T13:56:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday dear Chrissy!
Happy Birthday to yoooooooouuuu!

Today is my wonderful, beautiful wife's birthday. I think she's taking it pretty well. Then again, it's not like she's turning 40 this year... *sobs*

Aloha, Joe

2008-01-08T12:54:00.000-05:00

Well, I just heard the sad news that Joe Gibbs is retiring as Head Coach and General Manager of the Washington Redskins. I can’t say I’m shocked. I was looking forward to seeing what progress he could continue to make next year. I think Greg Williams has to have the inside line to replace Gibbs. Aside from his experience, both in the NFL (head coach) and with the team (holds the defense together), he gets $1M bonus if he’s not chosen to replace Gibbs when he leaves. It's in his contract. I've heard Bill Cowher's name being bandied about, but I'll be surprised if Williams isn't the Man. Farewell, Joe. You will always be remembered as the greatest coach in the history of the Skins.