4 Years, already????

I won’t be posting on Thursday/Friday this week (I know, a truly sad day for Bloggerville), but I have a legitimate excuse. My wife and I are celebrating 4-years of marriage this weekend … in Atlantic City AND Cape May! Atlantic City is a fitting place, considering she took a “gamble” in agreeing to marry me in the first place (sorry folks, I couldn’t resist). Seriously, though, I think she made out ok. 4 years! It seriously feels like a year ago that we got married. I guess time flies when you have fun (that should build up those brownie points with the Mrs.).

So, what have I learned in these 4 years? First, I’ve learned that I REALLY am not creative when it comes to food. I can thank my mom for that. Do you realize it took me going to college to actually try Chinese food? I didn’t try sushi until was with my wife. Heck, on our first real date, we went to a sushi restaurant, and I ordered Chicken Teriyaki … that’s like ordering a hot dog at a steak restaurant. I’m getting better, but I still have a ways to go. My wife loves going to fancy restaurants, and making culinary concoctions. I’d rather just get a burger and fries (point of pain, folks).

I love sports and sports entertainment, and my wife loves reality tv shows and any “news” surrounding celebrities. Hence, we have 4 televisions in our house. But, we have both compromised a bit. My wife is in a fantasy football league that I’m part of … and she’s currently in first place. I agreed to watch Top Chef with her this summer, and hey, I kind of liked it (however, no chance of me watching American Idol this year).

My wife likes to sleep in on weekends, and clean the house at odd hours of the night during the week. I like to relax, blog, and practice guitar during the week, get up early on weekends, and complete chores.

Somehow, we still find a common ground, and time to love each other. I guess Paula Abdul was right – Opposites DO attract! I love you, cutie (that’s to my wife – not to you, my fellow bloggers … although I think you are all great in your own ways …).

The Butt-Guys!

This weekend was not like other weekends … no – I had tickets to go to the Penn State vs. Ohio State game in Happy Valley … the game of the year for Nittany Lions fans … and a chance for JoePa’s boys to take on the number one team in the land on national television … sure, they ended up losing, but I got some great stories!

First, since we got the tickets just a few weeks ago, we were unable to get a place to stay in or around State College … normally not a huge issue, except the game was a night game, and there aren’t many hotels to begin with … couple that with our 3-hour ride (that’s without traffic, folks), and it was going to be a looooooonnnnnnnggggg day.

No need to worry, my friend Ivan and I were up for the challenge. We brought some necessities … mainly consisting of beer, and were planning on sleeping in the truck after the game for a few hours, until traffic died down. “Thankfully,” we didn’t have to worry about that, as the Buckeyes were well on their way to kicking our ass by the end of the third quarter … that’s when we ended up leaving, beating traffic, and making it home at a “reasonable” hour … reasonable, as in 2:45 a.m.

However, there were a few more “highlights” to the trip. First and foremost, I ate at a Sonic for the first time ever. This has been a dream of mine since I first saw those goofy commercial about 10 years ago … problem was that Sonic hadn’t made it to Pennsylvania … however, if you are traveling out near Morgantown, a Sonic now awaits you! Let me tell ya something, folks, those burgers were awesome! The fries were very good to … and the selection is top notch! Plus, you get to order AND eat in your car, like a drive-in … very cool! We need one of these a little closer to Philly, darn-it!

As for the game, Ivan secured us some really great seats – right around the 10-yard-line about 30 rows up (this stadium sits 110,000 people, mind you). The weather, which was not-so-good the entire week, cleared up, and the conditions were perfect for football (in my estimation, of course). Just one problem with the tickets …. I was forced to sit next to a guy who apparently was related to a skunk … ladies, and gentlemen, the man stunk … it was as if he had taken a nap with a turd blanket. I swear, this guy must’ve crapped himself on more than one occasion that night … and he swayed like he was Stevie Wonder … I’m not sure he even realized where he was. Folks, I would’ve rather have watched the game in an overused outhouse in the middle of the summer … I thought this guy was going to at some point “share” the alcohol he had consumed for close to 12 hours with me … thankfully, he merely passed out … money well spent!

All in all, it was a great time – except for the game, of course.

P.S. I was able to take a picture of this pile-of-manure-of-a-guy ... however, blogger was uncooperative. I'll try to post this later.

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night!

On Saturday night, the wife and I had the pleasure of going out to dinner with Reverse and his wife. For those not in the know, Reverse is a former co-worker of mine, and still a very good friend. And surprise, surprise – he’s Jewish. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, I AM capable of being friends with anyone, even though I am of German heritage (of course, I hate ham, and am not crazy about potatoes … so maybe my parents adopted me, or something.

But, we had a great time, lots of laughs. We went to the Iron Hill in Media for dinner – we didn’t realize that Media was having their Jazz Fest, and the place was crowded. Plus, Iron Hill was still celebrating Oktoberfest, and had these Bavarian flags hanging from the ceiling. It prompted Reverse to say that he wanted to take one of those flags and make a cape out of it, and run through the jazz crowd with it. We then came up with an idea for a new superhero – Bavarian-man! His super-powers would include shooting beer at criminals and intoxicating them. His sidekick would be, “The Brat,” and the main villain would be “The Wurst.” Good times!

We later went to the Town House, and hung out at the bar – very tacky, but so tacky that it was cool. The bar had two huge moose-heads hanging from the wall, and many other items that would’ve made Bennigans jealous. When we left the bar, we swear we walked right by M. Night Shyamalon … I guess it’s possible because he lives in the area. Hopefully, he’ll start creating some good movies again.

Anyway, it was nice to hang with Reverse again – I don’t get to see him, or the others at Lockheed enough anymore.

More "Pillow" Talk

There was a time in my life where I needed total silence to sleep … which was troublesome, considering we lived right near the airport and train tracks. I would never be able to fall asleep when the tv was on, or if music was playing … heck, I had a tough time falling asleep with a fan on.

Funny how things change. NOW, I have a really tough time falling asleep when there is no noise in the background. I toss and turn more than a death-row inmate (does that comparison even make sense?). I, at the very least need some sort of white noise in the background, like a fan … heck, I even have a fan on in the winter-time just for the rhythmic sound.

My wife likes the tv on, and although it takes me a little longer to fall asleep with the tube on, I end up doing so anyway … I will fall asleep rather easily to the news, or any Bob Ross painting show (the guy was hypnotic – he would start off with a white canvass, talking about adding some happy trees to the canvass … I would close my eyes for what seemed like a few seconds, then I’d wake up, and ½ hour had gone by, in this guy just created a masterpiece … I’m not sure if it was his subtle voice, his crazy afro, or a combination of both … best naps I ever had).

Anyway, I’ve given you guys two weird sleeping “fetishes” I have. I wanted to see if you had any to share. C’mon, don’t be nervous!

Pillow Obsession!

Pillow Obsession

I’m pretty easygoing about everything – I don’t really care which kind of soda I’m drinking, I like the shore just as much as I like the mountains, and I’m really willing to drink just about any type of beer. However, there is one quirky thing I need. And that, my friends is down-feather pillows when I sleep. If you must know, I prefer three of them, however, I can make do with one if needed.

Strange, you may say. I agree fully with you. But, that’s just the way it is. When I went to college, I had to pack my down-feather pillows with me. When I sleep over somebody’s house, I HAVE to bring my down-feather pillows. My wife has prevented me from bringing them to hotels, and it bothers the hell out of me … thankfully, many of the hotels in Atlantic City apparently know about me, and make sure that these types of pillows are available when I get there.

I know there are quite a few people out there who probably can’t sleep on down-feather pillows because of allergies. I think the worst thing that could ever happen to me is to develop one of these allergies … I’m not sure how I’d ever be able to get a good night’s sleep again … I’m sure I would look for the help of some good alcohol.

An Important Dilemma!

I guess I first noticed this phenomenon many years ago with my dad, but was reminded of it just recently with a fellow coworker. What could I possibly be talking about? War? UFO’s? Political preferences? No, no, and no. This is something much more important … cereal preferences.

Let me explain … my dad eats corn flakes for breakfast every morning … I know, I know, you are probably asking, “What the hell is so unusual about that?” Let me continue … he pours his cereal into the bowl, adds the milk, and then lets it sit for about 5 minutes or so, to make the flakes soggy. This is how he enjoys his cereal – totally soggy. I thought this was a rather quirky and unique preference, until a coworker of mine told me that he prefers his cereal this way too.

In fact, the coworker went a step further and said that he hates cereal that doesn’t get soggy … you know the kind – Cocoa Puffs, Cap’n Crunch, Kellogs Pops. I was blown away by this. I, by no means play cereal favorites. In fact, I end up buying whatever’s on sale – whether it’s healthy cereal or kids cereal (although, I have to admit, there is no way I’m buying Grape Nuts – I’ve had that before, and it’s like eating gravel).

I’d have to say that I prefer my cereal to stay crunchy, though, so I eat it as soon as I pour the milk on it. I love Raisin Bran cereal, but one of the things I dislike is how quickly the flakes become soggy … it’s kind of like the texture of cold soup.

Anyway, I wanted to see how you guys and gals prefer your cereal. Is there really a split in this nation as to whether cereal should be eaten crunchy or soggy? Help me out on this one!

Good Luck, Ivan!

Today is indeed a sad day for me, for my coworker, we’ll call him “Ivan,” is transitioning to another department. You see, Ivan was my mentor at Vanguard, and a damn good one at that. 10 months ago, when I “came aboard,” he was the guy that took me under his wings, and showed me the ropes. I couldn’t have asked for a better mentor.

It’s always tough when you start a new job – you don’t know anybody, you are unsure if you’ll ever fit in, and you have doubts as to whether you can even do the job. Ivan took care of all of this for me. He immediately helped to immerse me into the department, showed me the ropes, and most importantly, became a good friend.

Sure, we’ll always be friends – we’re going to try to meet up for lunch once a week, and I’m sure we’ll hang out, outside of work from time-to-time. But, I’ll miss having him around the office – being able to go to his desk and ask idiotic questions about stuff I was working on, but most of all just shooting the breeze (no, I’m not gay).

I wish him the best of luck in his new endeavors – he’ll be fine. But, the department he’s leaving will never be the same. Good luck, Ivan!

A Little This, A Little That ...

Just a couple of other items about me because … well, because I can’t think of anything to write about:

Favorite fast food French fry.
This used to be easy for me – McDonalds fries all the way. But, I gotta say, I’m a big fan of the Chick Fil-A waffle fries. Hey, I even like the Arby’s curly fries. At this point, it’s pretty much a dead-heat.

Favorite newer band:
If I had put down my favorite band, this would be far too easy – that would be the Stones. However, I wanted to make it challenging, because that’s the kind of guy I am. I totally love Electric Six – I’ve seen them on a few occasions at the Khyber in Philly (basically an oven). Sure, their third album wasn’t anywhere near as good as their first one, but still. I just downloaded their fourth cd (I-Tunes), and I gotta tell ya, they made a heckuva comeback – I’m halfway through it, and I absolutely love it! They are apparently coming to Philly in November – maybe the Rev and I will go see them again.

Interesting childhood memory:
I remember thinking that any sports team I was on or that I followed was destined to win a championship. Boy, did that theory come crashing down on me. My first tee-ball game, my team lost like 13-0. I remember being so upset and crying hysterically … how could this be happening to me? I had much the same reaction when my sports teams lost. For instance, when the Flyers lost the Stanley Cup to the Islanders in 1980, I remember getting so upset that I actually threw up.

Potato dislike
Shockingly enough, I’m a picky eater. I prefer noodles to any form of potato (with the exception of French fries, but that doesn’t count, really). I get upset at breakfast places that force home fries on me. I would rather have tater tots, fries, or even grits. I consider home fries as a filler, and should be replaced with more eggs and/or bacon. Don’t get me wrong – I’ll eat potatoes, but I really don’t care for them.

Favorite movie growing up:
I gotta tell ya, when I was like 7, I remember seeing a movie in the theatres called “They Call Me Bruce.” I thought this movie was probably the funniest movie that was ever created …. And that the rest of my life would be a waste, because I had already seen the Holy Grail of comedies. About a year ago, I saw a copy of They Call Me Bruce in a Best Buy bin for $5.00. I thought this may be the best money that I would ever spend. I immediately purchased it, and went home to watch it. Ladies and gentlemen, the movie sucked balls. I couldn’t believe that I had just been “Bruced.” By the way, that is a term I came up with after watching this movie. This is any time you go back and watch a movie you loved as a child, and realize it sucks.

King of the Dips**ts

Don’t know how many of you saw this, but a few nights ago at the Yankees vs. Indians game, LeBron James, basketball star for the Cleveland Cavs … and a guy who grew up not far from Cleveland, had a Yankees cap on at the game, and basically said that he hoped the Indians individually do well, but he hoped the Yankees would win. So much for all of that fan-support that you got in Cleveland, Bron-Bron, you front-running imbecile.

You know, I just expect sports players to be a little smarter than that. Even if he HAD grown up in the Bronx, he probably shouldn’t have been wearing that Yankees cap in Cleveland. What a douche-bag. He has even professed to be a Cowboys fan. Seriously, LeBron, is your favorite hockey team the Detroit Red Wings? Do you wish you were playing for the Lakers? If you had a chance to go to college, would you have gone to Duke? Do you change your favorite sports teams every year, depending on who wins?

Man, I used to like this guy. Now, I can’t stand him. You think his agent almost had a heart-attack that night? So much for all of that local advertising Bron-Bron could’ve made this year. I hope he tears both of his ACL tendons in training camp … then we can see him on the sideline with his New York Yankees three-piece suit. Did I mention I think this guy is a douche-bag?

What does he expect from the Cleveland fans now? Does he think they’ll forget about this? Unless he wins this city 3 championships, I’m pretty sure he’ll be about as popular in Cleveland as Jose Mesa and Ernest Byner (look ‘em up). I thought this guy was very mature for his age … now, I don’t think this guy has a clue what maturity means.

What a slap to the face of the entire city of Cleveland. I hope the Tribe sweeps the Bronx Bombers … then, I’d like to see somebody interview this heaping, steaming, pile of LeBron. My guess is that he’ll backpedal faster than a clown on a unicycle.

LeBron, I think I might like you less than Kobe now. Go figure.

Just Like Old Times ... Sorta

Last night, I went to see Van Halen at the Comcast Center … not really a big deal, I guess, especially since I’ve seen them quite a few times in the past. BUT, this time around, Diamond Dave was back leading the band for the first time since 1984, and this was my first opportunity to see them with him fronting the band (I saw them twice with Sammy Hagar, and once with Gary Sharone). Also, instead of Michael Anthony laying the bass down, Eddie Van Halen decided to instead insert his 16-year-old son Wolfgang as the bassist (more on that later).

First, let me say that Eddie Van Halen is by far the greatest guitarist I’ve ever seen. Sure, now he looks more like Skelator (Keith Richards thinks this guy looks bad), but to this day, he still is a wizard with the axe. I’ve seen some of the best – Clapton, Townsend, Angus – but they just can’t compete with this guy.

David Lee Roth’s voice was still very much intact, and let’s face it, even though Sammy did sing some of the Dave songs when he was with Van Halen, nobody does it like Diamond Dave. A couple of things, though – Dave acted more like a lounge singer than the lead vocalist of Van Halen (the one we remember from the videos). Plus, the hair-cut that Dave has, combined with that goofy smile he had, made him look more like Steve Martin’s brother.

Alex Van Halen is amazing behind the drums, and if his brother wasn’t the lead guitarist of Van Halen, Alex would probably get some consideration as being one of the best rock drummers of all-time. That being said, do we really need a 10-minute drum solo from him? Maybe it’s just me.

Wolfgang is no replacement for Michael Anthony. In fact, Wolfgang looked more like Bill Wyman … a fat Bill Wyman … than Eddie’s son. One person described Wolfgang as looking as if he had eaten Michael Anthony (high comedy). Still, one has to understand that the kid is only 16. I mean, I’d probably try to stay out of the way of Dave and Eddie as well. Plus, now that Wolfgang is in the band, he might carry on the Van Halen legacy even long after Dave and Eddie retire or die … kind of like Menudo.

All in all, a great show. Certainly, it was way different than the other Van Halen shows I saw – It’s a totally different band with Dave leading. Plus, they only played Dave songs … the more rockin’ Van Halen tunes.

We've Got High Hopes ...

My goodness – the Phils are in the playoffs! It seems so surreal. I’m still not sure if I believe it. This team has given us so many heart-aches the last few years, and before that, the product that was put on the field had no heart. I’m sure by now, many of you know it’s been 14 years since the last time the Phillies made it to the postseason. I was a senior in college then.

This team, much like that 1993 team, has a lot of heart and character. Sure, their pitching staff isn’t the greatest, and the manager would never be confused with a Nobel Prize winner, but somehow, this team never quit. Obviously, they got some help from the Mets, but the Phils still had to go out there and win … and win, they did.

I’m not sure how far they’ll go – I have my doubts, especially with the starting pitchers they have. But, look at what the Cardinals did last season, and their pitching staff was probably worse than ours.

I’ll be the first to admit that I wasn’t a believer. I’ve seen this team fall short far too often. That doesn’t mean that I wasn’t rooting for them. I just had low expectations. After they lost yesterday, I even said, “Here we go again.” But, this team is different. The players they have on the field will run through walls to win games.

I was talking with a friend of mine earlier today, and he summed it up perfectly when he said, “I’m not really sure what to do, or how to act, because it’s been so long.” I assume he was talking about the Phillies and not about his sex life … ba-da-bing!

I remember how excited I was with every pitch of the playoffs in 1993, and I can’t wait to once again take that ride with this team. Whether they win or lose at this point, this season is a success. Go Phils!

Sir Mick!

Hopefully, you’ve heard, but if you haven’t, Mick Jagger is releasing his greatest hits cd …. And no, smart ass, it’s not an EP! Many of you know of my love for the Rolling Stones, I consider them divine, their music like a gift from God. And sure, Mick’s solo work doesn’t really compare to what the Stones have released, but it really isn’t that bad.

I already have most of the songs, but that won’t stop me from buying this album –there are 3 songs I don’t have … more than enough to warrant a purchase. Sure, I could theoretically go to I-Tunes and just download those three songs, and for an ordinary band, I would do this. However, with the Stones and anything Stones related, I HAVE to buy the cd.

Plus, there is a limited edition cd with a DVD that features the music videos from 9 of his songs. Now, if you’ve never seen a Mick Jagger, or Rolling Stones video for that matter, do yourself a favor, and go to Youtube, and watch the “Let’s Work” video. That should tell you all you need to know about Mick Jagger and videos. Over the years, I have developed some very good Mick Jagger dance moves … so good, in fact, that I am frequently requested to do this dance at weddings.

But I digress … I’ve seen the song list for the cd, and it really is solid. He has collaborations with Bono, John Lennon, David Bowie, and Lenny Kravitz – pretty heavy hitters in the music world. I guess the next time I’ll be this excited is when Keef rolls out his greatest hits cd … I’m waiting!

WHere Do I Change, Now????

With the increasing popularity of cell phones, one of the “traditional” hallmarks of Americana, the pay phone, is rapidly reaching the point of extinction. Isn’t it funny how quickly a technological advance like this can affect a product? I guess this is similar to what the CD did to the cassette tape, as well as the vinyl record (although, there is still a very strong niche market for vinyl).

Has anybody thought of this point, though? What happens to Superman? He uses payphones to change from Clark Kent to Superman. How will the comic strips handle this? Am I overreacting? Will Clark Kent choose a cyber café to change, instead? I’m sure my friend “Reverse,” who is probably the most rabid comic book freak I know, already has an answer for this. I’m eager to find out!

Godfather, Part IV?

Ladies and gentlemen, Sunday marked a first for me. You see, I was asked to be the Godfather of my niece – the church service was this afternoon, so I can officially imitate Marlon Brando … seriously, though, I am truly honored that somebody has enough faith in me to ask me to be a Godfather … sure, the family has 6 children (my wife’s brother has 3 kids, and my wife’s sister has 3 kids) – so I guess my name inevitably had to be called … again, just kidding!

The church service was interesting, to say the least. First, there were 8 children being christened. I’m not one to complain, but shouldn’t this be limited to like babies being christened at a time? It was utter chaos – lots of crying and wet diapers … and I haven’t even gotten to the babies yet (hey-yo!). It just seemed like a lot – especially for the Priest.

Speaking of the Priest, this may have been his first christening, because things didn’t run so smoothly … in fact, I would compare his “smoothness” to that of a herd of porcupines. Also, he was of Asian decent – not that this is a problem, but his thick Asian accent and lack of grammar skills probably would’ve made some language arts teachers throw up a little in their collective mouths. No need for him to differentiate between singular or plural, or nouns and verbs.

Also, the guy was definitely not a football fan – this christening went well over an hour, and probably didn’t need to. Unfortunately, I missed the best Eagles half of offensive output in over a decade – but that’s ok, because even Oregon Ducks football fans thought the Eagles’ uniforms were hideous. I do have to give props to the parents of my God Daughter – they were keeping me in mind by trying to schedule the christening to fall during an Eagles’ bye week – unfortunately, the church had no openings for this (looks like others had the same idea).

In all seriousness though, I am honored by this, and I will do everything to make sure that Lilly has the best Godfather around … I’m not really sure what my responsibilities are, but I’m ready to honor them … whatever they may be.

Foot in Mc-Mouth

The big story going around in Philly these days are the comments Donovan McNabb, quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles, made on HBO the other day. Basically, what he said was that black quarterbacks are still playing on an uneven field, as opposed to white quarterbacks, and that they are forced to have to do more to be successful. I agreed with this statement …. about 20 years ago.

Back in the 1980’s, there were hardly any black quarterbacks in pro football, and the ones in college were encouraged to switch positions when they graduated. Heck, Warren Moon, one of the most successful of these qb’s went to Canada to play for a number of years, instead of switching positions. When he got his chance back in the NFL, he made the most of it. He, along with Randall Cunningham, and Doug Williams, paved the way for other black quarterbacks –those are the ones who rightfully had a beef.

The city of Philadelphia already went through having a black quarterback for years prior to McNabb – with Randall Cunningham. For the most part, this city loved him – he was athletic, exciting, and just fun to listen to during press conferences. He was indeed “The Ultimate Weapon.” He won many a game for us that we had no business winning, and was the guy that was partially responsible for the rebirth of the Eagles. Sure, he wasn’t the greatest decision maker in the world, and that Eagles defense probably won games despite his mistakes, but I digress (actually, when I was a PR intern with the Eagles, one of the coaches said that Cunningham never studied any game tapes –they would give him about 5 minutes of game tape, and then put a porno on the rest of it, just to test this – Cunningham never knew, because he never watched).

McNabb’s comments, in my opinion, were rather stupid – and hey, I’m a McNabb guy. He totally ignored the entire Cunningham era with his statements, AND basically ignored the fact that Jaworski got booed constantly in this city, AND he was white AND he took us to our first Super Bowl. Mike Schmidt, one of the greatest third basemen in baseball history was constantly booed and considered lazy by his hometown fans in the City of Brotherly Love.

At this point, I don’t think McNabb will ever win this city over. He started off on the wrong foot the day he was drafted (no fault of his own), and has never really been able to get over this. Even if he finds a way to win the Super Bowl, I’m guessing the fans will end up loving Westbrook or Dawkins more than McNabb anyway.

Way to Go, O.J.!!!

OJ Simpson has once again been arrested, and it looks like this time he might get some significant jail time. For some reason, this guy just refuses to stay out of the public eye. I know some people may debate this, but the guy was lucky to get off on the double murder case back in the day.

I just can’t understand him – for most of his life, he lived a charmed life. He was an excellent athlete who was able to parlay that into a movie career as well as a career as an NFL analyst. He was, in a sense, a role model for many, and was beloved by people of all colors. He was a non-polarizing face on television, and probably would’ve had a long career, had he not done what he did that night in 1994.

I guess we can chalk it all up to Karma, because it looks like he finally may get what he deserves. He won’t have his “super” defense team, and hopefully Mark Furman will be nowhere to be found when it comes to the investigation. Also, let’s really hope none of the other original characters, Marcia Clark, Chris Dardin, and Judge Ito, do not appear in the sequel. Maybe Frank Drebbin can make some sort of appearance, just for old-time sake.

As a side note – is anybody else getting annoyed with the Goldman family sticking their noses in every little O.J. situation? They ended up getting the rights to his book in which he kind of showed how he may have killed his wife and her boyfriend … and what do they do? They end up releasing the book, so they can make money off of it. Isn’t that a little weird? Just my thoughts.

Weekend Recap ...

Ugh, I can’t believe it’s already Sunday! I hate it when weekends fly by too fast – although that usually means much fun was had … which was the case this weekend.

I really didn’t do much Friday night except hang out with the wife, although we did have a great time listening to music, cleaning the kitchen, and just hamming it up. Of course, all of these things are fun, when done whilst indulging in some alcohol.

Saturday morning, I took my car to the dealership, because the stupid “check engine” light was on. I purposely took it early – 8:00 a.m., so that I would have it back, hopefully by noon. The guy at the counter asked that I leave my number, and wait at home for it, because there were 4 people in front of me. I don’t usually have a problem doing this, because (A) I live about a 10-minute walk from the place, and (B) I usually don’t need the car on Saturday. However, I know that when I leave the car there, it immediately drops on the “priority chart” at the dealership. I called the place at around 12:30 p.m., because I heard nothing from them. Shockingly enough, they were just getting to my car at this point. I informed the guy that I expressly dropped my car off in the morning, so that I could get it back sooner. I called back at 2:00 – the car still wasn’t done. I immediately sent an e-mail to the dealership informing them of my complete disgust in them. I did finally get the car at 2:30 p.m. – and of course, the problem wasn’t solved – they needed to order a part. Fantastic – I hope I can bring the car in and wait another 8 hours for it!

I did watch two movies this weekend as well – one good, and one not-so-good. Stranger Than Fiction, which stars Will Ferrell and Dustin Hoffman. While the movie was nowhere near as funny as I thought it would be, it was still really good – more of a drama than comedy, I guess. I highly recommend it. The second movie, Tenacious D – The Pic of Destiny, was not very good. I guess Jack Black or Tenacious D fans would get a kick out of it, but I thought that it dragged at points, and just wasn’t very inspiring or funny for that matter.

Oh yeah, and of course the Oktoberfest was a ton of fun. I drank Paulaner Beer out of a huge “Mas,” ate Bratwurst and German pretzels, as well as listening to some interesting German polka music. All in all a good time. Oh, and Notre Dame got crushed again – so all is well with the world!

Next week, Penn State plays Michigan in the Big House. Go Lions!

End of Summer Blues ...

End of summer is always an interesting change (sorry guys and gals, I couldn’t come up with anything else). When we were growing up, it always meant the beginning of another year of school – which was always filled with stress. More homework, tougher classes … ugh, what a stressful time.

I particularly remember it being very stressful starting ninth grade. This meant going from Glenolden School (middle school) to Interboro High School – a total change of scenery. I heard all kinds of scary stories about high school, that, at one point, I seriously thought that there would be some sort of drug dealer at every corner of the hallway. I thought seniors were waiting at the door to beat the crap out of us little freshmen … that teachers were going to give us so much homework, we probably wouldn’t be able to sleep. Man, the pressure.

Of course, high school wasn’t anything like that, at least not for me. Seniors pretty much ignored us … except for the senior that was in our German 1 class – he took my friend Rich, and stuffed him into a trashcan … although truth be told, Rich did have it coming to him – he crossed the line by making fun of the guy. Since I was friends with Rich, the senior decided to teach me a lesson as well, by flinging spit that he gathered on his finger at me repeatedly. Man, good times.

As college approached, I had a much different view of the end of summer. It was time to start all over at college, make new friends, and par-tay! My parents drove me down to Mont Alto (one of the Penn State campuses), and I couldn’t get them out of the door quick enough. I was ready to immerse myself into college life.

Nowadays, I look at the end of summer as meaning more traffic on the road. See, I don’t have any kids yet, and I’m sure my viewpoint of the end of summer will change once again when I do have kids. But now, September is more of an inconvenience than anything else. I am looking forward to mowing the lawn less (and not at all once winter approaches), and of course, football season!

Funny how perceptions change.

Fake Fans ... I Hate 'Em!

I’ve probably written about this before, and if I have, I apologize, but the topic gets under my skin. Penn State played Notre Dame this past weekend, and absolutely pasted them (probably should’ve won by more, but that’s a different story). Anyway, I know a few people who are Notre Dame fans, and I’ve asked them why on a number of occasions. The only real response I get is, “well, why not?”

This really bugs me, and it’s not just people who decide to be Notre Dame fans. Basically, it’s anybody who just decides to be a fan of a team, even though he or she has no connection to that team. Listen, if you went to Notre Dame, live in South Bend, or have family that went to Notre Dame, then sure, you have every right to be an Irish fan, and I won’t think any less of you. However, if you have no connection to Notre Dame at all, other than being Irish or Catholic, then I’m sorry, you are a sell out, and I probably won’t be able to have an intelligent conversation with you about sports.

The same goes for you Yankees fans. Sure, if you grew up in the Bronx or New York City, or if you played on the Yankees or are good friends (or family) with someone who does or did, then, yes, you can be a Yankees fan. But, if you like the Yankees only because they win a lot of championships, then you aren’t a real fan. No, this is not debatable, so don’t waste your breath.

You HAVE to be a fan of the team in your city – it’s like a badge of honor. Do I get frustrated with the Phillies? Absolutely – on a daily basis, usually. BUT, I still root for them, and if they ever win, I’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that I was with them through thick and thin.

We have a lot of Cowboys fans in Philly, which just boggles my mind. In fact, one of my good friends is a Cowboys fan … basically, because his mom is one, and she raised him to be a Cowboys fan. Do I think any less of him? Maybe not as a person, but definitely as a fan.

You can’t just pick any team you want to root for – that’s not what being a fan is about. I get nauseated when I see people (mostly unintelligent kids) walking around with San Antonio Spurs jerseys, because they won last year. These are the same kids who will walk around with Cubs’ jerseys the second they win the World Series. Guys – you aren’t cool. In fact, you make me want to throw up in my mouth!

Support your home team, dammit! It’s what you have to do! Do you think that New York Mets fans who live in New York think highly of you “imitators” who live in Philly but like the Mets? Sure, they get a laugh out of it, but they don’t respect you. Just like I don’t respect “Sixers” fans living in Topeka, Kansas. It just doesn’t make sense!

Knock it off!!!!

So, What is Oktoberfest, Anyway?

As some of you may know, both my parents came from Germany … which makes me 100% German … please don’t hold that against me, ok? So, with that said, one of the great drinking events of the year is just around the corner … that’s right, Oktoberfest! If St. Patrick’s Day is Irish amateur day, then Oktoberfest is German amateur day (month, actually).

Normally, we go to the Delaware Saengerbund to celebrate Oktoberfest – which is celebrated at the club the third weekend in September … of course, that happens to be this coming weekend. I’m sure you might be wondering what Oktoberfest is, outside of the chance to drink really good German beer (or Bier!). Well, you’ve come to the right place.

I got this definition from Wikipedia: “Oktoberfest is a two-week festival held each year in Munich, Bavaria, Germany during late September and early October. It is one of the most famous events in the city and the world's largest fair, with some six million people attending every year. The event traditionally takes place during the 16 days up to and including the first Sunday in October.” The beer that is brewed for this is darker and stronger – basically, an opportunity to relive college for some.

Anyway, the Delaware Saengerbund always has a great Oktoberfest celebration, with tons of great beer, German food, music, and even carnival rides for the youngsters. It runs from Friday to Sunday. We plan on going this coming Saturday, late afternoon thru night-time. In case any of you may be interested, here is the website: http://www.delawaresaengerbund.org/v5_Oktoberfest.shtml.

Prost!

That'll Go Over Lke a ...

So, I’ve been into using the phrase “That’ll go over like a bucket of farts,” a lot lately. I enjoy this phrase a lot, but I wanted to use some other “That’ll go over like a …” phrases. I searched the internet, hoping to find a website dedicated to these phrases, but sadly, I came up empty. However, I was able to compile a list of these phrases, just by using “That’ll go over like a …” with Google. Here’s what I came up with:

That’ll go over like a …
a. Pregnant pole vaulter
b. Fart in church
c. Fart in a space suit
d. Bucket of farts
e. Lead balloon
f. Sky-diving walrus
g. Turd in a punch bowl
h. Pork chop at a Kosher wedding
i. Cold soufflé
j. Personal blimp
k. Ton of bricks

Here’s a couple I came up with myself:
A. an erect penis in a nunnery
B. vegetarian in a steak-house
C. An AA member in Munich
D. A bunch of Kaelins (inside joke)

If any of you have any others you’d like to share, that would be great … I personally like the pork chop at a Kosher wedding one, as well as the sky-diving walrus.

Lack of Labor ...

So, it was a pretty relaxing Labor Day weekend for all intensive purposes. I got to clean up around my house, mow the lawn, wash the cars, and watch some movies I’ve been meaning to see – and I feel sort of refreshed for the coming work week … although, it would’ve been nice to have the entire week off.

I took Friday off, and the wife and I went to see the King Tut Exhibit at the Franklin Institute in Philly. For the most part, it was ok, however, it just really seemed more like chaos than anything else. Too many people walking around, getting in everybody’s way, making it tough to see the artifacts. Plus, no King Tut mummy – which really disappointed me … especially, considering that I spent $32 a ticket to see this. Truthfully, I probably would’ve gotten more out of watching a King Tut documentary on the History Channel.

On Saturday, I began watching “Band of Brothers” which was a mini-series documentary on HBO about World War 2 and the E Company of the 506th regiment. I ended up watching all ten episodes between Saturday and Sunday – a fantastic series (I know, I should be watching all the series on HBO, shouldn’t I?). On top of that, I decided to watch the movie “Saving Private Ryan,” also about World War 2 – I guess it’s fitting that I did this on Labor Day weekend. If you haven’t seen either of these, I highly recommend it.

Don’t worry, I decided to watch something less intense than this – Fargo. It was kind of a dark comedy/drama based on a true story. Many friends have told me to watch this … it was pretty good – just a plain weird movie. I guess the Minnesota dialect was kind of funny. I also saw The Breakup with Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston. I really expected this to be funny … however, I was disappointed. It wasn’t an awful movie (like That Darn Cat), but it certainly wasn’t a typically funny Vince Vaughn movie.

Outside of that, I went to a barbecue in the city yesterday afternoon – night, and even though we only had a small group there, I had a blast. Sometimes, those are the best kinds of parties … for whatever reason.

It was a good way to unofficially end summer … oh yeah, and the fact that Notre Dame got trounced was the icing on the cake … can’t wait to see the Nittany Lions destroy them this coming weekend. Go Lions!

So?

So I had two fantasy football drafts this past week, and I wanted to share who I got with you, so I can get your feedback … advice.

OK, so in this first league, which has 20 teams, separated into two leagues, drafting from two separate pools of players (basically, two 10-team leagues), I drafted first … you might recall that I drafted first in this league last year as well, and made the mistake of not taking the Madden jinx into account, and drafting Shaun Alexander. Not this year – I chose LaDainian Tomlinson with the first pick – huzzah!

Anyway, here’s my team:
QB’s
Mark Bulger – Stl
Matt Hasselbeck – Sea

RB’s
LaDainian Tomlinson – SD
Ronnie Brown – Mia
Chris Brown – Ten
Brandon Jacobs – NYG

WR
Javon Walker – Den
Deion Branch – Sea
Reggie Brown – Phi
Bernard Berrian – Chi

TE
Jeremy Shockey – NYG
Jason Witten – Dal

K
Olindo Mare- NOR
Stephen Gostkowski – NEW


Defense/Special Teams
Minnesota Vikings
Tennessee Titans


This other league is a $20 per team league – much smaller stakes than the $100 per team league above – still a lot of fun (I won the championship last season when it was free). I picked 7th here:


QB
Marc Bulger – Stl
Jon Kitna – Det

RB
Brian Westbrook – Phi
Marshawn Lynch – Buf
Adrian Peterson – Min
Lamont Jordan – Oak

WR
Terrell Owens – Dal
Torry Holt – Stl
Deion Branch – Sea
Santonio Holmes – Pit

TE
Jeremy Shockey – NYG
Jason Witten – Dal

K
Shayne Graham – Cin
Neil Rackers – Arz

Def
Steelers
Seahawks


Now, I know some of how I drafted depends on our leagues’ scoring systems. They are both for the most part basic. What do ya think?

I Have a Whole New Respect ...

Look, I’m not saying that I didn’t respect plumbers in the past, but I never really gave much thought to how difficult their jobs are … that is, until Saturday. We’ve had a problem with our upstairs toilet for quite a while. The insides of the toilet tank were pretty old and failing. I decided I would replace the insides of the tank with new, more up-to-date ones. I thought that MAYBE it would take a few hours tops … boy was I mistaken!

The first part of the replacement procedure was easy enough – taking out the old inside parts. I accomplished this in less than ½ hour. I’m good at breaking things, so this came naturally to me. However, actually taking off the toilet tank posed a MUCH more difficult task. Just about all the bolts and wing-nuts were rusted together, and after a few hours of spraying them with WD-40, degreasers, and anything else I could think of, I finally had to break down, buy a small hack-saw, and cut them off.

After doing this, I had to call my dad, use an even bigger hack-saw, and cut off some more bigger parts of the toilet tank. We spent another few hours with this “fun” chore before we finally got everything off of it. The box, with the new equipment was right, however. It was easy installation … however, it never mentioned anywhere on the box how difficult it would be to take the old “guts” out.

Once we installed it, we tested it … and, as luck would have it, it leaked when it flushed … which, I somehow deduced was due to the rubber gasket on the bottom … the box said that I wouldn’t need any plumber’s putty … bull-sh&t! I ended up making 4 trips to Chrome Repot that day, but after more than 9 hours, I finally got the toilet working again.

A couple of things. First, it probably would’ve been easier, had I just bought an entire new toilet and installed that. Second, for some reason, the water isn’t filling up as quickly as it was before … it takes about 10 minutes for the tank to fill up now …. So now, we are using the downstairs toilet more … oh, what a nightmare.

Some Things About me ...

Snow Elf was kind enough to tag me with these questions. I like answering questions, and these were kind of fun. Read on, and maybe you’ll learn something about me.

4 Jobs I've Had
Waterbed mattress maker
PR intern for the Philadelphia Eagles
Pet shop worker
Telemarketer (oh, I hated that one).

4 Films I Could Watch Over and Over
Weird Science
Top Secret
Airplane
Anchorman

4 Places I've Lived
Mont Alto, PA
Glenolden, PA
State College, PA
Folsom, PA

4 Favorite TV Shows
The Office
Lost
My Name is Earl
24

4 Favorite Foods
pizza
tacos
Chinese food (I like a lot of them)
Buffalo Wings

4 Websites I Visit Daily
Blogs
Espn.com
Cnn.com
Wpvi.com

4 Places I Would Love to Be
The Outer Banks
The Poconos
Bavaria
Brigantine/Atlantic City

4 Favorite Colors
Blue
Gray
Red
Black

4 Names I love but would/could not use for my children
Mick
Katja
Soda (Seinfeld)
Champ

4 People to Tag
*** I never tag anybody – feel free to do this on your own if you want ***

You're afraid of What???

By the commotion that my wife was making a few nights ago, one would’ve thought that a machine-gun-toting saber-tooth tiger was loose in the house. As I was upstairs watching The Illusionist (great flick, by the way), my wife was screaming and grunting, kind of like the Tasmanian Devil. I ran down the stairs as quickly as I could, not sure of what to expect.

As I reached the living room, my wife was pale as a ghost. She exclaimed that she saw a mouse, and that I needed to find it and kill it. Being the loving husband that I am, I searched the dining room, kitchen, bathroom, and other rooms, but to no avail. I helped her upstairs … she was practically paralyzed with fear, and I told her that I would go out and buy some mouse-traps, which of course I did.

I set them up in “strategic” places in the kitchen and dining room, and assured her that if the mouse was still in the area (my wife’s shrieks probably scared the mouse half-way to China), it would be “taken care of.” Of course, as luck would have it, no mouse in the traps as of this evening, so my wife is spending tonight and probably tomorrow night at her parents’ house – the exterminator is coming on Wednesday morning.

Now, I have fears – I really don’t like bees all that much. They don’t paralyze me with fear, or cause me to defecate in my pants, but I do end up looking like Mick Jagger during one of his music videos when they fly around me (probably a topic for another time).

The fear is overwhelming to my wife – I have never seen anything like it. I wonder if as a child she had some sort of bad experience watching the Mickey Mouse Club, or something like that. Or maybe, she had a bad experience dressing up as Mighty Mouse some Halloween.

The good news is that there will be peace and quiet in the house for the next few nights, and hopefully my wife will get some sleep at her parents’ place. I wanted to see if any of you have any fears like this.

Superbad is Supergood!

I went to see Superbad on Saturday with a couple of friends and my wife … have you ever been so excited to see a movie, any movie, like when Star Wars came out? OK, I’m not comparing Superbad to Star Wars in any way. I’ve always been a big fan of comedy, and I’ve especially liked the “rated R” comedies that have graced the movie screens the last 5+ years – like Old School, Anchorman, Wedding Crashers, 40 Year Old Virgin, and Knocked Up.

I heard about Superbad maybe 5 months ago – and have been eagerly anticipating it’s arrival ever since. Yesterday was the day, and ladies and gentlemen … the movie did NOT disappoint! Hands down, it is the funniest movie of the year. I was exhausted from laughing at the end of the movie, and I had trouble remembering some of my favorite lines, because … well, because there were so many.

The guy that stole the show was Michael Cera – he played Evan, one of the two main characters, along with Jonah Hill. Hopefully, you may remember Cera as the “George Michael” character in Arrested Development – he was brilliant in that show (which, by the way, was a fantastic show. I still scratch my head at the fact that a wonderfully written comedy like this can get taken off the air after only a few short seasons, while dreck like Two-and-a-Half Men, and King of Queens are still on the air … probably a subject for another blog). I don’t believe that Cera is even 20 yet, but his comedic timing is impeccable. He plays the “awkward” teen role spectacularly, and Jonah Hill was a nice “raunchy” compliment to him.

Sure, a lot of the movie is toilet humor, which may turn some of you off. But, there is a lot of “familiarity” to this movie – they captured high school life pretty well, and it seems to me that people from all generations will be able to relate. You know, things like getting invited to the cool kid’s party, trying to find a way to buy alcohol, having a difficult time trying to ask a girl out, sheer pervertedness … this is what all good teen comedies play off of, and Superbad hit it out of the park.

BTW – there was a preview for another comedy, it looks like a spoof on the Johnny Cash “Walk the Line” movie – looked pretty funny. That one’s out in December.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year ...

I know, I know – why would I say this about the dog days of August? Well, let me enlighten you. Football season is about to start, which means TV will no longer be supersaturated with ridiculous NASCAR coverage, and now will be supersaturated with everything pig-skin. Football on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, Mondays, and even Thursdays … men can now get out of their “hibernation” state, and instead spend countless hours laying on the couch … wait, maybe I got that mixed up.

Anyway, not only will I be rooting on my favorite professional team, the Philadelphia Eagles, but I will also be cheering Joe-Pa’s Nittany Lions, hoping they crush Notre Dame, as well as Michigan, Ohio State, and Wisconsin. Sure, both teams will probably find a way to make me miserable, but it’s August – the season hasn’t started yet, so my hopes are as high as Lindsay Lohan right now.

On top of this, fantasy football once again will take center-stage, as we all get to “pretend” to be general managers with the hopes of winning championships and lots of money. After a disappointing last season (I took Shaun Alexander with the first pick instead of Tomlinson), I look to rebound. I certainly won’t be taking Vince Young, now that he is on the cover of Madden ’08 – I’ve learned my lesson.

Surprisingly, the Phitin’ Phillies are still hangin’ around the playoff scene, and playing good ball despite the lack of a good pitching rotation and bullpen, as well as a plethora (hey, that’s the name of my blog site) of injuries. So, on those Tuesday and Wednesday nights when there is no football, I have something to watch.

And yes, I’m still happily married … somehow.

Music to my Ears ... NOT!

A few days ago, a family member asked for a favor ... and since I can’t say no to family (sadly, no matter what, sometimes), I agreed to help out. Normally, a family favor includes assisting with computer-type issues, helping to move small furniture in or around the house, or something … er, not so difficult.

This request, however, was different. A cousin I don’t normally see very often, asked me, my brother, and my cousin-in-law to help move a piano … in 100-degree weather … with less than 1 day’s notice … about an hour away. I REALLY felt like saying no … I really did. I’m not even sure why I agreed to do this. I get this feeling that thanks to my German heritage, traditional work-ethic, and the importance I place on family, it was darn-near impossible for me to say no.

Thankfully, it wasn’t a baby-grand piano … that would’ve sucked. No, it was your basic piano that you probably saw in music class back in grade school. It wasn’t overly heavy, at least not for the 4-5 of us helping to move it. We got the piano up into the U-Haul in no-time flat. However, the destination posed a problem or two.

You see, my cousin wanted the piano in the living room of her house, brought in through the front door, which required the U-Haul to be backed-in in a precarious way – having to be maneuvered between trees, and uneven ground. It took quite a few pull-ups and back-ups (that’s what she said) to get the truck in a good position. However, we never took into account how the front door would open (oops), and my cousin’s husband had to actually basically take the door off its hinges in order for us to successfully move the piano in. It took what seemed to be 45 minutes to finally get the piano in the house, and of course, we were there much longer than I anticipated.

After leaving the house, drenched in sweat, and rather tired and thirsty, we trekked home, thinking the worst of it was over. However, since we left at around 9:00 p.m., we would have to deal with construction on I-95 North, that happened to start at … you guessed it … 9:00 p.m. Not only did we have to deal with this, but at one point, after picking up our car at my cousin-in-laws house (yeah, we car-pooled – think environment first!), we got stopped at a railroad crossing – the train was going at about 5 mph, and had about 175 cars (as a child, I would’ve been in heaven, as I loved trains back then … however, now they are more of a nuisance).

I guess I can count my blessings. First, I didn’t break the piano (I am known for my clumsiness). Second, I didn’t hurt myself (again, I’m known for this). And third, we didn’t get into any car accidents. But, the biggest blessing is, that next time I have a bunch of sh*t to move, I know who I’m calling first.

What a Workout....

My wife and I have been talking about getting a new elliptical trainer for quite a while now – ever since our “Gazelle” broke. I’ve been using a rowing machine we have, but I hate it, and my wife really wants a workout that challenges her. We did some research, and decided to buy the Pro Form (http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?cat=Ellipticals&pid=00628643000&vertical=FIT&subcat=Standard+Strides&BV_UseBVCookie=Yes) from Sears.

Being “savvy” shoppers that we are, we decided to take a ride down to Delaware, the home of tax-free shopping, to purchase the elliptical. Normally, this is a 20-minute ride for us, but, as luck would have it, PennDot was once again doing construction on I-95, near the airport. This seems to be an annual occurrence, and one would think that PennDot would have so much practice, that they would eventually get it right … but that’s never my luck. They decided to turn the heavily-traveled airport area from a 3-lane to a 1-lane highway, causing a backup that stretched for miles.

Luckily, I knew other ways to get to Delaware … unfortunately, so did everyone else, which meant that the route 1 bypass was also clogged. The 20-minute ride ended up taking me well over an hour. But, to not pay taxes on a $350.00 machine seemed worth it. We finally got there, purchased the machine, loaded it into the car, and made our way back home.

However, once we unloaded the box, brought it in, and started unpacking the pieces, we came to a realization … namely, that the machine we had purchased was already broken … I kind of got the feeling that they sold us one that was already opened before. The main part of the machine was cracked badly, and pieces that had cracked off littered the bottom of the box. We were NOT happy.

My wife called Sears, and talked to one of the sales people – she was hoping that they would come out and deliver a new one for us … and although the customer service was really friendly, they weren’t willing to do that. They did say that they would give us a discount on the machine if we brought it back and picked up another one … of course, we weren’t too thrilled about traveling out there again with I-95 being all screwed up.

We decided to go Sunday morning, and hopefully beat the traffic. But, as luck would have it, I-95 was already backed up again the next morning. My alternate route, however, was clear sailing, and we made it there in about 40 minutes, got our new machine, came back home, and assembled it in about an hour. I’ve already used it twice, and I’m sore as hell … hey, at least it’s working, right?

Memories, Part 3

So, I was reminiscing some more about my childhood – don’t worry, I’m not having a mid-life crisis … at least I don’t think I am. Anyway, I found this really cool website about all things 1980’s, and it has an entire section on toys from the 1980’s. It’s called inthe80s.com. I did some searches on some of my favorite (and least favorite) toys:

1. Mr. Quarterback – here is the description of the toy: The device used like a catapult so that you could catch your own football. Just cock the arm back, set the timer, and run a few feet forward.

Literally, that’s all you could do, run about 5 feet forward, and catch this plastic football. Of course, they made the commercial sound so cool, and Roger Staubach even endorsed it. I remember them saying that Mr. Quarterback could throw the ball up to 25-yards. What a load of crap – the only way this could happen is if it was throwing the ball down hill, and you allowed the football to bounce.



2. The Green Machine - A lime-green variant of the big wheel did without handlebars and front-wheel steering in favor of two levers attached by metal rods to a pivoting rear axle. By pulling one lever all the way back and slamming the other forward, you could spin the green machine out--impossible on a big wheel. There was also a variant of the green machine called the "Blue Max."

Oh my god – this was the king of big wheels. I wanted one of these so bad, and my parents never let me get one. I had that stupid orange one … it was like a pinto compared to the Green Machines that both my cousins got.


3. Barrel O’ Monkeys – Little plastic monkeys that hooked together at the elbow

Much like army-men, these plastic apes came in, you guessed it, a barrel. There really wasn’t anything really exotic about them, but it seemed like all kids had them.


4. Crossbows and Catapults - You had a place mat with an emblem of treasure. You had to build a castle around the treasure using little plastic bricks. Each team had a crossbow, or a catapault that launched these coin-looking things at the opponent's castle. The first team to land their team's coin inside of the castle won.

My friends and I played this for hours. I remember wanting this so badly for Christmas, and there were some news stations that compared the popularity of this to the Cabbage Patch Kids … but somehow, my mom (or Santa) got this game for me … one of my favorite games of all time as a kid.


5. Magic Rock Garden - Put these little rocks into an old mayonaise jar and add water. Little stalagtites and stalagmites would grow from the top and bottom of the jar.

My mom never let me get these … I always loved the commercials for it.

Memories, Part 2

Ah, the month of August is upon us. In keeping with my “reminiscing” theme, this was the point of time in the summer when mom would take me to Woolco (later – Kmart) to buy supplies for school. It would be time to find a new backpack – one that would withstand all of the books, notebooks and other crap I would force into it for around 9 months. Then, there would be the search for the perfect trapper keeper – one that was either plan, or had some sort of cool Garfield or Superfriends design on it. Time to find pencils, pens, notebooks, and folders. Time to go to Clover, and/or the Springfield Mall to find cool-clothes to wear for the upcoming school year (I’m guessing this is not as big of a deal anymore, because many schools are going with the “school uniforms.”

It was also time for soccer practice to start … yes, I was (am?) a soccer geek. In high school, we started our training for the upcoming soccer season in early August. We would practice in the mornings and afternoons for weeks leading up to the school year. Sure, it was really tough work, and at the time, I would’ve rather been swimming or sleeping, but I trudged through it. The smell of freshly cut grass will always remind me of that soccer field next to Interboro high school, where I would spend most of my time during the dog days of August.

I particularly remember the jump from middle school to high school. I heard such horror stories about rampant drug use, that I expected drug dealers at every hallway corner … which was never the case. I remember thinking I wasn’t ready for high school, and how classes would be infinitely harder. True, the classes were harder, but they weren’t that much harder.

I also remember thinking about all the new students I would meet (we had four other middle schools feeding into our high school), and getting anxious about meeting new girls. A range of emotions went through me – at one point I would be very excited, at another point, I’d be quite scared … I’d be sad that the days of Glenolden school would be over, and at times be happy about the same thing (if that makes any sense). The anticipation was probably the hardest part of the entire process.

Memories ....

A friend of mine and I were talking just the other day about “days gone by.” Yep – we were reminiscing about the past … tends to happen in the summer time for me. Remember those days when school let out? How great was it that school didn’t start up for what seemed to be an eternity (of course, the summer always seemed to fly by anyway, right?).

Growing up, I spent most of my summer days at the Glenolden pool – a public pool where many of my friends also congregated. I’ve probably blogged about this before, but screw it. Every day, we’d get down there around noon, take a swim, play basketball or wiffleball, then go back and swim, maybe play drain tag or underwater tag – ah, just a spectacular way to spend the summer days.

My friend and I talked about the splash parties (pre-teen, and teen) that the pool used to hold. It was there as a pre-teen when I first saw two people making out during one of the movies that was showing. We all joked that we were getting to see a double feature (yeah, I know, a stupid joke – but at the time, we thought we were funnier than Bob Hope).

Usually, at night, we would walk around the neighborhood, and meet up with friends from the pool, maybe play some flashlight tag, or play Nintendo (or Commodore 64, or Atari, depending on the year). I remember on a few occasions how we wished we were adults, because we’d have so much more that we could do … sigh. If only we knew better.

Fast Food, My A$$!

I’ve gone on a fast-food rant in the past, but it had to deal with drive-thru’s. Well, I got one for when actually ordering inside a fast food restaurant. My wife and I went to KFC on Sunday because we were in the mood for some “finger-lickin’.” Service was predictably slow, and there was a long line – it took us about 20 minutes to get our food – fast food, my a$$.

However, that’s not what my rant is about. There were these three older ladies in front of us, and they too had to wait in line. One would think that whilst in line, you would generally look up at the menu and get a general idea of what you want. Nope, not these mental midgets. They looked at the menu as if it was printed in Chinese, and they couldn’t get the handle of the “intricate” value meal numbering provided by KFC. Fast food companies “invented” this so that it would be easier to order. However, to some, there is absolutely nothing that could make ordering easy.

The first lady asked if the “Number 1 chicken breast meal” included a chicken breast. I kid you not. After the cashier informed her that it did indeed include a chicken breast, he asked her what sides she wanted. You would’ve thought the guy asked her to take pi to the 23rd digit. She was flabbergasted, and for a time, I thought she was going to pass out … no such luck. The second lady faired even worse, ordering the number 5, and when asked if she wanted a thigh or a leg, I could hear gurgling originating in her head. It was much the same with the third lady.

On the way home from KFC, my wife proclaimed that these ladies, in their advanced age, had to have gone to a fast food restaurant prior to this, and if they can’t order by this time, they shouldn’t be allowed back. I wondered out loud if there was some sort of training available for customers who are incapable of placing orders at fast food restaurants.

D'Oh!

The Simpsons Movie comes out this Friday …. No, not another documentary about the whole O.J. saga, but the one on the cartoon that features that loveable dad, and the son who constantly says “Ay-Caramba.” Obviously, the Simpsons are much more than that, and have been a large part of our fabric as a country (planet?) for a very long time.

I remember (as most of you probably do) when the Simpsons were just a small segway on the Tracey Ullman show back in the mid-to-late 1980’s. They were funny, and hip, but who would’ve thought then that they could become what they have now? I certainly didn’t. I didn’t think the show could possibly be stretched to ½ hour. I was proven wrong when they released their first Christmas (or holiday) special, prior to the actual tv show – the one where they end up adopting Santa’s Little Helper. I remember being so excited, and couldn’t wait to watch the special.

I became a huge Simpsons fan early on – watching the tv show every Sunday night (in addition to watching Married … With Children). I kept to this ritual for quite a few years, and though I’m not as hard-core about the Simpsons as I once was, I know that I can turn the show on anytime and get a good laugh (I’m much more partial to Family Guy at this point than I am to the Simpsons).

I’ll probably go out and see the movie at some point, and I bet it will be very successful. I’ve already had one friend contact me and ask me to go see it on Friday (opening night) – that is one thing I won’t do. I guess I’m getting too old (crotchety), because I really just don’t feel like dealing with the crowd … Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure the Simpsons movie is more than worth it, but it’s just not something I feel like subjecting myself to.

Anyway, I just wanted to gauge what your thoughts, feelings, memories, or favorite Simpsons moments are … if you have any.

Why Do Some Weekends Have To End?

You ever have one of those weekends you wish would never end? Yep – this past weekend was one of them. First of all, for me, it was a three-day weekend, which is a good start.

Thursday night after work, a group of us went to the Police concert at Citizen’s Bank Park – I’ve always wanted to see these guys, and they didn’t disappoint. Sure, some of the songs had to be done in a different key than the original – that’s kind of what happens when you get older. But, these guys still know how to rock. I was surprised at just how good of a guitarist Andy Summers is, it never really did come across on their studio albums, but the guy can shred. Mr. Copeland was awesome, as I expected he would be. And, Sting’s basework is often forgotten (thanks to his adult contemporary music). And mother nature spared us, as it was threatening to rain all day, and even did drizzle a little while we were tailgating, but that was it.

On Friday, I spent most of the day doing house-work so that I could have the rest of the weekend to myself. This wasn’t much fun, as can be expected, but I did manage to come away with a sense of satisfaction, knowing that this would be all the work I’d be doing for the rest of the weekend. On Friday night, my friend Slant and I went down to Barnaby’s for happy hour, and discussed all kinds of topics, from Sesame Street to 80’s music. We were both miffed that Big Bird was looked at as kind of a lunatic when we were growing up – none of the adults ever saw his friend Snuffleupagus (sp), even though he was a 10,000 pound mastodon. Additionally, we couldn’t believe that Cookie Monster was now eating fruits and vegetables, and we considered writing the fine folks at the Children’s Television Workshop, and asking them to rename him “Waldorf Salad Monster.” I also “discovered” that my first foray into reggae music was through Lionel Richie’s “All Night Long,” and UB40’s “Red, Red Wine.” Move over, Peter Tosh!

On Saturday, my friend Yon invited us down to Long Beach Island – he rented a place there for the week. The weather was perfect – not too warm, nice breeze, and sunny – the best ingredients for a beach day. I, of course, got burned because I still haven’t learned the finer techniques of applying sun-screen to all parts of my body (I have blotches of redness on my arms). Saturday evening, another good friend of ours and his girlfriend came down, and we ordered some really good seafood – ate it on the deck whilst drinking Long Island Iced Teas (or Long Beach Island Iced Teas). Then, we ended up playing some drinking games, and Yon got so hammered he ended up wearing somebody’s bikini (thanks to a rule in A$$hole).

Nothing exciting really happened on Sunday – just the ending of a great week (and the ruing of the week to come).

Dog-Gone It!

Let me first apologize for blogging about another “sports” topic.

With that said, the Michael Vick saga took another turn yesterday, as it was reported he has now been indicted. In case you are unaware of who Michael Vick is, he is the quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons (American Football), and has been one of the more popular players in recent years – appearing in all sorts of commercials and ads.

He was indicted the other day on charges having to do with raising, fighting, and killing pit bulls – it is a VERY grotesque “sport” that, even though illegal, is apparently popular down south. You can find out more about this story by going here: http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/law/07/18/vick/index.html.

Two of the main arguments supporting Vick are as follows. First, because he was raised down south, he grew up with this stuff, so he really didn’t know better. To me, that’s about as logical as eating crackers when you’re thirsty. One must understand that when one is a celebrity or superstar athlete, one is a role model whether one likes it or not. Mr. Vick, just because you have made a lot of money in the NFL, this does not make you invincible and above the law. I think there are many athletes (and stars) with this ridiculous mindset. Mr. Vick, you HAD to know that this would probably cause some trouble if anyone ever found out. I mean, the guy was making money hand over fist. Why risk it on something this demented, sick, and potentially damaging? Aren’t money and fame, not to mention your teammates, important enough to you, that when presented with this “endeavor,” you would decide against it? Am I giving you too much credit for this? Are you really this stupid, ignorant, and crazy?

The second argument deals with racisim. There are quite a few out there that believe that if this happened to say, Joe Montana, the public would treat it differently – give Joe a pass (no pun intended). Seriously? Do you really think that’s what the public would do? I can only speak for myself when I say I would shun the guy, and I’m guessing the vast majority of the population would be with me on this one. Do you think that Al Sharpton is trying to figure a way to get in on this, without “tarnishing” his image? Me too.

And I know that Vick hasn’t been proven guilty by anybody on this yet. However, when the government gets involved, you know they (a) have enough evidence to move forward, and (b) when they do indict somebody (like they did with Vick), they have a 95% success rate in court. Those odds aren’t too shabby, are they?

I feel bad for the Falcons – I mean, they just got rid of Schaub, and now they will most likely have to bank on Joey Harrington this season – looks like they may be on the clock for the 2008 draft.

A Fantastic Milestone!!!!!

As a Phillies fan, I couldn’t help but blog about this happening. My beloved Phitin’s have become the first professional sports team in the United States (no, I’m not counting the Generals who play the Globetrotters), and probably the world, to lose 10,000 games – the team has basically ignored the accomplishment, although I think management probably would’ve endeared itself to the fans had it decided to do something creative – not sure what that could have been, but ignoring it was wrong, in my mind.

Here’s the thing – this ball club can’t even lose correctly. The Phils had a chance to lose their 10,000th game on Friday the 13th – would there have been anything more poetic than that? Nope, they decided to win on Friday and Saturday … and then, instead of waiting until the west-coast trip to lose, they end up getting clobbered on the last day of the homestand … ugh! I hear that ticket stubs from this game are being sold on E-bay – what a country!

Now, this current ownership isn’t responsible for all 10,000 losses – in fact, the past few years, the team has done pretty well, finishing above .500. The Phillies had their heyday of suckiness in the early 20th century, when they managed to have 30 losing seasons in 31 years – how does a professional sports franchise survive with that kind of apathy, anyway? This is the main reason why this team has so many losses.

However, this management has refused to do enough to push this team into the playoffs, whether it is offseason acquisitions, or trading deadline maneuvers to give them a better shot at the playoffs. Their minor league system is god-awful, which helps to explain why the Phils have such a horrible pitching staff, and why Jose Mesa still has a job.

The crying shame of it is that they have a really good nucleus of players – Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Aaron Rowand, Shane Victorino, and Cole Hammels to name a few. But, there are, and have always been, far too many holes that continue to be neglected. What is the normal response we get from management? “If we were healthy, it would be a different story.” Ha – every team goes through injuries every year. The Phils make a habit of using this excuse.

Their P.R. staff (run by ownership) constantly neglects the fans – David Montgomery (the mouthpiece of the organization) seems to be crying and pointing fingers more than T.O. did when he was in Philly. Management never seems to take responsibility, and that is why there is a disconnect with the fans (that and 1 championship in the 125-year history).

Our only real hope at this point is that the woeful ownership group that currently is holding the team hostage decides to sell the team, and the new owner brings in some real baseball minds who know a thing or two about running a ballclub from bottom to top. Now, I know that Jeff will defend the Phillies when he responds here, and that’s fine – they have had a lot of good prospects come up in recent years. But, the pitching staff, with the exception of Hammels and maybe Lieber, has been a joke. The catcher spot and third base haven’t been much better. Come the trade deadline, the Phils will really have nothing to offer other clubs.

But, I digress …. Congrats to the Phils for being “The Team to Beat,” and for beginning their second 10,000 losses with another clunker last night!

Tour De Wha?

Not sure if anybody noticed, but the Tour De France is going on. What a mess of a sport cycling has become – the NHL thinks they are handling things poorly. Nobody can seem to figure out how to test for steroids, how many times cyclists should be tested, how to keep tests clean … sometimes it seems like Major League Baseball is following the policy of professional cycling.

I apologize first of all, because I have no idea if there is a “league” for professional cycling – the sport just doesn’t interest me. I mean, sure, I got caught up in the Lance Armstrong phenomena every summer at this time for the past bunch of years, and yeah, I was excited when Landis won last year, especially since he’s sort of a local guy. But the circus that followed this, and continues almost one year later, is just ridiculous. It seems like every year, we hear about some sort of doping scandal in cycling.

Here’s the thing, when there are no U.S. favorites in the Tour De France, nobody really cares about cycling (or at least the masses don’t). Add this big controversy/scandal to the mix, and this sport is in real danger of reaching WNBA status, if it hasn’t already. And, I’m not trying to belittle what these guys do. Just reading about the Tour De France makes me exhausted – one must be in the best possible physical condition to even finish this course.

And with professional athletes having this huge competitive streak in them, some may look for some sort of advantage. I know, this probably happens in every sport … but at least the four major ones are INTERESTING. I tried watching some of the Tour De France on Versus (awful station, by the way), and after 30 seconds, I began sensing that this was a waste, and I could find many better ways to spend my time.

So, with that said, what do you guys think about the Tour De France? Has this event reached the point where it will never again be popular in the U.S.? Are many of the problems related to it being held in France and run by the French?

I am Man!!!!!!

On Sunday morning, as I got into my car on my way to Target, I noticed something wrong with my car – as luck would have it, I had somehow acquired a flat tire … and this sucker was all the way flat … not a little flat or anything like that, but FULL BLOWN FLAT. What a pain in the keester. I had a minature air compressor in my car, and decided to try blowing this tire up … and I did manage to get some air in there … enough to get me to the gas station up the street, where I proceeded to fill it up fully. The leak, thankfully, was a slow leak – I was able to make it to Wal Mart, purchase some Fix-a-Flat, and fill my tire with it – thankfully, I bought two, because the first one exploded onto me (the tube, for some reason was weak) – and I was able to give some fellow shoppers a good laugh.

I monitored the tire, and for the most part, the leak was controlled. I was hoping the tire would last me until the weekend, where I wouldn’t have to waste any work time taking care of the situation … and for a few days, the tire was fine … until Wednesday evening, on the ride home from work …. In the middle of a nice rain shower … in blistering heat and humidity. The tire finally gave, and the air compressor was no longer providing any relief … I immediately called roadside assistance, as I didn’t want to go to the trouble of changing my tire in the weather conditions … and probably because I’ve never actually changed a tire by myself before. Roadside assistance would take an hour to get to me … I knew what I had to do … BECOME A MAN!First, I read the owner’s manual, and found the jack and spare tire. Next, I loosened all the bolts except for one … this bolt was different than the rest, and I couldn’t figure out where the tool was to use on this. It took me another 20 minutes to actually find this tool – nope, not in the emergency kit … nope, not anywhere else in the trunk … let me check the emergency kit again … nope, not in the first aid kit. Finally, I looked in the glove compartment, and to my surprise, I found the tool! I loosened that bolt as well, put the jack in place, and jacked up the car. I removed the flat, replaced it with the spare, and was on my way … it took me about 10 minutes, after I figured everything out.

Was I pissed about the flat tire and weather conditions? You betcha. But, as I continued my journey home, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride and pure manliness … almost making the entire ordeal worth it … almost.

A Good Fit?

A few weeks ago, my friend Slant and I were on our way to Baltimore to meet up with our friend Mung for our fabulous weekend in Cleveland. We were listening to both Volume 1 and 3 of the Traveling Wilbury’s. In case you’ve never heard of this band, all I have to do is mention the members and you’ll get an idea of them (or, you could go to Amazon.com and read up on them): Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, and Roy Orbison … of course, Orbison died after Volume 1 …

For some reason, Slant and I remember that there were some rumors out there that the Wilbury’s were going to replace Orbison for Volume 3, and go on tour … which probably would’ve been one of the coolest things ever to happen … anyway, I’ll present some of these rumored replacements with my opinions – please, add any others you’d like (past, present, or future … or at least newer than the remaining Wilbury’s).

Paul McCartney – Certainly, royalty when it comes to rock and roll, and his voice would’ve replaced Orbison’s heavenly voice admirably. However, McCartney is far too “poppy” for the Wilbury’s, and his guitar work, although pretty good, can’t match up to any of the remaining members.

John Fogerty – The guy is a folk/country icon, and probably would’ve fit in nicely with his writing style and guitar play … not sure how his screaming voice would’ve played into the Wilbury’s, since they already have Petty.

Keith Richards – Without a doubt, his songwriting and guitar work would’ve been a perfect fit … however, the Wilbury’s already had Bob Dylan’s raspy voice, probably didn’t need another one in Richards’.

Eric Clapton – Probably the most sensible choice – the guy is a wizard with the guitar, could add a nice bluesy touch to the country and folk, and certainly his voice, although not as high as Orbison’s, is distinct and classic enough, that he could’ve pulled this off.

Pete Townsend – A gifted songwriter and guitarist, I just don’t know whether Pete could pull off a convincing country/folk sound. I mean, I think the closest the Who ever got to a country sound was Squeeze Box, right?

Roger Waters – He would’ve added an interesting psychedelic touch to the Wilbury’s, but if they really wanted to go that way, they already had Harrison in the band.

Jimmy Page – The guy would’ve been the R&B backbone of this band, and probably would’ve given it some added muscle … however, his voice is less than good, so he probably wouldn’t have fit very well.

Eddie Vedder – He was fresh and new at the time, and as far as song writers go, he would’ve been excellent. His sound was a good match too, but his guitar play isn’t up to standard with these guys.

Neil Young – Another great song writer, with a good folk-hard edged sound, and a really cool guitarist … but he just seemed a little to hyper and unsettled for these guys.

Roger McGuinn – Great guitarist, good lyricist, and certainly a nice folksy background, but he sounds almost exactly like Petty.

I Wouldn't Be More Surprised If I Woke Up With my Head Stapled to the Carpet ...

A friend of mine just sent me this picture which is going on sale on Ebay for $10,000. I know, I know – I try not to blog too much about Barry Bonds, but after seeing this, I couldn’t resist. I mean, seriously – at this point, is there any doubt that Bonds has probably plugged himself with more steroids than a champion race horse … or a Tour De France winner? This picture is priceless – I think $10,000 is far too low a price.

But, that’s not the only reason I chose to blog about Barry. He was somehow voted in as a starter for the NL all-stars this season. Obviously, those San Francisco fans stuffed the ballots more than Central American politicians, my friends. It is a crying shame that he got voted in, and not because he’s a cheater (although that’s reason enough). Ladies and gentleman, the biggest reason why he shouldn’t have been voted in was that his stats were not all-star quality. But, since the all-star game is being held in San Francisco this year, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if the MLB “helped” in his selection.

But that’s ok – karma has a way of evening things out. One would figure that Bonds would be more than willing to appease his own hometown fans by participating in the home-run derby, right? Nope – ol’ melon-head decided that he was too good for that. When questioned about it, he basically said that thrilling his hometown fans really didn’t matter to him, and he could do whatever the hell he wants to. Great work, Barry. Burn you last bridge. I hope those fans finally see you for what you are.

In the meantime, does anybody have $10,000 that they wouldn’t mind giving to me?

How I Spent My Fourth ...

A good friend of mine, Yon, called me up the other night and asked if I wanted to go with him to the Moorestown parade, in New Jersey. I’m not big on parades, but I haven’t really seen his place in New Jersey, and it gave me something to do. I was on the fence about it, but he sold it like a used car salesman, telling me things like “Moorestown was voted best small town in America” by some magazine a few years ago, and that this parade “would have floats, fancy cars, and great food.” What the heck, I thought.

I got to his place around 9:30, and we walked to the center of Moorestown … something he left out was that the center of town was around a 30-minute walk … not a big deal, I could use the exercise. When we got there, the place was packed with families – which is what I expected. Unfortunately, I didn’t expect a 20-minute “parade” which featured an old fire engine, and the mayor of Moorestown riding down in a convertible Corvette. Some of the highlights:

* The Moorestown running club marching down the street, with three of its members holding up billboards that had shoes glued to them that spelled out R-U-N. Every once in a while, the coach would do a figure 8 jog, with the other members following suit … thank goodness they did this, because I would never have known what running was.

* Some kind of a folk band on the back of a flat-bed playing “Camptown Races.” I’m not sure how the black population felt about this … I would’ve expected another selection.

* Everyone who drove their Corvettes in the parade … not sure what they were getting at, but these weren’t your classic Corvettes … just regular run of the mill ones.

That’s really it for the highlights of the actual parade. Even Yon admitted that it was lame. We walked to the park, hoping the town would redeem itself … boy were we in for disappointment. We get there, and hardly anything is set up, with the exception of a stage, which would probably once again welcome the “Camptown Racers.” There was stand where the local Lion’s Club was giving away free hot dogs … problem was that they were cold … and I don’t mean luke-warm, either. After about another 10 minutes, Yon suggested we go to the movies, which was fine by me – I had it up to my gills with “Small-town America.”

The movie we saw was “License to Wed,” a movie featuring Mandy Moore, John Krazinski, and Robin Williams – this was the only movie playing at the time we got there. Shockingly, the movie wasn’t bad, and Robin Williams was actually sort of funny. It’s not one I’d recommend going to see, but definitely one to watch when it hits cable in a few months.

So, that was it. Now, it’s raining, so we probably won’t go out and see any fireworks – probably we’ll just hang out and watch some movies. It’s weird when the 4th of July is on a Wednesday – can’t really drink too much, because I have work tomorrow. I think they should celebrate Independence day on the Friday of the week of the 4th of July … that’s probably a subject for another blog posting, though.

Another One Bites the Dust ...

I got an interesting text message last night from a good friend of mine, Davers. It stated, “Picked me up a fiancé last night.” If you know anything about Davers, this text will make perfect sense. I’ve known the guy since I was 6, when his family moved from South Philly to just a few blocks from my house. I remember walking by and seeing a little police tricycle on the front lawn and saying to myself, “Great, just what we need, more little kids” Remember, I was 6.

Little did I know that this 4-year old was already way better than me in sports. The kid was a natural – could pick up any game and master it in no-time. He began playing soccer when he was 8, and instantly became the best player on the team. He was a tri-sport captain in high school, and was being recruited by colleges, until he blew his knee out.

His real passion in life, however, has always been fishing. If possible, he probably would fish 12 hours a day, every day. He loves fishing in Brigantine – something his father probably instilled in him when he was born. The family has a place in Brigantine and Davers ended up moving down there a few years ago, working for some insurance company (I think).
Anyway, he met a girl probably about 1 ½ years ago, and it went really well. I think he even sacrificed some surf-fishing time to be with her … yep, it was true love. Anyway, when he texted me, I came up with some possible scenarios on how he popped the question:

* He brought her over to help him gut some stripers, and he ended up pulling a ring out of one of the striper’s intestines.

* He took her on the beach and had her reel in one of his fishing poles, which had the ring on the end of it (He told me he was considering this, but (A) he was afraid a bluefish would eat the ring, and (B) that she might not like this technique).

* He took her to the Rod and Reel at 4:30 a.m. after a hard night of partying, ordered some buffalo wings, and when the plate came out, there was a ring aournd one of the drumsticks (local Brigantine water-hole that Davers frequents).

* He took her to the Tropicana, went to the sportsbook, bet on a race, and the cashier gave him a ring instead of a ticket.

* He took her to a craps table, and instead of putting a chip down on the “Don’t Pass Line,” he placed a ring there (Davers’ favorite table game).

In talking to him, I was relieved to find out that he did none of these, and actually was kind of romantic (something very un-Davers-like). He took her on the beach after a booze cruise (ok, maybe not that romantic), and gave her a chocolate rose, with the ring underneath the chocolate … oh yeah, and it was her birthday.

I’m proud of him – I never thought I’d see the day a lady could take him away from the sea.

Is There Hope?

We have a promising “new’ radio station in Philadelphia – 104.5, which now has a modern rock/alternative format, finally filling the vacuum that Y-100 created when it switched formats 2+ years ago. I’m excited about this, but in the long run, I know it will fail. How? Let me count the ways.

First, and most importantly, the station is part of Clear Channel, the mega-company that has largely been responsible for the decline of terrestrial radio. They bought up tons of radio stations nationwide in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, and basically tried to create vanilla formats that they hoped everyone would listen to. Creativity was for all intensive purposes thrown out the window. We began hearing the same few bands playing the same few songs. Clear Channel ended up hurting itself, as it invested so much money in doing this, that when the backlash happened, the stations were practically worthless. (not to mention the whole Howard Stern debacle). They tried selling a bunch off, and I think they still are.

Another reason this won’t last in Philly is because any radio station that tries something new and makes a niche for themselves, ends up refusing to get creative. Case and point – we had an 80’s station here a few years ago, and it was cool hearing those songs again. However, this station had a very narrow playlist that consisted only of top 10 hits. People got bored with the music. I e-mailed the program director, foreshadowing this, and offering suggestions like having “Freestyle-Fridays,” or “80’s rap night,” or even trying to rediscover forgotten 80’s classics. I received an e-mail back from the program director thanking me for my input, but assuring me that they knew what they were doing … it didn’t take long for them to change formats. I fear the same issue will happen to 104.5 – I’ve already noticed that they repeat songs far too often.

104.5 also seems to be playing far too much emo-music (look it up), relying on bands like AFI, Fallout Boy, My Chemical Romance, and Taking Back Sunday, Breaking Benjamin, and Jimmy Eat World … the sound of these bands is far too overproduced and quite frankly, far to similar to each other. My hope is that they’ll discover other sounds and rely less on emo … and yes, I’ve e-mailed them about this as well.

At least we have modern rock in Philly again. I should stop complaining and enjoy it … while it lasts.

No, Chris, No!!!!!

As many of you know, I am a pro wrestling fan … sure, I’m not as big of a fan as I used to be, but I still follow the “sport.” You can imagine how shocked I was to find out about Chris Benoit last night whilst tuning into RAW. I’ve been a fan of Benoit’s for quite a while … in fact, I remember when he teamed with Bobby Eaton during one of the last Crocket Cup tag team title tournaments back in the NWA (yeah, I’m old).

The guy never had the “charisma” on the microphone, which, along with his lack of size, probably hindered his career … or at least prevented him from dominating the sport like Austin or the Rock did. His in-ring skills were never questioned. The guy always gave 110%, and the fans loved him for it. Which gets me to the crossroads of this post.

How will Benoit be remembered? I mean, he killed his wife and his son before killing himself. It is rumored that the guy used to beat his wife (who, by the way, I had a major crush on when she was the “Woman” character on WCW in the late 80’s and early 90’s). Does he go down as another O.J.? Of course, we probably would’ve respected O.J. more if he would’ve just had the decency to take his own life as well (Hey Barry, ya listening?).

The guy had a tremendous career, winning the world title, and numerous other titles in many wrestling organizations around the globe. He was immensely respected by everyone he wrestled against, and was one of those rare wrestlers that could wrestle a broomstick, and make the broomstick look like a seasoned professional. I wouldn’t say that I’m sick to my stomach over this, but this is very disturbing … disturbing enough to bring Vince McMahon out of character last night (he was actually in the middle of a ‘Vince McMahon is dead’ storyline, so this was a pretty big deal).

I just wonder what drove him to do it. I'm guessing it was some sort of debilitating combination of steroids, speed, and pain killers ... seems like a lot of wrestlers have run into difficulties with this. Benoit did have a severe neck injury a few years ago - one in which he needed to get some vertibrae fused together ... not trying to make excuses for the guy, I'm just trying to make sense of it.

I know most of you guys and gals aren’t wrestling fans, and that’s o.k. I just wanted to get your opinion on this. Did I waste too much of my life writing this post?