Friday, August 31, 2007

What To Watch This Weekend (8/31-9/03)

Last year I used to do this every Friday, so I figure I may as well put it up here too, more for my benefit! I bolded games that I'm particularly interested in, in case I was wondering. As always, the Mets will be in blue, the Noles in garnet. You will never see an NBA game listed on here, as technically, its just not watchable. Some of the college football games aren't on regular TV, but I listed all Top 25 games.

Keep in mind, this is for Atlanta. So if someone is reading this in the middle of nowhere in Butte, Montana...you probably won't have "WATL" :)

It’s baaaaaaaaack!!!!!

TV FRIDAY

BASEBALL

Astros at Cubs 2 p.m. WGN
Mets at Braves 7:30 p.m. SPSO

NFL FOOTBALL
Ravens at Falcons 7:30 p.m. WXIA

NCAA FOOTBALL
Washington at Syracuse 8 p.m. ESPN

TV SATURDAY

BASEBALL
Mets at Braves 3:55 p.m. Fox
White Sox at Indians 7 p.m. WGN

NCAA FOOTBALL
Youngstown State at 11 Ohio State Noon
East Carolina at 9 Virginia Tech Noon ESPN
Florida Interntational at 17 Penn State Noon
Appalachian State at 5 Michigan Noon
UAB at Michigan State Noon ESPN2
Colorado vs. Colorado State Noon FSN
Western Kentucky at 6 Florida 12:30 p.m. WATL
Virginia at Wyoming 2 p.m. Versus
Western Michigan at 3 West Virginia 3:30 p.m.
Nevada at 20 Nebraska 3:30 p.m.
Georgia Tech at Notre Dame 3:30 p.m. NBC
Wake Forest at Boston College 3:30 p.m. ABC
Mississippi at Memphis 3:30 p.m. CSS
Washington State at 7 Wisconsin 3:30 p.m. ESPN
Missouri at Illinois 3:30 p.m. ESPN2
14 UCLA at Stanford 3:30 p.m. FSN
Arizona at BYU 5:30 p.m. Versus
Baylor at 22 TCU 6 p.m.
Oklahoma State at 13 Georgia 6:45 p.m. ESPN2
Presbyterian at Furman 7 p.m. CSS
Troy at 21 Arkansas 7 p.m.
Arkansas State at 4 Texas 7 p.m.
Montana State at 25 Texas A&M 7 p.m.
North Texas at 8 Oklahoma 7 p.m. FSN
Kansas State at 18 Auburn 7:45 p.m. ESPN
15 Tennessee at 12 California 8 p.m. ABC
Idaho at 1 Southern California 10 p.m. FSN

Northern Colorado at 23 Hawaii 12 a.m.

TV SUNDAY

BASEBALL

Mets at Braves 1 p.m. TBS
Astros at Cubs 2 p.m. WGN
Rangers at Angels 8 p.m. ESPN2

TV MONDAY

NCAA FOOTBALL
19 Florida State at Clemson 8 p.m. ESPN

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

2007-08 College Football TV Schedule

College Football is just 2 days away!!!!!!!!!!!! This is more for me to look back at, but maybe someone else will be interested. I found this at some guy named Brian Sakowski's blog called "In The Bleachers College Football Blog". Feel free to check it out. I just copy/pasted.

These aren't ALL the games, these are just the games that are already set for TV purposes, I'll update it as the year goes on...enjoy! (Even though I know I'm probably just talking to myself on this one!)


2007-08 College Football TV Schedule
(all times Eastern)

08-30 Thu. Tulsa @ UL-Monroe 7:00 p.m. ESPN2
08-30 Thu. Murray State @ Louisville 7:30 p.m. ESPNU
08-30 Thu. LSU @ Mississippi State 8:00 p.m. ESPN
08-30 Thu. Utah @ Oregon State 10:00 p.m. FSN Regional
08-31 Fri. Navy @ Temple 7:30 p.m. ESPNU
08-31 Fri. Washington @ Syracuse 8:00 p.m. ESPN
09-01 Sat. East Carolina @ Virginia Tech Noon ESPN
09-01 Sat. UAB @ Michigan State Noon ESPN2
09-01 Sat. Marshall @ Miami, Fla. Noon ESPNU
09-01 Sat. Colorado State vs. Colorado (Denver) Noon FSN
09-01 Sat. Virginia @ Wyoming 2:00 p.m. Versus
09-01 Sat. South Carolina State @ Air Force 2:00 p.m. The Mtn
09-01 Sat. Southern vs. Florida A&M (Birmingham) 3:00 p.m. ESPN Classic
09-01 Sat. Wake Forest @ Boston College 3:30 p.m. ABC/GP
09-01 Sat. Nevada @ Nebraska 3:30 p.m. ABC/GP
09-01 Sat. Washington State @ Wisconsin 3:30 p.m. ABC/GP
09-01 Sat. Georgia Tech @ Notre Dame 3:30 p.m. NBC
09-01 Sat. Missouri vs. Illinois (St. Louis) 3:30 p.m. ESPN2
09-01 Sat. UCLA @ Stanford 3:30 p.m. FSN
09-01 Sat. Iowa @ Northern Illinois 3:30 p.m. ESPNU
09-01 Sat. Arizona @ BYU 5:30 p.m. Versus
09-01 Sat. Baylor @ TCU 6:00 p.m. CSTV
09-01 Sat. Oklahoma State @ Georgia 6:45 p.m. ESPN2
09-01 Sat. North Texas @ Oklahoma 7:00 p.m. FSN
09-01 Sat. Purdue @ Toledo 7:00 p.m. ESPNU
09-01 Sat. Kansas State @ Auburn 7:45 p.m. ESPN
09-01 Sat. Tennessee @ Cal 8:00 p.m. ABC
09-01 Sat. Indiana State @ Indiana 8:00 p.m. BigTen
09-01 Sat. New Mexico @ UTEP 10:00 p.m. CSTV
09-01 Sat. Idaho @ Southern California 10:15 p.m. FSN
09-03 Mon. Texas Tech @ SMU 4:00 p.m. ESPN
09-03 Mon. Florida State @ Clemson 8:00 p.m. ESPN


09-06 Thu. Middle Tennessee @ Louisville 7:00 p.m. ESPN2
09-06 Thu. Oregon State @ Cincinnati 7:30 p.m. ESPN
09-07 Fri. Navy @ Rutgers 7:00 p.m. ESPN
09-08 Sat. West Virginia @ Marshall 11:00 a.m. ESPN2
09-08 Sat. Miami, Fla. @ Oklahoma Noon ABC
09-08 Sat. Nebraska @ Wake Forest Noon ESPN
09-08 Sat. Duke @ Virginia Noon LFS/GP
09-08 Sat. Alabama @ Vanderbilt 12:30 p.m. LFS/GP
09-08 Sat. Rhode Island @ Army 1:00 p.m. ESPN Classic
09-08 Sat. Samford @ Georgia Tech 1:30 p.m. ESPNU
09-08 Sat. California @ Colorado State 2:00 p.m. CSTV
09-08 Sat. Utah State @ Wyoming 2:00 p.m. The Mtn
09-08 Sat. N.C. State @ Boston College 2:30 p.m. ESPN2
09-08 Sat. Fresno State @ Texas A&M 3:30 p.m. FSN
09-08 Sat. Boise State @ Washington 3:30 p.m. FSN Regional
09-08 Sat. UAB @ Florida State 5:00 p.m. ESPNU
09-08 Sat. South Carolina @ Georgia 5:45 p.m. ESPN2
09-08 Sat. Notre Dame @ Penn State 6:00 p.m. ESPN
09-08 Sat. North Carolina @ East Carolina 6:00 p.m. CSTV
09-08 Sat. Air Force @ Utah 6:00 p.m. The Mtn
09-08 Sat. BYU @ UCLA 6:30 p.m. Versus
09-08 Sat. TCU @ Texas 7:00 p.m. FSN
09-08 Sat. Indiana @ Western Michigan 8:00 p.m. ESPNU
09-08 Sat. Syracuse @ Iowa 8:00 p.m. BigTen
09-08 Sat. USF @ Auburn 9:00 p.m. ESPN2
09-08 Sat. Virginia Tech @ LSU 9:15 p.m. ESPN
09-08 Sat. New Mexico State @ New Mexico 9:30 p.m. The Mtn
09-08 Sat. Wisconsin @ UNLV 10:00 p.m. Versus
09-08 Sat. Colorado @ Arizona State 10:15 p.m. FSN

09-13 Thu. West Virginia @ Maryland 7:30 p.m. ESPN
09-13 Thu. TCU @ Air Force 8:00 p.m. CSTV
09-14 Fri. Oklahoma State @ Troy 8:00 p.m. ESPN2
09-15 Sat. Pittsburgh @ Michigan State Noon ESPN
09-15 Sat. Central Michigan @ Purdue Noon ESPN2
09-15 Sat. Illinois @ Syracuse Noon ESPNU
09-15 Sat. Virginia @ North Carolina Noon LFS/GP
09-15 Sat. Mississippi State @ Auburn 12:30 p.m. LFS/GP
09-15 Sat. Iowa @ Iowa State 1:30 p.m. Versus
09-15 Sat. Notre Dame @ Michigan 3:30 p.m. ABC
09-15 Sat. Tennessee @ Florida 3:30 p.m. CBS
09-15 Sat. Ohio State @ Washington 3:30 p.m. ESPN
09-15 Sat. Texas @ UCF 3:30 p.m. ESPN2
09-15 Sat. FIU @ Miami, Fla. 3:30 p.m. ESPNU
09-15 Sat. UCLA @ Utah 5:00 p.m. Versus
09-15 Sat. Ball State @ Navy 5:00 p.m. CSTV
09-15 Sat. Idaho State @ Oregon State 6:30 p.m. FSN Regional
09-15 Sat. Arkansas @ Alabama 6:45 p.m. ESPN
09-15 Sat. Southern California @ Nebraska 8:00 p.m. ABC
09-15 Sat. Boston College @ Georgia Tech 8:00 p.m. ESPN2
09-15 Sat. Duke @ Northwestern 8:00 p.m. BigTen
09-15 Sat. BYU @ Tulsa 9:00 p.m. CSTV
09-15 Sat. Hawaii @ UNLV 9:30 p.m. The Mtn
09-15 Sat. Florida State @ Colorado 10:00 p.m. ESPN

09-20 Thu. Texas A&M @ Miami, Fla. 7:30 p.m. ESPN
09-21 Fri. Oklahoma @ Tulsa 8:00 p.m. ESPN2
09-22 Sat. Duke @ Navy 1:00 p.m. CSTV
09-22 Sat. Air Force @ BYU 3:00 p.m. The Mtn
09-22 Sat. Michigan State @ Notre Dame 3:30 p.m. NBC
09-22 Sat. Texas Tech @ Oklahoma State 3:30 p.m. FSN
09-22 Sat. Colorado State @ Houston 4:30 p.m. CSTV
09-22 Sat. Portland State @ San Diego State 6:30 p.m. The Mtn
09-22 Sat. Rice @ Texas 7:00 p.m. FSN
09-22 Sat. Washington State @ USC 8:00 p.m. ABC/GP
09-22 Sat. Iowa @ Wisconsin 8:00 p.m. ABC/GP
09-22 Sat. SMU @ TCU 8:30 p.m. CSTV
09-22 Sat. Purdue @ Minnesota 9:00 p.m. ESPN2
09-22 Sat. Utah @ UNLV 10:00 p.m. The Mtn

09-27 Thu. Southern Miss @ Boise State 7:30 p.m. ESPN
09-28 Fri. West Virginia @ USF 8:00 p.m. ESPN2
09-29 Sat. Air Force @ Navy 1:00 p.m. CSTV
09-29 Sat. Utah State @ Utah 3:00 p.m. The Mtn
09-29 Sat. UTEP @ SMU 4:30 p.m. CSTV
09-29 Sat. Colorado State @ TCU 7:00 p.m. The Mtn
09-29 Sat. USC @ Washington 8:00 p.m. ABC/ESPN/ESPN2
09-29 Sat. Ohio State @ Minnesota 8:00 p.m. ABC/ESPN/ESPN2
09-29 Sat. BYU @ New Mexico 8:30 p.m. CSTV
09-29 Sat. Cincinnati @ San Diego State 10:00 p.m. Versus
09-29 Sat. LSU @ Tulane TBD ESPN/ESPN2
09-29 Sat. Temple @ Army TBD ESPNU/ESPN Classic

10-02 Tue. Marshall @ Memphis 7:30 p.m. ESPN2
10-03 Wed. Rice @ Southern Miss 8:00 p.m. ESPN2
10-04 Thu. Kentucky @ South Carolina 7:30 p.m. ESPN
10-05 Fri. Utah @ Louisville 8:00 p.m. ESPN
10-06 Sat. TCU @ Wyoming 2:00 p.m. The Mtn
10-06 Sat. Colorado State @ San Diego State 5:30 p.m. The Mtn
10-06 Sat. Southern California @ Stanford 7:00 p.m. Versus
10-06 Sat. UCF @ East Carolina 7:30 p.m. CSTV
10-06 Sat. Notre Dame @ UCLA 8:00 p.m. ABC
10-06 Sat. Ohio State @ Purdue 8:00 p.m. ABC/ESPN/ESPN2
10-06 Sat. UNLV @ Air Force 9:00 p.m. The Mtn
10-06 Sat. Tulane @ Army TBA ESPNU/ESPN Classic
10-07 Sun. New Mexico State @ Boise State 8:00 p.m. ESPN

10-10 Wed. Navy @ Pittsburgh 8:00 p.m. ESPN
10-11 Thu. Florida State @ Wake Forest 7:30 p.m. ESPN
10-12 Fri. Hawaii @ San Jose State 8:00 p.m. ESPN
10-13 Sat. New Mexico @ Wyoming 2:00 p.m. The Mtn
10-13 Sat. Wisconsin @ Penn State 3:30 p.m. ABC
10-13 Sat. Boston College @ Notre Dame 3:30 p.m. NBC
10-13 Sat. Rice @ Houston 3:30 p.m. CSTV
10-13 Sat. Air Force @ Colorado State 5:30 p.m. The Mtn
10-13 Sat. Indiana @ Michigan State 7:00 p.m. BigTen
10-13 Sat. SMU @ Southern Miss 7:30 p.m. CSTV
10-13 Sat. BYU @ UNLV 9:30 p.m. The Mtn
10-14 Sun. Nevada @ Boise State 8:00 p.m. ESPN

10-18 Thu. USF @ Rutgers 7:30 p.m. ESPN
10-18 Thu. Utah @ TCU 8:00 p.m. Versus
10-19 Fri. Northwestern @ Eastern Michigan 7:00 p.m. ESPNU
10-19 Fri. Louisville @ UConn 8:00 p.m. ESPN
10-20 Sat. Wake Forest @ Navy 1:00 p.m. CSTV
10-20 Sat. Wyoming @ New Mexico 2:00 p.m. The Mtn
10-20 Sat. Michigan State @ Ohio State 3:30 p.m. ABC
10-20 Sat. Southern California @ Notre Dame 3:30 p.m. NBC
10-20 Sat. N.C. State @ East Carolina 4:30 p.m. CSTV
10-20 Sat. Eastern Washington @ BYU 5:30 p.m. The Mtn
10-20 Sat. Michigan @ Illinois 8:00 p.m. ABC/ESPN/ESPN2
10-20 Sat. New Mexico @ San Diego State 11:00 p.m. CSTV
10-21 Sun. Southern Miss @ Marshall 8:00 p.m. ESPN

10-25 Thu. Boston COllege @ Virginia Tech 7:30 p.m. ESPN
10-25 Thu. Air Force @ New Mexico 9:00 p.m. Versus
10-26 Fri. Cornell @ Princeton 7:00 p.m. ESPNU
10-26 Fri. Boise State @ Fresno State 9:00 p.m. ESPN2
10-27 Sat. Delaware @ Navy 1:00 p.m. CSTV
10-27 Sat. UNLV @ Wyoming 2:00 p.m. The Mtn
10-27 Sat. Southern California @ Oregon 3:00 p.m. FSN
10-27 Sat. Rice @ Marshall 4:30 p.m. CSTV
10-27 Sat. Utah @ Colorado State 5:30 p.m. The Mtn
10-27 Sat. UCLA @ Washington State 6:30 p.m. FSN
10-27 Sat. Ohio State @ Penn State 8:00 p.m. ABC/ESPN/ESPN2
10-27 Sat. BYU @ San Diego State 9:30 p.m. The Mtn
10-27 Sat. Cal @ Arizona State 10:00 p.m. FSN
10-28 Sun. UCF @ Southern Miss 8:00 p.m. ESPN

11-01 Thu. Virginia Tech @ Georgia Tech 7:30 p.m. ESPN
11-02 Fri. Akron @ Bowling Green 7:00 p.m. ESPNU
11-02 Fri. Nevada @ New Mexico State 8:00 p.m. ESPN2
11-03 Sat. Colorado State @ BYU 2:00 p.m. The Mtn
11-03 Sat. Navy @ Notre Dame 2:30 p.m. NBC
11-03 Sat. UCLA @ Arizona 3:30 p.m. ABC
11-03 Sat. Army @ Air Force 3:30 p.m. CSTV
11-03 Sat. New Mexico @ TCU 5:30 p.m. The Mtn
11-03 Sat. Tulsa @ Tulane 7:30 p.m. CSTV
11-03 Sat. Oregon State @ USC 8:00 p.m. ABC/ESPN/ESPN2
11-03 Sat. Illinois @ Minnesota 8:00 p.m. BigTen
11-03 Sat. Wyoming @ San Diego State 9:00 p.m. The Mtn
11-03 Sat. Washington State @ Cal 10:00 p.m. FSN
11-04 Sun. SMU @ Houston 8:00 p.m. ESPN

11-06 Tue. Central Mich. @ Western Mich. 7:30 p.m. ESPN2
11-07 Wed. Ohio @ Akron 7:30 p.m. ESPN2
11-08 Thu. Louisville @ West Virginia 7:30 p.m. ESPN
11-08 Thu. TCU @ BYU 9:00 p.m. Versus
11-09 Fri. Bowling Green @ Eastern Michigan 7:00 p.m. ESPNU
11-09 Fri. Rutgers @ Army 8:00 p.m. ESPN2
11-10 Sat. Air Force @ Notre Dame 2:30 p.m. NBC
11-10 Sat. Colorado State @ New Mexico 3:00 p.m. The Mtn
11-10 Sat. Wyoming @ Utah 3:30 p.m. CSTV
11-10 Sat. UCF @ UAB 7:30 p.m. CSTV
11-10 Sat. USC @ California 8:00 p.m. ABC/ESPN/ESPN2
11-10 Sat. Washington @ Oregon State 10:15 p.m. FSN
11-10 Sat. San Diego State @ UNLV 11:00 p.m. CSTV

11-13 Tue. Toledo @ Ball State 7:30 p.m. ESPN2
11-14 Wed. Akron @ Miami (OH) 7:30 p.m. ESPN2
11-15 Thu. Oregon @ Arizona 9:00 p.m. ESPN
11-16 Fri. Hawaii @ Nevada 11:00 p.m. ESPN2
11-17 Sat. BYU @ Wyoming 2:00 p.m. The Mtn
11-17 Sat. Duke @ Notre Dame 2:30 p.m. NBC
11-17 Sat. Northern Illinois @ Navy 3:30 p.m. CSTV
11-17 Sat. New Mexico @ Utah 5:30 p.m. The Mtn
11-17 Sat. Southern Miss @ UTEP TBD CSTV
11-17 Sat. Tulsa @ Army TBD ESPNU/ESPN Classic

11-20 Tue. Middle Tennessee State @ Troy 7:00 p.m. ESPN2
11-22 Thu. Southern California @ Arizona State 8:00 p.m. ESPN
11-23 Fri. Central Michigan @ Akron 11:00 a.m. ESPNU
11-23 Fri. Ole Miss @ Mississippi State 12:30 p.m. LFS/GP
11-23 Fri. Wyoming @ Colorado State 2:00 p.m. The Mtn
11-23 Fri. Toledo @ Bowling Green 2:30 p.m. ESPNU
11-23 Fri. Nebraska @ Colorado Noon ABC
11-23 Fri. Arkansas @ LSU 2:30 p.m. CBS
11-23 Fri. Texas @ Texas A&M 3:30 p.m. ABC
11-23 Fri. Boise State @ Hawaii 9:00 p.m. ESPN2
11-24 Sat. Utah @ BYU 2:00 p.m. CSTV
11-24 Sat. UNLV @ New Mexico 5:30 p.m. The Mtn
11-24 Sat. UTEP @ UCF 7:30 p.m. CSTV
11-24 Sat. Kansas State @ Fresno State TBD ESPN/ESPN2

11-29 Thu. Rutgers @ Louisville 7:30 p.m. ESPN
11-30 Fri. Fresno State @ New Mexico State 8:00 p.m. ESPN2
12-01 Sat. Army vs. Navy Noon CBS
12-01 Sat. C-USA Championship TBD ESPN/ESPN2
12-01 Sat. MAC Championship TBD ESPN/ESPN2
12-01 Sat. ACC Championship 1:00 p.m. ABC
12-01 Sat. SEC Championship 4:00 p.m. CBS
12-01 Sat. UCLA @ Southern California 4:30 p.m. ABC
12-01 Sat. Oregon State @ oregon 4:30 p.m. ESPN2
12-01 Sat. California @ Stanford 7:00 p.m. Versus
12-01 Sat. Big 12 Championship 8:00 p.m. ABC
12-01 Sat. Arizona @ Arizona State 8:00 p.m. ESPN/ESPN2
12-01 Sat. Pittsburgh @ West Virginia TBD ESPN/ESPN2
12-01 Sat. Washington @ Hawaii TBD ESPN/ESPN2

Monday, August 27, 2007

Me and Flying Just Don't Seem to Get Along

I went up to DC/Baltimore this weekend for my sisters' fiance's bachelor party this weekend(there will be a somewhat censored blog about that in a bit I'm sure). But until then, I just feel the need to bitch about how bad my flying experience was this weekend.

For whatever reason, I always have the WORST luck when it comes to flying. Usually, if I'm on Airtran, my flight is almost certain gonna be late. Which is why I renamed it Latetran. Typically on Delta, they're typically on time, but will lose my bags. Pick your poison I guess. Those are typically my 2 main choices when flying somewhere. Two weeks ago, I flew up to Boston on Latetran...with no problems! They were actually early, it was nuts! Now, this weekend more than made up for it. And it was Delta, not Latetran this time. I can't say it was Delta's fault. This was all weather related. My flight was supposed to leave at 5:20 on Friday night. I was being picked up by a couple of Brian's friends whom I'd never met before, then driving up to Baltimore to the hotel. So, we finally board the plane and leave the gate. We get to the runway and there's about 20 planes ahead of us. And here I thought I already drove through Atlanta rush hour! Pretty soon the wind picks up its getting real dark...and finally, lightning. Keep in mine, I think its rained three times in Atlanta since 2002. Or at least it seems that way. The pilot comes on and says they're shutting the engines off and we're gonna be sitting there a while. Ughhhhhh. Not good. I didn't want to hold up the bachelor party, but what could I do? We weren't supposed to be able to use our phones, or so I thought? I heard someone behind me a few rows back turned their phone on...the girl next to me turned hers on, so I said, well, if everyone else is doing it...so I called Brian to have everyone just go up to Baltimore and not to wait on me, and I'd meet up with them eventually, probably Saturday or something. I was pissed!!! At least I did get to sit next to a pretty cool girl on the flight. She had amazing blue eyes, which made me feel weird because I don't usually notice or even think things like that! Aleatha, if you're out there somewhere, you have nice eyes, and sorry for probably butchering the spelling of your name! Turns out she also just moved a month ago and lives pretty close to me (Vinings), and she's also done the NYC-ATL-FLA living situation. So it was good that I had someone to talk to. You could only try and sleep on a plane for so long. I think we sat on the runway for 2 hours, then finally took off. The skies still looked pretty bad. And we had a rough take off. I really thought I was gonna die, the plane went up, there was lightning everywhere, and it seemed pretty close. The plane went up and it seemed to stay level for a bit and felt like we were maybe even going back down. I kept telling myself (and her) that they knew what they were doing and that they wouldn't let us take off if it wasn't safe. HA! I was still scared shitless (what exactly does that mean anyways?). I remember almost grabbing her hand before I realized that I really don't know her and that would be a little weird. So, instead I just shut the window. That didn't really last long, because I just had to look out there. Eventually we got through the rough stuff and off to DCA we went. Along the way, I had the most delicious (and most-needed) Miller Lite I've probably ever had. It may have been $5 but it was wonderful :) At this point, I'm still thinking that I'm gonna miss out on the Friday night bachelor party festivities and probably just on Kim's couch all night, while everyone else was out having fun, so thats part of what made the beer taste good. And that it was really cold! Eventually we started going down to land and even that was rough, it really didn't feel right. But, it worked, we landed. Turned my phone on, and there was a text waiting for me from Brian's friends saying that they were gonna wait for me. I was giddy and almost forgot how awful my flight was...yes, I said almost.
Alright, so we skip ahead to Sunday (don't worry, there will be another blog dedicated to Brian's bachelor party). As I'm sure you all know, Sunday afternoon was the championship of the Little League World Series! A team from just south of Atlanta was playing against a team from Japan. It went into extra innings, but I missed the end of it because I had to get to the airport for my 7:55 flight (which I originally thought was 6:55 and would've been the same flight as that Aleatha girl from the first nightmare flight.) Of course, almost as soon as I get to the gate...an HOUR before my flight, the flight is already delayed 40 minutes. So, 8:35 the flight leaves...the gate. And just as almost expected, we got to the runway area...and the pilot comes on the loud speaker and tells us of bad weather to the south and that we'd be sitting there a while, so he shut off the engines. Are you kidding me? Again? The good news is that this flight was only about a third full, so I had 3 seats all to myself, so I got two blankets and sprawled across the seats the entire time. After about an hour and a half we actually did take off pretty smoothly, but again, you could see lightning out the window. Scary stuff. Once we got above the clouds, it was cool seeing the lightning from above. I tried getting my camera out, but then remembered...its acting brokened. It knows a replacement is on its way (I won a digital camera through my fantasy baseball skills! So stop making fun of me!). Anyways, got into Atlanta, and just when you'd think the miserable trip is over...there was no place for the plane to park!!!! We were supposed to go to terminal C, but we wound up at terminal E, which is the international terminal. I was starting to wonder if I was gonna have to go through customs or something? I didn't, but the terminal was about 55 degrees. It was COLD! Found my car, paid 42 friggin dollars to park for 3 days (I guess paying $20 not to ride Marta twice may have been worth it). Got home at about 12:20am. Ughhhh.
And what do I do tonight??? I book another flight to DC. What the hell is wrong with me???? I'm not flying on Latelta though (ok, so that doesn't work as well), but I'm going on Earlytran next time!!!!

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

I have the best "tenant" ever

And this will be a good test to see if she ever reads this :)

So, we've been in this condo for just over 3 weeks. In those 3 weeks, we've had to deal with no hot water for 10 days; no Internet for probably 7 days; and now no ceiling fan in Lauren's room.

Amongst all these sufferages, she's been able to be home when the gas man came, a plumber has come (twice), and the cable guy has come (twice). If she wasn't here I don't know how the hell I'd get anything done. Its not like I can just leave work at the drop of a hat and be home for these guys to come during the day. Not to mention can you imagine going with hot water for 10 days and not bitching to YOUR landlord about it. I dont remember her complaining once. Hell, I complained daily! Next, our internet wasn't working. Friday a guy came out and told her that the cables coming into the house were "leaking decibels" and we should call an electrician to fix it. Alright, her boyfriend knew what that meant, so he thought he could fix it. He couldn't figure out which wires from the outside were coming into my place, so we needed to call the cable company again. We had an appointment for Monday between 5-7pm...so that I could actually be here and she wouldn't have to worry about it. Well, i'm not sure what happened in between but the cable guy called me around 2pm to see if he could come early. I couldn't go home, so Lauren spoke to him and agreed to be here. But after complications, he said he'd be here at 5pm. Well, the fu*ker never showed. Lauren bitched to the cable company, and allegedly got us a $20 credit at least. And a guy was to come out first thing Tuesday morning. Another day for Lauren to stay home waiting on a cable guy. Well, he showed up, talked sh!t about Friday's cable guy and fixed our internet. Yay!!!!!

Now tonight, I went and bought 2 new ceiling fans, 1 for my room, 1 for Lauren's. I had my ceiling-fan-experienced friend Shea come over to help out with the "installation in minutes". About 2 hours later we gave up. We lost a washer, we couldn't get 2 screws to fit in where they're supposed to fit. I don't know why I expected it to work smoothly! Nothing about owning this place has gone smoothly! So, now Lauren's got no ceiling fan, I feel really bad about it. Her boyfriend may give it a shot tomorrow night. Luckily we're both out of town this weekend, so its not a big deal. I'll have someone out here Monday to take care of these damn things.

Ughhhhh, everything has to be so frustrating!!! Anyways, I'm just glad to have such a good, understanding roommate. Hard to believe that just a few years ago she was known as "Failure" :)

Anyways, I've gotta go...I've got HOMEWORK!!!!!

Friday, August 17, 2007

Touring Fenway Park

So after leaving Cape Cod Monday morning, me, Kim and Brian drove back to Boston, we were hoping to get to be tourists all day until our flights, but it didn't quite work out. Traffic was awful getting to Boston, so all we had time for was the Fenway tour. For starters I can't believe how busy these tours were on a mid-Monday. We got there at about 11:30 and the 12pm tour was sold out! So we had to kill some time and bought tickets for the 1pm tour. These tours allowe up to 200 people per tour!!!! Sold out on a Monday afternoon!!!! And its not like it was a bunch of kids who were still out of school for the summer. So we had over an hour to kill and just walked around the outside of the stadium. There seemed to be alot of construction going on outside the stadium. Parking seemed like it is probably a problem on game days. We had to wind up paying $15 to park in a garage in the middle of the day. Only because I apparently broke the parking meter we originally found! Oops! There's actually a Fenway High School across from the stadium. How cool is that? Going to high school across the street from Fenway! Anyways, kept walking...people charge $30, $40, even $50 for gameday parking. Unreal! We went into some bar to get a beer, it was called "Game On". They had some pretty nice TVs in there. Then met up with the tour at the big souvineer shop on Yawkey Way. This old guy started the tour in the shop with a couple corny jokes. He was asking where people were from, some kid said Ohio. He then went for an Ohio State joke...saying they'll be really good...once they get everyone out of jail...someone was from canada and he commented about the national anthem, it has been changed to something like Oh No the Expos are gone. He asked what the NY in New York stood for...and said "Next Year". I felt the need to booo on that one. I'm guessing he didn't use that line in 2003, eh? :) Oh, a friggin shot glass (I collect them) in that place was $10!!! I couldn't do it. Even in the airport the only shot glasses I saw were Red Sox ones and were $10. Oh well.

Alright, so we finally start the tour, went in the stadium and the first stop was the seats above the Red Sox dugout, but still a couple dozen rows up. (See view from first 2 pictures attached).The tour guide was some young 20 something asian girl. She was actually pretty good, she knew her Red Sox trivia...even cracked a few jokes. She made sure there were no Yankees fans around. I was wearing my Mets t-shirt and people were giving me crap for it, but in a fun way. I just had the easy comeback and said, hey, we hate the Yankees too! Anyways, the "trivia"...the very first Red Sox game was against the NY Islanders...now the Yankees. Found out that the ladder on the green monster is absolutely worthless (the black one, not that silver one that is actually being used as I took the picture!). The green monster used to actually be navy blue (Yankees colors???) with ads all over it. The players started complaining that it was distracting as they were trying to hit, so the owner changed the color and removed the ads. The owners wife actually picked out the color and can now only be purchased by the owner of the red sox and the head groundscrew. So, no one can paint their houses that color - Fenway Green.

Next we went to the seats all the way upstairs in RF. I learned that Pesky's pole (the yellow foul pole in right field) wasn't officially named that until last year apparently. It was named after an old Red Sox player named Johnny Pesky who seemed to hit all his home runs right by that pole - which is the shortest homerun distance in the major leagues (302ft). Anyways, the seats up here are actually tables, with either 2 or 4 seats per table. These seats cannot be owned by season ticket people, they are put up for a lottery and if you win, you have the option to buy a table, once per season, and includes 4 seats for about $500. But you get a $75 voucher for food/drink I think. You can kinda see (in the picture on the right) that the Red Sox grounds crew got a "B" on the outfield grass. Kim was curious and asked the question if all teams have a B in their outfield. Ok, so maybe it came out wrong, but it was funny.

Next we went over to the seats farther up and above the red sox dugout. Got a good view of the seats above the green monster where the prior tour was at, I guess. The tour guide said that the seats right behind home plate and upstairs, some actually have seat warmers built in. You have to buy those tickets and commit for 7 years or something. I think a seasons worth costs about $325k. All the seats in that place were insane. The seats we were actually sitting at were about $90 a game, a little bit higher sell for "only" $75.

After that we went up to the green monster seats, which the tour guide said sold out for the season in just over an hour. Apparently they have one red seat in the outfield. A long time ago, Ted Williams hit the longest HR in Fenway history - 502ft (kinda surprised no one's topped that) and it apparently hit some guy in that seat who fell asleep. (Williams said that he noticed the guy sleeping and aimed for him - he's a comic too apparently) Anyways, the guy who got hit was a yankee fan. After getting hit by that ball, the media was asking him questions, asking if it was fate telling him not to root for the yankees anymore...and they said he woke up as a Red Sox fan. So the headline the next day said something like "Williams knocks sense into Yankee fan". The left field foul pole is called the Fisk Foul Pole (I got to touch it!) because of the famous homerun by Carlton Fisk in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series where you can see Fisk trying to push the ball fair with his arms as he's jumping on his way to first base. The ball did stay fair and the Red Sox won game 6...but lost game 7.


Then on the way out, saw Coco Crisp (yes, there is a baseball player named Coco Crisp) pulling out in his orange hummer.
And that was our tour of Fenway. Well worth (Brian's) $12 (Thanks again!!!). I wonder if every stadium has tours like that? Fenway has got to be the best one just because its the smallest and oldest stadium out there. A coworker of mine said he took the Braves tour of Turner Field...not quite 200 people...he said there were about 8. HA! One thing I regret is that apparently during the offseason the tour includes alot more, like a tour of the clubhouse, maybe even the dugout and the field. And I was sad not to have gotten a tour of the Bill Buckner hall of fame :)

Thursday, August 16, 2007

My cousin Liz's wedding weekend

Ok, after I typed the title I started thinking about My Cousin Vinny - the movie. No reason, I'm guessing you can say My Cousin - fill in the blank - and it'd make me think of that movie. Its a good one! I digress.

So, this past Saturday, the first of the Zaikov cousins got married. Ok, technically she's never been a Zaikov, but i'm not sure how else to label us, so I just went for it. It was up north in Cape Cod and it was a really nice weekend. It was especially nice to get away from the 100+ degree weather we'd been dealing with in Atlanta! I flew up to Boston at 7am on Saturday morning (ughhh, waking up at 4:30 is NOT for me!). I was so tired that i remember flying over Cape Cod and thinking hmmmm, thats Long Island I think? i don't function when i'm tired!!! My sister and her fiance - who will now be known as "Brian" flew up an hour before me, rented a car, found me and we drove from Boston to Cape Cod. Traffic was pretty miserable, as it was all weekend. We finally made it to the hotel. First thing we needed was a beer...then lunch...then a nap. Then a few of my a-little-too-young-cousins got the idea to play drinking games. So, we went out, bought beer...plastic cups...and, of course...ping pong balls :) Thats right, we played flip-cup first. Got my dad in on that! He struggled at first...but came back strong in game 2. Next we played Beer Pong. I'd never actually played before. I teamed up with my cousin Ashley and we pretty much dominated that. The best was getting my grandmother - Bubbie involved. That to me was the highlight of the weekend!

Saturday night was the rehearsal dinner. Anything with free drinks is good as far as I'm concerned. There's a picture from that night on the right (Alyssa, Kim, Bubbie, Liz, Ashley). Towards the end of the night, a somewhat obnoxious guy was trying to get some of my not-officially-21-years-old cousins (although their ID's say otherwise) to go to a bar. They did...with Bubbie. Sorry I missed that, but I was pretty much exhausted at that point - and had to go back to the hotel. So I did, just hung out at the hotel. Found my cousin Rob hanging outside his room with a friend, so I hung out with them as people started coming back to the hotel, they joined us. Nothing too exciting.

Sunday morning was the wedding. Just off the beach. It was hot. Not Paris Hilton hot, temperature hot, although not Atlanta-hot. But when I'm wearing a suit, its easy for it to be too hot out. Anyways, everyone that was supposed to say "I do", did...so thats always a good thing. After the ceremony we went into a large tented area for finger food and drink. I was almost surprised with myself when I just ordered an ice water. But it wasn't even noon yet and it was HOT still. A bunch of us gathered around a table, we were about to take a picture when someones beer got knocked over and spilled all over the back of Bubbie's dress. She's a good sport though...cleaned herself off and still had a great time...not to mention she smelled good the rest of the day :)

For some reason bunch of us decided it'd be fun to wear sunglasses and pose with ancient hebrew gang signals. Not bad, huh? I dare anyone to find a cooler grandmother!


The wedding reception was fun, I felt really bad for my cousin Josh who had a really bad virus of some sort all day Sunday. He was miserable. (He's the one in that last picture with his sister Alyssa bugging him) I didn't really drink, but I did force myself to dance. Hell, its a bunch of jews, how ridiculous could I possibly look? And actually the correct answer to that would would be one Harry Pierson. (Sorry, I probably shouldn't go there, but anyone who was there saw it). When it was time to cut the cake, the band played "Pour Some Sugar On Me" (Def Leppard) so that was fun! After the reception, Liz and Greg got on board a little boat and literally sailed off into the sunset. We didn't get a chance to write on the boats' windshield or attach coke cans to it.

Sunday night, Alyssa and Ashley REALLY wanted to have a barbecue. It was starting to get close to the time where it gets dark, but they still REALLY wanted this. They went out shopping, got enough stuff to feed about 16 of us. But the charcoal we got just wouldnt light! Even with pretty much a whole bottle of lighter fluid! Hayden (another cousin) wound up getting ANOTHER bottle of lighter fluid. In the meantime, we were trying anything we could think of to get the charcoal burning. We lit the bag from the charcoal...that wasn't even easy to light. But it didn't work either. We finally went into the woods and broke off a couple of branches from some trees. That finally got things going and about 3 hours after we began...we finally were able to eat. Afterwards we just kinda hung out and were looking for some shooting stars. I actually found a couple. Its amazing how many stars you can see when you're in the middle of nowhere!

So that was pretty much it, Monday morning, me, Kim and Brian left Cape Cod and headed to Boston to, amongst other things, took a tour of Fenway Park. There will most certainly be a new blog about that! It was really pretty cool!

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Important Countdowns!

  • 5 days until my cousin Liz gets married - the first of my generation to make the biggest mistake of their lives - just kidding :)
  • 17 days until my future brother-in-law's bachelor party in Baltimore
  • 21 days until Heroes - season one - comes out on DVD
  • 23 days until college football is back!LSU @ Mississippi State on day 1
  • 27 days until FSU's first game - @ Clemson on Labor Day
  • 53 days until FSU vs. Alabama in Jacksonville, FL...and I can't go :(
  • 54 days until my cousin Scott's bar-mitzvah (the last bar-mitzvah in my family for a long long time, well, at least 13 years, as far as I know! And which is why I can't go to the FSU vs. Alabama game...family comes first)
  • 59 days until the Atlanta Thrashers home season opener! I don't think there's ANYTHING I'm looking forward to more than this. They should be unveiling the banner for the 2006-7 Southeastern Division Championship...which is a big deal, with it being their first and all.
  • 74 days until Miami vs. Florida State. Possibly the only FSU game I get to go to this year.
  • 85 days until I go to see The Smashing Pumpkins, at the Fabulous Fox Theatre in ATL (I really feel weird about calling it fabulous)
  • 87 days until my 31st birthday. My friend Matt is trying to talk me into a trip to Jamaica...I don't know. If i do that, apparently I've gotta get a passport soon, and I'm way too lazy for that!
  • 102 days until my LITTLE sister, Kim...is getting married. People need to stop growing up! I command you!!!!!
  • 163 days until I'll have vacation days at work again! It's been too long!

Sunday, August 5, 2007

Why I retired from poker

Back in the day, me and my old roommate Jason used to play poker at bars or at someones house a couple of times a week. We played alot, and I was doing fairly well. But I was getting tired of coming home smelling like smoke everyday. I really didn't like playing with people who took these games too seriously, but mostly I was tired of people beating me with crappier hands than mine! I think I've played once in the past year. Jason (my old roommate) was having a guys night poker event at his house, so I decided to give it a go. A key factor in this decision was that I could show up a little early and take a HOT shower!!!! And I did, so that was awesome.
There were 9 of us playing poker...2 of them were the types that took everything way too seriously. It was $10 a piece to play, so its not like this was life or death for anyone. Just play some cards, drink some beer and enjoy yourself...thats my theory anyways. So on to the game. It took almost forever for me to get any good cards and when i finally had something good I had very little money so I just bet it all. One of the serious guys called my bet, with a much crappier starting hand...and of course he got lucky and beat me. So thats the end of game 1 for me. A couple hours later, they started a 2nd game. Very first hand, I got good cards, someone bet big, so I went all in. I think I had an ace and a queen. The other guy called me...with absolutely nothing, I think it was a 10 and an 8. And of course...he gets an 8. I lose. Thats fine, it happens (too often, but it happens). The part that really pissed me off is that this guy started celebrating like there was no tomorrow. Typically people are almost apologetic when they win on crap hands like that. But no. This guy was 100% obnoxious. And it lasted for a while. Eventually I couldn't take it anymore, so I went across the street to play darts the rest of the night.
So, it was worth a shot, but i have no desire to play poker anytime soon. I wound up crashing at their house...and snuck in a shower this morning, so that was nice. Thanks Jason (& Tara) you guys are awesome friends!

Thursday, August 2, 2007

The joys (or lack there-of) of owning a home

So, its Thursday, I'm sure you're thinking I should have hot water by now, right????? Wrong! The gas guy did come out but said my water heater wasn't "up to code". And apparently the inspector didn't know about the codes and now I have to go even longer without hot water. Tomorrow will be a week since I've had a hot shower. I realize its summer time and hot as hell down here, but cold showers SUUUUUUUCK. I've already learned its better to take a shower before you go to sleep. On Monday I took a shower in the morning and was friggin freezing all day. But, what sucks about THAT is that without a shower in the morning, I'm even less of a morning person! Staying awake at work is a hell of a lot tougher too. So, now I've got a plumber coming by tomorrow, even if he does fix this thing, I'm guessing I still need to get the f'ing gas guy back to my house, which could (but hopefully not) be another couple of days. I'll be willing to bet anything that they ain't gonna be coming out this weekend! Ughhhh this SUCKS!


In other news, I had my 6-month follow up appointment for my eye...and everything's doing good. That was one hell of a relief, so it's kinda hard for me to be too upset with the world that I don't have hot water. There's a hell of a lot worse things that can happen to me. I still remember when the Direct-TV guy came to my place, and when he said the dish wouldn't work with the trees he said "I hope this is the worst thing that happens to you today". So, the motto is, if no hot water is the worst thing that happens to me each day...I'll survive. And sorry Lauren, but I still need rent money :)


I hope to have more pictures soon, we're still unpacking, slowly. Very slowly. Here's some pictures of my couches?