Unconquered My Ass!!!!!

Last night I suffered through yet another FSU loss, not I only did I suffer through the game (where we had to play without FIVE 5!!!!!!!!! wide receivers) but it was about 40 degrees with 20 MPH winds. In row 67, it was pretty miserable. FSU lost 27-17, and it was still much much much much easier to take than the last FSU game I went to at Georgia Tech 2 weeks ago, but I'm not trying to remember that right now.

I have an issue with FSU's new little slogan. 2 years ago, FSU debuted new all black uniforms (I still think they should try black helmets). I actually like em. But what I don't like...and I know this has to do with the actual Seminole Indian Tribe more than the football team, but on the side of the pants is the word, "UNCONQUERED". Well, guess what? If I'm a Boston College fan, I'm having a blast with it. In 2006, the all black uniforms made their debut against, guess who? Boston College. Guess which team was conquered that day? Yep. The Seminoles. Last year, FSU wised up and wore the black uniforms against Duke. Not really fair. So yesterday, back came the black uniforms. And guess who got conquered again.

I understand paying tribute to the Seminole Indian tribe, but how about we let THEM remain unconquered and the FSU football pants can just say, and bare with me on this, it's pretty drastic...NOTHING.

Oh how I miss you Leon Washington!!!! Thanks for beating the Patriots though!

If I'm a Boston College fan, I take this statue, cross out the "UN" and put the scores to the 2006 and 2008 games under it. And bam, you have a t-shirt to sell making fun of us. It's that easy. And sad.

Can someone mention to whoever makes these decisions that FSU is 8-0 all time in the all garnet get-ups?

FSU advance to College World Series Finals

Ok, so not MY FSU, but the logo's are pretty similar. Both Fresno State and Florida State made it to the College Baseball World Series in Omaha, but unlike my FSU, Fresno State has made it all the way to the championship series! Unlike in basketball, where all 64 teams are "seeded" from 1-16, where teams seeded 1 are the top 4 teams in the country and teams seeded 16 have never won a game in the tournament. In baseball, the top 8 teams in the country are given a "national seed", Florida State was #5. Fresno State was not seeded. In the baseball tournament, there are basically 16 teams seeded #1, 16 teams #2, 16 teams #3 and 16 teams #4. Fresno State is a #4 seed. Thats equivalent to a #13-16 seed in basketball. In basketball, none of those teams have ever made the Final Four. In baseball, a #4 seed had never made it to Omaha (where the final 8 teams remaining square off each year). Fresno State probably wouldn't have even made the NCAA tournament if they didn't win their conference tournament. Not only did Fresno State make it to the NCAA Tourney, they won their regional, won their super-regional against #3 National Seed at Arizona State which led them to Omaha. They're now 45-30 this season, but 8-3 in the NCAA Tournament, with all those wins against teams ranked in the top 20. They've beaten 3 of the top 8 teams in the country in the last 2 weeks (#2 North Carolina, #3 Arizona State, #6 Rice) Pretty impressive! Now we've got an all Bulldog finals. Go FSU!!!!

2008 College World Series National Championship Schedule:

Game 1 Monday June 23 Fresno State vs. #8 Georgia, 7pm, ESPN2

Game 2 Tuesday June 24 Fresno State vs. #8 Georgia, 7pm, ESPN

*Game 3 Wednesday June 25 Fresno State vs. #8 Georgia, 7pm, ESPN

*If necessary (Best of 3 series)

Why do I Root for Teams that Most Resemble The Bad News Bears?

College baseball doesn't get a whole lotta love, but anything FSU related gets my attention. The FSU baseball team made the College World Series for the 20th time in school history. The College World Series is an 8 team double-elimination tournament. In 20 attempts, we've managed 0 (ZERO, ZILCH, NADA, NONE, NO) championships. Even by blind luck you'd think we'd find an acorn at least once, right? Wrong! And this year was no different. But that doesn't mean they don't keep teasing me. On Saturday, with FSU (featuring the nation's best offense, averaging almost 10 runs a game) losing 5-2 in the bottom of the 8th to Stanford, they tie the game at 5 on a huge 3-run HR by 2nd baseman Jason Stidham. Finally, signs of life! So go to the top of the 9th. And I have never in all my life seen the things that happened, happen in a game. With a couple of runners on base, a guy from Stanford hits a hard line drive down the first base line. It goes past first base in fair territory, lands - apparently - right on the line and then hooks foul. Should be a fair ball, but the umpire points convincingly that it was a foul ball. That would've scored a couple of runs. Clearly a blown call, but what can you do? Instead of seizing the opportunity, FSU went the other direction. I'm pretty sure they felt bad for Stanford, so they let them score 11...ELEVEN...ONCE (thats spanish) runs. Included in this fiasco were two terrible errors by the somewhat injured and always terrible defensive shortstop, Tony Delmonico. Dude made 30 errors this season, which was about 60 games. Even I could do better than that! He had more errors than the rest of the team combined (ok, I didn't look that up, but someone told me so it has to be true). They do rank 171 in the NCAA in fielding percentage. 171! How is that even possible for a team ranked #4 in the entire country???

So after losing 16-5 on Saturday, FSU next faced #1 Miami (who also lost because of a bad 9th inning on Saturday) of all teams in an elimination game. FSU and Miami had a bench clearing brawl back in April in Tallahassee. Now remember, this is baseball, so by "brawl" I mean each player from both teams came out of the dugout, stayed plenty far away from each other and had a staring contest. Last night (for me it was last night, the game was at 2pm, but with the miracle that is DVR, the game started at about 6pm) FSU had 14 hits in the first 8 innings and only managed 2 runs. Thats nauseating! (wow I spelled that right!). In the bottom of the 8th, Miami hit a leadoff homer to make the score 7-2. That was about all I could take, I fast-forwarded through the rest of the inning, which somehow went pretty quietly. So now time for the 9th inning. And wouldn't ya know it, FSU's offense finally wakes up, they cut the lead to 7-5, with first and third for the NCAA Player of the Year, FSU Catcher, Buster Posey. He already had 4 hits on the day, he was one HR away from leading the nation in EVERY offensive stat. But no, he walks. Loading the bases with two outs and FSU cleanup hitter Jack Rye coming up. But alas, as is the case with any team I root for, they end their season with a loss as Rye grounded out to 2nd. FSU left an College World Series record 17 - SEVENTEEN! DIEZ Y SIETE (all those years of spanish pay off finally!) runners on base. Unbelievable.

But thats not all. The Mets. My Mets. This season was supposed to be big. They added the best pitcher in the world, Johan Santana, but they just never got it going. So even after a 9-6 win last night over one of the best teams in the American League (the I refuse to call them Los Angeles, Anaheim Angels) the Mets fired their manager (and their pitching coach and their first base coach for good measure) Willie Randolph at about 3am ET.

Ughhhhhh. No more baseball for me for a while!!!!!! (any guesses on how long that actually lasts?)

Hooray for a good sports weekend! Finally!

It's been a long time. Every team I root for either sucks or, well, ok, they usually just suck. The Mets...choked. The Jets...sucked. FSU...ughhhh. (And now FSU's basketball team is down to about 2 scholarship players or something because of injuries or what-not). The Thrashers, well, we'll still see about them. I know its kind of odd to root for both the Jets & Giants, but, well, get over it. They hardly play each other, it's not a rivalry, so I can deal with it.

Finally this weekend was a good one. The Thrashers won a great game Saturday night, beating the Pittsburgh Penguins (who had won something like 9 in a row). They were losing 2-1 after 2 periods and tied it right away in the 3rd and won it in a shootout. The game winner coming from Mark Recchi (the same Mark Recchi who the Penguins tossed to the Wolves, well, the Thrashers, the Wolves would be insulting - and I would be shocked if anyone who reads this other than me got that joke - The Wolves are the Thrashers minor league team).

Then last night, the Giants beat the hated Dallas Cowboys. Tony Homo can go back and cry in Jessica Simpson's boobs. Terrell Owens can sit back and eat as much popcorn as he wants while watching the Giants-Packers NFC Championship game next Sunday! Did anyone see him after the game? CRYING about how it's not fair how the media picks on Tony Homo???? Poor baby. I've gotta admit though, the whole game, I was sure the Giants were gonna lose. It was until there was a 4th and 11 for the Cowboys at the end of the game that I let myself get excited. And Homo threw a Cowboys season-ending pick in the end zone. WOW! The Giants have won 9 straight road games. If they make it 10, they go to the Super Bowl! But, first a stop in Green Bay, where Brett Farvuruh awaits. Should be a good game. Hopefully Eli Manning has finally realized he's never gonna be Peyton, he just can't LOSE the game for the Giants with his stupid mistakes. Let the rest of the team do it's job and we'll be good. Go G'Men!!!!

And go CHARGERS! I was rooting for the Colts, just because I think they have a better shot at the Pacheatriots, but it was pretty impressive that they won without pretty much their 3 best offensive players being healthy (LT, Rivers, Gates). Hopefully those guys are ok and can give New England some payback for last season.

Oh, and to top off my joy this weekend, the Braves made a pretty bad trade. They got Mark Kotsay (and his Andruw Jones-like season - he hit .214 with one homer and 20 RBIs) for their first round draft pick from a few years ago - Joey "I think Grand Slams are" Devine.

Now, I've got a dilemma for next Sunday:

Edmonton Oilers @ Atlanta Thrashers 2pm

Chargers-Pacheatriots 3pm

Giants-Packers 6:30pm

I've only missed 3 Thrashers games so far this year. I'd HATE to miss one where I'd also miss the Canadian Anthem. If I were to go to the game, I should make it home by 5 to see most of the 2nd half. I could tivo it and watch with alot of fast forwarding to finish before the Giants game. Or I could skip the Thrashers game.

Kim & Brian's Wedding Weekend, Part IV - Party Time!

I'm totally gonna use this picture more often than I should. Even though it looks like I haven't slept for weeks - I guess I always have that look - I like the microphone and tux look for me. It can work for almost anything!

Ok, enough about that, back to our story, wait, no, first...Yes, I'm a known slacker/procrastinator. It's taken me WAYYYYY too long to write about this wedding. It's been almost a month and a half now. I'm sure I've forgotten more than I should have, so anyone reading this, feel free to add to it by

adding it as a comment.

Now back to our story...So after all that, it was finally time for the reception. Again, the wedding party was kinda winging our entrance. We had no idea what we were supposed to be doing, where we were supposed to be going. I guess it all works out in situations like these. At the last minute we were told to make a U-shape around the dance floor for Kim & Brian's first dance. Ooops. We just kinda stood in a line against the stage by the band. It worked out ok I think. It was a little late, ok, it was during the dance but I had the idea to hold up signs to judge them during the dance (think Olympics) since the Cooper's are such a competitive family...it would've been funny. Oh well. They danced, you could tell that Brian was jogging his memory trying to think of what the next step was!

Next came some speeches. In a shocking turn of events, my mom actually was spotted with a microphone in her hand (I tried, but couldn't find any photographic proof) and said a couple of words. I think anyone that knows my mom was shocked...but it was nice. My dad may not have appreciated it though. It completely ruined his speech. He had all these things written down of what to say and wound up ripping up his speech (literally) and starting from scratch. Betsy (maid of honor) and Andy (Best man) gave their speeches. Then I had to poke in there, I don't think they remembered that I was planning on speaking, but I got in there in time. After all, I had been thinking of what to say for a couple of months by then! A couple of drinks helped my cause too! I really had been clueless on what I was gonna say. I started thinking about it after Liz's wedding when Rob, Danny and ummmm, uhhhhh, oh yeah, Jon had awesome speeches. And yes, I'll come clean, I really did go blank on Jon's name during my speech! I thought I played it off well though :) I knew I had to start things out with something of a mini sportscenter score update, so I happily announced that FSU beat Maryland (which I think is when Brian's Miami friend reminded me that Miami beat FSU, again, Kim's friend Lauren is the only non-obnoxious Miami fan there is). Some other important scores from the families of importance were that Kansas beat Iowa State...by a lot. And Missouri beat Kansas State, which was good and bad apparently. And that ended the fun part of the speech for me! So a couple nights before the wedding I was laying in bed at about 2am and I was finally coming up with some good ideas on what to say. It reminded me of Mitch Hedberg's quote, "I sit at my hotel at night, I think of something that's funny, then I go get a pen and I write it down. Or if the pen's too far away, I have to convince myself that what I thought of ain't funny." It totally applied to my situation. It was pitch black, it was 2am and I had to decide if this stuff was worth writing down. But these days, who uses pens? I got my laptop and starting typing. I thought a couple of my favorite quotes were worthy....first, "Don't ever take anything I say seriously...unless I say it twice...Don't ever take anything I say seriously...unless I say it twice." (which I later remembered was from a neighbor of ours in Roanoke, Mrs. Kempster). and my other favorite quote that Grandpa used to tell me when fighting with Bubbie..."Stay Single". Then I bragged about Kim being the smart one, finally realizing that maybe Grandpa was kidding. She really is the smart one though, technically she's my younger sister, but I completely look up to her. Hell, I'm something of an accountant and she still does my taxes! I've come to her for help when I bought my condo, anything resume related, and any time I need advice. She really is basically my big sister that I technically don't have. Not to let Brian feel left out, I made sure to thank him for introducing me to my new shaving cream of choice, and that I was excited to get the chance to take some pictures with Wilt Chamberlain. I've never had a brother, and I think Kim did a pretty damn good job at finding me one.

That was the gist of the speech, or at least what I think I remember from it! I had to include that so that some of my friends who weren't there can get this one chance to see my cheesy side (why is cheesy a bad thing? I love cheese!)

The rest of the time was just a big party, dancing (yes, I danced...seriously! Kim threatened me if I didn't) lots of drinking - by the way, how great is my Bubbie??? 80+ years old, and still can act like she's my age. She did several shots with us (there's pictures somewhere in one of these blogs), and even had one of Brian's friends asking for a dance!

It really was a fun time, it was great meeting the Cooper side of what is now our family. It was great catching up with people I hadn't seen in years and hanging out with Kim & Brian's friends.

As if I haven't put enough on here, below are some more random pictures from the weekend.

Oh, and I have a request of Kim & Brian...who are currently on their honeymoon in Hawaii. Write about it!!!! I know you guys have been surfing and wandering through jungles so far. I'm very jealous!

Coming to the Defense of my 'Noles

An academic cheating scandal could leave Florida State without as many as
25 players for its Music City Bowl game against Kentucky on New Year’s Eve,
coach Bobby Bowden said Tuesday.

The university reported its findings in a letter to the NCAA in September
after a six-month investigation by the school revealed at least 23 athletes in
various sports were interviewed in regard to cheating on an online music history
exam.

So there it is. I'm awaiting the call to actually suit up and play defense in the Bowl Game on New Years Eve, but until then, I'll just defend them. I actually took that Music History class when I was in school. Ironically, the professor at the time (not sure if its the same guy) was a man named Tommy Wright. He wrote the FSU fight song and is alledgedly the face that the Seminole head logo is modelled after. Anyways, I took the class while I was at FSU, obviously it wasn't online, but it was probably one of the easiest classes around. I'm almost positive I never studied and still managed at least a B in there. I'm not condoning cheating, but for them to make that class an online class...thats just asking for trouble. I'm convinced that this goes on at every school, but that doesn't make it ok. They got caught, up to 25 athletes (not just football) are gonna get suspensions. And that sucks for me, because my life revolves around FSU football and now they're gonna suck again next year and I'm gonna suffer right there with them!

Kim & Brian's Wedding Weekend, Part Deaux - The Rehearsaless Dinner

So after our tour of the Capitol, we all headed back to the hotel to get ready for the rehearsal dinner. I got in a good 30-45 second nap, so that was nice, but we had to get ready. I'm pretty sure the temperature dropped about 20 degrees in an hour or so. We walked over to the Italian restaurant that the rehearsal dinner was at and it was FREEZING cold outside! On the way I almost got my dad and I killed by walking across the street. It seemed clear when we started, but that didn't last long. We were standing on the double yellow line, ready to make a run for the sidewalk as soon as we thought we wouldn't die. Luckily we made it, and we realized everyone else we were originally walking with were smarter than us...they went to this thing they call an "intersection". I'll have to look it up on wikipedia.

I've been to maybe 2 rehearsal dinners in my day...on average I'd say they had about 15-20 people. Tops. I have no idea if that was the norm, but it certainly wasn't in Kim & Brian's plans. There were over 100 people at this thing! It was nuts! But it was a lot of fun. For the first time, I finally met Brian's family. They were beginning to think I didn't exist, but since they are apparently big fans of my blog - and here I thought 3 or 4 people paid attention to my rambling - I decided I would prove my existence...I think they bought it!

I'm sure most of you know how Kim & Brian originally met, but if not, time for a quick recap. Kim was with her friends at bar in Georgetown called Tony and Joe's. Some random guy bought her a bright blue Windex looking drink. Along comes Brian, staring at Kim's drink - not her. Kim then asks Brian if he'd like to taste it. He says he doesn't take drinks from strangers. Little did he know, they wouldn't be strangers for long!

So I think the highlight of the rehearsal dinner...wait, hold up, this is something I haven't been able to figure out yet. Why are these things called rehearsal dinners? We didn't rehearse anything! Ok, I had to get that out. Anyways, the highlight was Brian's Uncle Jay (not to be confused with me, because I'm "ay"-less) created an awesome slide show detective drama about the Mystery of the Blue Drink. It was pretty funny too, he had all the old 80's detective show music involved...including, my favorite...Inspector Gadget. It was really creative and funny. He went and found tons of old pictures of Kim and then of Brian. But the highlight for us Zaikov's was probably the video clip of our old Co-op in Howard Beach. Apparent Jay has a friend who lives in Queens. He sent them on a mission, first to buy a VHS Camera - to make it look like a video from the 80's...$15 at your local pawn shop. Then gave him our old address and off he went. He shot footage of our old place and a bunch of hot spots in the area. Brought back lots of memories from the old childhood!

So I mentioned in Part one that Kim had me and Alyssa draw some stick figures. Turns out she had a plan for them. Kim & Brian brought both sets of parents up and presented them with framed pictures...of our stick figures :) Apparently real pictures will replace them eventually. They also called up all the bridesmaids and groomsmen to give them little gifts. I'm not sure what the ladies got, but Brian gave each groomsman a very FSU-colored tie :) and we each got cuff-links with our initials on them in these cool boxes in the shape of a tux. Very cool. However, Brian felt the need to totally ruin it all by taking a cheap shot at my Noles though, questioning whether FSU was even gonna make a bowl game! pffftttt!!!! I believe his dad put him in his place for me, after all, Kansas has only been good for 3 months now!

Saturday morning I woke up and headed downstairs because I was pretty sure I could hear some Zaikov's chattering all the way from the 9th floor. So I hung out with the family for a while, the hotel provided a lunch at 11:30 us in Bubbie's room. It was nice, but all I cared about was getting to a bar to watch the Maryland-FSU game. Priorities!!! I managed to grab dad and we Metro'd our way to an absolutely terrible bar called Buffalo Billiards. I've been there before, but it was always pretty empty. Keeping in mind that the University of Maryland is maybe 10 miles away I'd guess...there were NO TV's with the Maryland-FSU game when we got there at about 12:15 (kickoff was noon). Unbelievable!!! There was a huge crowd gathered for the Ohio State-Michigan game for some reason. I had to talk to a manager to even get the FSU game on a TV in the corner. It took him what seemed like forever and finally he turned it on right as I got to see a replay of FSU's first touchdown! Woohoooo. So, we were warned that we weren't gonna be getting any wait service in the section we were in. No big deal, the bar wasn't that far. Little did we know what we were in for! Eventually a crowd of Brian's friends and family showed up. I'm pretty sure Brett was the only Maryland fan in this PACKED bar. WTF? And that wasn't even the worst of it for Brett (neither was the fact that Maryland lost) he ordered a chicken sandwich from the bar...and after asking about it 2 or 3 times, it finally showed up, literally an hour later. By this time, we all had to leave really soon to get back in time for pictures. I also went to the bar to get one last beer and close my tab. Unfortunately I signed my check before he physically gave me my beer. He began pouring my beer, stopped the tap so that the head would clear...but he walked away. He was taking other people's orders, putting dishes away. My evil look in his direction was no match for his plan to completely forget about my poor little half filled Guinness. I was soooooo tempted to cross off the - already small - tip from my check! Finally I yelled out to him to ask him to finish with my beer already. He said he forgot. Great. I took my beer and ran off. Drank it way too quickly and as soon as FSU officially finished off Maryland, off we went. We were quickly running out of time before we were supposed to be ready for pictures.

Did we make it back in time??? Tune in for Part 3!!!!

A Bad weekend to be out of town

Maybe there's some way I can talk my sister into postponing her wedding a couple of weeks? (Kidding!)

But for those of you lucky enough to be in Atlanta in 2 weekends, I'm jealous. On Halloween I was supposed to be going to see The Smashing Pumpkins at the Fox Theatre. I was REALLY looking forward to it, but the drummer had some health issues and the show was postponed. Guess when the makeup date is!!! :(

Here's what I'll be missing:

Thu Nov 15 - Dane Cook - Gwinnett Arena
Thu Nov 15 - Smashing Pumpkins - Fox Theatre (Makeup Show for Oct 30th)
Fri Nov 16 - Smashing Pumpkins - Fox Theatre (Makeup Show for Oct 31th - who wants to buy my ticket????)
Sat Nov 17 - Maryland @ FSU...last home game of the year. Ok, so technically that's not in Atlanta, but you get the idea. And I pray that its a noon kickoff, so I can at least watch it.
Sat Nov 17 - Seether, Breaking Benjamin, Three Days Grace - Tabernacle

I got a sneak preview of that last concert last night in Chattanooga, and that will be a blog in itself. Chattanooga is a horrible horrible city. The UTC Arena is a horrible horrible place for a concert. The sound is just BAD. But the people were 30 times worse. But more on that later...

Without further uh-dew...Brian's Bachelor Party

Ok, so I didn't feel like looking up the spelling of "adieu" (spell check works in here apparently!). Brian's (my sisters' fiancé) bachelor party was actually almost two weeks ago, and I'm just now getting to this blog. Sorry folks, been busy. Seriously, I have been!

Alright, so last we left off I was bitching about my delayed flights for the weekend. The quick recap is that Friday I was flying up to Washington DC for this event and my flight got delayed about 2 hours. I was sure I was gonna miss out on Friday nights' festivities (in Baltimore) but luckily Brian's friends Anand & Emory wound up waiting around DC to take me to Baltimore. I'm still very greatful to them! (And if they ever actually checked myspace, I'd be at 100 friends right now! C'mon guys!!!) :)

So we drive to Baltimore, get to the hotel, which was RIGHT across the street from Camden Yards. Go up to the room - a suite! Get changed and find a cab to the bar. A lesson I learned is to never compliment a cab driver on his "system". Anand did. He blasted some garbage christian reggae sounding music through the stereo. I haven't fully recovered. After what seemed like alot of zig-zag driving through some streets, we got to area with all the bars and found Brian and friends. I have no idea the names of any of these bars, so don't ask. The first bar was kind of small, but it was a pretty cool environment. I remember getting a couple of beers, along with 2 shots that some of the other guys bought for everyone. Good start! This bar had some - I could only describe as - holes in the floor. You could see downstairs. No one was down there, I don't even know how you'd get down there, but you could see that it existed. I think we talked a couple of girls into believing that we were scouting the place out from downstairs. All I really remember about these girls is that they were from Michigan, and Brian used his hand as a map to show where in Michigan. And one of em lived in Atlanta for a while. Oh, another highlight from that place, I was on my way to the bathroom, and I didn't realize there was a line. Some guy pulled me out of line and said no FSU fans were allowed in there! I totally thought it was a random guy messing with me (I had my FSU hat on). I didn't realize it until about an hour later, but it was Brian's friend Andy. Oops, I'm an idiot. From there...onto bar #2. These girls wound up going with us, still not really sure why, but we are pretty cool guys of course! I liked the next bar more, it had an upstairs where we actually had room to breathe. At one point I went to the bar and got 4 beers and a water. Walking back to the group was tricky. I had 2 drinks in each hand, and mine was in my mouth, being held on by my teeth (plastic cups, Courtney wouldn't approve!). With that, its not like I could tap people's shoulder to say excuse me...and with my beer in my mouth I couldn't say excuse me either! It was probably alot more impressive in my mind when I picture it. But I made it back to the crowd. I - amongst others - drank way too much Friday night. But I needed it. That flight almost killed me and my night, but I overcame :) At about 1:45 they began kicking people out of the bar - 1:45!!!! Lame! Anyways, we left. I somehow talked myself into walking back to the hotel with Brian and Andy while everyone else got cabs. I was pretty drunk at this point, I just remember coming across a church that had a funny sign outside. For the life of me I can't remember what it said. But I remember trying to walk up to it to take a picture with my phone. I tried a couple of times, I remember it being blurry. Eventually I realized that it probably looked like I was taking a piss in the bushes. I wasn't! I swear! So I gave up on the sign. And eventually caught up to Brian and Andy and back to the hotel we staggered. We had two rooms in the hotel, a suite - on the 7th floor, and another regular room on the 5th floor. Someone needed to go to the 5th floor - and got their own bed - so I volunteered. I somehow actually found the room - only because the door was cracked a little. And plopped in the empty bed and that was the end of day 1.

Day 2 began pretty rough. I never did have dinner Friday, which also explains why I felt like sh!t. As if 7 beers and 2 shots wasn't enough, but I never ate anything! I think I actually started eating a hot pocket before I went to sleep, but it was pretty nasty. Anyways, woke up and had about 10 minutes to get ready to go to the baseball museum attached to Camden Yards. The museum was pretty cool, aside from the fact that I almost puked. It had pretty much the entire history of sports in Maryland. I didn't even know that Babe Ruth was born there. They had a really cool room that was a replica locker room where there were some uniforms - with pads - for anyone to try on. Obviously its against everything I believe in to wear a UMaryland football jersey, or a Baltimore Ravens jersey, so I tried on a Navy football jersey instead and went oneon one with Andy - Ravens jersey. Andy also was brave and tried on the Maryland jersey. I thought I looked pretty damn good in that thing. Although it was kinda tight. You'd think a jersey with the number 62 on it would be big!

Brian and I took turns in the huddle

They had another cool thing at this museum, where you got to be a play by play announcer for some famous sporting events. Brian's friend Brett - a huge Maryland fan - did the play by play of the Maryland-UNC-Wilmington game from the NCAA tournament a few years ago, where Maryland won on a buzzer beater. Brian did a homerun call of a Cal Ripken HR. I tried to be funny and also did the Ripken HR call but when he actually hit the ball I just said strike 2, as if it never happened. It was funny in my head anyways!

Later Saturday night we were going to the Minnesota Twins vs. Baltimore Orioles game. I was looking forward to it, never been to a game there...and someday I want to be able to say that I've been to a game at every stadium in the country - it's gonna be a while, I've only been to 6 (Mets, Yankees, Marlins, Devil Rays, Braves, Orioles). 24 to go! And in 2 years the Mets & Yankees get new stadiums, so I'll have even more travelling to do! Anyways, I still wasn't in any kind of mood to be drinking anything, so I just hung out with everyone as we tailgated before the game. It was a pretty cool environment. Unlike Braves games that I'm used to, the stadium is actually in a decent area, there are a couple of bars and just a bunch of people hanging out outside the stadium. Including this cool guy in a Ray Lewis jersey that said "Killer" instead of "Lewis" hahahaha. There was a table setup outside one of the bars for beer pong. An actual beer pong table! Awesome! I'm still new to the beer pong scene, but some of the guys who were playing were TERRIBLE! It's not supposed to take 45 minutes to finish a game. i was able to finish off my grandma in about 10 minutes a few weeks ago :)

So, after the pregame festivities, we finally make our way into the stadium, when all of a sudden the skies start to look reaaaaalllllllll bad. They were in the middle of inducting B.J. Surhoff into the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame when the rain began. Luckily our seats were below the overhang to the 2nd deck, so we stayed dry. But it POURED! We were all amazed by all the steps involved in getting the tarp onto the field. They even put the tarp over the podium where the speeches were going on before the game.

I didn't get a picture, but I think the highlight of the night was that a bachelorette party had seats RIGHT behind us. The part that was amusing - to us anyways - was that there is no way these girls were older than 18. I may not be good with age, and I thought they all looked like they were about 14 or so. It was bad! I think one of the guys in our group got on their nerves a little and they finally left. We thought that they were going home because of curfew reasons, but turns out they stayed and sat in another section.

The game was delayed about 2 hours because of the rain and finally started at about 9pm. Thats Anand pictured on the left. Absolutely couldn't stay awake. And guess what...later in the game...he got a foul ball. And after much peer pressure - alledgedly he wanted to give the ball to Brian - he wound up giving it to a little kid. I know thats the right thing to do, but I really would be hard pressed not to keep a foul ball. Those kinds of things just don't happen too often. Kids would appreciate it for a minute then couldn't care less afterwards. But, whatever, Anand got a mini-standing ovation from the crowd. I guess that makes it worth it.

As for the actual game, it was fun. Ironically, a guy named Liz was pitching for Baltimore. He threw nothing but 96 mile an hour fastballs in the first two innings. He finally threw an 86 MPH pitch at the end of the 2nd inning. I'm not exactly a fan of either team, but Torii Hunter from the Minnesota Twins is on my fantasy baseball team, so I was trying to get an action picture of him while he was hitting. I did...but I was a fraction of a second too quick. I got a good picture on the left, but that very pitch he hit a 3 run HR. I was so close!!!

Knowing that bars closed kinda early in Baltimore, we left the game in about the 7th inning - the Twins won 8-1 - and went back to the hotel and changed. Like any bachelor party, traditi0n seems to dictate that you've gotta go to a strip club. We did, and thats all I'm gonna say about that :)

So thats about it. All in all it was alot of fun. Since I have so many girl-friends in Atlanta, it was nice getting to hang out with the guys for once!

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

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

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!

The return of Kevin Fulmer

I don't think I'd seen Kevin since 2002 or 2003 or so, so its been a WHILE! I lived with him in my Tallahassee days for about 5 years. Kevin of course is best known as "Garnet Guy". I stole this picture from ESPN the Magazine. Pretty cool, huh? He used to go running around at FSU football games with his golden painted and glittered buddy Josh White. I went with Rory to pick him up at the airport and Rory had the idea to make a sign for him. So we picked up some posterboard and a red, errrr garnet, marker and some glitter and glue. Rory did all the work, but it was pretty cool, he had a sign waiting for him that just said "Garnet Guy". So we found him and went to go get his bag and his flight was listed no where on the baggage claim boards. Figures! There was one carousel that had alot of bags and I just kinda pointed and said to check that one. Turns out his bag was pretty much right where I pointed!!! So, we left the airport and met up with some friends in Little Five Points and just hung out and chatted for a while. We didn't want to stay out too late because we were planning on waking up early to play golf saturday morning. We still wound up getting home pretty late and didn't get to the golf course til almost 10am. John was waiting on us and Kim was meeting us there, but was late because she (a nurse) managed to get herself drunk on what she claims was cough syrup! (ha!) We hit some balls on the driving range before Kim showed up. I don't think any of us had played golf in about 3 years (once we learned not to hold the clubs like a hockey stick, we were ok), so we needed the refresher. I did alright, I was only about 45 strokes over par :) (note the sarcasm). We did teach Kim a lesson though. She was hitting from the ladies tees most of the time and on one hole she was standing way over to the side, but in front of us. I took my shot and almost killed her. I didn't even have a chance to yell anything before the ball was at her head. That was one of the scariest moments I've ever experienced, it barely glanced off her hair I think. But it really scared the shit out of me more than it did her. We finished about 5 hours later (yes mom, I put on sunscreen at least 5 times!!!) and were about as sweaty and nasty as you can imagine! Seems like the perfect time to go to a fancy thai restaurant, right??? Shockingly enough they sat us in the far corner of the restaurant not near anyone else. After eating we went back to clean ourselves up, but more importantly a nap was essential. Me and Kevin went to my friend Divya's sisters' going away/birthday party. Hung out there for a couple hours, then met up with Kim and Rory and eventually Matt at the Brick Store, where, they sell no bricks, but more importantly, about 500 different beers. Don't ever ask for a Bud Light there! I can't even pronounce the beers that I had...and thats why I love that place. After that, the only thing left to do at around 3am in Atlanta is to go get some food!!! We were gonna try and go to "OK Cafe", which, we thought was 24 hours. Its not apparently. So we went to Waffle House :)

Slept in til about noon on Sunday, me and Kevin went to see Evan Almighty...pretty funny, not as funny as Knocked Up, but it was good. Steve Carrell is hilarious. And that was pretty much it for the weekend. Hopefully it won't be another 4 years before we hang out again!

I Can Feel My Legs Again

So I flew out to Salt Lake City last Saturday, Sunday we (me, Tracy, Stacey, Rory) toured the city. Don't ever go to Salt Lake, there's nothing there for our types! First (and mind you, I was with 3 girls and I was the only guy) I got dragged to some Mormon choir/orchestra thing. Apparently these people have their performances broadcast nationwide on the radio Sunday mornings. I was just trying to sleep, but every time I got close to dozing off, they'd get loud. Not cool!

After that show it got worse, these girls wanted to go into this house called the "Bees House". (I think). Its the house that was built and lived in by Brigham Young - an important Mormon guy. Anyways, we go in, and I'm thinking maybe we just walk around for 5 minutes and be done. Yeah right! We walk in and we are greeted by this obnoxiously happy - but really cute - Mormon. She's just so damned excited to tell us all about this house, and I was trapped! Turns out its a damn 40 minute tour of this house. I couldn't possibly been more bored and uncomfortable. And then she starts asking questions and she learns I'm jewish. At this point, I'm very scared of this girl!!!! Anyways, we finish the tour and they give us these cards where we can sign up to receive a mormon bible and a pair of white boys will come to your house to "teach" you about the mormon lifestyle. So, naturally, I put down a friends' name, address and phone number and finally get the hell out of there!

After that, I was promised to have my lunch, and more importantly, BEER paid for since I was such a good sport on the tour. HA! Like I'm gonna find beer on a Sunday in Utah! Oh well, I got a free lunch! After that I had some leverage on our Salt Lake visit. I made them go check out the Delta Center (sports arena, where the Utah Jazz play and where some hockey was played during the 2002 olympics). We couldn't get in though. Then we saw a really old railroad station. Then we walked around the University of Utah. The opening and closing ceremonies were held at their football stadium. So that was pretty cool, but its a pretty small stadium! We walked around campus, I think we saw maybe 4 people. Its cold there! They stay inside I guess! Anyways, that was about it of the Salt Lake tour. Sunday night we drove to Park City, Utah where we skied. We had a really nice place to stay, I even wound up having my own room. Which was nice because sleep is cherished on these trips!

So skiing for 4 consecutive days is a bit much. By day 4, my legs were shaking as I went down the mountain! I actually decided to stop halfway down my last run and just kinda parked myself on a little snow hill for a half hour. It helped!!!!

There was 7 of us in our group. 3 snowboarders, 4 skiers. One day I'll have to try snowboarding, but I think I'm supposed to get good at skiing first! I hadn't skied in about 10 years, but remembering how to ski actually came back pretty quickly. I only fell once on my first day, and that was on purpose because I was just going too damn fast! They made me start on a "blue"! (green is for beginners, blue is intermediate and black, well, black is HAIL no!) But it worked out, after I fell, and then 20 minutes later when I was able to finally pick myself up (with help from a stranger - kinda embarrassing) I got pretty good after that.

Day 2 had a slight scare, I was going slowly down a hill, and these 3 people came up from behind me and I heard a guy say "careful, Hurricane fan on your left" (I had my FSU gear on) So this lady passes me and I could tell she was new at this. I tried to just stop and let her get far enough ahead of me. A few minutes later I'm right behind and her and she falls right in front of me. The only was I could avoid her was to try and jump over her. Yeah, that probably wasn't the best idea, I'm pretty sure my knee met up with the back of her head. I was fine, but I was so scared that she wasn't! She was fine, and I got alot more cautious the rest of the time. Which probably wasn't the best idea. Its no fun being cautious while skiing!!!!

Day 3, my friend Stacey introduced herself to a small tree. It didn't seem bad at the time, but she had a bruise on her leg about the size of a cantaloupe! It was huge! I wanted to get a picture but she wouldn't let me :)

Day 4 I had a pretty good bellyflop, that kinda hurt a little. I was just too tired and should've probably called it a day before that run! Oh well, all in all, it was fun. These guys have made this an annual thing, so I may be going back next year. Next year's destination: Wyoming. We'll see if I'm up for that. I can't imagine anything in Wyoming being fun!