Team Canada falls to 0-3

Team Canada: World Mounties suffered their 3rd straight loss last night to "You Look Like I Need a Drink". Even with the loss, the team has definitely improved since the franchise debut two weeks ago in a 17-0 loss, which was followed up by a 15-3 loss in game 2. Last night was a much closer 8-4 loss. The team is definitely moving in the right direction, just one bad 6-run inning last night cost us a chance to win. We'll get one...soon...I hope!

Pregame stretching (or, me falling down, pretending to stretch if you were actually there)

Shelley, Lauren (who doesn't play because she doesn't kick balls she says) and Jill during pregame ceremonies

The pregame gang signs obviously didn't do the trick

Me, scoring the 2nd run in franchise history...for the record Jill scored right before me.

Jill, shoeing away the cameras after a demoralizing loss. Stevens wiping away the tears, while Connie and Patrick laugh at them

Post-game party...we're all winners!

Quadruple Header Complete!

The weekend got off to a crappy start. From about 4:00 on it had been raining. So on my way home from work i call the Braves ticket office to see whats the best way to find out about the status of the first of three Mets - Braves game. I was told to either call back or listen to the pregame radio show. At about 6:30, as we're about to leave, I call again and am told "You crazy, they're gonna play. Starting time is still 7:35." Ok, I guess we have no chance but to buy it. We head down to the stadium and we get about a mile away from parking when they announce that tonight's game has been postponed. As if that's not bad enough, they decided to make it up as part of a day-night doubleheader on TUESDAY May 20th. Which means they're making the game up at 1pm on a TUESDAY. Bastards! Both teams are off on Monday May 19th. I don't get it.

Saturday was the big day though. Baseball would kick off the quadruple-header. Game-time 3:55pm. I met up with my friends Carl & Alycia, and sat with them in the Lexus Level. (Which is code for fancy seats). The only important part is that the seats were covered. Because there was a non-stop drizzle all day. (Drought my ass!!!!) After the 4th inning I went over to my actual seats with Lauren and her friend Stephanie.

I did get to see one of the most controversial moments I've witnessed. The Mets had the bases loaded, 1 out. Jose Reyes hits a line drive to center field. The ball CLEARLY hits the ground and THEN into the glove of Braves center fielder Mark Kotsay. The 3rd base umpire calls it a catch and the Braves get a double play out if it. Mets manager, Willie Randolph comes charging out of the dugout for a rare argument. The Braves trotted off the field, into the dugout during the argument. Randolph convinced the umpires to discuss the play and they ruled it was NOT a catch. They forced the Braves back onto the field to continue the inning. I don't think I've EVER seen that before. It took at least 5 minutes. I really don't understand why the don't use instant replay in baseball. It would be much easier and faster than that. Each team should be allowed 1 or 2 challenges per game and that's it. You can challenge anything other than balls and strikes. That's my proposal.

I have a policy against leaving sporting events early, but I had to make an exception for this one. After all, I was headed to another sporting event! If there was any way what-so-ever I'd be able to see the full game, I'd need a quick one. Ha! The Mets wound up losing 11-5. And in a game with 16 runs and sloppy weather...that's not the recipe for a quick game. And the Mets never beat the Braves, so I wasn't gonna miss anything (turns out I missed a Braves grand slam...yippee). Thanks to Lauren's near play by play text messages, I definitely didn't miss anything.

So, 2nd stage of the quadruple-header: Philips Arena, AKA - Blueland. The last Thrashers home game of the year. My 38th game of the year (out of 41). I got there just in time for the National Anthems, which began at 7pm. Now for the challenging portion of my day. I had to completely ignore the many TV's and scoreboards within Philips Arena. Luckily we (Me, Erica, Peter, J.B. - Matt is busy protesting the Olympics in London) were sitting in a section where half of the stadium's scoreboards were blocked. I managed to only glance and see a score one time...Kansas was winning 9-6. So I felt pretty good about making it through a 2 1/2 hour hockey game without accidentally learning any Final Four scores. The game itself was pretty meaningless. The Thrashers were going to finish with the 3rd worst record in the NHL no matter what. But they'd be better off if they lost. They were playing division rival Tampa Bay, owners of the worst record in the NHL. If Tampa Bay would have won, they would've finished with the 2nd worst record instead of THE worst. Yes...it makes a difference. More on that later. The highlight (lowlight?) of the game was during the 1st intermission. Comcast's "Dating on Demand" was on hand. They played a version of a dating game, where one girl got to ask a question of 3 guys, whom she couldn't see. The questions were bad, the answers were worse. The first guy was asked, if you could be any animal...what would you be? Answer - A polar bear. Wow. He kept talking but we were too busy booing. The next guy was asked...if you could be any alcoholic drink...what would you be. We were practically begging him to say beer (he was quite the large redneck type). No, he came up with...A Bloody Mary. We couldn't boo loud enough. He said (in his redneck twang) that he's hot and spicy. The booing wouldn't end. The third guy was asked, if he could be any entree at a fancy restaurant...what would he be? I don't even know what he said. The booing was too loud. They then had the crowd text in who they thought she should date. The Bloody Mary guy apparently won the fans over. They screwed up the contest so bad that she didn't even have a say in who she would go on a date with. Contestant #2 it is. Worst intermission idea ever. Actually, there was one good twist. He had his choice...the date with the girl...or whatever was behind curtain #1. So, there wasn't really a curtain, but the redneck chose the girl. What did he pass up on? A 36" plasma TV...and a 2yr lease on a Mustang. Now, no one knows for sure if that's legit or not, but serves him right.

Oh, the game, the Thrashers won 4-1. Rookie Bryan Little wound up scoring the first and last goals of the season. Whatever that means. But the most important part of the Thrashers season is tonight. They have a 14% chance to win the NHL Draft Lottery. If they do win, they will be awarded with the first pick in the June NHL Amateur Draft. Which means prized center sensation Steven Stamkos. He's a franchise changer. So, that's tonight at 8pm...I'm sure no one will miss it. Now back to my story...

After the Thrashers game, I hurried home to watch the DVR'd final four. Got home at about 10:30. First up...Memphis vs. UCLA. Memphis was VERY impressive. I think I yelled out "wow" at least 10 times. Memphis won 78-63. Next up, Kansas vs. North Carolina. This was probably built up as one of the most exciting match ups in semifinal history. Roy Williams, was the coach at Kansas for a long time before jumping ship to UNC a few years ago. As Brian described that situation...he's like an ex-girlfriend. Well, Kansas probably had a warrant out for their arrest because they were beating the SHIT out of Roy Williams' Tarheels. It was 40-12 at one point! 40-12!!!!! There's no coming back from that...right? Well, my newly adopted second favorite college team wound up scaring the shit out of me. North Carolina stormed back to make it 54-50 halfway through the second half. But that was as close as they'd come. Kansas held on and pulled away and won 84-66.

Watching basketball without commercials may be the best thing ever. I watched 2 full games, minus commercials, minus halftime in about 2 1/2 hours. It was great. And I pulled off my quadruple header.

There was still Sunday though, another busy day. Mets @ Braves...again. 1:30. This time I was meeting up with: Lauren, Shea, Shelley, Dave, Davis...and Jill and Josh were in attendance as well, although I never did see them. Well, I did. During one of the in between innings things on the giant scoreboard, there was Josh. I wasn't thinking fast enough or I would've gotten a picture. I was really looking forward to this game because it was the debut of Johan Santana (new Mets pitching STUD) in Atlanta. So, I got a picture of his first pitch: which you can clearly see was a strike... This game went about as well as any Mets-Braves I can remember seeing. I wasn't lying when I said they ALWAYS lose. They were down 1-0 in the bottom of the 8th when Mark Teixeira hit a 2run HR to make it 3-0 Braves. Great. But the Mets gave me a bit of hope in the 9th. They got it to 3-1, had 2 men on base with 2 outs. Then, Mets newcomer Ryan Church (and a member of my fantasy team The League Dumbass) hit a line drive down the first base line...Teixeira made a diving stop and ended the game. Ughhhh. Swept again. I really don't know why I keep putting myself through these games! The Braves fans were extra classy (sarcasm) on Sunday. Check out the sign: (Warning, choking hazard...with a Mets logo)

It took a lot for me not to remind them of who has finished ahead of who the last two seasons (for those of you not keeping score at home, the Mets have finished ahead of the Braves the last 2 years).

If you really look at the buildings in the 3rd picture you can see a TON of windows boarded up from the tornado. It really is unbelievable how much damage it did and only 2 people died.

The Braves game was not the end of my sports-filled weekend, however. There was still kickball. I went from the Braves game over to Piedmont park for the game. Along the way (while stopped at a red light) I had the bright idea to check my email via my phone. And wouldn't ya know it. An email saying kickball was cancelled. That's not my favorite part. Why did they cancel it? "Muddy conditions"!!!! I was in my car, all alone SCREAMING MY ASS OFF. MUDDY CONDITIONS????? Where the F&^*( was that decision LAST WEEK when I could barely walk for the next couple of days because of the damn mud. Bastards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Week in Review

First things first, Happy Birthday Mom!!!!!

This past Tuesday there were some pretty powerful strong storms around 6am or so. I woke up, turned on the TV to see if I'm supposed to be hiding in a bathroom or something. Luckily, I was perfectly safe in my bed. During the weather reports there were talks of power outages in Kennesaw (where I work). I had the brilliant idea of calling my extension to see if voicemail was working. It was not! A busy signal! I went back to sleep.

About 7:30 I called a coworker (Monica) to get an update. Stuck in traffic, but she'd update me when she got there. Eventually I got word that there was officially no power in the office and that everyone was to go home and check back around noon. I sent an email to my boss and back to sleep I went!

Slept all the way til 9:30! (sarcasm). Then I remembered it was NHL trade deadline day! Which was to be a big deal for the Thrashers. They had several soon to be free agents to trade, including Marian Hossa who is probably the most coveted impending free agent. I was glued to the internet, waiting for the Thrashers to do something when all of a sudden it was after noon already! I had just spoken to another coworker (JOAN!) who said that the power was back but nothing was working. So I stayed on the couch. Ooops! Got an email from the boss asking where I was. No one told me!!!!! Anyways, went to work. After expecting Hossa to get traded to Montreal all along, out of nowhere came the Pittsburgh Penguins. We gave up Hossa and one of my favorites, Pascal Dupuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis for Erik Christensen, Colby Armstrong, a prospect (Angelo Esposito) and a 1st round draft pick in 2008. That's A LOT! Unfortunately they didn't trade any of the other upcoming free agents. Oh well. The Thrashers are now 0-0-3 since the trade. And Hossa is out with an injured knee. Oops!

Wednesday was another wacky day. Oh, I forgot to do my rant on everyone being pregnant. My good friend and coworker, Beth (the one who actually trained me when I first got to Aarons) had her baby on Feb 19 (Claire Elizabeth Robinson - aka - E-Claire). She was a few weeks early. Another coworker, Lakeisha was due before Beth and didn't have her baby until Tuesday (Feb 26 (Stephen Champion Moore). Then on Wednesday, it was my friend Jill's birthday. She was, what looked like about 2 years pregnant. Met up with her at some Italian restaurant called Il Localino. I had no idea what kind of place it was, I just showed up in my Thrashers hoody and jeans. Apparently it's a somewhat fancy place. Oh well, the owner had a good time with us. He actually told me that a few guys from the team are regulars! I'll never understand the lifestyle of spending $100 on a meal, but amongst about 10 of us, we racked up a $700+ bill! Hooray beer! A lot of that was wine, which, luckily I'm not a fan of. It was a good time, Josh (Jill's husband) has some wacky friends. Josh was wearing a crab? hat the whole time. Another girl (Bonnie?) had a Viking hat. Very strange. But it was a fun time.

Thursday I had my first episode of Beth withdrawal. Usually I make her come with me whenever I have to buy anything at lunch. Well, I needed new work-shoes. I'm a guy, what the hell do I know? I had to somehow choose between brown and black shoes. Beth was nowhere to be found. I called Lauren and she talked me into the brown ones - actually, I eventually realized they didn't have the black ones in my size. My newest problem is, they come with light brown and dark brown shoelaces! What do I do? (Seriously, I'm clueless here)

Thursday night was the first Thrashers home game in over 2 weeks. And it was a mess. Traffic was terrible. I got there in time for the traditional pregame 44oz beer. Met up with Pat and Jeremy. I was waiting on Divya with my ticket, but she was stuck in traffic. And it turned out that the tickets that were supposed to be waiting for her never showed up! Matt couldn't get off work til about 6:45. Erica got there right around 7:00 and happened to have an extra ticket. So in with them I went. I had all kinds of friends there. I stayed with Erica and Peter for the first period (in the good seats). My friend Jason was there for "guys' night" so I told them I'd hang out with them for a bit. Went upstairs in between periods, hung out with Jason, Mike, Adam, Seth and some others. With a few minutes left in the 2nd period (and with the Thrashers losing 3-0) I finally heard from Matt, who was apparently sitting nearby. He called and said to come over, he ran into our favorite usher...Millie! So I ran over. I don't remember if I ever mentioned Millie on here, but she's hooked me and Matt up numerous times, including getting us lower level seats for the 3rd period of the all star game. Anyways, Millie had us follow her. Usually this involves going down lots of stairs. Well, not this time. She had us sit in the very last row of the upper deck. In her defense, apparently she said "wait here, I'll be back". Well, she came back, but we wound up staying there the rest of the game. Oh, as an added bonus of sitting in the last row, I had the bright idea of jumping over the back of the seat and landed flat on my ass. Oops. Oh, the Thrashers came back to tie the game, but lost in OT. Like you care.

Friday, Violet Louise Reiter was born (that's Josh & Jill's). That thing was almost 10 pounds!!!!!
Friday night began my Family Guy marathon. I'd managed to avoid Family Guy for years. Everyone said that I would love the show, but I just always thought there is no way it could live up to expectations. Well, it has. Jeremy got a hold of the first two seasons on DVD. Started watching it right away. Love it!

Saturday, me and Matt went to go visit Jill & Josh & Violet in the hospital. We parked at what we thought was the right place. Oops. Walked around a building that seemed like a hospital for a while. Walked through a parking garage for a while. Finally found the front door of what looks like what used to be a hospital? Still not sure but it became obvious we were in the WRONG building. We managed to get directions from a security guard and jumped back in the car and found the right place. The only thing I wonder about this whole baby thing, both Beth & Jill have cats. How do they know their kids aren't gonna be allergic????? (Cats suck)

After the hospital Matt introduced me to this place called Raging Burrito. It was REALLY good but I found out a little later why I think they call it that. Ok, sorry, that was gross. But the burrito was really good. Two words - Pineapple salsa!

That's about it. This week is spring break. Yippee. Doesn't exactly mean the same now that i'm working. All it means is that I don't have to be awake for an 8am class (which I'm consistently 15 minutes late for, hell, I'm consistently 15 minutes late for anything AM related) Any advice is appreciated!

Another trip to Jacksonville

Lots of interesting stuff to report from this weekend. I'll try my best to make it brief. (HA!)

(Nurse) Kim met up with me in Atlanta and rode with me to Jacksonville Friday. Got into town and met up with Tracy & Stacey and others at the local Mellow Mushroom. Some people know of Mellow Mushroom as a pizza place (some may not know it at all) but the version in Jacksonville is more like a bar it seemed. Still pretty cool. Tracy was being a party pooper and wanted to go home, but me and Kim stayed and hung out at "The Shroom" (I just came up with that! I'm sure i'm the first too). Right about at last call time, I went back to the bar to get a last beer ( a Newcastle - draught, of course) and was rejected. The taps were cleaned and closed out. I went back to Kim to give her the bad news, she went up there and next thing I know, here comes Kim with 2 very very dark glasses of beers? What the???? Well, apparently the bartender liked her boobs better than mine, so she got us beer. Oh well, whatever. After the bar we went back to Tracy's place and popped in Talladega Nights. Kim was asleep within 10 minutes. Funny movie!!!!

Saturday I got tricked into going to a shoe store with Kim & Tracy..THATS not gonna happen again!!!! After that we went to this place called CRAZY Sushi. It didn't seem too crazy, but I'm not a sushi guy. Later that afternoon me and Tracy drove up to Jekyll Island for my friends' Jill & Josh's wedding. Before I left I got the address for the hotel and got directions from google. As we're headed towards the island the directions took us in a different direction than the signs for Jekyll Island. I definitely got suspicious, but stuck with the directions. Shouldn't have! We wound up in Saint Simon's Island. the street name is apparently on both islands, and google maps screwed me over. Finally we got to the hotel and to the wedding. Oh, on our way to the wedding, I found out my friends Mike & Courtney got engaged. So thats pretty cool. No one seems to listen to my "stay single" advice that my Grandpa gave me!!! Anyways, the wedding was pretty cool. I tried to get drunk enough to dance, but it just didn't happen. They actually had a cool idea for the music at the wedding - they emailed a select few of the guests and took song requests. They had a band for the first part of the reception when we were eating, but after that they just setup Josh's ipod. I thought that was a pretty neat idea. Anyways, I, of course, requested "Get Low" (you know, the sweat drop down my balls song). At the wedding Jill kept telling me it was coming up next, but it never came!

Sunday morning just as we were getting back on the interstate, I was passing a truck who decided to shower poor little Vickie with oil. It was ALL over my windshield, my hood, my bumper and just everywhere. A couple exits later I finally decided to stop at a gas station to make sure it wasn't coming from my car, and it wasn't. I really wish I took a picture, but I didn't. It really was everywhere. We grabbed 2 squeegee's at the gas station and just completely wiped my car off. Not fun. But it wouldn't be a road trip with Tracy if bizarre stuff like this didn't happen!

Sunday we drove back to Atlanta. Then this morning after I woke up, my TV in my bedroom (not Mitsa) was on Sportscenter just like its supposed to be. I walked into the living room for a minute and I heard the sound from the TV go off and heard some odd noises. I went into my room and smelled smoke. Something inside my TV blew up!!!! I couldn't do anything with the remote, so I wound up just unplugging it. Looking inside the TV you can see a bright orange glow...not quite a flame, but something was definitely burning in there! So...now I need a new TV. And since Mitsa has spoiled me, I'll probably have to spend a good bit of cash on a new TV now. Nothing huge, but definitely something HD compatible.

Thats a pretty eventful weekend, huh?