BoSox Live Another Day and Rockies in World Series

I have had admitted that I don’t pay attention to baseball until the playoffs. 

On the National League side, it’s about time the Rockies made it in.  With 2 of the 4 professional teams winning their respective championships (Avs winning the Stanley Cup in 1996 and 2001; Broncos winning the Super Bowl), it would be great adding a baseball championship in the trophy case.  But, still, the team doesn’t deserve the respect of the fans because Denver will forever be known as Broncos country.

On the American League side, I thank the Indians for ridding the Yanks out of another postseason continuance.  But, I thank God for giving the BoSox another night to live.  What really bothered me was how Manny Ramirez played during the first inning.  He just practically gave up when he passed third going home.  I mean, really, what the ???  Oh well.  Go BoSox! 

Speaking about the Yanks, Andy Pettitte is up for free agency again.  Will Roger Clements follow?!  (Yeah, I know.  Low blow.  But, I couldn’t help it.)

Brother’s Wedding Day+1

It seems with a sigh of relief that my gaining of a sister-in-law passed off without a glitch.  The wedding itself was wonderful.  The reception was a bit delayed–I don’t know if the wedding party was still taking pictures at our church. 

The food at the reception held at the Junior League was not bad, either: an appetizer of prosciutto-wrapped cantaloupe, bruschetta and a chicken roulade, a sweet salad consisting of spinach sprinkled with fruit (tangerines and strawberries) and drenched with raspberry dressing and the main entry of pork medallion, pecan-crusted chicken and vegetables.  As for the wedding cake, unfortunately I didn’t partake (re: type 2 diabetic). 

The fake send-off was funny.  After running through the gauntlet once, my brother and sister-in-law had run through it again to return to the ballroom.

Then the villagers rejoiced with Usher’s “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!”  I don’t know if that’s the official title of the song, but hopefully y’all know what song I’m trying to name.  I left the party when they played “The Milkshake Song.”  Once again, I don’t know the official title of the song.

I wanted to attend the after party at St. Regis’ Remington Bar, but as y’all can tell, I was very tired.    

New Fridge, New Team Captain, I Passed the Test

We got a new fridge last night.  It was bought from Lowe’s.  The delivery sucked, though.  We were called earlier that morning that we would expect delivery of the fridge between 3p-6p.  It didn’t come until 9p!  We didn’t even get a courtesy call that it would be late!  Bad customer service, man.

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Recap of last Friday night’s Aeros game: we lost against the Chicago Wolves 4-2.  And the coach took away the “C” off my main man!  It was given to Erik Reitz!  Bad juju!  Anyway, the first period looked like a continuation of last season.  The good guys finally woke up during the second, though.  But, again, they fell asleep during the last.  I know it was the first game, but it was just too sad.  And, oh yeah, I didn’t receive my puck giveaway.  Only 1,000 was available.  Booooo!

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I enrolled online for defensive driving a couple of weeks ago.  Luckily, I had 90 days to complete it.  I just finished and passed the test with 95%.

I should receive the “certificate of completion” in 7-10 days via snail mail.

Yeah, insurance discount, baby!   

It’s Here, It’s Here!; Dining at the 17

The official season of the Houston Aeros starts in less that 4 hours!  According to fellow flakkers, it looks like we’re going to have a better team than last year.  Probably because we have a new coach that can better discipline the players.  And holy herbies, batman, my main man, Joel Ward, has the “C’ on his sweater!

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Last night was bachelorette party #1.  This consisted of dinner at 17 Restaurant, which is in the Alden Hotel in downtown H-Town, and dancing at Fix.  I didn’t go to the latter.  I must be showing my age ’cause I regard today’s club music the same old crap played over and over again.  But I digress…

At 17, I had the appetizer of local summer greens (served with figs, marcona almonds and balsamic vinaigrette), the entree of pan roasted duck (served with rainbow chard, ras el hanout and cherries) and a nibble of my cousin’s nemesis’ black truffle mac and cheese.  Also, via compliments from the chef, the party was given a potato-salmon mouse wrap in prosciutto appetizer. 

The black truffle mac and cheese was pretty good.  I was surprised that the “earthy” taste didn’t overtake the flavor. 

The local summer greens salad was pretty good also.  My regret was not ordering the dressing on the side because the salad was almost drowned.  Otherwise, the combination of the sweet figs and sour balsamic vinaigrette made the taste interesting. 

The prosciutto appetizer also intrigued my pallet.  The first taste was salty.  Then again, that’s how prosciutto is.  Then the appetizer gave way to a fish taste: salmon.  Yes, intriguing.

As for my main course, I haven’t had duck in the longest time so my taste buds were anticipating with glee.  And they weren’t disappointed.  The duck was cooked perfect.  To my regret again, I didn’t request the sauce to be served on the side because it totally drowned out the roasted chard, which to me had a bit too much salt. 

Too bad I didn’t get a chance to taste any of the desserts: chocolate pecan tart (served with milk jam and buttermilk ice cream) and gianduja chocolate cheesecake (served with ginger soda sabayon and house made graham crackers).  Just a whiff of them almost lead me into temptation.  The things a type 2 diabetic gives up. 

Oh Jolly Good!

The NHL season has now started!  But, it sort of didn’t go according to plan.

The game between the L.A. Kings and the defending Stanley Cup champs, Anaheim Ducks was played at the O2 Arena in London, England.  According to the newswire, after the Star Spangled Banner and God Save the Queen were sung, the arena house lights didn’t come on.  

But, after a 15 minute delay it was game on.   

The Kings won last night’s game 4-1 while the Ducks won with the same score in tonight’s game. 

This is the fourth time that the NHL has opened its season outside North America.  The last three times were in Japan: 1997, 1998 and 2000.  I’m still surprised that Japan let us back in their country in 2000 considering that our Men’s Olympic Hockey Team wrecked one of their hotel rooms during their Nagano stay.   

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A little digression:

Aggies re-grouped from their Miami loss and won against Baylor.

t.u. got their butts kicked by Kansas St.  Ha, ha!

Good golly!  Notre Dame is 0-5!

Colorado upsets O.U.!   Sort of the same deal that Rutgers won over Louisville last year: a last second field goal. 

And lastly, a game that I watched and enjoyed, even though my team didn’t win, USC over Washington, 27-24.  If only the onside kick during the last minutes would’ve worked…. 

No intro to the past weekend’s football, so here we go…

Texas A&M 54, UL-Monroe 14

I still don’t know who agreed to the Aggies scheduled, but I’m happy that Old Army won decisively against a team that they should win over.

t.u. 35, UCF 32

Central Florida should have won this game!  Enough said.

Michigan 38, Notre Dame 0

In the battle of the 0 and 2s, Big Blue came up on top over the overrated.  Woo-hoo!

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In other football news, the H-town Texans have achieved the one of the ultimate goals–winning two regular season games in a row.

I’m that another, “Woo-hoo!”

Here’s part of a conversation I had with my sister the other day:

My sister: Hey, the leaves are starting to change colors.

Me: I’m jealous!

I didn’t know what else to say because it’s the truth.  While she is dealing with four seasons, we have two: hot and hella hot.  And oh yeah, the occasional tropical storm or hurricane which should be a subseason of one of the two.

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Last night, I attended a get-together sponsored by pandora.com.  The hour-and-a-half gathering consisted of founder Tim Westergren’s history of pandora.com and a question and answer session.  Afterwards, he gave out free stuff which was mainly t-shirts and hats.  By the time I got to the table, they were practically gone. 

It was interesting to say the least.  One thing that was asked by one the audience was that of pandora’s classical music section.  According to Tim, they’re slowly building it up.  What I found interest was that he said that if you want something similiar to Mozart, the program finds it difficult to match. 

A couple of funny happenings during the gathering: when he mentioned that the company receives alot of CDs from unsigned artists, a musician in the audience got a bit excited and asked where to send her CD.  The other was that he crossed himself when he mentioned Tower Records.  I agreed by quipping amen.  RIP Tower Records.

I just happy that pandora plays April Wine now.  It used to tell me that in some way it never heard of the band.

Apparently Goliath Didn’t Listen Last Week

Here we go again! 

Aggies 47, Fresno St. Bulldogs 45 (3 OT)

I say it again that even the Ags won, they blew a 19-point halftime lead!  They do know that there are 2 more quarters to play, right?

Next up in the Ags schedule is UL-Monroe.  I swear, who agreed to this schedule?!

t.u. 34, TCU Horned Frogs 13

The Frogs played the game like it was a bowl game.  It took t.u. at least the first 2 halves to noticed that.  Frogs could’ve, no, should’ve won that game, but the sleeping giant awoke. 

Michigan Wolverines 7, Oregon Ducks 39

This game was just pathetic.  Big Blue had a week to recover from the nightmare of a 1-AA team kicking their ass!  This team…argh! 

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Lastly, once again, I will put up the overrated Notre Dame score.  Because I like it when they loose.  *evil laugh*

Notre Dame 10, Penn St. 31

Is Papa Joe still coaching the Nitty Lions?  The man is older than dirt, but I love it when his Nitty Lions beat the overrated Fighting Irish.  insert evil laugh here

And guess who coming to dine with the Irish next week?  Michigan.  *sigh*  Go Blue!

Never Underestimate David, Goliath

Ah, college football season is once again upon us.

Here’s 3 games (and their results) that mattered to me:

Texas A&M 38 / Montana St. 7

Yes, my beloved Aggies won, but they gave up a total of 403 yards towards Montana State.  Montana State maybe a member of a smaller division ( NCAA Division I-AA), but they played with a full tank and determination.

t.u. 21 / Arkansas St. 13

Once again, another small division school versus big brother.  I guess no one was paying attention in the meeting.  It would’ve better to see Arkansas St. win.  *evil grin* 

Appalachian St. 34 / Michigan 32

The grandaddy of them all!  My Big Blue losing out to a division I-AA school. 

Didn’t y’all hear that this team was the 2-time defending champions? 

Oh, and by the way, Appalachian St. is located in Boone, NC.   

There’s a snipit in today’s paper how this is compared to a game that took place on Nov. 27, 1926.  Notre Dame was against Carnegie Tech (the school is now known as Carnegie Mellon and is playing division III football).  Was it important?  I don’t think so because their coach, Knute Rockne, decided to attend th Army-Navy game.  And besides, the Irish have defeated them before.  So, the final score?  Carnegie Tech 19 / Notre Dame 0.  

Speaking about Notre Dame (I know I said 3 games, but this could not been helped)….

Georgia Tech 33 / Notre Dame 3

I put that down because I just like to see that overated team lose. 

*evil laugh* BWA-A-A-A!

Electric Mower, Jury Duty, Oh My!

Well, just an update on how the mowing went on Sunday.  I’m pretty impressed, but I had to get used to adjusting the extention cords each time I started to the next row of grass.  Oh yeah, if you let go of the lever, you have to start the mower again.  I still had to wear a mask to a certain point ’cause the cut grass would blow past the bag and into my face.  Mom liked the convienence of the bag–just pop it off and bring it to the compost bin.

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Now my experience with jury duty was another matter.  I was part of the last group to be picked for a panel.

Then I got picked to be a member of the jury.  I kept on thinking about the play and movie “12 Angry Men” during opening statements even though it was really 8 men and 4 women.  Since now I’m allowed to talk about it, the case involved a car accident that occured 7 years ago when the defendent and plaintiffs were in high school.  Even though the defendent took full responsibilty, we rewarded some money to the 2 plaintiffs (there was a third, but we assumed that he probably settled out of court).   It was less than a eighth of what the asking price was. 

We, the jury, got to talk to the presiding judge after the trial was over.  What I understood was that the case was filed 2 years after the accident and took until now to finally get to court.  Also learned was that it was called a “friendly trial” due to the people involved are still friends after all what has happened. 

In addition, the lawyers on both sides were hired by their insurance companies.  No wonder; they were terrible!  The defense lawyer was very disorganized and nervous, while the plaintiff lawyer was basically annoying.

I would say it was an experience: part of me liked it, but the other half was thinking, “if the lawyers aren’t taking this seriously, then why the hell am I here?”