Provolone Cheese & Gold Medals

How many out there are big Olympics fans? Wherever you are, you can at least relate to them. People from all over come in to read the blog. I didn't say that there's a zillion people reading, but at least they're from all over, so I'll take what I can get. I always start out slow and then after a while I pick up and start to watch a lot more. It's a different type of sports deal if you ask me. I'm a huge sports guy, but a lot of the Olympics sports we only hear about or see on TV once every four years. I mean, seriously, does water polo even get on TV other than this? Synchronized swimming? Synchronized swimming is a "sport"? Get out of here.



Some may want my opinion on the main Olympics story. Some may not, but I'll give it regardless. What that is would be Michael Phelps. I keep up with the hype, but I didn't actually watch one of his live events until the 7th gold medal. This guy is a total freak of nature, I'm going to give him that. The comeback in the 7th race against the Cavic dude was pretty impressive. The media is all over this guy's nads of course and it makes a great story. I'm not debating that. What I will debate is how they are saying he's the greatest "athlete" of all time. Really now? I'm not one that is going to say that swimmers aren't athletes because they definitely are. I will debate that he's the greatest athlete ever. By far the best swimmer ever? I don't even know swimming and I'd say that has to be true, but he won't get my vote for best athlete of all time. Actually I don't have a vote on that off the top of my head, but it'd have to be someone that is awesome in multiple sports. Still, the kid is pretty amazing for what he does.

I must've been really bored the other afternoon. I caught myself sitting around for a while watching chicks fencing. Apparently it's not even called fencing anymore? NBC was calling it "sabre" the other day, weird. Or is that a branch of fencing? I have no idea and you don't either and won't see it for another 4 years. And how about those 9 year old Chinese gymnastic girls? That's just wrong. Those chicks are 60 pounds or whatever and no way they're of age. I mean, even most of our chicks look like wee little girls, so hard to tell what kind of rules are being broken. I feel with that, if I watched it, it's similar to the Little League World Series. Now that is awesome as it's going on this weekend, but when I think of Olympics, I think of big people for some reason, not little kids who haven't hit puberty yet.



This is going to be a sports filled blog, but I'll have a variety, so you should find something that keeps your interest. Our softball season ended on Saturday. I keep everyone updated on the happenings. We played a doubleheader on Friday and it was pretty bad to be honest. The first game we got beat 13-3 and the second 11-1, both ending in 10-run rule games after the 4th or 5th inning. The first game was by far the worst fielding our team has had as a whole in our short history. Not to mention that our bats weren't doing much. I was happy with my games that night, but when a win doesn't come through, that's bad times. We weren't nearly as good as last season, when we finished 3rd in the tourney. Saturday was the tourney. We finished the season I believe in 8th Place. What kind of prize did that get us? It got us a 9:00 in the morning start time to open the tourney. No joke. It was about 50 degrees when we started and was pretty cool for this time of year. People came with towels around them, so cold and I even brought coffee for the trip. I don't even like coffee is the bad part, that's how warm I wanted to be I guess. Plus, the store was out of hot chocolate, ugh. I ended up getting this stuff that was called 100% Columbian blend (it was probably made in Montana for all I know) and I put 2 packets of sugar with some Irish creme in it. Not good, but like I said, it was warm.

What was the problem with Saturday? Not only did most of us wake up at 7:00 to gear up for the action, we didn't even get an official game in. One of the rules is that there must be 5 chicks present. Another rule is that once playoff day hits, you can only play the people that have played a certain amount of games for it to be legit. In other words, you can't bring some stud college baller in to play who hasn't suited up all season. Fair enough I guess. We were one girl short and that had people all kinds of fired up. Still, I wasn't about to drive 45 minutes for no reason and not get any kind of game in. The team we were scheduled against, their team showed up with the full roster, imagine that. Anyways, they were good sports enough to get in a scrimmage with us and then they advance with the forfeit. It wasn't a lost day after all, but it would've been nice if the game had counted and to see if we could advance and go on a playoff run like we did last summmer. Hopefully we get to rock it again next summer, I'm down if so.



You know one thing I never understood? That is bass in cars. Don't get me wrong, a quality system is usually a good purchase and I have one myself, I'm not arguing that. Maybe I'm weird on this, but I'd rather hear my music instead of a bunch of junk rattling around. I know it's a younger kid thing, but if I have my stuff jamming, I want the sound quality to be clear versus something just booming. It's funny when you see people with cars around that barely get up the road, but when you get near them, it sounds like someone is inside shaking around 500 empty aluminum cans. That appeal is not for me, maybe I'm old. Now, if you want it as loud as it goes so people can actually hear the music you're listening to, I don't have one problem with that. I might not like the music you're rockin' out to, but if I'm 3 blocks away I'd still rather be able to know what you're listening to, not the beer cans shaking.

Saturday night was long overdue. We haven't hit up Japanese in a while, so I was ready to get into that. On this trip to Shogun, we rolled 6 deep. Not as big as our normal crowds, but it's still a great time either way you go. In attendance was Ozzie, Maria, Kari, Cakes, Cork, and myself. I order my usual as I'm set on that. Filet done medium rare and scallops. Also you get the choice of noodles or rice (I go noodles here), traditional soup, and ginger salad. Everyone else demolished their food and I was wondering how they ate it so fast. I never finish my stuff here, so there's always some giveaways afterwards for the ones still hungry. That's what my buddies get pumped for, hah. Extra food for them. After that, we roll to Ozzie and Maria's new place that I haven't seen yet. I was definitely impressed, this is a long cry from Shinnston. They could have 12 kids and still have room to run around like crazy. My favorite part of the place was either the party shower upstairs or the refrigerator. An awesome TV and everything else, they're doing up big. It's gonna be some place when everything is set inside. Also on this night, I get word that I'll be in Ozzie's wedding next summer, that should be pretty good times. This will also be the first wedding I've ever been in, so that's something to put in the stat books. Weddings usually don't do much for me, but family weddings I actually don't mind one bit. Plus, I get to be in this one, so that's an added incentive for me to get pumped up.



Now it's time a video game update. Most of my video game crew has already been updated on this, but it can't hurt to explain it again. I picked up Madden 09 for 360 on Tuesday and am satisfied with it. The graphics are really smooth and I'm digging the online play a lot. There's no lag and so far, no punks have quit games in the middle of it just to do it. My offense in this year's version, beyond terrible. My D holds up fairly solid, but I can't put big points on the board for the life of me. I did join a 32-man online league. The concept is awesome, but actually setting it up is a task. The good thing is that if one of the league members is online at that time, you can play anyone at any time. The bad thing is when you go to send a league game invite, I'd say 90% of the time that person is already in a game at the moment. They aren't going to drop out of that to be a punk to someone else just to get a league game in. I wish it told you if they were busy or not, actually in another game or could jump right into a league game. It'd be easier to schedule that way. I'm rambling, but I'm liking it so far. It's weird not having Madden's voice as part of the game commentary, but I guess we'll have to adjust. As usual, if you want my 360 gamertag, it is Bird33WV.

How about another movie review? Yep, twice in one week, so hopefully I'm back into the movie scene. Last year I went a bunch like I've noted, but this year so far, not a ton. I need to catch up. On Sunday, I went with Ashley (not the same Ashley from the blog last week, just to confuse everyone even more) and we went to watch The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. I've never seen any of The Mummy movies before, but figured I'd check this one out. I recommend it for sure. It is 2 hours and kept me interested the entire time. The storyline is pretty good and things were well done. On a rank scale, I'm giving it a 7.5 and one you can watch again. I liked Step Brothers better, since it's my kind of movie, but this one is filled with action. On the movies coming out soon, I'm interested in Death Race and Babylon A.D. You can go wrong with some Jason Statham and Vin Diesel movies if you ask me.



Bird's Dirty Thug Ho of the Week: This one is interesting to me. First, she's a bit older. Second, she's a mom and right beside her kid pics she has pics of her being dirty and then a folder of her tats all up her body. Chinese symbols up her back for a whitey chick? I guess I need to get out of more, but I never understood that one at all. http://www.myspace.com/shan007

Bird's Video Moment of the Week: We go to the blog's video producer, Kasher for this entry. It keeps getting taken down on different links due to copyrights, so I hope it stays up for a bit for anyone to see. If you have a weak stomach with injuries, this one might not be for you, but it's pretty wild. It's a guy mangling his elbow during an Olympic weightlifting event. It gets all out of whack. I couldn't imagine the feeling, but here's the clip:





3 Quick Thangs:

1. We'll go with some birthdays to feast on. We'll jump to Tuesday, August 19th for the action. We start out with a big name, a former president. That'd be Bill Clinton, he'll be 62. He doesn't seem that old to me. Staying in politics, Al Gore's wife Tipper, she hits 60. Football old man Morten Andersen, 48. Uncle Jesse Katsopolis, also known as John Stamos, 45. Chandler of Friends, also known as Matthew Perry, 39. Tennis chick turned announcer, Mary Joe Fernandez, 37. Rapper Lil Romeo, son of Master P, 19. That's a pretty solid list if you ask me. Also, a few days early, but I'll get it in here, time to wish my boy Spank a Happy 28th for his birthday on August 21st.

2. Today's little fact? The number of births that occur in India each year is higher than the entire population of Australia.

3. I was telling some of my people last night that I'm a beast at making sandwiches late at night. Last night's creation? Bologna, salami, provolone cheese, hot mustard, pickles, black pepper on Italian bread with a side of green olives. Now if that doesn't sound good to you, then I'll gladly eat it myself. It went well with some peach tea and BBQ chips.