Balloon Boy, EDDFL, & Mudcat Goes MMA

What do I have whipped up for you in this edition? A mixed batch is what it'll be. I'll start off with Balloon Boy, John Mayer's relation to that, Taco Bell and how annoying their new stuff is, board game action, an epic comeback in Catch Phrase, EDDFL, the unveiling of this year's E-Town Junkies, Mudcat doing some MMA ground and pound to Fleece, a South Bend trip on the way, and who knows what else.. A good enough preview for you? It'll have to work because it's go time!



I know it's old news, but I'm going to talk about it anyways. Balloon Boy. Why in the world did this get national news coverage? While this was going on, everyone was glued to their TVs. The next day, all of the shows were talking about this "story" and they're still talking about it a bit today. Then when they asked the boy why it happened, he basically gave away his dad's plan of fame. He more or less said it was for TV. Really, a 6-year old kid is going to be trusted enough not to give a plan away? Come on, they're kids. You can ask them anything and get the truth out of them eventually.

I get a kick out of that they call him Balloon Boy though and he'll be known as that forever. John Mayer on his Twitter had a good one relating to that. "Why are we calling him Balloon Boy if he wasn't in the balloon at all? Isn't he just Attic Boy?" Yeah, I know it's weird that I follow Mayer's Twitter, but it's actually not bad. No, it's nowhere near the level of an Ocho Cinco, T.O., or even Rev Run, but it works. I know basically nothing about his music, but he isn't quite the dork he used to be due to his appearance on Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory and the song they made together, Rob's Mom. And who knew he's covered with tats. I sure didn't, but I guess I'm living under a rock on my John Mayer trivia. Maybe that lessens his dorkiness level as well with the arm sleeves, who knows. To end, how could someone even fit in that weird balloon anyways? It reminded me of one of those old school style popcorn tins, Jiffy Pop if you will. Now the dad is facing charges, this is too funny.



Here's another thing that is weird to me. Seen the latest Taco Bell commercials? First, to me, they're very annoying. You know the ones I'm talking about. "Black boots. Black pants. Black taco? Black dress. Black dog. Black taco? Black eye. Black sheep. Blackjack taco. Pepperjack sauce!" I don't know about all of you, but that definitely makes me not even want to buy that stupid thing. Does it even taste different or it is just the sauce that makes it different? I don't go to Taco Bell much at all, but if nothing else, they have good prices. Terrible commercials though and that goofball in the new commercial needs put into a balloon and sent away into no man's land.

Saturday night it was time to hang with the fam and our buds. I rolled to Ozzie and Maria's and we were due for board game night. Yeah, we're true rebels let me tell you. Some wild party animals. Anyways, in attendance for the action were the hosts of Ozzie and Maria, Matty Cakes and Kari, and the soon-to-be married couple of Cork and Kristin. I played my usual role of wingman which I don't mind one bit to make the sides uneven at seven. I of course brought the liquor. Well, you all know that isn't true, I brought the junk food, that's what I can provide. A little junk food and candy won't hurt anybody. I had it made, at least for me. The Yankees game on the big screen, eating junk food like no other, and board games? I'm in. We started out by playing Battle of the Sexes. This was my first time playing and it was ok, but I wouldn't personally rank it that high. This game definitely proved that Ozzie, Maria, Kari, and myself have about zero ounces of common sense between all of us combined. I'll admit, this game was harder than I expected and I was awful at it.



The next game we played was Catch Phrase. Again, this was the first time I had played this as well. Yeah, I know. For a guy that loves board games, I haven't played either of the two we battled in on Saturday. This one is legit and I'd definitely play more of it. We played a few rounds of this and switched teams up a bit. The last game, Ozzie, Maria, and myself as a team were able to pull an epic comeback to go home victorious. This isn't a game that you can eat and play at the same time though. It's hectic and I was trying to force down a bag of Burger King Ketchup & Fries while playing. If you haven't had those before, you're missing out, they're amazing. That night, the Yanks game didn't end till around 1:30 in the morning, good times. Even better times came to us on Sunday..

Oh my! Allow me to go into a total zone that not many will care about, but I'm going to write about it regardless. It's fantasy NBA time and that means one thing, the arrival of roughly the 20th season of the infamous EDDFL. That'd be the E-Town Diaper Dandies Fantasy League. This is a day that my boys and I wait on for quite some time. We book it far in advance. We normally go somewhere and rent a place out, but I switched it up this time. I had it at my house and it turned out to go rather well. I could literally write about NBA for ages or talk about it as most people know about me in person. I know I'm too obsessed with NBA, but I wouldn't have it any other way, I've been like that all my life. By the time I post the next blog, the NBA season will be underway. I may be in need of a breathing machine come Tuesday night due to excitement. As I type up this section, I'm currently watching my Celts take on LeBron in some preseason action.



The food spread was out of this world. We had my mom's sausage and peppers, Ozzie's meatballs and peppers, the Ann Riley special brownies (thanks Ann!), two dozen D'Annunzio's pepperoni rolls, three loaves of D'Annunzio's Italian bread (no, not the soft white regular junk that many of you think is Italian bread because it says on the label), Posey's big stash of Lay's, and whatever else. Then the draft was about to begin. We set the draft board up and if you ever do any in-person drafts, you must have a draft board. It makes your draft experience about twenty times better, I highly recommend it. I'll even link you to the best place you can get these boards. We've been dealing with these people for a good while now and they treat you like kings. We've even had testimonials put up on their page. I don't give out plugs lightly, these people deserve all the credit they get. FJ Fantasy Sports, check them out here: http://fjfantasy.com.

The best part about a live draft with the crew in attendance is that you get some major trash talk and stories galore. There may have been an f-bomb record set that day with our crew. Also, one of the most memorable incidents went down during this year's draft. Fleece had an idea for some middle school style humor. Of course, all of us are going to laugh since that's how we are. He has this idea to shank Mudcat. As he goes to do so, he moons Mud and then a melee ensues. Mudcat in a split second, as Flee was sitting on the ground got stomped/kicked a few times and then a few punches afterwards. Mudcat showed his ground and pound mixed martial arts skills by stomping a mudhole into Flee, a la Stone Cold Steve Austin in the early late 90s. We all watched in shock and then had a great laugh at the action in my living room. It was definitely epic, Mudcat broke bad out of nowhere, good stuff to see. Where else do grown men do this? Sidell, you need to make an appearance in person next year. TJ's stories alone are worth any draft, but you'd make them that much better.

Ok, I'll get to unveiling my team. Not that anyone cares, but hey, it's what I do. As always, it's all about the youth/potential movement. Ladies and gentlemennnn, here are yourrrrr 2009-2010 E-Town Junkies:



1. Kevin Durant: Oklahoma City
2. Kevin Martin: Sacramento
3. Brook Lopez: New Jersey
4. Rajon Rondo: Boston
5. DeMar DeRozan (R): Toronto
6. Shawn Marion: Dallas
7. Anthony Randolph: Golden State
8. Kevin Love: Minnesota
9. Channing Frye: Phoenix
10. Omri Casspi (R): Sacramento
11. Jason Thompson: Sacramento
12. Shane Battier: Houston
13. Anthony Morrow: Golden State
14. Chase Budinger (R): Houston
15. Roy Hibbert: Indiana

Next Sunday, it's time for the other fantasy NBA league I'm in. It's the 20-man keeper league that I've talked about countless times before. As far as online leagues go, there's none out there which can compare. I'll put it up against any out there, no joke. The A#BA is where it's at that features all of the #basketball legends. I'll hold off on rambling about it until the next blog. Also in the next blog, it'll be a huge road trip. It took me 30 years to get out there, but I'll be making the trek to South Bend, Indiana. What's out there for any knuckleheads that might not know? I'll be going with Ozzie, Maria, and Marc Anthony. The Italian/Catholic foursome of Irish fans, that sounds like a great trip to me, I'm more than pumped. I'm just not sure what has taken me so long to get out there. Also, as an added note, this will be the farthest west I've been. Some world traveler I am huh?



Bird's Dirty of the Week: We go out west this week. We close our eyes and randomly pick and we end up in Sacramento, California. With Halloween on the rise and most girls going to get all dirtied up for that night by wearing nothing, she has pic folders of that. You also get a folder that she titled "ma body". Again, I can't make this stuff up. Answer, she's even wearing a Miami jersey in one for you in her main folder. Apparently she's making between $60,000 to $75,000 with just one year out of school. Uh, no you're not. I guess you "could" be, but I'm highly doubting that. I'll give her the hotness though, I can't really argue that much, but the rest of the page will make it. Here ya go: http://www.myspace.com/117078161

Bird's Video of the Week: In honor of Balloon Boy, we get to see him puke on national TV. Yep, that's what I said. And they really named this kid Falcon? Come on people. To me, that's funny, but he has to live with that name forever. Well, I guess that'd be better than Balloon Boy, but either way you look at it, rough times. "Hey Falcon, come get your dinner!" The other kids would eat that up. Then again, they're all probably little rich kids anyways. Here is Falcon Boy, Balloon Boy, Attic Boy, whatever he is to you:



3 Quick Thangs:

1. Let's try some birthdays for Thursday. That'd be October 22nd. We've been on a streak of solid birthdays during that time, so we'll see if that date can continue things. Howard Stern's mother Ray, she's 82. For what it's worth, Stern's Private Parts movie is one of my top 5 ever. Christopher Lloyd of Back to the Future fame, 71. Wrestling stud Bad News Allen/Brown would've been 66. He was one of the best judo guys of all time and had a great wrestling career as well. Actor Jeff Goldblum, 57. US Olympics figure skating 1988 gold medalist, Brian Boitano, 46. Ichiro, who should go down as one of the best pure baseball hitters of any generation, 36. Zac Hanson of the Hanson Brothers (yes, that dorky band), 24, dang. Jonathan William Lipnicki of Jerry McGuire, that kid is now 19. We're all getting old.

2. To the locals, there aren't many better time killers than checking out the local jail site. Want to know which of your buddies are locked up? Bingo. Want to find out if someone you may know got thrown into the slammer last night? It's up there. You'd be surprised how many people you know are going to be on there. Here are two sites to check, although most of you probably already know and kill time the same way. Also, it's interesting to see a height/weight listing of these people and their ages. Some are going to surprise you and there are definitely some characters. Just in case, go here: http://northcentralregionaljail.info and here: http://wvjails.info.

3. It's time to end with some did you know thoughts.. Did you know that it is illegal to pawn your dentures in Las Vegas. Don't do it Answer. Also, the longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds. Another one? Armadillos, opossums and sloths spend up to 80 percent of their lives sleeping. There ya go, see ya next week when I return from the hallowed grounds of South Bend.