Tuesday, March 30, 2010

-Honey Pecan Salmon-

I kind of held this one out for a while mainly because for about a week, there weren't many worthy stories in my opinion. I could've winged something together, have done that many times in the past, but maybe I was just being lazy this time. Either way, it's go time and we're ready to rock with a bevy of the latest action in and around North Central West Virginia. I know you've all been holding tight to your seats, wondering what has been going on lately. Well, you probably haven't, but at least you're bored for a few minutes today to glance through this and get a quick read in. What do we have in store for the good folks of ye ol interwebs? We'll get things in order with March Madness, fighting the flu, WrestleMania 26, Call of Duty news, Eazy-E, yet another movie review, fantasy baseball, a mini road trip to Pennsylvania, and whatever else we find interesting.



It's movie time and that seems to be a common theme that most can relate to. Whether you're into the other things I ramble about in the blog, you at least are interested in the latest movie selection or most of you are. What was the latest? She's Out of My League. This, from the previews, looked like my kind of movie. You know the drill, give me some pointless comedy that will get me laughing and that's my favorite kind of movie. How did this one end up? One I didn't know until I started watching was that the movie is based in Pittsburgh. For the locals, it's real neat to watch a movie filmed in places we go to all the time, maybe that will have me a bit biased. Anyways, this is one you'll enjoy seeing. Cork gave me the recommendation as him and Kristin watched it earlier in the week. The girl in this one, Alice Eve, gets a big thumbs up from me. Apparently that's her real name, but I find that strange. As a trivia note, she has one blue eye and one green eye. Jay Baruchel, the main male character, he's hilarious in my mind. Maybe the best cast of a character was TJ Miller who played the role of Stainer. You don't like him at first, but he eventually grows on you. IMDB currently has it at a 6.6, but I'm going to go a decent bit higher. My final grade? It's getting a score of 7.7 dorks who end up with the hot chick out of 10. Go see it, you'll laugh.

I don't usually get the flu too often, but it hit me a few weeks ago. Out of nowhere, I wake up for work as usual. Except this time, at 6:00 AM, I'm in a sweat and know it's about to get bad. You all know the feeling. I won't make it too detailed for the weak at heart, but started throwing up then. For some reason, I tried to be a champ and tough it out at work despite doing that and feeling brutal. I was a zombie that day at work, but luckily the kiddies stepped up and were on good behavior as usual. However, around 9:30, there I was at work throwing up some more. I manned up and dragged on until lunch time and then had to tap out and go home. I get home around 11:30 and slept all the way till 7:00 that night. I get enough energy to get a shower and munch on some crackers with jelly and then go back to bed around 9:00. When do I wake up? I sleep around the clock almost and wake up at 8:00 in the morning. Later that day I slept another 3 hours from 3:00 until 6:00 for a nap. Needless to say, I missed all of the March Madness games as well as NBA action that night for the entire Friday. I must have been down and out. In a 31½ hour stretch, I was asleep for 21½ of those hours, not too shabby if I must say so myself. Seems everyone is getting it this time of year. Then the week after, my sinuses were brutal, but I always have problems with those. No biggie, we're back in action now and ready to bounce off the walls.



March Madness has been nothing short of nuts lately. Especially in my area, unless you live under a rock, West Virginia is now in the Final Four. If you remember my prediction in one of the previous blogs, I had a Four of Syracuse, Baylor, New Mexico, and Ohio State. None made it in there, ouch. Up until Cuse was still alive, I was doing very good in the pools, but then the wheels fell off the wagon. I'm glad that WVU is doing well in hoops. For those who know me, I have no problems whatsoever with WVU hoops and actually hope they do well. Huggins knows how to recruit and has a nice squad indeed. It's WVU football where I definitely have my problems, but no reason to get into that to cause any arguments in the offseason, you know my stance on that as a Notre Dame homer. I like the fact that the area is buzzing and people are going insane for the season that the Eers have put together. It will at least give them a national name and give the state a little bit of something good for people to talk about rather than always bashing us. Maybe people will realize we're an actual state, but I doubt that happens anytime soon. Also, it's been out there on the internet, but I can't get enough of the hotel room videos some of the basketball team has thrown together. They're acting like kids, but then again, I'd be doing the same thing probably if I was cooped up in a hotel room, not like they were harming anything. The pillow fight video had me rolling, maybe it was just me. Check em out if you haven't yet.

Speaking of the area, on Saturday I pulled a mini road trip. I guess it's not actually a road trip when it's less than 2 hours away, but to me, that feels like I'm getting away from the big city of Shinnston. Where was I off to on Saturday? I rolled to the mean streets of Washington, Pennsylvania. I either had too much time on my hands, or for a guy, I don't actually mind to shop a bit. Yeah, I can admit. I know I'm in rare company as a straight guy that actually likes to shop. I had Whip along for the ride (Whip in the whip?) and we hit up the Tanger Outlets. I've never been to these outlets, but most people in our area I'm sure have. They've only been there a few years, but it's a good trip, I was impressed with the setup. One thing that fired me up was the Adidas store. As I came upon it, they had a huge Kevin Garnett poster up in the window. For those who don't know, Adidas is the gear sponsor for the Celtics. I figured, I'm going to spend stupid money on Celtics gear, like I need anymore of that, but I can't ever have enough. I go in and that's the first thing I ask for. Dude says they have none in the store. Get out of here, really? That put a little hamper on me for a few minutes, but I got things in order and kept at it.



I wouldn't have had time to get home before the WVU game started, so off to TGI Friday's it was for some good food. This was my second time at one of these and they're not too bad in my mind. I ended up watching the first half of the WVU game here and listening to updates on the radio on the way home, so all worked out on the basketball scene. My meal? I ended up getting the honey pecan salmon that was awesome. If you can cook salmon the right way, I'm in, a big fan of that stuff. I'm going to bounce around and then get back to a food update on the negative end. Washington was just insane with Penguins fans. You all remember my blog when I was in Pittsburgh as the Pens won the title last year and all pandemonium broke loose, but these fans are hardcore. I'm not a hockey guy, but I love seeing their passion. Everyone that day it seemed had Pens jerseys on and were all about it.

Speaking of food, this annoying chick beside us was rough. She first ordered chicken and took a bite and said it was sour. The waiter took the plate away and she ordered steak the next time. They bring that plate back and they apparently cooked it wrong for her taste. Yep, you guessed it, she sent that back too! I can see maybe sending something back once, maybe, but twice? No way ever would that be possible in my mind even if it didn't taste good. The waiter should've handed her an apron and told her to go back there and cook it herself after that fiasco. I find it hard to believe it was THAT bad for her to take back twice, but stranger things have happened.



I waited till later in the blog to bring up this next topic. Fantasy baseball is upon us! It's not quite on the range of fantasy basketball to me, but it's a close second if nothing else. The only thing I don't like about baseball in my area, it's few and far between for some true hardcore baseball fans who really know their stuff in detail. With that in mind, Sunday afternoon was the infamous A#BL fantasy baseball league ran by Commish Kasher. This is the league that I say hands down is the most competitive baseball league out there and I don't say that lightly. I'm talking an 18-team keeper league that has been going strong now for a while. Not that you care, but I'll give the roll call, it goes all across the continent. We have West Virginia bunch of Cork, ManDingo, Trev Daddy, Walz, and myself. Canada features Commish Kasher, TyLaw, Neon, and TMac. Then we go to West Virginia's long lost brother, Arkansas, with the trio of DerekHood, Kris3, and Big Arlo. We also have Wilbur in Washington State, Answer in Vegas, Blahah in Maine, Duce in Philly, Dack in New York, and Big Play Ray in Parts Unknown. To make a long story short, we each keep five players to carry over. I personally love my keeper set and roll with Prince Fielder (Brewers - 1B), David Wright (Mets - 3B), Justin Upton (DBags - OF), Brandon Phillips (Reds - 2B), and Johan Santana (Mets - SP). Now, it's time to unveil yourrrr 2010 St. Paul Apostles, which is the draft results after the keeper action:

6. Elvis Andrus (Rangers - SS)
7. Ricky Nolasco (Marlins - SP)
8. Nyjer Morgan (Nats - OF)
9. Nolan Reimold (O's - OF)
10. Clay Buchholz (Red Sox - SP)
11. Erick Aybar (Angels - SS)
12. Dexter Fowler (Rockies - OF)
13. Akinori Iwamura (Bucs - 2B)
14. Joel Piniero (Angels - SP)
15. Charlie Haeger (Dodgers - RP)
16. Andy Pettitte (Yankees - SP)
17. Jeff Clement (Bucs - C)
18. Matt Guerrier (Twins - RP)
19. Michael Wuertz (A's - RP)
20. Willy Taveras (Nats - OF)



Yes, as you can see, it's a very deep league. The message board of our leagues are what separates things aside from the fact that the knowledge level is about as good as it gets. To me, you can't beat some quality sports fans that are on top of things. On the baseball front, I think this year I'll have to finally get MLB Extra Innings on DirecTV. I get tons of Yankees games the way it is and practically all of the Bucs games, but since I have the entire summer off, why not just get every game of every team. On the basketball side, NBA League Pass is the best money I spend all year long, no questions asked. I will always bow to the NBA, but I'm so excited right now for fantasy baseball to get here!

You know what else I'm excited about? The new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 maps. Yes, I can barely contain myself around this time of year. On Tuesday, the newbies came out and they were way overdue. We get three new maps (Bailout, Salvage, and Storm) as well as two from the first Modern Warfare (Crash & Overgrown). A special thanks goes to Corndog for sending a 1600 XBOX Live card up to my mean streets for the annual #basketball internet Christmas exchange. That will definitely get used for the new maps, basically letting me download them for free. You can't beat that with a stick. If our crew isn't already ate up with COD, it's about to take a turn for the worse this week I'm sure. As I always say, I could be ate up with much worse.



Last Friday I brought up a topic on Facebook. It didn't blow up like the Notorious B.I.G. one did previously, but it was along that same line. Last Friday marked the 15th anniversary of the death of rap icon Eazy-E. Eazy meant a lot to the rap game and doesn't get nearly enough credit in my mind. First off, he was a pioneer to the gangsta rap sensation. He brought that style to a huge spotlight and ran with it. In 1991, for whatever it's worth, he even ate at a White House dinner with President Bush. He rolled up into the White House with the Compton hat, one of my favorite clips. Also, he should get a huge amount of credit for being one of the first to break through and branch out with an independent label that made it big, giving others the chance. He was a founder of Ruthless Records and of course, most know him as the founder of the infamous N.W.A. Eazy was very talented, sometimes he got a bad reputation, but I feel that he's so underrated.

I will end up on the main part of this with some wrestling chatter. Yes, I'll never grow up and I'm cool with that. Wrestling has been a vice of mine forever and it's something that I'm probably a bit obsessed with it, but so be it. Anyways, this past Sunday was the mecca, WrestleMania 26, from Phoenix, Arizona. Personally, I thought it was a very good show and I thought it was worth the money and then some. I could write an entire blog on wrestling, but I know I'd lose just about everyone, so I'll keep most of it to myself and touch base on a few things I thought hit home. The Randy Orton face (good guy) turn? I'm into it and normally I like a heel (bad guy), but Orton plays his character so well it's not even funny. I like the "viper" aspect of it and him "slithering". It's a running joke that Corndog and I have every week. I really wished the CM Punk vs Rey Mysterio match would've received a lot more time. It could've been off the charts. It was still good, but too short in my mind for how good these two really are. The Bret/Vince stuff, eh. I guess it was expected that it wouldn't actually be a "match". Still, Bret gets a lot of respect from me. My second favorite match of the night was my boy Jericho keeping his title against Edge. These guys can go and it's nice to see Edge back in action and healthy. Jericho might be the best in the world at what he does, he's in the argument for sure. The main event is what everyone is talking about. Shawn Michaels put on a clinic against Undertaker and it was very impressive to me. A great match, especially considering Taker can barely move, it shows how awesome that HBK is. The next night on RAW, they had his farewell and it was well done. Wrestlers never really truly retire, so we'll see if this sticks.



Bird's Video Moment of the Week: We go to a video this week from Corndog. He's sending us one from Little Shrunken. Needless to say, Shrunken is fired up at his boss and lets us know what he really thinks. Here is some stupid humor, enjoy.



3 Quick Thangs:

1. Despite Erin Andrews bouncing around being all hot and Ocho Cinco being Ocho Cinco, I've yet to even give Dancing With The Stars a chance. I know it'd be something silly that I'd be into, but I already have enough TV going on. Plus with Monday nights, that's wrestling night for sure, nothing is going to trump over wrestling action.

2. So Hedo Turkoglu of the Raptors is having a disastrous season. He signed a 5-year $53 million contract and left Orlando for Toronto. The other night he was 'sick' and sat out like a little girl. That's fine and dandy I guess, even though he should've toughed it out, but later that night? He was out partying like a rockstar. How'd he get busted? Thanks to the internet. Fans were fired up he was being a little girl, so sent emails to team officials. In the end? He was fined and benched for Saturday's game against the Heat. In other news, he's a Facebook buddy of our very own Clark "The Governor" Riley.

3. This aren't too "quick" this week, but so be it. We're going to end with Corndog's Wise Words of Wisdom..

Corndog: "Its ok for a grown man to be afraid of a bird"
Corndog: theres a story behind that lol
Corndog: i have a hole on the side of my house where this light was....
Corndog: and a bird got down in there...
Corndog: so i had to take off this whole big panel of wood to free the bird..
Corndog: all at the same time i was afraid of the bird attacking me or something when it came out
Corndog: but i was thinking...hey, i bet alot of people would be afraid..and thats ok
Corndog: it was scary...but its over. the bird is free

5 comments:

DirtyKash said...

I think Big Play Ray is from Oklahoma. Not 100% on that one, though.

Bird33 said...

Actually I think you're right on that Kasher. I was talking to EJ about this and neither of us knew. He said Canada, but I said no, he's just Neon's boy. Then I started calling him Neon's boy to begin with and they didn't like that. Then I was thinking it was either Arkansas or Oklahoma, so I wasn't too far off. Good trivia there Kasher.

John said...

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