"Crocodiles Gonna Eat Me Yeahhhhh!"

Fall is in the air. You know you can smell it. I'm glad since that means I won't have to mow grass except for maybe a few more times before I tap out on the year. It's not like I have a big yard, it's still the thought of having to do it on a regular basis. Oh yeah, basketball is soon too, but that goes without saying as one of the main benefits for fall kicking into gear. What does this edition behold? You get a big wedding with a few of our good friends, a review of Jackass 3D, pepperoni roll rankings, Japanese trip that was 14-deep, board game night, a music plug, a Twitter milestone, and you know that anything else is always possible. Suit up!



I've never been to a 3D movie before in my life. Yes, true story. Now that I've talked to people recently, some others have said the exact same thing. Enter Jackass 3D. You know I had to watch this joy of a movie, what else would you expect? Whitney and I went in on a Friday night. It was jammed packed at the theater. Movie night this time around was my choice and Whitney wasn't a fan of it, but I have to give her credit for toughing it out and sitting through it. My review? Excellent. I can't say enough about it. If you're into that lewd and rude comedy, this is right up your alley. For the youngsters, it's definitely not something you want to watch on family movie night with the whole clan together. However, just about everyone I've talked to has loved it.

The movie definitely has segments that are so over the top, but I'm the type that doesn't get offended by a whole lot, so I liked that aspect. When people in the theater are clapping on certain scenes, you know you have something worth checking out. The glasses aspect was better than I figured. I thought we'd get a pair of the 1980s style cheap bendy red and blue glasses. Nope, you get a pair that makes you look like Vinny of Jersey Shore when you put them on. The first few minutes, I thought I'd get car sick from this (movie sick?). That had me worried, but it wasn't a problem. I really enjoyed the 3D configuration. Not sure I'd want a ton of movies like that, but it was fun. These types of movies with no plot are hard to give a ranking to. Just to do it, I'm giving it 7.9 Wee-Man midgets out of 10 and I feel it has a good re-watchability factor. Go see it if you already haven't.



Wedding action in Fairmont. Abby and Pat's wedding was our latest one to hit up and pretty much half of our town was there. When your whole gang is there, it makes for a really good time. Who would've thought if you asked me years ago that I'd be saying that I don't mind going to some weddings? At least not in one like the setup they had, I thought it turned out very well. I know all girls love weddings regardless, but the guys here enjoyed things just as much. Abby, everyone loved your dress like we told you, even people who have no clue on that stuff like myself. Pat, nice touch with the fire department presentations.

One of my favorite things of the wedding and this goes to show my taste of junk food was the cake. They had a cake from Bonnie Belle's (a local shop that rules) that was out of this world. It wasn't your normal plain wedding cake, those to me are boring. This one had tons of chocolate drizzled all on top plus all the icing you could handle. My kind of cake! The Shinnston Flag Football League was highly represented as players from the Giants, Raiders, and Chargers were all in attendance. It was a game day and we were all joking how bad we wanted to be on the field that day, but we rocked it out wedding style on 10-10-10. A few other things I liked at the wedding was that one of the table munch food was kettlecorn. Now we're talking! Sign me up for some kettlecorn anytime. Then later in the night they ran karaoke and that was classic. Some really good performances out there namely from Pat, Jeremiah, and Garth as ones I enjoyed. My favorite karaoke guy in the area though goes without saying, Danny Stout for those who know him. He brought his A-game and only did one song, but delivered.



Round up the crew. We rocked it out, 14-deep and had a quality night out at Shogun recently. There's never a bad time to eat Japanese if you ask my opinion. Plus we had our favorite hibachi grill master at our table and he's a total riot. The Shogun regulars know the exact guy I'm talking about. We had him launching food at people we knew at another table and he just was goofing off and doing his thing. I eat sushi a good bit here (surprise to some, but it's awesome), but tonight I went with the hibachi style and rolled with filet and scallops as my main course. Scallops are very underrated in my book.

After the Shogun extravaganza, it was off to Kari and Matty Cakes' with 12 of the 14 that ate with us showing up. The first part of the night, the guys went to the man cave and chilled out with college football games and baseball. How can you go wrong with that? I'm a big fan of the setup of their house, it worked out great. Late into the night, the board games were busted out. Scattergories it was, as that's a big favorite of a lot of our crew on board game night. Cork is usually the man at this one, but luckily I escaped and ended up that night's champion by winning by one point. This game doesn't get enough love. It's been around a while, but one of my picks for sure. We're due for Monopoly though.



Pepperoni roll time. A West Virginia staple. As I've always mentioned over the years, if you're from out of the area and haven't tried, you're don't know the taste you're missing. I know it sounds simple, but there's an art to it and you get the best there is in my area. If you've never seen Bob Heffner's page, this could help you out: http://www.bobheffner.com/pepperoniroll/index.htm. Now it's time for me to unveil my personal rankings on which are truly the best. You really can't pick a bad one I don't think, but these are the elite of the elite. Here is the top 6 in my mind:

1. D'Annunzio's: North View's finest landmark. If you pick these bad boys up when they're fresh and hot, look out, yum! Great bread and they put big sticks of pepperoni in there. My favorites. http://www.dannunziosbread.com

2. Colasessano's: I wasn't sure how to put them into the rankings. These are the only ones of the bunch that aren't the basic style of roll and these come loaded up with cheese, peppers, sauce and are prepared hot. This place is legendary and they've branched out to have several shops now. http://www.colasessanos.com

3. Fairmont Country Club Bakery. The original, as stated by a lot of people around here. When I was in college at Fairmont State, I'd love to know the number of these I ate during my time there. I've talked to a lot of people who rank them #1 and I wouldn't have a problem with that argument one bit. These ranks are all so close that it can be switched around in a second. These are very very good, go get em. http://www.bobheffner.com/pepperoniroll/history.htm

4. Tomaro's: The pride of Glen Elk (Clarksburg suburb for the out of area crew). Numerous people are all about going here early in the morning to pick up some steaming fresh pepperoni rolls. They also make a mean loaf of Italian bread if that helps your decision making process.

5. Marty's: Originally in the mean streets of Meadowbrook, West Virginia, they've since moved to Clarksburg in the Quiet Dell region. They may have my favorite actual pepperoni inside of anyone on this list. They used to be located across from my grandpa and uncle's store, so I grew up on these. http://www.martysbakery.com

6. Abruzzino's: It's Shinnston time! Well, technically Gypsy (home of the Gypsy Hill Giants), but close enough. I go by this place every single day on my way to work. As far as a softness and freshness of bread, they may be at the top if we're ranking solely on that. I like their rolls a lot, but the thing that didn't put them higher in my book is that they don't use the stick pepperoni. They go with the sliced and thin style instead. Their cheese versions get a thumbs up. It's crazy how fast these things sell at the Shinnston Pool during the summer.



Since I have too much time on my hands, I hit a Twitter landmark on Wednesday night. If you aren't on there already, I hit 3,000 tweets. I'm not sure if that's worth mentioning, but apparently I made it to the Hall of Fame, Pete Rose style. Corndog (http://twitter.com/corndogtaylor) writes this one, "Congrats Tweet King!" I'm not sure about all of that, but I know I really enjoy it. I know when I first started, I was hesitant and didn't think it'd be too exciting. Now? I'm ate up like no other and at the moment, I like it much better than Facebook, even though they're two different types of animals. Maybe it wouldn't be as great if you didn't have a lot of your gang on there to go back and forth with, but between my buddies and the celebrities you can follow, it seems like almost everyone has been jumping on board, not to mention my Tuesday morning chats with Dick Vitale. That leads into a great time to give a few random Twitter plugs. Mine if you already didn't have it is http://twitter.com/Bird33WV.

4 Random Twitter Plugs:

1. http://twitter.com/mauroranallo One of the best MMA announcers on the planet and great wrestling knowledge as well.

2. http://twitter.com/CRnote33 Finally, we have Clark Riley on board. Add The Governor as one of your followers.

3. http://twitter.com/kliu82 Toronto's very own TMac. One of the original members of #basketball and an all around good dude.

4. http://twitter.com/StephenCurry30 If you didn't get a chance to see Steph Curry last season in his rookie year with the Golden State Warriors, you straight up missed out. This year you need to do yourself a favor and watch a star in the making, should be fun as he becomes one of the NBA's elite.



Bird's Video Moment of the Week: Most people probably won't care, but since last night was the finale of Jersey Shore, Season 2, why not honor it. By the way, January 6th (my birthday) will be the day that Season 3 starts up. This is from the Bingo Players with their Jersey Shore mix. "Crocodiles gonna eat me yeahhh!"



3 Quick Thangs:

1. A disappointing stat now that the Shinnston Flag Football League's regular season is over: Over the past two seasons, I've been on winless teams. Last year with The Green Machine and this year with the Gypsy Hill Giants. The weird thing is that we had pretty good talent each year and could never put it together for the big W. Regardless, I love being a big part of this league and it gets better each year. http://sites.google.com/site/shinnstonflagfootballleague. Also, we just put up the season awards polls today on the message board: http://shinnstonflagleague.proboards.com

2. Quick facts time! Each year there are more than 40,000 toilet injuries in the US.. 40% of women have hurled footwear at a man.. The inventor of the waffle iron didn't even like waffles.. Non-dairy creamer is flammable.

3. We're bringing this one for the readers. When people give suggestions, we like to at least consider all aspects. Long-time blog reader Jenn Raines wanted to know if I'd put in her fiance's music page. Andy is really talented and has started to make a pretty good name for himself. I'm impressed by his version of the covers from I Alone and his unique twist to Poker Face. Check it out in his widget here that I have pasted, it comes highly recommended:

"It's T-Shirttttt Timeeeeee!"

Today's blog title is sparked off by the recent Jersey Shore quote that you can't keep out of your head. You know you're saying that when you get dressed in the mornings, don't lie. Search for it if you haven't seen those scenes yet. Anyways, time to start moving with this project at hand..



Yes, the blog is still existing. Sometimes I have to blow dust off of it every few weeks, but I get it rockin' when you least expect it. That's what I'm about to do since the last time we talked. What will go down in this issue? You get the Shinnston Frontier Days bash, elimination dinner money, a bachelor party, celebrities tweeting to me, Neti Pot, NBA, weird facts, several other things, and something about how cookies can hurt. Some people have even been known to print off copies of this and take it to the bathroom with them for reading material. Whatever works, I'm glad that you're bored enough (or maybe even slightly entertained by the writings) that you keep coming back to crave more action. Here we go!

Surprise to some, or probably actually none, I've never been to an elimination dinner before in my life. There's always a first for everything, right? Well, hopefully a first for everything except for trying heroin, seeing Mo'Nique naked, or becoming a meth head, but you get the point. Whitney and I figured we'd try it out and hit up the Nutter Fort Fire Department's deal they had at the newly remodeled 4-H building. If anyone hasn't been there since they've spiffed it up, it's pretty impressive. On the money side of things, I lasted fairly long amongst our table, but close doesn't count. Whitney lasted a good while longer into the night with her number, but the only one on our table to win any money was Timmy. He was drawn as one of the 'every 25th number' gets $100. Once your number gets pulled, the night is basically over. It's fun to BS around with people and the food was good, but outside of that, you are there for one reason and one reason only, money. I guess the people that drink love that aspect of it, but all the alcohol you can drink doesn't pertain to me. Why can't they have an all you can eat lobster, all you can eat Skittles, or even all the Call of Duty you can play till your eyes bug out? Oooh, speaking of Call of Duty, 11-9-10 can't get here fast enough!



After the elimination dinner, later that night we head back to Shinnston for another bash. This was Pat's bachelor party at The Moose. It seemed like half of Shinnston was there and most of our crew, so that was an awesome time. I'm not a bar guy at all, but when your entire bunch is around, that makes things a lot better. Plus, when I got to mix in some table shuffleboard to go along with the action, of course I'm in. My defining victory was teaming up with Clark as we took down the legend of shuffleboard, Tosh (not Tosh.0 style) and A-Train. Those two held the table most of the night. After playing, I came to the realization that one day I'll need a shuffleboard table in my house. Everyone was having a great time, no knuckleheads around to cause any ruckus since we all know each other and we ended up leaving around 3:00 in the morning. I got to do my community duty as one of the DDs of the night (don't confuse this with Maryse of WWE fame) by driving some to them home safe and sound.

Another bonus was that we had a handful of the Shinnston Flag Football League members there that night. As I type this, the Giants playoff hopes were given a big blister against the North View Lions. We were up 28-12 for those who didn't see my Facebook post after the game and ended up blowing things in the second half. The North View boys always get my respect, some good dudes on that team, so I had to tip the hat in their direction for a great battle and nice comeback. Throughout the night, you could hear Clay Riley and Harmer shouting out for the glory calls of Raider Nation, since obviously they play for the Raiders. Clay with broken ribs and Harmer with a broken finger and they still play through it. I can't make this stuff up, they're animals. Tons of injuries in this league, but it doesn't stop these guys one bit. Also, to the Riley clan, some great words of wisdom you brought late into the wee hours of the night. It's always a blast and let's try to set up that big road trip we were talking about, I'm easy to plan around, you know I'm always good for a trip.



I've talked about this a while back in the blog before, but why not revisit an old topic, but it's a goody. My sinuses are beyond brutal. I get sinus infections left and right for those who know me, just something I've always had to deal with. The pressure I get in my eye and face region, not fun when they break out. I'm not a huge medicine guy unless it's really necessary, I try not to rely on loading up on that as a crutch, but I do have some of my favorite sinus medicine that I go to. It doesn't always work though. One option that isn't medicine is what is called a Neti Pot. Some have seen these before, some have maybe even tried one before, while others are asking, what in the world is this idiot talking about? I'm about to break it down for the confused folk.

Picture a miniature tea pot. You warm up some distilled water, throw in this sinus powder mix that comes with the kit and stir it up. Then you put the pot's end up one nostril while you open your mouth. Yes, stay with me. I know it sounds utterly wacky, but don't knock it till you've tried it. You then tilt your head and in a matter of time, water is going to be spouting out the other side of your nose. Then you do the opposite, with the other nostril and so forth until the pot is emptied. It's not the most pleasant feeling, but I stand by this thing for sure. Whitney got to watch me try it the other night, her first time seeing it and she was probably a bit weirded out seeing junk pour out of me, my eyes watering, and me spitting up who knows what. After I cleaned up, bam, I could breathe again, it's the magic in me. I promise you it's perfectly safe. Some girls have told me they saw it on Oprah. I guess if it's on Oprah, it's in the mainstream, so go get yourselves one of these bad boys, they've been out for a good while. An update, on Tuesday evening I went to the docs and they said I had a pretty bad sinus infection, just like I knew all along since I get them too much. I got a shot in the hip and by the time I left the room, it was tough to walk, must've done the job.



Time to stay in the big town. Last week, town was booming as only my town can. It's the city of dreams. Or city of who knows what, but for some odd reason, I love it here. Not much ever goes on, but it has a place in everyone's heart who lives here. How was town booming though? Enter the Shinnston Frontier Days celebration that lasts almost an entire week. The carnies come in to set up shop, do their rides and games for the kiddies (no, not in that way you sickos), and local vendors come in to sell their food, albeit overpriced. How can you pass up dirty fair food though? The answer? You can't, that's how. Just like at the recent Tally Rally in Clarksburg, my stop at this one was to our buddies at Demus who served up a beast of a tally sausage sandwich. They don't shortchange you and it's a massive hoagie with hot sausage, peppers, cheese, and sauce. Loaded up and well worth it in my mind, it didn't disappoint. This year I didn't get a chance to try DeMarco's on Saturday, as I heard theirs were even better. As a part of it, local singers and entertainers from all walks of life performed on the American Idol stage. Ryan Seacrest was supposed to be there, but he decided against taking a beatdown from some of Shinnston's finest and stayed home, scared of the mean streets. A big thanks goes out to blog reader Nate Drain for bringing life back into the town. He's really motivated and has gotten a lot of people and groups involved to spice up the area. Your work around town doesn't go unnoticed man, I've told you that before, keep it up!

I'll throw this one towards the end since it's probably not a big deal to anyone else other than the Twitter world. Then again, that's a good bit of people, so hard to tell, but I like to amuse myself. I don't have to mention again how hooked I am with Twitter, I think I've talked about it in every recent blog, it's a drug. I'll call it a brush with greatness, although not in person. Have you ever had celebrities tweet back to you? I've gotten a list from some of my boys and it happens from time to time, although not too often for bums like ourselves. My list is small, but hopefully it grows. Last week with my wrestling trivia knowledge to show my dorky side, I had to prove another fan wrong on the whereabouts of Mick Foley's first professional match. The other guy said Poca, West Virginia, when in fact it was in Clarksburg and I was in person for that as a little kid at the Nathan Goff Armory. Foley wrote back and claimed I was correct. As a side note, Foley's new book, Countdown to Lockdown came out a few days ago and is very good as I've already started it.



The other brush is Dick Vitale. Every Tuesday, Dickie V is on the Mike & Mike Show at 7:15, ESPN and ESPN Radio. That's during my drive to work, so I almost always catch it. I'm a big Dickie V guy, although some people aren't his biggest fans, his passion for sports I've always enjoyed. He did a baseball segment this past week and is a big Tampa Bay Rays fan, which only a handful of people can say, even though they have a really good team. Anyways, he broke down his season awards and predicted what he thought would go down during the playoffs. He's replied to my tweets before, but this most recent time he sent two things to me that morning. That's three replied tweets. Yes, that means practically nothing to some, I know that. But I get a kick out of it regardless.

As Corndog (http://twitter.com/corndogtaylor) said after the morning chat with Dickie V: "@Bird33WV is becoming friends with @dickiev via twitter. thats awesome." Corndog also has a daily morning question he posts that all of our gang seems to like a lot that we get going with our coffee. If you want in on some of that, then what are you waiting for? Get in there and follow him. He recently hit the 1000 tweet plateau, so be sure to congratulate him on that once you click the follow button. Five random accounts that I'm going to plug in which I follow that you may want to check out: @SiMZiLa13 (Sims of WV fame), @GarrettQD (NeonTheon), @lordsofpain (my favorite wrestling website, http://lordsofpain.net/index2.html), @StripclubPapst (Dom in Germany), and @LDAngeli (Sign Guy Dudley of the original ECW). No rhyme or reason to why I picked those five, but they're this week's worthy winners. For the computer illiterate, remember to type twitter.com before those names, taking out the @.



Speaking of Twitter, how does everyone like the "new" Twitter? It's just an upgrade more or less, the house was remodeled. I really like the web setup of it, but I think most people use it more on their phones now than an actual computer. I use both and have talked about the Echofon version I use on my iPhone. That version to me is pretty similar to what Twitter's "new" web version is like and it's really handy and easier to use. One of my favorite features and Echofon has had this, is that you can finally get a shortcut once you begin to type a name. After the @ symbol, and a few letters after, bang, it's inserted to the person you want. That's just a small feature, plus the sidebox showing all of your info rather than having to click and go to a different page. It's all there for you. One more mention on the phones. Download Words Free, it's a Scrabble setup in real-time. It's addicting and you can make your move in a matter of minutes or if you're busy, the game will hold with you and your buddy till you go again later in the day. My name on there is Bird33WV.

Basketball is in the air and I'm probably talking to a wall for this paragraph. NBA preseason has already started and everyone knows that's one of the things I absolutely live for. Most people around here and I guess most in the general population aren't the biggest NBA fans or care one ounce about it. I may watch more just in the preseason than a lot of people will watch in the regular season. People ask me all the time how I can be that into the NBA as they'd much rather pick college ball or even another sport. Mix in the Celtics who I bow down to and fantasy basketball and that's a good combo. I've already been into hardcore fantasy prep mode, just something I enjoy doing with my time. I guess that's not saying a lot, but I always say I'm in NBA mode 24/7, 365. October 24th is a huge day though on my calender. Earlier that afternoon, it's the infamous EDDFL Draft. That is a 12-man effort and a live draft. It doesn't get any better than a live, in-person draft with 12 of the areas finest. Plus, we always order a big draft board from FJ Fantasy Sports. I've dealt with this company for a long time and they're nothing but the best. If you've never held a draft with a board, you're missing out, I'm serious. Their prices are good and their service is top notch. Cheap plug time, yes, so check out their place at: http://www.fjfantasy.com and tell em the EDDFL in WV sent ya. Also on the 24th, that evening is the A#BA online draft that goes 20 members deep. It's not for the weak at heart, you better know your stuff to even survive in this one and I don't say that lightly. I'll of course break things down as the season goes, if not only for my own amusement.



Bird's Video Moment of the Week: Cookies can hurt.



3 Quick Thangs:

1. In the ask someone if they have anything to contribute to the blog, TheAnswer stepped up. He gives us this one: On Tuesday, it marked 13 years ago to the day that wrestler Brian Pillman passed away. One of the most underrated wrestlers and promo guys of all time. It's a shame the career that Pillman could've had if he didn't screw it up with drugs. He still had a nice one, RIP.

2. In the freaky stats category, this kid in Illinois went nutty last weekend in his football game. Kapri Bibbs, a Colorado State commit, had a whopping 520 yards rushing on 39 carries with 7 touchdowns. Really? That's video game stuff. Only one of his touchdowns came from less than 30 yards and four of them came from at least 50. Sick.

3. Facts to feast on as you finish up your reading material: A hummingbird weighs less than a penny.. A rat can last longer without water than a camel.. Crickets hear through their knees.. Only female mosquitoes bite.