Hot Tub, Snakes, & Dark Cherry Mocha

Yes, I still exist. I guess I'm a busy guy or sometimes I like to think that way at least. Since the last time I wrote, I should have some goodies to throw into this edition. What will I be rambling on? I'm glad you asked. We will review another movie, which is becoming a regular part of the blogs now that I'm back on track to seeing regular theater movies again. Also, you'll get my 4-day getaway to the mountains on the annual Spring Break tradition. A few other things? MLB Extra Innings, my encounters with snakes and how I react, new Call of Duty maps, the end of EDDFL season, board game action, and the other usual things to toss in. Let's get it done..



I'll start with the movie theme yet again. It seems to be an easy way to get everyone's feet wet before we touch on other subjects. I had wanted to see it when I first saw previews and what is it? Hot Tub Time Machine. If you're not into cheesy comedies with not a lot of plotline, this probably isn't for you. If you're like me and like that goofy off the wall laughter, you should enjoy it. The casting of this movie was well done and the two guys I thought who did the best were Craig Robinson who played Nick Webber and Clark Duke who was Jacob. Team Edward versus Team Jacob? The "names" in this one are John Cusack and Chevy Chase if that does anything for you. Cusack has a big part, while Chase does not. It's a quick watch and won't take up too much of your time. That night, Whip and I were both almost falling asleep in the theater, we were in comas. However, the theater had a pretty good crowd and it was worthy enough. As I type this part up on Sunday, IMDB has it at a 7.5 out of 10. I personally find that a bit high and this is coming from a guy who likes these types of movies. My final grade? I'm giving this one 6.6 black Michael Jacksons out of 10. It's worth seeing, but it's not going to have you jumping out of your seat. Funny for sure though. As a side note, Corndog said it was hilarious and approves. Cork, in one I can't figure out, says it was way better than The Hangover. He's one of few who I know who wasn't too big on The Hangover.

There's a few things that I admit scare me and mine are fairly common with a lot of other people. Heights and spiders are two of my biggies. Not that I'm terrified completely of them, but they each make me uneasy if nothing else. The third? Snakes. I'll admit, I'm a big wuss when it comes to snakes. I'm not the type that is going to run and scream bloody murder when I see one as Mom does, but they will have me going in the other direction and it gets the heart pounding. I've seen two this year, which I guess isn't too bad considering our area. One was on the trail last week on one of my runs. It was a longer greenish snake, but wasn't thick. I didn't stay around to inspect it much further but as I was getting the run going, I look down and it's going all across the trail, ugh. Goosebumps and I did a little jump over it and kept going like a chicken with my head cut off. The other? I was in the mountains over Spring Break and was about to head into the stream to hit up another fishing spot. As I look down, I notice something wrapped around a tree and I kept glancing. The next thing I know as I make a step down the hill, this snake slithers (hey Corndog, it was Randy Orton style) its way down the tree and goes into the water where I'm about to stand. I still wanted to hit up that spot, but I stayed back for a minute to get my focus in order until I went down. I know people say they're just as scared as you as you are of them, but still, snakes, not good times for me.



Speaking of snakes, that gets me to the next topic. Since I was about 6 or 7 years old, it's been tradition to go with my parents over Spring Break to the "mountains" as people in my area call it. They have a place in Harman that we stay at a good bit. If it were up to Dad, during trout fishing season, he could live there and be totally happy. We stay there a good bit and like it, but during this week, we usually rent a place and all pitch in on it. This year we picked a quality setup in Timberline in the Canaan Valley area. 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, internet, a hot tub time machine, a big kitchen, deck and grill, all sitting with an awesome view of a lake. Come on people, you expected me to be gone for three or four days with no internet? I might not make it alive if I did that. You remember in the past when I've been gone that long, that I'd actually drive 20 minutes or so out of the way, park in a wi-fi area and get my web on. Yes, that's pathetic I know, but I'm an internet junkie, have admitted that for many many years.

We couldn't have asked for any better weather than we had. I'm talking 80 degrees plus every single day with no rain at all. The funny thing about it all was that there were areas up there that still had snow on the ground. My area got dumped big time this year with the snow as did just about everyone who lives in the eastern part of the country. Our mountain area of the state though, it's a completely different world up there. If you're not from around here, only words can say how bad it gets up there when it snows. Some of the biggest snow areas in the country are located there, but as far as scenery, it's a great place to stop. West Virginia gets a bad reputation, I know, but this area we go to features some of the best views and sites you'll see.



I won't bore people with too much of the trip though, but a big part of the trip is to hit up some good trout fishing. Some people say I don't look the part to be much of a fisherman, but people also say I don't look the part to be a huge rap fan either. The way I look at it, if I like it, I like it. I don't have to look any certain part, but those comments always get me laughing a bit. I'm not the type of fisherman to make up stories just to make them up. Many times, just like the rest of you, I've been out and not even had a bite. This week I did pretty well. We were there when they stocked all of our favorite streams, so that always helps. I ended up catching 15 in three days, so I'm happy with that for sure. Most of the ones on this trip were brook trout and I also caught a few rainbow trout. The bait of choice on the streams for me, almost always, minnows. For the locals, my favorite place to trout fish is either in Riverton on the North Fork, if not there, it'd be in the Franklin/Upper Tract/Smoke Hole area. I do hope to get some bass fishing going this summer though, that's easy fishing right there.

On Saturday it was time for the crew to get together to go out to eat and rock out some board games. We rolled 11 deep for a Shogun trip for great Japanese food. Since people like the roll call, who was in attendance? Ozzie and Maria set the night up, Kari (minus Matty Cakes who was sick), Cork and Kristin, The Fortneys with Gracey, Mudcat, Whitney, and myself. I'm the type that changes up my order a lot when I go out to eat, but I don't change too often at Shogun. You can't go wrong with filet and scallops if you ask me, so I went that route again and it received a big thumbs up. Fortney joked that he set the tables up so he'd sit beside me because I always have leftovers for the crew. I'm generous like that I guess, hah.



After we were done with Japanese, some of us made a quick coffee run to Starbucks on the way there. I wouldn't say I'm a huge Starbucks guy, but it has grown on me some, so a stop I hit up every now and then. I tried a new one, the Dark Cherry Mocha. I'd recommend this for sure. You can get it iced or hot, I chose hot for sure. The cold coffees, I'm not a fan of that. When it comes down to it, I'm not a huge coffee guy in general, but a cup or two here and there is no biggie. At work, I get a few cups every morning cranked with sugar just to get me going and get my teach on.

Then it was off with the entire gang yet again for board games, hosted by Ozzie and Maria. I'm very simple and low key, so a night like this is always great in my book. You get to BS around and plus we flipped between a few NBA games, so you know I'm in. If NBA is involved, I'm easily swayed to be a part of whatever it is. The game of the night? As the last time we played, we busted out Scattergories. A very underrated game if I must say so myself. Especially when we have that many people involved. Erica joined later in the night to bump our number up one more. Was it a repeat from the last time? It seemed to be. Cork was yet again crowned champion and gets to ride around in the next parade in town on his float as Scattergories King. Or something like that. Coming in second? Just like last time, Maria nabs that spot. These two own the game, no doubt. Ozzie and myself? Not so much. We both were at the bottom. I did well last time, but this one, brutal. Either way though, I'm a board game dork and had a blast. Thanks to Ozzie and Maria for having us all out again, much appreciated. Fortney and Ozzie, let's get to work on that Michigan/Notre Dame game this year, I'm down, regardless of price. We should bust out the van, Atlantic City style trip and relive it.



The Notre Dame comment has me in sports mode, but I'm always in that mode anyways. Now that baseball season is here, I'm super pumped up. At this time of year, at least for me, it's one of the better times for me as a sports fan. You have the NBA regular season ending and playoffs are already here. Also, we're a week plus into the baseball season. Every single year with DirecTV, I always make sure to order NBA League Pass, which basically gives you access to every game for every team all season long. That's the best money I spend every single year and this marked the 13th year in a row I've bought the package. For what you get, it's a steal at that price. I'm ripping DirecTV off big time it seems. Baseball I had never bought until this season. I'm not sure why either. I get a ton of Yankees game anyways nationally and here in this area we get most of the Bucs game. Now? I'm going the whole boat and ordered MLB Extra Innings. It's been amazing and I've only had it for a short time so far. One of the key features I love is Game Mix on the DirecTV setup. When you go to that channel, you have 8 screens up at once. When games are rocking, it's filled up with nonstop action that you can track all at the same time. If you want a closer look, just go to the channel that the actual game is on and you get full screen HD. Money well spent!

After a long wait, they've been here now for a few weeks. What's that you ask? Yep, the new Call of Duty maps, the Stimulus Package if you will. I'm not sure what took them so long to release these as we've all been itching to get some new maps to battle with online. I'm a big fan of these new maps and I like how they added a few of the old maps from the first Modern Warfare, Crash and Overgrown. Bailout, Storm, and Salvage are also part of the mix. There's not a one of these I dislike. I know I've written about these when they first came back, but that was pretty much before I had played them. My favorite of the bunch if I had to pick? That's a toughie, but I'm going to with Crash or Salvage since it's a smaller board. Since I play 99% Free-For-All, I much prefer the smaller boards that are tight instead of having a zillion miles to run arond. You know how it goes. Hit me up on 360 and look for Bird33WV if you want your head shot off with the P90 or any other gun of your choice.



To end, I'll get another sports piece in. My passion of fantasy NBA is now over for the season. I might even shed a tear. Our league that I run, the EDDFL is going as strong as ever. We ran 12-deep again and I'd still put it up against any league out there not automated by a computer. It takes an insane amount of work to do, but I still love each season we rock it out and I've been doing it now for roughly 20 years, true story, been doing stats by hand since I was 10. I have all records back on paper and computer from the 92 or 93 era, but nothing the previous few years before that. We'd like to send the big congrats out to Spank who had one of the best EDDFL seasons of all time. Coming in 2nd was Ozzie in his best finish ever and since he's joined our leagues, he gets better each season. I took the last money spot, 3rd Place as it's my third straight finish in 3rd Place, the irony. I'm due for a 1st Place win though, but still hold the mark for a 3-peat a while back. The rest of the gang? 4. Riley, 5. TJ, 6. ManDingo, 7. Mudcat, 8. Sidell, 9. Cork, 10. Fortney/Posey (TIE), 11. Fleece. I'm already awaiting October's EDDFL Draft Day, thanks to the guys involved for making it a blast for me to work on still.



Bird's Video Moment of the Week: Kasher tweeted about this the other day. It's a short hockey clip, but to me, it's good stuff since it's so random. Yep, it's time for green men upside down..



3 Quick Thangs:

1. I try not to bring much religion or politics arguments into the blog. I will mention something from church the other night, although not religion related. Most know my stance on not caring to see people out and about all over each other. Get a room, but I saw this couple doing basically that during the church service. Really? Really?? Yep. I mean, they weren't all over each other, but they had their arms around each other, holding hands, and the dude gave her a kiss while stuff was going on. Maybe I'm wrong, but thumbs down to that couple, they fail.

2. Want a few weird facts? A crocodile can't stick out it's tongue.. many hamsters only blink one eye at a time.. Until President Kennedy was killed, it wasn't a federal crime to assassinate the president.. To sell your home faster, and for more money, paint it yellow. Who knew??

3. Softball season is back in gear very soon. Come May, our team moves from its Morgantown roots and now we'll be ballin' at Fairmont's Windmill Park. We're now sponsored by Gutter Connection and will be the Gutter Sluts, decked out in black and orange. I'll have reports through the year I'm sure.

-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

Cleveland: Where Kids Eat Free!

You know what I always say, road trip blogs are always fairly easy to write. This one will be the Cleveland trip to where we rolled eight deep, piled into two cars and made a day trip of it. Needless to say, I was in a coma by the time I got home late that night, but I went to work the next day like a champ, no biggie. I was excited for this trip and it turned out to be a good one. I better get to breaking things down, don't want any impatient blog readers coming to slice my tires. Before that, a quick tease to what will be included. Here's a few topics: hanging with Ralphie, rap on the ride, buying snuff can save you in gas money, mac n cheese shakers, NBA action, my 64 tourney predictions, a movie review, and whatever else we feel worthy to throw in for your enjoyment. Or maybe there won't be any enjoyment, I guess we'll find out when I get things underway... starting.. now!



Who was along for this trip? It's roll call time. Car #1 featured Matty Cakes at the wheel, Kari, and the baby-expecting couple of Ozzie and Maria. If you haven't done so thus far, make sure you send the baby congratulations to Ozzie and Maria as they recently got word that sometime in the fall will make my Uncle Jeff into a grandpa. That will be good times indeed. Technically I can't be an uncle until I get married and we know that's ages away if ever, so all of my younger cousins hopefully will continue the tradition that Jill started with her kids of calling me uncle. I get a kick out of that for some reason.

Car #2 I took charge of and had Spank, Cork, and Trev all doing their thing. I've always mentioned, I'm not the world's greatest driver, so you never know what to expect on longer road trips. On the way up, it was smooth as all gets. For as many times as I've been to Cleveland, this is the first trip that I went north to get there, as that would be up I-79 and through Pittsburgh. Normally I'd go west and hit Route 50 and then straight through to I-77. Matty Cakes and Kari are veterans of the game of driving to Cleveland, so they suggested the north route is about a half hour quicker. I'm down for that and it wasn't a bad drive across the turnpike. I think I still prefer going on Route 50 because it seems 85% of that drive is in the middle of nowhere. Both ways are easy drives though and we didn't have traffic. On the way home, I'm terrible at changing lanes and Spank knows this for sure on road trips and he just kind of shakes his head at some of my moves. I didn't see this one car coming and about whipped it into his lane and took us out, to which Cork said "You've almost hit three cars on this trip." As they always say, almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. Fortunately, we made it home safe and I always am thankful for a safe trip to where no problems go down. We were all successful on that end.



I don't get a ton of road trips where we have a car full of people that agree that rap is the way to go. We switched between old and new and that was a big part of our ride. You can't really go wrong with that if you ask me. If it wasn't rap, we had sports radio on, especially after the tournament selection later that night. More on that part later of course. Also, between Spank, Cork, and myself, we were all going through Call of Duty withdraws and would picture things in real life to imagine how that would translate to COD along the ride. I need to buy an adapter so we can play on my screen in the car, then we'd be set. We stopped at a gas station along the way, not sure of the exact area, but they had a promotion that I've never seen. I've never even seen it in my redneck area, let alone up north. Apparently if you buy a can of snuff of a certain kind at that store, you save three cents per gallon of gas. I kid you not, it was on their signs. Maybe they don't do that promotion in my area since every store would be losing money on their gas. Not like it's not already jacked up and overpriced, but that goes without saying. I always say, overpriced or not, it does no good to complain about gas prices. Sure, you can be tough guy and say you're going to walk, ride a donkey, or take a bus, but when it comes down to it, the majority here aren't going to do that. You're going to pay that gas price and like it. It's only going to go up as the weather gets warmer, just how it goes.

As we're driving along, we get closer and closer to Cleveland. Spank and I were saying this might be the only time we've went to the town together and didn't have some Bone Thugs playing in honor of the city. It's just a tradition with us, call it weird or not. Speaking of Bone Thugs, later this month I should have a nice Facebook topic on Eazy-E to gain some comments. My Biggie post seemed to have opinions from all over, I liked that. Anyways, we were going through this one area and it smelled awful, sulfur water style but not sure if it was that or what and it was in a rough section. Trev then said the line of the trip as we called it while driving in this area, "I can't see why LeBron would ever want to leave this place." That needed a picture to go with it, but maybe it was just one that you had to be a part of, but we all thought it was pretty creative.



Back to LeBron in a second, but let's take a detour. Part of the basketball trip was also to check out Ralphie. Yes, that Ralphie from A Christmas Story. Like it or love it, you all know it as the movie they play ten bazillion times during the Christmas holidays. I personally am a big fan, but not quite as obsessed as Kari is with it. This was the reason she wanted to go on the trip, the basketball game she could take it or leave it. Not far from the arena, we went to see the Christmas Story House and museum. They do half hour tours and the tour guide tells you all kinds of interesting things from the movie and how they filmed the movie in that area. All the outside shots were done at the house we were at and on that street. The inside house activities and department store scenes were done in Canada, but they restored the Cleveland house to make it pretty much exact. At the museum and gift shop, you could buy just about anything associated with the movie. The leg lamp? Sure, all sizes are there for that. The bunny suit? Yep. The Flick hat? You know it. I could go on and on. If you go to that area, it's well worth the stop, I enjoyed it.

If you've read my Cleveland stories before, you know a few things hardly change. One is the food stop. Alesci's in Downtown Cleveland. I've mentioned this place time and time again, but it's out of this world, at least in my opinion. I've tried a lot of their items, but I'm hooked mainly on their calzones. Yum yum! It's a small Italian place that is setup somewhat like a deli. I'm telling you, you can't go wrong with this place. This is the place that Ozzie says that he'd drive to Cleveland just for their food and drive back home if he had to. If that's not high praise, I'm not sure what is. Spank did say that their sausage and peppers can't even be graded against my Mom's homemade style, so Alesci's can't hang on that end, they lose that one. As we were leaving this place, there was a bar that had a promotion going on. In front were a few guys and they'd be yelling at people walking by, telling them the deal. What was that deal you ask? They had signs and were screaming, "$2 domestics, $3 bombs, and kids eat free!" Really? You're serious? Why not hold up a sign that says, "Hey drunkies, come on in with your kiddies and get wasted out of your minds and then get behind the wheel of a car." As this guy was doing his spiel out front, he shouted the domestics and bombs part and Spank finished up the part about kids eating free and the dude was all about it. It's another one that I guess you had to be there, but another one of my favorite things on the trip.



Now it's time to get into the area. The House That LeBron Built. I can't call it the Quicken Loans Arena, nobody calls it that. The Q? Eh, I guess we can roll with that if we had to. I miss the times of arena and stadium names that had actual thought behind them instead of some corportation just paying for the rights. This is the first time I've seen my (yes, I realize I don't play for the team, but I still am saying my) Celtics in Cleveland if memory serves me right. I've seen them play in a lot of other arenas, but not Cleveland. I've been to quite a bit of LeBron games and they never get old. The dude as I've said before, they treat him like an absolute god in that city, it's unbelievable to see in person. Watching on TV only does it a bit of justice and doesn't tell the entire story. Remember the last Cavs games I wrote about that I went to? That was the trip with Matty Cakes, Spank, and myself to where LeBron hit the buzzer beater three against the Magic in the playoffs. The atmosphere that night was off the charts. That trip also featured one of my favorite all time pictures, the one where I did the big leap off the ledge in the hotel onto the bed.

The game wasn't as close as it ended up. My boys took a beating for most of it, but the actual number wasn't too far off. Cavs ended up winning, 104-93. LeBron had an "off" game of 30pts/8rebs/7asts and shot a rough 9-21. Even with that, he still had a near triple double, dude is a freak. My crew? They're good in the East as they keep it going, but aren't a contender anymore. They're old, beat up, and just don't seem to have that defensive intensity that can intimidate teams anymore and motivation of a few years ago seems to be lost. It's been tough to watch the past month or two, but I'm still along for the ride, no questions. I live for the NBA. As I type this, they're 4th in the East, although that's not saying much at all. TJ Book could round up his Shinnston Jerry West team and land a playoff spot in the East practically. Or is Big T just that good of a coach? Hmm.. Anyways, our seats were way up this time, but I'm not one to be picky for seats. When we got our tickets in December, this game was a hot one and we had to pay fairly steep to get into the building because at the time, both were contenders. Even up high, we weren't far from midcourt and had an awesome view. I'd take them again with no complaints.



One thing that surprised me was a promotion they had. I can see promotions for the Pirates baseball games I go to, that understandable. As a little piece of info, they have the most promotions in the league. They have to with the roster they put out on the field. The Cavs? They currently have the best record in the ENTIRE NBA and they pull this one off. What is it? Kids Day we were part of and when we walked in, they handed everyone a box of mac and cheese. I can't make these things up. The deal was that you were to shake your box to make noise and it'd get the arena hopping. I didn't see one single person doing this and I was glad of that. The good is that it's free mac and cheese and I can tear those up like no other. At the end of the game, there were tons of boxes just laying around in the seats as people left. I know it's not filet mignon, but come on people, were you too good to take them home? We loaded up on some extra boxes to take with us, why not? It beats throwing them away. Think of all the needy people out that have nothing and how they'd appreciate just one box of that. Remember what you have and be thankful for it, most don't know how good they truly have it.

On the way up, we tore into some Cracker Barrel in Morgantown as a group. That was the big thing of the trip I wanted was a breakfast stop to get us going. That gets the day off on the right path. I ended up getting some french toast with peaches, hot apples, and bacon. It hit the spot for sure. On the way home, we went our separate ways and Car #2 made a food run to Smokey Bones. I've never been there before, but we went on Cork's recommendation. I guess they're known for their ribs, but I didn't go that route. The place is pretty big and it has a sports bar type atmosphere. I liked the look of the place. I did not, and Spank agreed with me, care for how crazy loud it was in this place. When it comes to eating, I want some semblance of peace and not to have to scream at each other sitting in the same booth. Spank said it reminded him of a club, thumbs down. Once the food came though, the thumbs up went way in the air. I ended up getting salmon which was amazing and I'd definitely get it again here, a salad that wasn't bad, and and you guessed it, hot apples. I loved the food.



Tomorrow begins the college basketball tourney and it's time for me to give my picks out to the world. I'm sure these will be mangled within a few hours time, but do with them what you like. Last year I was lucky enough to win Ozzie's big money pool, so I have to retain my title this year. You've all heard enough things about the tourney this week, so I won't keep you long. Here is my breakdown in a nutshell..

Elite 8: Michigan State, OSU, Cuse, Xavier, Texas, New Mexico, A&M, Baylor.

Final 4: OSU, Cuse, New Mex, Baylor

Championship: Cuse vs Baylor

Winner: Syracuse

1st Round Upset specials: Northern Iowa, SD State, Cornell, Louisville, Seina, ODU, St. Marys

Movie time once again. Theater this time and not a rental. This one to mention is Remember Me. Yes, a chick flick, I know what you're thinking already. It's not as bad as some of the guys made it out to look actually. The theater was fairly crowded and as you could guess, there were very few guys in attendance. You've all seen the previews, but it's the new Edward Cullen movie. It's the Stifler theory, he's not Robert Pattinson to me, he's Edward Cullen no matter what role in a movie he plays again. The same way in how Stifler is not Seann William Scott, you know what I mean. IMDB wasn't kind to the movie, I was a bit surprised, but they have it at a 5.8 out of 10. Cullen played his role great and made it seem he can play other parts other than Twilight stuff. Another that played their role was little kid Ruby Jerins, who was Cullen's sister in the movie. You'll instantly like the role that she plays. Tate Ellington, not to be confused with basketballer Wayne Ellington, he wins the award for biggest douche in a movie in a while. They casted him great for that because most of the movie you don't care for him, even if he's boys with Cullen. My final rating? Be ready for it because this movie was more than I expected as well actually, 8.4.



Bird's Dirty of the Week: Kristen in Florida is back action with more action for us to check out. This apparently is the "THA REAL BO$$ BITCH". I just call it as it's printed, it's there. We go to Georgia for this girl. What does Kristen think? "and while you're at church...here's a sho' nuff dirty for ya! even from atlanta....not a whole lotta pictures, but enough to make her qualify for sure" "her pictures are of her being all nasty though" "considering there's not one where you can honestly see her face clearly yea...that's a good indication.." Check it out for yourself at http://www.myspace.com/ashli404.

Bird's Video Moment of the Week: We're going to a kids dunk contest from 2005 at a Wiz game. The kid that can't dribble at all cracks me up, plus the fourth kid seems to have some talent. Watch him do the oop off the backboard dunk and then you get the brush off at the 1:50 mark. The only thing this is missing is sound, but it's getting put up regardless.



3 Quick Thangs:

1. Let's go with some birthdays for Thursday, February 18th. We haven't done these in a while. We start out with Yoko Ono, former wife of John Lennon, she's 77. Actress Cybill Shepherd, 60. Director John Hughes of Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller fame, he's also 60. Speaking of movies, let's go to John Travolta, 56. Wheel of Fortune chick Vanna White, 53 and still looks decent. We're going back to movies and hitting up Matt Dillon, he's 46. A guy who gets my utmost respect, the greatest rap producer of all time and also the man of the greatest album of all time in The Chronic, ladies and gentlemen, Dr. Dre is now 45. Actress Molly Ringwald, 42. If you ask me, that's a solid group indeed.

2. Want some facts? Polar bears can eat as many as 86 penguins in a single sitting. Somehow I'd want to see that to believe it.. In the weightlessness of space a frozen pea will explode if it comes in contact with Pepsi. Who knew? When immersed in liquid, a dead sparrow will make a sound like a crying baby. Yet another one I'd have to see to believe.

3. I don't have anything to end on, so I'm just going to give a basketball opinion for no other reason. Best current in-game dunker? My vote goes to Josh "J-Smoove" Smith. This guy is just so nasty, yet doesn't get his credit due. LeBron, JRich, and Amare are all up there for sure, but Smoove gets my pick.

The Laziness Ends!

Lethargic. Idle. Indolent. Languid. Sluggish. Slothful. What are all of those? Those are words that are synonyms for the word lazy. I guess that's what I've been the past few weeks on the blog. The people were getting restless, so it's time to crack the fingers out and get to typing up what has been going down in my world. Sometimes, there aren't many huge stories that are going down, other times you just turn into a bum and don't feel like writing things up even though you're still online 24/7. In this one, I'll talk about a top 10 list of things I dislike, Undercover Boss, a movie review, Jersey Shore DVD, Chatroulette, food frenzy on Friday, a supplement update, new CDs, and other things that we can pile in. We'll see what the stories hold this week..



As you wait around for the second season of Jersey Shore, you have something to keep your interest until that. Earlier last week, the DVD of the first season came out, uncensored if that does anything for you. There's a lot of extras on this thing too. I got it on the mail and have already watched a good bit of it. I open that bad boy up and what is inside? Not one, not two, not even three, but FOUR discs. How can you beat that for a price for about $16? You can't is how. You get all nine episodes uncensored, deleted scenes, the reunion special, tips from The Situation and Snooki which I'm sure might alter your life, Before the Shore, and the makeover of Michael Cera into a guido. If anyone is interested in a Jersey Shore DVD viewing party, you know I'm easy to convince for that.

It's time for a movie review. I've been slacking lately, but we're here with a chick flick for anyone that cares. The Time Traveler's Wife. I didn't even know much about this movie, but figured I'd give it a try when Whip rented it. First off, I'll start by saying it's a bit of a confusing movie. After a while things start to tie in. I'm sure it didn't help that I was half asleep and nodding off in some parts, but that shouldn't stop you from watching. By the end of the movie, you're going to get into it quite a bit and it's going to grow on you. If you're a wuss during these types of movies, you may even shed a tear or two, who knows. It's that kind of deal, but a pretty good movie minus the confusing parts. The main people in this are Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana. They both play their parts well, although McAdams' is a bit easier to play in my opinion. Funny thing on her IMDB, it says "formerly a vegetarian". Why even put that? Like she beat a disease or something? On druggies, do they put in their info, "formerly a crackhead"? Nope. IMDB gave this one a 7.2 out of 10. I'm going to give it.. let me think for a second.. I'll go with 6.7 time travels out of 10. It's a good movie, but I doubt it's one that I'd watch a lot of times over and over.



More TV you ask? Here's one I will recommend if anyone hasn't seen. It's been on for two weeks now. Undercover Boss on CBS, 9:00 on Sunday nights. The basic storyline of the show has a big wig for a company that goes undercover, works with the common folk and to see how their company really operates. The first two weeks have been on 7-11 and White Castle. They see both the bad and good as people give their honest opinions on how they think the company is treating them, what opportunities they have, and the whole works. As the big shot get to know these people over a short period of time, the ending is what makes the show. He brings these people in to speak with them. These people have no idea why they are being driven to some corporate office. When they are sitting there waiting, the big shot comes in dressed in his suit and all of that instead of the work clothes they saw them in recently. As he breaks down the reason he was there, he tells how he connected to them and due to their struggles or what they have been good at, he will usually hook them up somehow with a bigger job opportunity, money for their families, or a charity fund under their name. It doesn't sound like much, but you get sucked into the stories and the end will have the weak at heart getting emotionally possibly. Check it out, you may enjoy it.

For anyone big into Twitter, you've probably noticed that a thing called Chatroulette is gaining some steam in a lot of posts. Yes, I realize I plug Twitter way too much, but I'm ate up with it, I can't help it, so that's what you get. Has anyone tried this yet? It's not as good as it seems, but can be a good time killer. I'll let Wiki describe what this thing really is all about: "Chatroulette is a website which pairs random strangers for webcam-based conversations. Visitors to the website randomly begin an online stranger chat (video and text) with another visitor. At any point, either user may leave the current chat and initiate another random connection." You see some characters on here for sure. The 'next' feature is what makes it interesting. If you don't like it, move on to the next bum. I don't see it as something that a lot would be into, but like I said, it's a good time killer if nothing else. That's why we're online anyways, right? Being bums and killing time.



I now want to jump into a Top 10 list of sorts. I've done these things a bit in the past to list a few, but don't think I've listed ten at once. What am I going to list this week? I present to you, 10 Random Things I Dislike:

1. Slow drivers in the snow.

2. Grown women who argue over pointless things and hold grudges forever. Guys? If they have a problem, they hash it out, and the next day they're boys again. It's simple. Girls, they get all evil on each other.

3. Red lipstick.

4. Drunk drivers.

5. Jimmy Buffett. I really don't know much on this guy, but I never really understood why he's as big as he is. He doesn't do a thing for me personally.

6. Rednecks in big trucks who sit side by side with their boyfriend/girlfriend as they go down the road, half making out the entire time.

7. Speaking of all over, another dislike would be people who are all over each other in public.

8. People who cry and whine nonstop on their Facebook status updates. Come on, your life can't be THAT miserable. If it is, you don't have to let the rest of us know every 3 seconds. Post some good things every now and then. You can post some whiny things, but don't go overboard.

9. Mushrooms.

10. Sticks in sunflower seeds. If you're a fan of these, you know what I mean. You get a big handful and crank it in your mouth and you find a stick. It doesn't happen a lot, but does every now and then. What I'm talking about is the sticks or bark as I like to refer it, as gets jumbled into the mix. Bad times, as are rotten sunflower seeds when you get a hold of one of those.



Last Friday I'm going to post how I ripped up the food like no other. I wake up for work and we just had teacher meetings that day, so it was easy. I didn't have to leave quite as early, so that's always good. At the house, at 7:00 in the morning I had a pancake, bacon, and orange juice. At 9:00, our cook at work who is the best at any school in the county, bar none has me set up with a plate-full of food. Biscuits and gravy, cinnamon roll, tater tots, and chocolate milk. I had just ate a few hours ago, but I can't pass up her food, it's legit. At 12:30, I made a stop to D&P, a local joint that booms the business. There I got a cheeseburger, antipasta salad, and a grape pop. The grape pop seemed to hit the spot. At 6:00 that night, it was time to take my parents out to the Wonder Bar. There I started out with some crushed red pepper garlic bread combo, a salad with raspberry vinagrette, a filet that was out of this world, a side of spaghetti, and a bunch of tea. For some reason, I didn't eat again till 3 in the morning. Then I had a bowl of Cheerios and a glass of orange juice. 4:30 in the morning rolls around and I'm going through handfuls of honey roasted peanuts. Around 5:00, I finally tap out to bed. I felt like a 155-pound fat boy that day, but it was good stuff. As I always say, just go to the gym and work it all off, that's my theory.

Speaking of working out, it's time to bore some with new supplement talk. Others are wanting to hear this though, so there's a little for everyone. I like to switch things up, so that's what I did this week. Gold Card Week, so I had to load up. I'm taking a few weeks off from Jack3d, which is an awesome supplement. In its place, I'm going with MuscleTech's noNO Hardcore x9 tablets. These are pretty nice and seem to work, but I still prefer Jack3d or No-Xplode over that. Protein I'm still rocking the Muscle Milk or course, great taste, easy to mix, and loaded with all you need. On the creatine side of things, I'm still sticking with the Amplified Creatine 189 tabs, a big fan of those. Two newer things added to the latest purchase. One is an amino acid powder mix called RapidDrive BCAA 5000. I have fruit punch and the taste is pretty good. Back to the Jack3d, which is made by USPlabs, I went with a newer product they recently put on the market. It's called Anabolic Pump and is a muscle builder/fat burner that you take one tablet 15 minutes before a carb containing meal. We'll see how it goes, I just like switching stuff up. I love the winter as all know, but I am excited this week that it starts warming up to get some outside runs in. Treadmills, ugh. I still get on the tread, but it's not the same to me.



March is a busy month for me, so I should be able to ramble off some blog topics over that time. Next weekend, I make my first NBA trip of the season. Yes, I know this is way late for me and I should've already been to a few this year, my fault. Anyways it'll be off to Cleveland as we roll 8 deep to see my Celtics get punished by LeBron. That's a trip I always love doing. The week after that? We're off to Ohio again, this time to Dayton. I've never been to Dayton, but this one is an MMA trip to see one of our boys fight for a title. The following week? The afternoon will feature the A#BL fantasy baseball draft that features 20 teams (or is it 18?) and then the night will be huge. For the dork I am, it's WrestleMania 26! I'm not missing that for anything and we'll have a ton of people watching.

I might as well review a few CDs, why not?

B.G.: Too Hood 2 Be Hollywood. This is a very good one in my opinion. If you like some harder grimey rap, this is for you. I've always thought B.G. has been underrated and doesn't get the respect due. Maybe it's because for the most part, he hasn't jumped into the high level of mainstream and stays to his style all along. My Hood was one of my favorite songs of 2009, so that gets a thumbs up. Others to check out? Ya Heard Me featuring Juvenile, Lil Wayne, and Trey Songz. I Hustle with Young Jeezy. Back To The Money with Magnolia Chop. Find this one if you can.

Fozzy: Chasing The Grail. A lot are probably wondering, who is Fozzy? That is Chris Jericho's band. Yes, Chris Jericho the wrestler, one of my favorites. His first album wasn't anything special in my mind. This isn't rap either, it's a rare non-rap review I'm doing. This one is much better than his first edition. The main song on this one is Martyr No More, good stuff. Others to load up on are New Day's Dawn, Let The Madness Begin, and Grail. Maybe I'm biased since it's Jericho, but I like this album.



Bird's Dirty of the Week: We're going with one of our oldest girls in a long time. We're branching out and going to Panama City for this 37 year old. We also get this submission coming to us from Kristen in Florida. She hasn't sent in a submission in a while, so she was due. What does she say on this? "i think we found you a ho though..lol" "but this girl's got some pics in her album that'll seal it.." "page 2's good stuff" "you see her age? not bad i aint hatin on her...just fits the bill". I figure some can't see these, but make sure you log in if you have an account over there to see the pics. Otherwise, it'll say private. Just saying. http://www.myspace.com/433660669

Bird's Video Moment of the Week: I caught this on Rob Dyrdek's Twitter. I'm not a skater dude, but I kinda like watching some of that stuff from time to time. This one I've never seen before. Daniel Pelletier, 25 surgeries and paralyzed from the waist down. This kid is a paraplegic and rocks it out. Some impressive stuff he's doing, check him out:



3 Quick Thangs:

1. It looks like this week won't have any blizzards like we've had for a while now. Temperatures into the high 50s? Dang. That's heat wave style. One day last week, I was shoveling snow at 2:30 in the morning. Yeah, weird hours around our house. The parents would do their thing and then I'd shovel late at night or late in the afternoon and it'd cycle over. Team work, that's how it goes. 1986 Celtics style.

2. Girl Scouts Cookies are out! This is a good time of year for junk food fans. I've already started on the greatest of these cookies, Samoas. I always stock up with boxes upon boxes of these things to last me for a while. We've all ate an entire box of GSCs in one sitting, don't lie and say you haven't. I gotta admit, the past two days I've had a box each day. That's not good.

3. I don't get McDonald's stuff a whole lot, but I was craving the other day on the way home from work. I knew I wouldn't be eating for a while on that particular night, so I needed something to hold me over. Why not some nuggets? I've seen all the commercials on the sweet chili sauce. It's more like a glaze to me than a sauce. It's ok, nothing I'd be jumping for joy over. I prefer the BBQ sauce there. Final rating of the sweet chili sauce? 6 out of 10.

High Top Fades, Eskimo Pies, Oreos & Intoixicated Ants

We're back in action and ready to get with it. What do we have in store for the readers this week? I was off work for the entire week, so I should have some things to ramble about, so we'll see what goes down. A quick preview as I normally like to do. I will give my NBA All Star Weekend thoughts, a Dear John review, way too much Call of Duty, stupidly being up till 1:00 in the afternoon, blizzard fun, junk food, and other things that will mix and match, criss and cross. Away we go..



Movie time as that's always an easy place to start. I've been on a roll lately, so I'm back on the grind with my current movies. The latest was one I meant to see a few Fridays ago, but it didn't go down due to the snow. I was out and about that night as you already know, but we had to be sent back to Shinnston as we couldn't get through. Thanks FedEx. Anyways, Tuesday night it was movie time and some say I was taking one for the team. Either way, the movie in question is Dear John. Every girl out there turned into a 12-year old bouncing off the walls from a candy high. Hey, I do that now, so maybe that's not a good analogy. The guys did their part and went along for the ride. I don't mind chick flicks, I've went on record of saying that before. Comedies are by far my favorite movies, but I wasn't opposed to seeing this. I did not read the book though, so my review is strictly on the movie end of things without knowing anything else in the storyline other than previews. Keep that in mind.

A lot of you have went to this too, whether you want to admit or not. Every girl had a Facebook or Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/Bird33WV) post with their excitement. That also gave me yet another place to cheaply plug my Twitter account. Facebook I enjoy like most of you just to see what's going on in the area, to get some gossip and kill a lot of time. The past few months, I've been tons more into Twitter though, it's a total blast, at least for me. It makes it a lot better when many in your crew take part in the action. Ok, I was sidetracked there, now back to your regularly scheduled program. I actually liked this movie, it's worth seeing and this is a guy saying it. Maybe it makes me less manly to some that I went, but a lot of guys reading did the same thing, so there ya go. It may have ya breaking down in it, but I held up pretty well. I figured this would be a crying movie, but it wasn't for me, some it was and usually I'm easy to get. The part that got me was when Channing Tatum was at his dad's side when he was in the hospital bed. That had me holding back much more than any of the stuff between Tatum and his chick. As far as the chick, I'll be honest, I think he should've forgotten about her in the end and walked out of the house. That's just my thought, but I'm probably in the minority there. This is worth seeing though. My final grade? I'm giving it 8.1 Afghanistan war stints out of 10. Whip gave it a 8, while IMDB somehow has it at a very low 5.3 as I type this? 5.3, seriously?



Our message board talks about anything and everything as we noted last week. We have a little junk food discussion going in one thread and it may have you thinking. The poll that is up there, Chewy Chips Ahoy versus Oreo. As I type this up, Chips is in the lead in a close one. I voted Oreo and why? Well, one because I love Oreos. Two, I've never tried Chewy Chips Ahoy that I know of. I've tried regular, but not chewy. Apparently the boys don't know what to think that I've never tried these. I guess I better get on that soon and see what the hype is all about. What does DerekHood say on this matter? "oh, Chips Ahoy all the way. If it came right down to it, I could plow through a whole bag at one sitting. Oreos are at best average without milk and even with are a little too much after the first fistful. Maybe if the cream wasn't in there giving you the diabetes it'd be a different ballgame. As it stands, I'm an Ahoy Boy."

Speaking of junk food, I gotta send the thank you props out for the package in the mail the other day. Felisha, I've already talked to you, but you and your mom threw it down this year for the cookies and fudge, no joke. The sprinkled sugar cookies can't be topped and Dad says that's the best fudge he's ever had. I owe ya big, but don't think you want that in the form of cookies, that might turn out disastrous with me getting things going. I can cook fairly well for not doing it as often as I should, but baking I'm sure I'd be a total mess at, wouldn't have a clue. Bucs season is starting soon though, I'm sure I'll see ya around for a few games. You know I'm in for that action, gotta see my boy Akinori Iwamura straight tear things up.



How'd NBA All Star Weekend go? I'm not about to miss that quality TV entertainment. Friday I enjoyed, even if it doesn't get as much hype as the rest of the weekend. That's when the rookies beat the sophomores as it was run and gun ball at it's finest. Rusty Westbrook blew up for 40 points in a losing cause, while Ty Evans and DeJuan Blair did their thing for the kiddies by becoming co-MVPs. It still amazes me how Blair plays that well with no knee cartilage in either knee. My favorite to watch was my boy Brandon Jennings. He was nasty out there, smooth as all gets with a little streetball feel and of course the high top fade, old school style.

Now onto Saturday, the biggie. I haven't missed this in I don't know how long, I can't even remember, seriously. HORSE was somewhat entertaining as compared to last year's debacle. Durantula won again, but Barkley's live commentary on the court more than made up for any down parts. It was pretty impressive to see Durant (already the 3rd best player in the league if you ask me and he's only just starting) and Rondo have the long range shootout, who knew Rondo had that in him? I've ranted on it for a while, but if you're a true NBA fan that doesn't watch many games and that's a lot of people out there unfortunately, do me a favor and watch Durant, he's the real deal and then some. The Skills Challenge, eh. Nash did his thing and I love his charisma. He's great for the game, even if his defense is some of the worst the league has seen, he's still one of the best point guards of our era. Go Pierce go! I personally, even as a Celtics fan didn't give Pierce much hope to win the 3 Point Shootout. I figured he wasn't an off-the-rack shooter and more of a clutch bomber in games. He proved me wrong as I had predicted Steph Curry to win it. I definitely was glad to see Pierce get it, more recognition for the Celts, I'll take it however it comes. To the locals, we need to try this one day with racks just because. The Dunk Contest? Ugh, just beyond brutal. You've all read the reports or even seen the footage, but awful. The fans shouldn't have that vote first of all. DeRozan really won the thing though, not Nate Dizzle. Still one of my favorite weekends of the year and the Sunday game was a great battle as well.



Does this snow ever end out here? This is insane, but I'm one that isn't complaining a bit. I've said it countless times, I love my job, but if I can get paid to sit at home on a snow day, sign me up. I was off all of last week and already have a few days off this week as an added bonus. During that stretch, the earliest I woke up was 11:00. Yep, total bum. It's back to the hours of being up till stupid hours of the day and then doing whatever. The snow wasn't about to keep me off the roads though, I'm all about driving in that mess just because. It also didn't affect any of my workouts, got those in too. Saturday night/Sunday morning was one of those stupid ate up time killers. That night I played Call of Duty for 5 hours and then got back on here around 4 in the morning and stayed up till 1 in the afternoon. I then got a two hour nap. Yes, I'm an idiot. I got in a big amount of COD each of those days off, nothing else was happening.

Speaking of games, let's go to the online version. It might not sound like much to some, but when my boys and I get into online game battles, it ensues into some good trash talk and overall fun. Either we'll never grow up or we're easily entertained. Who am I kidding, the answer is both to that. If it's not Yahoo Graffiti, it is Monopoly on Pogo. You can play up to six people in Graffiti and four in Monopoly. We wish Monopoly would hold more than that, but the way they have their setup is really slick and easy to use. The games usually aren't crazy long is another plus if you're one of those people who are worried about that. In the past two games for me this week I've came in 2nd Place. Still, that's not in the winning column. In those games, not that anyone cares but Corndog and TheAnswer brought home the trophies. If you're not doing much else online, and chances are you aren't right now at the moment, bust out some Monopoly on Pogo.



Before we get to his video, Corndog appears again. He posted this the other night, so I figure it's worth a read for everyone else too: "I just saw a guy almost walk in the womens bathroom at wal mart, it was funny. Then later I saw the same guy standing by the jewelry counter smoking a cigarette. That was a very weird thing to see. The lady told him he wasnt allowed to smoke in the store because this is a smoke free county. Really? Are there counties where its ok to smoke in wal mart?"



Bird's Dirty of the Week: We're hitting up Pharr, Texas this week where everything is big or however that cheesy saying goes. Speaking of Texas, we'd like to wish our boy Bono a Happy 31st today. You can visit him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/scrodieodie. Back to the chick now. She doesn't have any memorable quotes or anything really to laugh at this time. It's not one of those. From opinions of others too, this girl gets it done. Apparently her friends do too, who knows. Anyways, here's this week's girl: http://www.myspace.com/63544089.

Bird's Video of the Week: Corndog said this one was blog worthy. When Corndog talks, the blog nation listens and at least checks it out. After further review, this is legit and we're going to use it this week. It's the Turtleman! Tons of quotes to use in this thing. Some people have no sense at all, but he's entertainment in his own way. "They think I'm crazy, but they can't help but like me." The rebel indian yell is classic too. Good ol' Kentucky, it's pretty much West Virginia. Sad, but true, these people exist, but you know you're going to watch. He also doesn't smile much since he got his teeth knocked out by a chainsaw.



3 Quick Thangs:

1. A quote from Kasher the Great's Twitter on Monday: "On this date in 2005: YouTube is launched. One of the greatest non-porn sites on the net." Visit Kasher at http://twitter.com/NotDirtyKash.

2. Pitchers and catchers have reported to baseball camps this week. Oh my, just around the corner! Between my Yanks ready to rock, going to see a good bit of Pirates games this summer as usual, and the two ultra-competitive fantasy baseball leagues I'm in (Chin Music: 30-man dynasty league, 55 man rosters, minors and salaries included, A#BL: 18-man keeper league with the Lobstah gang that is ran by Commish Kasher), I'm started to get excited.

3. Here's some facts to end up on, let them soak in your brain. A snail can sleep for 3 years.. An ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated. Uh, that's really a proven fact? No clue, but I found it anyways.. One car out of every 230 made was stolen last year.. The Philadelphia Mint produces 26 million pennies per day. Forest fires move faster uphill than downhill.

Blood, Guts, Snow, & Exploding Toilets

Ok, February is upon us. We have a lot going down this month. One, for all the sappy lovers out there, you get Valentine's Day of course. Two, Super Bowl time which ended yesterday. Three, for the cultural side of things, it's Black History Month. Four, we get one of my favorite weekends of the entire year, NBA All Star Weekend. That's a trip that is on my list one day, mark it down. Outside of that, I promised the usual movie reviews and the action that went down during last weekend's Toughman Contest in Clarksburg. Plus, a biggie just added is the snow blizzard report, a few good stories from Friday night on that. You're already being impatient and wanting me to start, so we'll start to break things down..



All week long, people were freaking out at this big snow we were supposed to get. It's not like we can do anything about it, but some think the world is going to end once a snowflake hits the ground. You better get your milk and bread because you might be locked inside your house for 2 months, please. Anyways, I get let out of work early on Friday, that's always a fun thing. Friday night, it started to bring it down hardcore. Four of us had movie night planned, but two dropped out. I was going to take one for team and see Dear John on opening night. It was the 10:00 showing and Whip and I were going to trek the snow regardless. I'll probably see it later in the week. If Cork doesn't mind me letting the world know that he manned up and saw it on Sunday, he said it wasn't too bad. I personally love to get out in the big snow and just rip through it. Some people freak at the thought of getting their cars in it, but come on. It was really bad, but I didn't have any problems, and that's a fortunate thing.

On the way there, I'll describe some areas for the locals. Going towards the mall, a little bit past the infamous Tate's Fruit Market was our first wreck we came upon. Somehow, a car was practically on its top in the ditch. We couldn't figure out how it was possible they even wrecked like that. He had to have been going like a madman, so props to him for at least not going 2 miles per hour. I guess he was the loser in the end of things though. Speaking of that, I have zero patience when it comes to people who have no clue of driving in the snow. That's one thing I need to work on for sure and then some. So we're driving along Meadowbrook Road and get to an area past the FedEx shop. What do we see? None other than a FedEx truck stranded. He was ditched as well and was waiting on help. He busted out the trusty flashlight and guided us through on our way. So far so good, right?



We're going up the road a bit more and come to where the massage place is at. Then we see yet another FedEx truck. What gives? We're the lead car and not many are behind us. We saw a state cop behind this truck and drove fairly close to it. Maybe I was being an idiot, but the other cars stayed behind a good distance. I just wanted to see what was up. After about a half hour or so of waiting and already being late for the movie, the cop backs down the hill a bit. "Uh, if I were you, I'd back down the hill a bit. If that trucks starts sliding down it, it's not gonna slow down." Probably good advice there. Then a bit later, the driver of the truck comes down the hill. They weren't having any luck towing the FedEx truck up the hill. He comes to talk to us and let us know the deal. He said it'd be at least another half hour because they had to get a bigger tow truck to get him up the hill. He told us we might as well turn around. By that point, it was well past time to go to the movie anyways. We get back into town and half of town had power out. Luckily, it came on a few hours later, so no biggie. My area got about 15 inches, big time, but not as big as some areas on the East such as blog contributor The_Freak who got about 30 inches and Philly got bombed too. Bring on the snow! Apparently, we have more coming on Tuesday and Wednesday, who knows.

Speaking of breaking things down, faces were broken, bodies were in shambles, and you always end up with a great time. Where's that? The 31st Annual Toughman Contest at the Nathan Goff Armory of course. Friday night has been a tradition for me to hit up for quite a while now. That's when you get to see it all. There were nearly fifty fights that night, how can you put a price on that? Plus, you get to see the bums who have no business being in the ring, then come in and get their block knocked off. It's always interesting to see the guys who think they are big and bad and then they get punished once they are in the ring. This was the first year in a while that I didn't get floor seats, I tried to get tickets just a bit too late. Either way though, I still nabbed some good seats, first row of bleachers. However, there were some not so good parts of these seats we had too. Cork and Spank joined the festivities with me, as I'm not sure why a lot more of my buddies don't get into this. It's one of our favorite things of the year.



Anyways, back to our seats. Behind me sat a dude that was every bit of 400 pounds, I kid you not. 400 is actually being generous, but I'll be nice for the blog. When you sit in bleacher seats, your back is going to become obliterated by night's end regardless. Then put a guy that size directly behind you to where his gut is literally hanging all on your back and it's not pleasant. Basically I paid to sit in a third of a seat as I was bent over most of the night with my neck and back getting sore as the night progressed. Not only that, but it seemed that 75% of the people here do nothing but get up and down, walk around, and be knuckleheads. For the entire night, I missed one round when I made a quick trip to the concession stand. I'm there to watch fights, call me crazy. Cork and I about lost our voice screaming at these idiots who would walk right in front of us and spill their beer everywhere. Spank was probably shaking his head, thinking he'd have to eventually protect us dorks for running our mouths. Hey, we just wanted a good view. Luckily, we were tame and didn't push anyone's buttons too bad, but it was fairly annoying.

I'm going to start by going into a crowd fight before I even mention the ring wars. To set up the scene, this was a few rows back from us, diagonally. I hear something going on and of course everyone looks in that area. The next thing I see is this dude doing ground and pound and just crushing another guy's face in with punches. He was laying the hammer and not in the porn sense of the nature, we're going fists this time. Not long after, the cops were all about it and did their job to break these guys apart. As they walked the one dude down, he was bleeding like Ric Flair, it was a mess and flowing like a faucet. It was dripping over the stands, on people, you name it. I can't make this up if I tried. They actually had to come over and mop up that section since blood was everywhere. You never know what you're going to see in this crowd. For those who have been to other Toughman Contests in the area, I've said last year, the type of crowd at Clarksburg and Morgantown are totally different worlds. Morgantown is more wide open with seating and less of a redneck/racist feel to the night. I've ranted before on how racist people around here become one of my huge things that get me fired up. You can't change people's opinions and it was in the air that night.



How'd the action in the ring go? It was pretty solid. With that many fights in a night, it's nonstop the entire time. As soon as one fight is over, the next fight's matchup is already waiting ringside to jump in. The kid who won the heavyweight, he also won last year too and is only 19 years old. Dude is 6'7"/260 and is the real deal. There weren't as many knockouts this year as compared to years past, so that was somewhat of a bummer. It does make it fun when you know a decent bit of the guys that are in these things. All in all, it's always worth the money to attend if you've never been. You see some characters and it's definitely a fun experience, at least I think so.

The ring girls you ask? I'm rarely ever much of a big fan of these in our area at least. Hear me out. Maybe I'm too picky or unlike most guys, but these girls are all the same to me. They're 90 pounds with ribs sticking out and no bodies to them. The anorexic chicks, someone else can go that route. The one we liked was some ethnic girl and I wasn't quite sure of what ethnicity to be honest. The other three didn't quite hit the spot, at least for me. Another girl didn't have an outfit all night that actually fit her. That'd usually be a good thing, but her bikini bottoms were baggy on her and she didn't have anything in there anyways for it to form to, thumbs down. Baggy bikini girl also got frustrated late in the night or so it seemed to us. The last hour anyways, she'd just do a quick walk around the ring and nothing else. Seeing some of these girls try to dance is always good entertainment though. I call it how I see it. Props to them for getting up there, but we need a variety of girls if you ask me, not the same cookie cutters, but what do I know?



Ok, now it's time to talk movies once again. Get your popcorn ready as Terrell Owens would say. He would've crushed Jerry Rice's records if he ever had a good quarterback with him, or so he recently mentioned. What's the movie of choice this time? It'd be When In Rome. This one is a quick 90-minute movie and I actually enjoyed it. It's a ton better than The Lovely Bones from the previous week if that counts for anything. Kristen Bell was looking great in this one and played her part just fine. The people that made it for me in this movie were Napoleon Dynamte and Dax Shepard. I thought each of them were hilarious and if you saw their characters in this movie, you'd probably think the same. The storyline is easy to follow, although predictable. It's nothing you'd have to give deep thought to while watching, it's fairly relaxing. My final grade for this movie, I'm going to give it 7.7 large buckets of popcorn out of 10.

This next story was brought to our attention from field reporter Kasher. He's always finding some quality stuff for our message board. You know you want to be part of it and I've talked about it countless times over the years. That means it's time for a cheap plug, it's what I do best. Of course we talk about all sports and have some of the best sports fans the interwebs can come up with. If you're not a sports fan, that's fine, we have a ton for you in there too. We have an Anything Goes forum, one on Music/Movies/TV/Video Games, and a Girls forum. The Anything Goes forum is enough to keep anyone busy. You name it, we talk about it. It's Lobstah, The Balls Empire. Get a login name and wait for TMac to approve and you're good to rock: http://www.theballsempire.com. So to the story I wanted to mention from Kasher. You knew I'd get back to it eventually. It is about a woman who is suing a train company after a toilet explodes. I kid you not. The opening paragraph has me cracking up. Maybe it's my middle school type humor and nobody else will like it, but I enjoyed it. Here is a quick preview: "A woman is suing Metra claiming the contents of a toilet 'exploded; and splattered her as she rode a Joliet-bound train." Yep, splattered. Here is the entire article for your enjoyment: http://cbs2chicago.com/local/metra.train.lawsuit.2.1457755.html. Thanks again goes out to our buddy Kasher.



I bashed the Saints "fans" for a bit now. I never had a problem with the team. It's still funny to me how you never hardly saw a Saints fan in your life and then the past few weeks they're out of the woodwork and say they've been there the whole ride. I guess you get that with every team that starts winning, so I can't fault the system. I will admit here that my prediction was way off. I never gave the Saints credit all season and didn't think their D would hold up. I figured Manning would just pick them apart and mangle them something awful. Yep, I was wrong on that one. Somewhere out there, Frankie Saporito is partying in the streets. He's the only true Saints guy in my area that I can think of. Frankie even has a Saints tat, gotta respect that. Good to see a team that has never won it before go down and win it though. I was pulling for Manning a bit since I always felt like he's done it the right way, isn't a knucklehead, and just does his thing. Apparently a lot of people hate him and his bro though, maybe because they (he?) gets too much credit, hard to tell. The Saints won me over though when after one touchdown the players were dancing on the sidelines. What were they doing? I'll let our boy DerekHood tell us from a text he sent, "I think the Saints were just beating the beat back there coming back from the commercial." That's right, they were fist pumping, Jersey Shore style.



Bird's Dirty of the Week: 585 total pics. Is that enough for you? We get a big variety from this college chick in Indiana. What doesn't she like? We'll ask her and find out, "don't like *liars, *backstabbers, *two faced people, players, or *fakes. I hate when people try to be someone their not to please everyone else, be yourself who cares what people think. I don't put up with girls who think they are bad asses... Because more then likely they aren't. I think rumors are stupid, they SUCK. But the people who start them AND believe them are dumb and all I have to say is thanks for making me the center of your world!!!!! Drama is so overrated it's not a part of my life now that you're gone.. I LOVE how when girls get jealous because of what I have that they can't have they talk shit, I kinda just sit back and laugh bc if you know me you'll realize I don't care, and if you don't KNOW ME, you might think things that aren't right. But if you take the time to believe it and not the time to get to know me to know it's not true you're simply a waste of time!" That's a book, but that's what she said anyways, so we might as well post on it. Here ya go people, http://www.myspace.com/21986785.

Bird's Video of the Week: I had a Jersey Shore vid to post this week that is getting huge reviews, but I'll hold off onto that for later use. I talk enough about that show anyways. No worries, I'll get enough of that in soon, I'm always in Shore mode with those characters. Instead, to keep with the snow theme, we'll go to a vid that the great ManDingo shared with all to view. It's the Meteoreologist Freakout, not to be confused with The_Freak, although this was in his area. "Oh boy. I'm AccuWeather meteorologist Jim Kosek. Our paralyzing, crippling, RECORD BREAKING STORM COMES TODAYYYY!" "14 to 22 inches of SNOWWWWWWW!" His thing on shoveling the snow is awesome. This guy is great, trust me and watch for yourself..



3 Quick Thangs:

1. My favorite Super Bowl commercials this year? There were quite a few I liked. Doritos straight killed it though, no comparisons if you ask me. They nailed all of theirs (funeral, little boy talking to mom's boyfriend, in the gym, etc). Another I liked was Coke doing its thing with The Simpsons. There were definitely some cheesy ones out there, but those were a few I was into.

2. NBA All Star Weekend is upon us. Saturday night the action begins! I can barely contain myself. It's right up there on days of the year I love, to go along with the NBA Draft (greatest day of the year for me, hands down), the EDDFL Fantasy Draft, A#BA Fantasy Draft, and NBA Opening Night. Do we see a pattern here? The day that Call of Duty comes out as well as Christmas, each Monday at 9:00 for WWE RAW, and Opening Day MLB are high on the list too.

3. Time to end with some quick facts. Did you know that one quarter of the bones in your body are in your feet? How about the fact that you'll eat 35,000 cookies in your lifetime? The average American/Canadian drinks about 600 pops (sodas) a year. More people use blue toothbrushes than red ones.