Finally... The Bird Has Returned To Blogspot!

Hellooooo? Is there an echo in this place? It sure seems like it, but yep, I'm still alive. Some thought this place has went up in smoke and it somewhat did. Was February really the last time I put up one of these? It went well past the point that people were bugging me to put up a new one. That's when I used to know that the bored readers wanted something new. After a while through the summer, nobody even asked, so we're back in action. I'm not sure how regular this will be, but why not, right? First, thanks to Corndog for the blog title, you'll see him regularly appearing as usual. I got out of the funk for a bit, so it's time to ramble on with nothing but pure randomness which has been my motto in life, the random stuff that most don't care about, I always get a kick out of. Anyways, it's time yet again to strap on the seat belts for this ride, hope you're along and don't jump out too early.



For the newbies and there will probably be a lot since the dry spell between the last blog in February, basically I'm here to ramble with too much time on my hands. You'll see that on how my posts since 2004 have been, a time when some of you were still kiddies. Wanting a quick refresher since the down time? I bought a new house a few blocks from my old stomping grounds in the middle of February (you know me, I don't want to leave E Shinnston), I've been engaged since April 9th, played a bunch of softball over that time, went to the beach, and now back to work. I surprised some that I moved out of the house before I was 50 and actually had time to draw myself away from NBA, wrestling and video games enough to meet a girl to propose to. Shocker, I know! Whitney has been putting up with me for about 2 years now, so she already knows she's stuck with a big dork anyways, but it works out great from my side of things, no complaints at all and definitely happy. September 29, 2012. Just about everyone reading this already knew that info anyways, so I won't preach too much on those subjects.

Now we'll get to what I'll call rapid fire since it's been a while. I'll touch on different things that some may care about and some may not. I always try to have a little bit of something for everyone and as always in the past, suggestions are definitely encouraged, just let me know. I'm not going to guarantee you will like everything in here and that's not the point, but give it a chance. First, to one of my addictions and it's been ongoing for a while is Twitter. I'm now near 9000 posts, which probably is more of a sad thing to admit than not, but I always say I could be addicted to worse. Time for a cheap plug alert! http://twitter.com/Bird33WV. Twitter has been out for a while, but even as early as a year ago, very few of my crew were on. Now everyone and their brother jumps into the game and it makes it a lot more fun. I know what you're thinking, what's in it for me? I didn't think I'd care for it either, but being a computer junkie, I figured I'd give it a try a while back. Some get tired of me hyping up Twitter and that's fine, but the only way to get word out is to be repetitive. Same with this blog, I'm a shill for making myself look like a goof to promote whatever, not above that.



If you have more of your clan on (think of your Call of Duty clan to the video game addicts) Twitter, it makes it ten times more interesting, just like playing COD is more interesting with your buddies than some average Joes. With Facebook, most are still on, as am I, but to me there's a ton of drama on there and it's stuck in the mud. If not that, someone is whining and crying like a little girl nonstop over and over. Negativity is one thing I've never liked being associated with. Myself personally, Twitter is more blog style and you can just post a bunch of junk that a lot won't care about, but it's quick paced. For sports fans, Twitter is no joke, you get instant news as it happens and you name a famous person of importance and chances are, they are tweeting like machines nowadays.

More on the social networking saga soon, I won't waste all my energy on that early on so I can keep the ones who are still reading along. If you're still with me this far, you get a cookie. What kind you ask? A Double Doozie from the Great American Cookies place. Now that's serious and not your average cookie, we go the extra effort around here for everyone unlike some other blogs. Either that or I'm just talking to be talking, something I'm not ever short of breath if you know me in person.



Softball season? We rocked it out like no other for this year's summer team. We were sponsored by Mi Pueblo of Fairmont Mexican restaurant fame. Props to Walz for setting up that awesome sponsor and our gear as it has been every year now for a while in softball was top notch. If we're going to lose, we're going down losing while looking good. However, despite a start where we lost our first 8 games (yes, pathetic), the Mi Pueblo Pinatas had enough playing around and got down to business. By the end of summer, our fielding specifically was on point. You all want me to get to the end of this story, I know. It's like a movie, you have to have a little build to it to get you on the edge of your seats. The outcome? Mi Pueblo, bum league champs! A trophy the size of Kofi Kingston was presented to us and that will be hanging out at Mi Pueblo for everyone to see. You know you want to get a picture with the trophy, admit it. But seriously, we came a really long way with our crew. We were good last year but had a ton of ups and downs. We did rock it in the playoffs and finished 3rd I do believe in 2010. This year though, we had at one point a 14-game win streak, went into beast mode with that thing. As another update, we're now in fall ball and are sponsored by town landmark, Hammer's Market! A big shout out to Bones and company for being generous enough to do that. More on that as the season gets underway.

I know everyone in West Virginia has been to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina a zillion times, but not this guy. Not until this year. When normally for ages I'd hit up Ocean City or Virginia Beach, this year I took the trek to Myrtle. I'd make the trip again, enjoyed myself for sure. The first thing that blew me away was how warm the water is down there compared to farther north. It was like bath water down there which made it easy to get into, almost too warm on the hot days. The waves weren't nearly as big as OC though and I've heard that before from others. Atmosphere, you can probably throw me on any beach and I'm going to like it. As a bonus to the trip, we got to hang out a bunch with the Riley clan, Sidelli, and Wes. As part of the trek down south, Whitney got to experience her first Waffle House journey. As all the blog people know, that's one of my hot spots. A good dirty and greasy Waffle House and I'm in. The dirtier the better which is my theory because usually that means good food. Yeah, I'm weird with that, but I like to roll that way on some food. It took me a while to get used to where everything was at, but a few days into it and I was good to go. I still don't get how some people in our area claim to get there in 8 hours though, it's closer to 10 for me. I usually cruise control about 5 miles above speed limit, maybe I have to go 100 to get down there in 8 hours, who knows. I won't get into drawn out details on this road trip since I'm getting back into the flow and have to get to so many other things, but thumbs up on the trip for sure, it gets a thumbs up from me.



Back to work last week, but no worries. I surprised myself and didn't sleep in till 1:00 all summer long, woke up at reasonable hours for most of the "vacation". I wish I could write stories of my students once they start classes, I'd have some stuff that people wouldn't believe. I'd be able to write a book each week if that wasn't confidential. Either way, I love my job and am not one of these whiny negative teachers who hates life every single second. Sure, I'd rather be home sleeping in and playing video games, but as far as work goes, it's close to home, I like everyone I work with and the whole deal. Plus my schedule is flexible and something different everyday. With me being hyped up with energy too often than not, I can't stay still the way it is, so I like to bounce around and do my thing. Now that I'm back to work, the heat can also stop and it seems like it has for the most part. I'm ready for hoodies and sweats type of weather and call me crazy, but I'm ready for some big snow, gotta love it.

I'll get more into my fantasy leagues in the upcoming blogs, but just a quick rundown of what I'm running with at the moment. For baseball this year, I'm in 3 leagues. One is Chin Music, the 30-team dynasty league with team salary caps and minor leaguers. It keeps you up on the minor league setup and I've even had a few players from the rookie league, it's insanely deep and a ton of fun. The other is the Lobstah version, the infamous A#BL, the 18-team keeper league. The Lobstah gang is about as competitive as it gets, you have to stay involved and it's not for lightweights. The third is another Lobstah league, an auction keeper league ran by Neon. This is only an 8-team league, but the setup is pretty solid.



For football, I'm going with three leagues. One is A#FL. Yes, the Lobstah league, how'd you guess? It's ran by Uncle Wilbur, an 18-team keeper league. The other NFL league I'm in is ran by Sweet P and has 10 members with a live draft to be held in a few weeks at my house, decked out with draft board and some of the area's finest foods (concocted by Chef Whitney with a tiny bit of help from the guys), can't go wrong with that. You also can't go wrong with a live draft either. The third is a NCAA league ran by Duce. It's a keeper league and you would think NCAA fantasy ball would be bigger by now than it is, but not sure why that hasn't caught on, we've been rocking that out for a while now. Then throw in a few quick leagues such as an NCAA Pick Em and Survival NFL and we're set. Also, fantasy golf which I still say is one of the least appreciated fantasy leagues out there.

Back to social networking. See, I bounce you guys all over the place. Not a lot are on the train yet, but how is everyone liking Google+ so far? It's a sweet format in my opinion and I've been along for the ride since it started up not that long ago. Who knows if it'll be an impact player (to the ECW crowd, Lance Storm and Justin Credible style) in the long run or not, but why not give it a try? Need an invite? Let me know or whoever else you know on it can also send invites, either way, I'll be seeing you on there, find me. Plus, what do you have to lose anyways? You just might end up liking it.



Movies lately? We've been out of the loop. There for a while we were either doing the Redbox thing or hitting up the theater. I know, I'm the only person in the country who doesn't have Netflix. I hear once I get it I'd be hooked but I don't think I'd use it enough at the moment especially with as much sports and a ton of other things I already have on the DVR. Smurfs 3D was our latest and we took Whitney's little cousin Alexandria to see it. Maybe it's me being a dork, but usually kid movies deliver as far as the factor that it's quick and worth your time. It's tough to give a grade on a kid's movie though, but I went with 7.5 Papa Smurfs out of 10. Also, Doogie Howser is even with a girl in the movie, crazy, who knew? Speaking of her, Jayma Mays is way underrated if you ask me.

The TV schedule over the summer? Outside of the usual wrestling and sports scene, not that anyone cares, but I might as well mention what I've been watching. Why? Just because. The season is over, but I really liked Franklin & Bash and it was good news for me to hear they are doing a second season next summer. Zack Morris is back in action and the whole cast plays their role well. At the moment I'm locked into Big Brother and have been for several years now. It's on three days a week for an hour at a time, but even with that much, it has you wanting more. I'll even admit to watching the mess of Teen Mom. Yeah, not many guys are going to admit that, but I'll check out just about any MTV show and give it a shot. Kids having kids and their drama, it's a car wreck, but you keep watching. Jersey Shore goes without saying, I could write half a blog on that and it hasn't jumped the shark for me at least. The Challenge on MTV? Even though my boy CT didn't make the final, he was the reason I watched, it makes for quality TV since he's my favorite Real World "character" of all time. I'm sure I could throw a few other odds and ins that I watch minus the obvious of RAW, SmackDown, TNA Impact, and MLB Extra Innings which is worth the money and then some.



I wanted to cram a lot more in here, but I have a novel going the way it is. I'll see what happens coming up and how often I get back into the grind of this place. Plus, as I mentioned, I'll try to work in any good suggestions I get to make it fan friendly. And to end things as only our staff can do, here we go...

Bird's Video Moment of the Week: This was sent to us from Corndog. Wrestling fan or not, you might enjoy this internet sensation. Some have maybe seen before, but if not, let's just say Super Dragon gets fired up at a fan for repeatedly chanting his name.



3 Quick Thangs:

1. For old times sake, why not take a visit over to Zombo.

2. I won't get deep into it during this blog, but for those wondering, I'm still optimistic that the NBA season won't be chopped. The talks aren't going in a good direction at the moment and a lot of people have already jumped off the NBA board a long time ago, even when games were going on. Hopefully I won't have to shed any tears for missed games this year, stay tuned because I thought last season brought a lot of casual fans back into the mix.

3. Time to roll out some fast facts to chew on until I appear back in this spot. Hopefully it's not as long as it was before, but we'll see. Apparently ants never sleep in their life? Who knew?! The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.. And to finish up, the highest point in Pennsylvania is the lowest point in Colorado.

Minty Fresh!

Did I disappear? Nope, I just made you wait longer on this latest situation to break down. It's probably my longest break ever, but it's more about quality than quantity or so I hope. It's way past the point of everyone bugging me and telling me to get on my game and make a blog post, which I like hearing that. Time to cure some boredom. We have a lot to talk about during that time, so I shouldn't have to worry about things to ramble about. Sometimes that is good for the reader, other times they probably want to strangle me for going on and on about subjects they could care less about. What will you get here? Twitter (imagine me writing about that), Celebrity Deathpool 2011, Jersey Shore Season 3, Charles Barkley, bloody accidents, Toughman Contest, podcasts, movie review, my boy Dru Down, and tons more! Whew, let's gear up for another piece to soak your eyeballs into, it's time to get your read on!



As we do every year with the Lobstah gang, the 2011 Celebrity Deathpool has been out now for about a month. This is our 7th season at battling and I've had at least one death picked in all years except for 2005. Yes, I realize it's a demented thing to do, but it's competition, so we do our thing. In 2010, George Steinbrenner was my only guy that earned points. Corndog and ManDingo tied to win the title by each having Ronnie James Dio. Commissioner Kasher was the only one of the league to have two deaths, he had Zelda Rubinstein and Ernie Harwell. That gained him 32 points, while Corn and Dingo had 33 to get the win. Steinbrenner brought in 1 point for my team. Now it's time to unveil my 2011 picks since I know you're all on the edge of your seat in anticipation. The moral as usual, you can't ever go wrong by picking wrestlers unfortunately. A new wrinkle to this season is that we have to have a "long shot selection". The rule on that is that you have to pick someone 30 or younger in that spot. The moral, you can't ever go wrong with a handful of wrestlers, they're a mess.

1. Bobby Heenan (wrestling)
2. Superstar Billy Graham (wrestling)
3. Scott "Razor Ramon" Hall (wrestling)
4. Betty White (actress)
5. Harmon Killebrew (baseball)
6. Courtney Love (musician)
7. Zsa Zsa Gabor (actress)
8. Zakk Wylde (musician)
9. Scott "Raven" Levy (wrestler)
10. Phyllis Diller (comedian)
11. Jerry Lewis (comedian?)
12. Amy Winehouse (longshot, although she's on a ton of lists obviously)

Christmas is so far gone that it'd be somewhat pointless to talk about it this far out of the game. People are already starting the countdown to this year's Christmas, so I won't ramble onto that. I did have a great Christmas though, not one complaint at all. During that time, I hit up the movies and I'm due for some new ones again soon. What did Whitney and I watch a while back? It's time to review How Do You Know.



This one featured a big cast of characters. Who did they roll out on us? Jack Nicholson, Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, Owen Wilson, and Kathryn Hahn to name a few. If Jack is in the movie, I'm interested if nothing else. He knocked his role out of the park, but that should be no surprise to anyone. Reese doesn't get enough credit, but she got it done in this movie. Ok, I'm mainly speaking on the looks side of things there, she gets a big thumbs up, but she also acted things out well too, as did Wilson and Rudd. It was a bit longer than I'd like, and Whitney fell asleep for part of it, but it was still a good movie. I tweeted about it at the time, but I'm going to lower my ranking after thinking it over. Our final grade? 7.4 out of 10.

Random save the day fact. I tweeted a little about this, but why not make a bigger explanation of it. I had a recent Thursday off from work for a snow day (sweet!) so I took Whitney to work since she didn't have to start till 11:00. That same day, I had a work training that was still scheduled, so I killed a few by getting a milkshake at McD's and hanging in the lot with their free wi-fi. Anyways, out of nowhere, I heard a big scream behind my ride. I didn't know what to expect at first. I looked in the rear view mirror and saw nothing. Then I checked the side mirror and I saw this lady in the 65-70 age range laying flat on her back. She busted herself on the ice and was staring at the sky. I get out of the car and a few other nearby people jump out to assist, along with her husband. We pick her up and blood is coming out of the back of her head. It wasn't crazy gushing, but enough that it was covering her hair a good bit and all on my hands. People were ready to call for an ambulance, but she said she was ok. The husband got her in the car as quickly he could and they took off. Not only did I have one good deed of the day by taking Whitney to work, but I also had a bloody mess of a situation that was averted soon after.



The Big Atlantic Tip-Off in scenic Beckley, West Virginia. To some in the area, this is the former Coal Classic, a basketball tournament they have every year for the high school and younger levels. Some major talent has been through this tourney over the years and each time around, they bring in guest speakers. This is the same place where I got to fulfill a lifetime goal by meeting the Basketball Jesus himself, Larry Bird. This year? Sir Charles Barkley. Ozzie and Mudcat are huge Barkley guys from way back, each Sixer fans. I of course was in for a sports related road trip. We went four deep with Ozzie, Mudcat, Matty Cakes, and myself. With that gang, it was sports trivia up and down, my favorite kind of trip with the guys is when the sports almanac is busted out. Time flies when we do this and it's been a tradition with our crew for a long time.

We made it there early as each of us are people that always like to be on time. And by time, I mean be early. Yes, I'm one of those. Anyways, we were wandering around the halls and were just hanging out looking lost for a bit as we were one of the first few people in the building. This random guy asks us if we're with the news or what we're here for. We told him we were just there for the dinner and to hear Barkley speak. I then went to go in the bathroom beside us and the guy said hold on, it's taken. It took us a while to figure out what was up, but apparently Barkley was in there doing his stuff. A few seconds later, within 5 minutes of being there, out steps Sir Charles and he goes, "minty fresh!" That's a line we're going to beat into the ground for sure. He was a lot bigger dude than I expected, but more on that later.



A good crowd was there, but not nearly as many were there when I did the Bird trip. Others that have been in the past have been my boy Lou Holtz, Dr. J, John Elway, Tim Tebow, and a slew of others. We knew the talking segment that Barkley was going to do for everyone would be a riot and it was awesome. The stories he told were hilarious and we ate it up. He also did a Q&A session after he gave his speech, which he wasn't shy to answer anything of course. One that was asked is how the Original Dream Team of 92 would fare against today's team. He laughed at that comparison and said that today's team doesn't have any true big guys. He said that Ewing and The Admiral would dominate Chris Bosh to where it wouldn't even be funny. And that's without even getting into Jordan, Bird, Magic, etc. The best player he ever went against he said was Kevin McHale, he had high praise for him. And he votes Jordan as the best player of all time.

Ok, I'll wrap this Barkley segment up. Going in, we figured he would only sign things or have time for the VIP tickets. We didn't have that, but he was willing to meet and sign stuff for everyone in attendance, so I have to give props for that. Ozzie said, "This is a top three event in my life. The other two go without saying." To Ozzie, Barkley is his Bird if that comparison makes sense. Now he just needs to meet Bo Jackson and he'll be set. We all got an autograph, picture, and shook his hand. It surprised us how huge his hands were. He also took time to say a few things to people as they met him and legitimately seemed like he wanted to be there. On calling him Mr. Barkley, he told me, "Nah, no mister. Just call me Charles!" Good stuff right there. If you ever get a chance to hear Barkley speak and like his style, it's worth your time and then some, trust me. He's also very big on helping the kids out and stresses everyone to get their education, he spoke a lot on that.



Toughman Contest! You can probably go back to my January blogs in the past and get an idea of what I'm about to type here too. Friday is when I hit it up each year, I can't get enough of going to our local Toughman Contest. Why Friday and not championship Saturday? You get more fights first of all. Second, you get to see the bums who have no business being there get punished. Then on top of that is the crowd atmosphere. I've been to other local shows, but Clarksburg's is a completely different animal in my opinion. You see some of the area's finest, both literally and figuratively. Some have asked, how were the ring girls? They had six this year, the most in history. I'm not expecting any major quality, but this was bad times indeed. The dance moves they'd do were a laugh in and of itself and some girls got no reaction. Crowd fights? Of course. There was only one on Friday, which is a surprising. Someone ended up getting tased in that mix ("don't tase me bro") and the announcer kept saying, "The fight is in the ring everybody!" That cracked me up, but maybe it's just me.

As far as the fights, there were 35 this year, which is a lot lower than usual it seemed. A year or two ago, I remember being there when they had 50 total fights. The guy who ended up winning the heavyweight division was the real deal. He's an assistant football coach at West Virginia Wesleyan and 6'0"/280lbs. You wouldn't think at that size, he'd be agile and would tire out fast. Not this guy, he's a beast. He came in with that pissed at the world attitude, stared his opponent down like he killed his dog, and just busted him up for a few rounds. Somehow the guy he fought that night could take a punch like no other, this was on Friday. Another fight I enjoyed was in the light heavyweight class and this guy with a nickname of Deebo, straight from the Friday movies. He was doing Roy Jones Jr stuff in his prime out there, dancing around, doing whatever he wanted. In a first for me, after the fight, the opponent got on his knees and bowed because Deebo put on such a good performance. That's a major sign of respect there. Minus my back getting wrenched by sitting in those bleachers, it was once again a quality experience and one I highly recommend if you've never been.



Ok, the Jersey Shore freaks like myself are locked into this season like no other. I'm sure I lose brain cells watching, but it's pure entertainment times twenty. I always get a kick out of the people that early on bashed it constantly, yet now they're the ones that are watching like the rest of us. The new addition of Deena Nicole seems to be a great find. To me, what makes the show is still Situation's facial expressions and his quotes. So far we've also had the Snooki arrest segment, fake Ronnie (one of my favorite things they've done in a while), Sammy apologizing to the girls and the grenade whistle begins! Now they are going to be having Season 4 in the homeland of Italy? Count me in, although you knew that anyways. That should be an interesting dynamic and I'm glad they're keeping the original crew strong. Ratings wise, it's a no-brainer. Sit back and watch the ride.

Podcast time. Which ones have I been checking out on a regular basis since the last time I updated you? 90% of my iPod usage is strictly for podcast listening, love it. I have a ton of music on there too obviously and will use that for workouts and running, but podcasts get the first priority before I switch over. There are three main ones I'm on a kick of at the moment. What are they you ask? Be patient folks, it's coming. Actually, I can't see anyone sitting on the edge of their seats wondering what podcasts I listen to, but stranger things have happened. The go-to is still of course The BS Report from The Boston Sports Guy Bill Simmons, ESPN style. I've written about him a ton over the years, so not a lot else needs to be said. Another is a more recent addition to my list. That'd be Tim & Sid: Uncut. My boys from Canada hooked me on this. It's about an hour each day and it goes by really fast, that's how you know it's good. Sports, pop culture, and it's all uncensored if that makes you more interested. Check these guys out, you won't be disappointed. Third will pertain to the wrestling fans and I've probably wrote about this one before. This is the Pro Wrestling Torch (PW Torch Livecast) and they also go about an hour a day. I wish I could listen to more, but it's tough to fit them all in. I haven't heard much Tony Kornheiser or Colin Cowherd lately either, regular staples of mine in the past.



I have a lot of CDs to review one day, but today I'll just touch basis with one of my all time favorites. For those who know me, you know I'm a big Dru Down fan. A lot of this knew this from my AIM name when I'd be on there a lot more and didn't have a clue who he was. Then they'd ask and would get the connection. Time to break this one down for the rap fans.

Dru Down: Chronicles of a Pimp. This is Dru's first solo CD in years. Of course I was pumped up when I got word of this through the grapevine of Dom in Germany, one of Twitter's finest (@StripClubPapst) and a longtime blog reader. I'm sure I'm biased towards anything Dru related, but this is very good, one of my favorite recent CDs. For those wondering what songs to get off of this, I could list a lot, but I'll just whet your appetite. Rather Be With Dru, Old School, and Bout Dat Money are top notch worthy. For the people that might not know much on Dru, let me know what you think, bad or good. Check this out from one of Bay Area rap's veterans of the game. And yes, he keeps his same style from what you always have remembered him as, so that deserves a thumbs up.

Bird's Video Moment of the Week: Since the title of this blog is Charles Barkley related, I'll have to go back a few weeks on this video. Tracy Morgan is a character anyways, but his thoughts on TNT during live TV made the rounds and had everyone talking. Barkley even answered questions about this segment in Beckley. Anyways, if you're in the dark and haven't seen, here you go:



3 Quick Thangs:

1. Time for a cheap plug for a game I've been playing a few months now. I'm not sure if it's just for iPhone or what, but download We Doodle. My name on there is Bird33WV. Others of the crew that are in the mix are Corndog (corndogtaylor) and Sims (SiMZiLa), be sure to fire off a request to them and get your battle on.

2. More plugs you want? We'll go Twitter style. This time, here's a list of people you need to add on your list for no other reason than entertainment value, some quality post guys here and I don't say that lightly. Chester (@mchesher03), Uncle Wilbur (@blangfrd), and Josh Oz (@joshoz01). Get on it.

3. It's not too late to get your Valentine's Day presents. Just sending a friendly reminder for those who may forget. Enjoy!

Touchdown Jesus to Ric Flair to Apps and 5K Races... & More!

Only one post in the whole month of November? It happens. Lazy? Busy? A little of both? Yep, but never fear, we're here to get the Christmas spirit going. As you look out your windows, you can see the trees lit, the houses decorated, and a buzz in the air as we all get pumped up. I probably should start the majority of my shopping soon, but it'll be finished quick enough, no worries there. We have a lot to talk about in this edition since I've last left you hanging. What is in this one for you to feast on? Hanging with Ric Flair, a trip to South Bend, another 5K, new apps to get, Call of Duty, and a surprise birthday party just to name a few to get you going.



I don't want to lose everyone right off the bat, so I'll hold off on the wrestling update. I'll start off with a road trip special. It was time for the Notre Dame trip to South Bend, Indiana. Last year was my first trip to the beautiful campus, not quite sure what took me so long to get out there. I hope to be there regularly from here on out. A big group of us had planned to go to the Michigan game earlier in the season, but after dragging our feet and ticket prices going higher and higher as it came closer to game time, we axed that plan. Instead, I rolled out with Whitney as it was just the two of us. It was her first trip out there, even in the state of Indiana if that counts for anyone keeping track at home.

We left town at 5:30 that morning and I like to get my road trips started as quick as possible. I don't want to screw around and ruin an entire day by leaving late. The drive out there isn't bad at all. It takes about 7 hours and 80% of the drive is flat cornfields with nothing else to see. We went up to the Pennsylvania Turnpike, cut off near Cranberry, north of Pittsburgh and then hopped onto the Ohio Turnpike. The drive featured nice scenery and luckily there was never any traffic problems, that part made things go even smoother. Between switching around to stations on Sirius, of course I had to bring along some DVDs for when Whitney would crash out in the passenger seat. On the way up for a bit, when I got closer to Indiana, I had to pop in Rudy just for good time's sake and to get me into the moment. I'm biased, but Rudy is a Top 10 all time movie in my ranks, maybe Top 5. On the way back, it was wrestling time with a shoot interview of Nikolai Volkoff which was good.



We stayed a few miles away from the stadium and had a great hotel setup. Not that we used it, but we had an entire kitchen, dishwasher, stove, full sized fridge, the works, all for a reasonable price. Friday night we hit up the pep rally, a tradition on ND football weekends. Rocket Ismail showed up unannounced and delivered an awesome motivational speech. I thought I had energy, but he was amped up like no other and the crowd responded. It was Senior Week, so that brought along some excitement to everything. 80,000 strong at the stadium and during the first half, it did nothing but pour the rain. Whitney was a trooper during this and sat through it all. I was out there getting my money and time worth, but luckily the 2nd half turned out a little sun for us. It was colder last year during September when I went as compared to November this year, strange. It was the leprechaun mascot's final home game and the fans really like this guy. At one point, he had a handstand contest with the Utah Ute ("Utes are a Native American tribe native to Utah. That is where Utah got its name, and what the University of Utah mascot is - a Ute." Thanks to Wiki Answers for that description) and when he won, the roof about came off the place, if there was a roof. It cracked me up, but guess you had to be there to appreciate how big the response was to something as silly as that.

At the time I got tickets, Utah was undefeated before losing to TCU the week before the Notre Dame game. TCU for those out in the dark, earlier this week decided to jump to the Big East for both football and basketball. The travel times will be interesting there, but I think it helps the football conference. TCU has the chance to bust some serious heads in the Big East, but you never know till games are played. I went into this game, not expecting anything to be close. I figured Utah would just crush my boys, but I was pleasantly surprised. I was shocked at the amount of Utah fans who came to South Bend for the game. That's a haul, but there was a fair bit of a sea of red in the stadium. They were classy fans too when we talked to them around campus, I liked that bunch.



Of course I can't do a long road trip without keeping track of the license plate game, I admit. By using the trusty Find Plate app on my phone, it's an easy way to mark off your states you find without having to write things down. This one, I was impressed with the number at the end of the trip. 42 total states out of 50, that was a solid get. We also saw a ton of Canadian plates too. Which eight were we missing? Kentucky, Alaska, Hawaii, Vermont, South Dakota, Nevada, Wyoming, and Delaware. I was a little surprised that we didn't get Kentucky since it borders West Virginia and I'm sure some people went through that state to get to Indiana. I figured I'd get South Dakota too once I had North Dakota, but nope. All in all, not too shabby.

Now to the more dorky side of things. I'm never above making myself appear as a dork with some of my interests in life, but that makes things fun. Enter Ric Flair. A while back, I had heard he was coming to our local Wal-Mart of all places to do an autograph signing that was sponsored by Coke. Wrestling fan or not, you know who The Nature Boy is without question I'd say. Stay with me, even if you don't like wrestling, I think you'll enjoy a few of these stories. I'm not much of an autograph buff, but Flair, next to my meeting with Larry Bird, was the next guy I wanted to cross off on my "must-meet" list. That list isn't big for anyone keeping track. I've also said it before, autographs aren't really my thing either, although I do have a decent bit, but I'm not the type to track someone down and go after them just to get a signature. Flair's though, I wanted that, but more on that in a second.



He was scheduled that night to sign from 6:00-8:00. The first 300 people were guaranteed a picture and autograph. I figured it'd be a crowd, but I was blown away by the turnout. I showed up at 4:30 and was already over 200+ in line at that point when I got my ticket, which was free. To say there were characters in line would be an understatement, but that goes without saying. Whitney joked that there were 3 teeth in line and I had them all. One of the funniest, yet strangest things we saw in line was this woman who literally locked the Figure Four Leglock on the floor of Wal-Mart on her kid, cranking on it. This was right behind me and people just stared. Another guy had his wife and parents along with their three kids. The kids were about 3, 5, and 8 if I had to guess. They were being impatient, of course you can't blame them for having to stand in line and not move for hours. The guy kept threatening them that he might have to make them leave with his parents and they'd lose out on the chance to see Flair. I'm sure they didn't even know who he was, but I guess he thought that was his sense of parenting skills to get them to behave.

The line was finally moving and I kept my patience, which is sometimes tough to do. To again show my sense of being an inner dork, I brought along my "Flair belt" as some know it as which I have in a bag. This is the big gold belt that replaced the NWA World Heavyweight Championship (which I also want in the collection some day) and is currently used today as one of the two WWE titles. I won't bore you with breaking down the history as much as I'd like to, so I'll spare you those details. I had it in the bag while I was in line and then someone noticed it shining as it was hanging out one end. To the people in line, this thing was a hit and it's one of my favorite memorabilia pieces. That might not say much for me though, but it is what it is. Anyways, people started asking to borrow it and wanted their pictures taken with it, which was cracking us up.



Now I finally waited out the line and made my way to the man's presence. For as many wrestling shows as I've been to over the years, I've never been to a show with Flair on it, so this was my first time seeing him in person. I don't get too starstruck, but I was with him, not afraid to say that. Hey, I'm a wrestling fan, what else do I have to lose by admitting that? I was surprised of how big of a dude he is in person. For 61 years old, his arms are still pretty big. Also, same age as my dad and Jerry "The King" Lawler who last Monday had his first WWE Title Match, another guy I've met this year. Flair seemed genuinely like he wanted to be there and gave people the time of day. Whitney got to talk to him for a few minutes as she waited near him to take the pictures. I brought along the belt to get signed as you saw in my Facebook pics and that's a deal I'll have to frame soon, would you expect anything different? All in all, it was an absolute madhouse up there, it even made the local news. Then again, not a lot happens around here, but still. The news guessed between 1000-1500 people, but that seemed like a bunch. Either way, it was worth the wait for me, dork and all.

A quick Call of Duty update now that we've all had the chance to play it for hours upon hours. I'm still big into Free-For-All as my favorite, mainly what I'm into most of the time. Last weekend, it seemed half of Shinnston was on till 6:00 in the morning doing it up big. We started out with FFA and then moved to Headquarters. I'm pretty good at FFA, no expert, but I do well enough. On the team stuff, which I rarely play, I'll be honest, I'm terrible. It'll take work though as it's a completely different strategy than FFA, but I somewhat liked Headquarters. I've yet to play any of campaign, which is weird to some I'm sure, but I'm strictly multiplayer and that's the reason you buy it in my opinion, simply put. Find me on Xbox Live under Bird33WV.



Last Saturday was another get-together of sorts. We had a surprise 25th birthday party for Southern at Via Veneto. This was our first time there and we came away impressed with the setup. The downstairs section is the banquet hall and it looked that night it was used for a wedding reception. It was funny how a lot of our crew walked in there first and people that were prim and proper looked at us like we were idiots and then directed us upstairs. The upstairs is all decked out, this place is fancy. As an added bonus, I got to watch the Notre Dame/USC game while up there and it turned out into a win somehow. The rain definitely helped in ND's side I think, it was an ugly game, but I'll take the win. Like with Call of Duty, half of Shinnston was at this surprise and party and it was a good time for everyone.

After that, we hit up The Ordinary in Clarksburg. What, hitting up two bars in one night? I know it's a rare happening, but I'll join the crowd and be social, I'm not above that. Plus these places didn't have smoke blowing in my face, thumbs up to that. You all know my thoughts on cigarettes, but I won't preach to the choir. I did my part in slamming down Coke after Coke on the night, but not Doc Gooden style of course. Chester, pint after pint, in your honor. It's always a funny reaction, especially when I'm hanging with people that I'm not around a lot and they see me ordering a Coke. Drinking was never my thing, nothing against it, just not me. At The Ordinary though, we got to jam out to Lincoln Class of 96 member and one of the purest jump shooters of our era, Daniel Jaggie. This was my first time seeing Jags and his crew perform live. Do yourself a favor if you're in the area and if he's doing a show, go see it. I'm not saying that because I've known him forever, but he's legit and does a very good job.



It's that time again to give some new recommendations on some recent apps I've put on the phone. It's not like I don't already have a zillion on there anyways, but I digress. The first is one that comes with high praises from Sims. I saw him trying it out at the surprise party and he's been trying to get me to download it for a while. What is it you ask? We Doodle. If you're a fan of Pictionary, or if you're in the Lobstah crew, Yahoo Graffiti. It's free and a ton of fun, go get this bad boy. I'm Bird33WV on there. The next is a game that is huge in Japan apparently, Mr. AahH!! It's rather addicting, although it doesn't look like much. It's a game if you just have a short time to fire up the phone, this is what you need. It's tough to put down though. Lastly, one that I'm not sure why I didn't a while back, but just heard it was actually an app. Tosh.0 and it's really good. A lot of videos, daily posts, etc. If you're a Tosh fan, this is a definite get.

Another 5K was rocked out on Thanksgiving Day. This was the Turkey Trot 5K that Stacia and Jason Talkington do such a great job of organizing. This is the second year of existing it and it was a really big turnout this time. The weather was actually pretty good for that time of year as to what it is going to be over the next few weeks. It was near 50 and you can't beat that. There was 125 people in this action, that was a ton more than the race not long before that when I was one of two people in. I was happy with my time. I didn't do nearly as well as I did last year, but going in, I wasn't quite training as hard as last year's either. I finished with a time of 24:30 in 24th Place and was glad I did that before tearing up two big turkey dinners later that afternoon that were awesome. It's always a good time at the Turkey Trot just to see people that you haven't talked to in a while, a nice get-together. Plus, I'm always down to ramble on with a good chat to just about anyone.



Bird's Video Moment of the Week: This comes to us from Felisha. The title says it all. Flamboyant Salesman Video. He's getting the crowd interested if nothing else. Dude breaks it down in the last 20-30 seconds, hah. Good entertainment right there.



3 Quick Thangs:

1. This comes to us from Devon McIntyre. In a fact I did not know, but everyone else may? I'm putting it in regardless since I asked for some help to the Twitter gang on some quick facts down here for this section. "in every episode of Seinfeld. There is a superman somewhere.." You can follow Dev at http://twitter.com/DynoDev.

2. The next fact also came to use straight from Twitter. The one and only ManDingo had this gem about our local weather: "Well, winter's here. Not forecasted over 37 for the next 2 weeks. I guess it's time to get used to it, but I'm really hating it right now." I'm not hating it, but I'm weird when it comes to winter time. Want to follow Dingo? http://twitter.com/CouchPyro.

3. Last thing to end on. Straight from Sims, we have Barron finally in the Twitter mix. Time to get addicted man! "My boy @CooKeeZ11 is on twitter!! Let's go!!" Hit Sims up too at http://twitter.com/SiMZiLa13.

Sitch, COD, 5K, & Windshield Wipers! Let's Go!

Hola. Where have I been lately? I'm around, you know how it goes. Time to splurge a new blog on you for something to fill your days with to make it a little more exciting. Either that or you have nothing better to do as I always like to say in here. This is the first blog of November and we're getting closer and closer to Christmas time. Oh, there's Thanksgiving too? Apparently some people completely miss that holiday and skip straight to Christmas. As much as I love Christmas, we need to give Thanksgiving its due. Before that though, time to see what has been happening in the mean streets of my town, expect the unexpected.



It was time for yet another 5K race in town. This one was set up by the Super Strutters group where Alexis Huckles and Krissy (Anderson) McDougal, fellow class of 97 mates, meaning we're old. Only as old as you make yourself feel though and how you take care of yourself. The night before, I really wasn't sure if I was going to do this 5K. Then out of nowhere, I figured why not, wake up early and get this thing done. I go down there around 9:40 or so and there were flocks and flocks of people there. I wasn't sure I'd have enough time to register before things began at 10:00. Truthfully, I was the only one there at the time and wondered what was up. On the Facebook page, there were a good dozen or so people that said that yes, they would be there. That's how our town goes unfortunately. I'm the type of guy that likes to give my word to something. If I'm not going to be there, I'll let people know, but if I give a definite yes, count me in. Anyways, we had another runner show up and props to Sarah Cochran for coming out and supporting the cause. I know what you're thinking, only two people? Yep, but we both had to run that day anyways, so might as well get things done early and support a good cause. In the end, I can joke that I won my first ever 5K for whatever that's worth. Alexis and Krissy, keep everyone posted on the spring race and thanks for organizing everything. Also on Thanksgiving, gear up for the one and only Turkey Trot ran by Stacia and Jason Talkington. Word has it that there should be a really good turnout.

During the time I last wrote, Halloween was celebrated. I haven't dressed up in a while, but this was the year of the return. Before that, I did my yearly tradition of seeing my area of town become crazy populated on the streets for trick or treat. We had so many people show up at our place that you couldn't keep count, seriously. I know that seems hard to believe for out of area people when you think of my little town, but it's true and then some. After that, we had a big turnout at our house just to BS around, watch football, tell stories or whatever else went down. Pretty much our whole family was there along with Cork and Kristin. By the way, grape jelly meatballs are phenomenal.



After that action, it was late-nighting for a costume party. People gave us some ideas and Whitney and I decided we'd go as Snooki and The Situation. My "costume" was pretty easy to get dressed for. I already had a Situation shirt and the shades, plus I threw on a blinged out cross chain that Whitney had and it was go time. People say I look more like Vinny and I think so too, but my Aunt Linda and Kari had a classic thought on that. They said that if I went out as Vinny, since he's the most normal of the Jersey Shore guys if there is such a thing, then people wouldn't have a clue. So I went with the more exciting of the bunch and Kari had the running joke of calling me Sitch that night. Whitney had Snooki's stuff down to a tee, her side was more creative than mine. She put rinestones on her sunglasses, had the full Snooki wig even though she can pull off the Snooki look without it, the pink slippers, and a shirt we got at the beach, the I Love My Guido version. Surprisingly, where we went, we were the only ones that were Shore characters. I guess that shows the mentality we have watching that stuff, but you know I'm hooked to it like no other. A funny to us was that this girl from Jersey and her husband came up to us at the party and wanted to get pictures to show that we existed that night. I'm glad I can get people laughing a bit, we had a blast with our costumes.

Movie time. What will this review be on? Just Wright. We had wanted to see this one in the theaters, but never got around to it. Mix in Common, basketball, Queen Latifah, and it's a movie that was right up our alley. We both enjoyed this movie and I'd recommend it. The basketball scenes were fairly well done and featured a slew of actual NBA players such as my boy Rajon Rondo, Dwight Howard, Dwyane Wade, Rashard Lewis, Jalen Rose, Bobby Simmons and Elton Brand. You also had Marv Albert, Stu Scott, Mike Fratello, and Kenny "The Jet" Smith. On the actress side of things, notables were Phylicia Rashad and Pam Grier. It's somewhat predictable, but it still made for a good movie night in my books to go with popcorn and ice cream sundaes, yum. My final ranking is going to be 7.5 PCL injuries (what Common had in the movie) out of 10.



Here's one to make myself look like a goof, but I'm never above that for a good story in the blog. I left Whitney's on Monday night after watching wrestling, my usual schedule. Yes, RAW is my favorite thing to watch on TV all week, I kid you not, it's the dork in me I admit. I had planned to go for the midnight bash at GameStop and get Call of Duty that night. I was in such a coma that it didn't happen and I figured I'd be up the entire night before going to work in the morning. I was going to use Whitney's car to get the game since she needed gas anyways and it'd be easier that way. So I do the good deed of getting gas in her car and bring it back instead of heading up to the mall. I promise, this story will make sense here in a second, I'm getting into it..

Don't you hate waking up early in the morning before work and you have to either scrape your windows from all the ice or spray it down? Well, people that don't put their cars in a garage, you know what I mean. It's not a big deal to me, but it just saves a few minutes off your time so you can chill longer before work and not be crazy cold in the process. The option I have, and it's going to sound either primitive or stupid, is to get newspapers. Do what with those newspapers? Put them across your windshield before bed that night. When you wake up and go to work, take the newspapers off and like magic, no ice and you can just get your drive on. It's not for everyone, but it works. Well, as I was doing that to Whitney's car, I pull up her wipers to have it hold the paper. Bam, the wiper breaks off on me! Not good. Now what? Here I am at midnight trying to piece back a wiper blade where a bolt came off. Mix that in with me being one of the worst handy men as far as fixing things of that nature goes and it was a disaster. It's an easy task for most, but I admit that I can't even do a simple task of putting windshield wipers in the correct spot. The good thing? Whitney woke up the next morning and her windshield was as clear as can be. The wiper however, doh!



Fantasy basketball time! I've not commented on either of my drafts so far. I will now bore you into pieces on that and list my rosters for each bunch. First, I'll start out with the EDDFL that is going on 20+ years strong. Yes, you read that right. The 12-man cast of characters in this league are Riley, Spank, Cork, ManDingo, Sidelli, TJ, Mudcat, Fortney, Posey, Fleece, Ozzie, and myself. It is a straight style fantasy league with points, assists, and rebounds. We start 6 players per week, with one having to be a rookie. The next is A#BA, the league you hear me talk about a good bit that is our online keeper version. This one goes 20 deep and one of the most competitive leagues you will ever see. It's a 10-category league and is head-to-head.

E-Town Junkies (EDDFL)
1. Kevin Durant - Oklahoma City
2. Brook Lopez - New Jersey
3. Wes Johnson (Rookie) - Minnesota
4. Andrea Bargnani - Toronto
5. Andray Blatche - Washington
6. Joakim Noah - Chicago
7. JJ Hickson - Cleveland
8. Ty Thomas - Charlotte
9. Timofey Mozgov (Rookie) - New York
10. DJ Augustin - Charlotte
11. Marcus Camby - Portland
12. Andrei Kirilenko - Utah
13. Andris Biedrins - Golden State
14. Brendan Haywood - Dallas
15. Josh McRoberts - Indiana

Memphis Sounds (A#BA)
1. Carmelo Anthony - Denver
2. Dwyane Wade - Miami
3. Danny Granger - Indiana
4. Andre Iguodala - Philadelphia
5. Brandon Jennings - Milwaukee
6. Derrick Favors (Rookie) - New Jersey
7. Josh McRoberts - Indiana
8. Tiago Splitter (Rookie) - San Antonio
9. CJ Miles - Utah
10. Arron Afflalo - Denver
11. Jamario Moon - Cleveland
12. Nikola Pekovic (Rookie) - Minnesota



Busy week going down on my schedule, but one I'm excited for. Of course Call of Duty: Black Ops is released and I'll be sure to give reviews of that as I play it more. As of the first day of playing, I really like the graphics for one. The guns on this one, I'm a huge fan of so far and the gameplay, no issues on my end. It gets an early thumbs up on my side. There's only three days of work for me this week and I can't complain about my schedule with that ever. Thursday, Ric Flair is in the house! Not my house, but at our local Wal-Mart. I'll be there to fulfill one of my lifetime goals (yes, you can call it sad or whatever) in meeting him and hopefully getting my Flair belt signed. I'm not big on autographs as I've said before, but after meeting Larry Bird, Flair is definitely #2 on my "to-meet" list. Then Friday, it's off for the South Bend trip with Whitney to see my Irish take on Utah. Road trip! I can't see Notre Dame putting up a great fight, but I hope I'm proven wrong. Either way, I'm ecstatic for this week. Too much excitement in one week!

Time to talk about a few CDs I've recently listened to. The rap fans will want to know about this, the other 98% of the people reading this section, I'm probably talking to a wall anyways. I will entertain myself at least. Let's see what we have to talk about this time around, away we go..

Bun B: Trill O.G.: I'm a big fan of this one. Bun's style of rap has been one that you know what you're getting. He's kept his setup the exact same since he's started out. You won't get any mainstream club rap here or something that is just made to be catchy for a month only to die. If you're a rap enthusiast, this is for you. I can't just leave you hanging without telling you what songs are good on this bad boy. Trillionaire, Countin' Money, Ridin' Slow, and All A Dream are all worthy listens. Go get em.

Young Buck: Rehab. A former member of G-Unit, Buck is still around and doing his thing. I figured this album would be more bashings towards 50 Cent and the boys, but it doesn't feature any of that, which makes it even better because you get straight up rap minus the BS. The weird thing, through all of this "beef", he's still technically under their label, just not a main portion of it. What to get out of this one? This Is Mine, Ya Betta Know It, Hood Documentary, and When The Rain Stops. I liked Bun's album better, but enjoyed both.



3 Quick Thangs:

1. If you had November 3rd in the Christmas lights pool, you are this year's winner. I saw my first house decorated with the works, already lit up on that date. This was in Bridgeport on the hill near Go-Mart for the locals. Crazy.

2. Thursday is Veterans Day in the US and Remembrance Day in the land of "Canadia" as the Jersey Shore guys would say. Be sure to go out of your way and send a message to a veteran, it'll be greatly appreciated by them, I promise you that. I know I couldn't do what they do and they get my full respect.

3. A few weird law facts from TheAnswer (www.twitter.com/TheAnswer310): "In Tennessee, it is against the law to drive a car while sleeping. Imagine that!.. Today we travel to Iowa where one armed piano players must play for free.. in Colorado if u let ur cat outdoors it has to have a tail light."

Bird's Video Moment of the Week: Man on Bench time..

"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.