Big Game, Take Two

Back in January, OSU played Florida in the National Title game......for Football. I was pumped and excited at the prospect of another National Title for my beloved Buckeyes. Then, they got their asses kicked. Needless to say, I was a little miffed. Well, now they get their second chance. OSU takes on the Florida Gators in the National Title game.....for Basketball. I'm not really a huge basketball fan, but I love OSU and I love the college tourney. It's just great that they both go hand in hand this year. In the regular season, I don't go as nuts about OSU basketball as I do for football, but I watched all of the big games that I could and watched any game on TV then there was nothing else to watch. Does that make me a fair weather fan? I don't think so. I just don't have the time to watch so many games. That's why I hate baseball. But that is another story all together. Back to the point. I am a little concerned about the game tonight. OSU played Florida back in December last year and got killed by 26. But then OSU got their game on and currently have the longest winning streak in the country. A big difference in tonights game compared to the game in December is that OSU will have full use of Greg Oden. The 7 foot center was injured for the last meeting with Florida. I'd say that, after the last two games OSU has played, they are firing on all five cylinders. The inside game and the outside game have been well balanced and their defense have been outstanding. I don't know if they will be able to beat Florida's returning National title winning team, but it will definately be a good, close game. It would be nice to get some pay back for the Football team. GO BUCKS!!!

BSG WDF x 3

For those of you not down with the lingo: BSG = Battlestar Galactica and WTF = What The Frack? I watched the season finale of BSG this past Sunday. I think that it left a bad taste in my mouth. If you haven't seen it yet, I am going to spoil it for you. That's just how I roll.

As I have mentioned previously, I have been less than impressed with Battlestar Galactica recently. It is still my favorite show right now, but I have stopped watching the episodes twice. I have them all saved on my DVR and could rewatch them on a later date, but none of the episodes have left me with a "I gotta see that again" feeling. It is disappointing because season three started out with a bang. However, it has left me with an 'In with a lion out with a lamb' feel. The episodes leading up to the season finale have been like filler just to get a full season.

Ok, so, this episode, we find out what happens to Baltar. Does he get air locked or set free? Honestly, if would be better for him if he had been tossed out the air lock. If someone that hates him gets a hold of him, he's fracked. I still don't get why Apollo insisted on defending Baltar. Does he just want to piss off his dad? Well, it worked. Well, I'm not going to break down the episode scene by scene, I will just touch on my WTF issues:

WTF 1. Four of the final five revealed? I don't think I buy it. Can Tigh, Samuels, the Chief, and the president's aide ALL be Cylons? Really?? Does that mean the Starbuck is the fifth? She appears out of nowhere in her Viper that was blown up a few episodes ago. Honestly, I do not think that they are all cylons. Why would the Cylons take out Tigh's eye if he were a Cylon? I guess the Cylons don't know who the final five are, but could so many of the Galactica's vital people REALLY be Cylons? It would certainly throw the entire BSG world into a tizzy.

WTF 2. Jimmy? They REALLY hear Jimmy? That is how they know that they are Cylons? First of all, I believe that Cylons could listen to Jimmy, but they could not HEAR, Jimmy. I thought that it was a bit cheesey that 'All Along the Watchtower' was the music that these four were hearing. Come on! I am thinking that maybe they are picking up a radio broadcast from Earth. Would it be playing only one song though? I gotta say, that the whole 'hearing music' thing was weird for me. I did notice that the four hearing the music were four people that were all on New Caprica in the resistance.

WTF 3. New episodes in 2008?!?! We have to wait a minimum of nine full months for new episodes of BSG? That is the biggest WTF. It is kind of arrongant of the writers to think that the public will wait patiently for new episodes. I am not happy about this. Last year, it was 'no episodes until October'. What do they need to do that is going to take nine months? Are they actually going to go into space to film the show for a more realistic feel? Maybe the idea well is dry and they need time to develop the story. I don't know. Hopfully, I will forget about the show so that the wait isn't too bad.

People Need to Remember HD TV is Out There.

I have mentioned before that I have a HD plasma TV now. It is pretty cool for gaming, DVDs and general television watching. One draw back is that some networks don't broadcast in HD, so the picture can look a little pixilated. Thankfully, the networks all have HD channels now and ESPN is in HD. In most cases HD is great. Crystal clear pictures can be a good thing for sporting events (you can see better than the referees sometimes) and other shows, but there are a few cases where HD may not be the best choice. For example, Desparate Housewives. Yes, I know I am girly for watching the show. I've accepted it, so should you. Anyway, on normal TV, Terry Hatcher is HOT. In HD, not so much. She is definately an attractive woman, but she has some unfortunate lines and wrinkles on her face that HD brings right into focus. I don't mean to pick on Terry, but there was a list I heard on the radio about actors that should not be in HD and she was #1 on the list. Example 2, BSG, aka BEST SHOW EVER! HD really makes the effects pop and is great for the show in general, but Edward James Almos is NOT an attractive man. In analog TV he is not attractive, but in HD, he is NOT attractive. Still, a great actor and a great show, don't get me wrong. The final example is beauty pagents. Before you get on my case about watching beauty pagents, it is NOT an normal thing for me. I generally do NOT watch them. I think they are silly. Sure, there are pretty girls walking around in next to nothing, but there are many other things that can occupy my TV time. Friday was an exception since there was nothing on that Jessica and I agreed on and she sometimes likes pagents. Mostly she makes fun of the super skinny girls. Anyway, it was the Miss USA Pagent. The girls were all pretty and HD really showed off their physique, but some of them had unfortunate marks here and there that jumped right out in HD. One had three very big, very black moles on her tummy, one had weird face lines when she smiled, and, probably the biggest thing to consider when wearing a bikini in HD is that viewers could definately tell which of the girls were, um, I guess 'well groomed down there' would be the best way to describe it. You would expect T.H.O.s perhaps, but you would think that they would attend to too-tight bottoms to avoid unfortunate climbing of the bottoms into unfortunate places. It was funny too, because one to the pagent directors told the girls that, "if they get a wedgie, don't pick it out." Well, camel toe is a bit more extreme that wedgies, I would think. Another thing is that these girls tended to get higher points than the others. Anyway, I would think that something like that would need to be pixilated in the future. Sure the girl parts are covered, but there was not too much left to the imagination. Another funny thing is that, at first, when they announced the finalists, they would show them at an angle that made the tightness of their bikini bottoms VERY apparent. After a few girls were shown in this manner, the director must have noticed the extreme details because the camera was raised to an above-the crotch angle. I doubt that this has ever been an issue in the past, but due to the current female grooming tendancies and the popularity of HD TV, some changes may be made. Honestly, I could care less, but I'm sure that there are some up-tight right wing religious fenatics that will have issue.

WSOP Tourney

As you may all know I am participating in a World Series of Poker satellite tournament on Monday March 26th. Well, things could have gone alot better. I lasted a couple of hours, but that's about it. I started out really well and was up about $1000 in chips, but then I tried to chase a straight and lost about $1200. Not soon after, I was dealt pocket 8's, so I bet $400. Some one called me and when the flop came, there was a king and a Jack. The other player quickly bet a large amount, which made me fold. He turned over his king and jack. I was glad to get out of the hand, but now I was at about $800 in chips. and the blilnds were $100/$200. After folding several hands, I was dealt pocket 10's and went all in. I was called by someone with pocket kings. OUCH!! It prooved to be the clincher. Three nines came up to tease me (SO close to tens) and we both ended up with full houses. Mine was just a little lower than his. My friend Jesse was in the tourney too and would up in 75th place. Not bad, but they started paying out to people that finished 73rd or better. He was a little pissed.

All in all, it was a fun experience. I really learned alot. I think that this will help my overall poker playing. I may make an annual event of this. I can't afford to play in these events too much though. Once a year is plenty. I'll stick to the low dollar games I can get into around here.

The Elite Eight to the Final Four

After OSU's win over Tennesee Thursday night, OSU made it to the Elite Eight. Other teams in the tourney still are Florida playing against Oregon, Kansas against UCLA, North Carolina against Georgetown, and (of course) OSU against Memphis. FINALLY, Ohio State played a game to prove that they are worthy of their number one ranking. The defense was great, the offense was great, and their over all performance was great. The Buckeyes put up over 90 points against a Memphis team that allowed an average of just over 60 points in the rest of the tourney. It was a close game at frst. Ohio state controled he lead most of the game, but Memphis kept it close and eventually took the lead for a while. However, with under ten minutes left, Ohio State took control of the lead and never gave it back and won the game 92-76. The Buckeyes will play either Georgetown or North Carolina next Saturday. I won't recap the whole game for you. You can read about it on ESPN.com if you really want to. Bottom line is the Buckeyes are going to the Final Four! Go Bucks!

So, I think I have finally caught up With Lost

As you may know, I have been getting caught up on the show Lost. I didn't watch it at first because it looked too far fetched. Plus, it was in a bad time slot. I finally caved in a got the first disk of season one through NetFlix. After that, I was hooked. I went out and bought the first two seasons on DVD. Jessica decided that she liked it too. Since I have posted about this all before, I will fast forward to my point. Since I bought my Ipod, I have also gained access to ITunes. I guess you can access ITunes without an IPod, but you need to have access to Itunes in order to put music and other things to your Ipod from your computer. Basically, ITunes is a media player (you can play music, movies, pod casts, and TV shows using ITunes) but it also gives you a link to a media store. Once you sign up, you can buy and download all of the things previous mentioned to you IPod. I bought and downloaded Lost season three. OH-MY-GOODNESS!!!!! How good is that show getting?!?!? The one bad thing about the download from Itunes is that I either had to watch it on the IPod (a 3 or 4 inch screen) or on my computer and the computer screen kinda stretches out and makes the picture a bit jerky. Still, it doesn't take away from how good the episodes are. At first I thought that the show would make me angry because of all of the secrets and teasing, but I think that watching all of the shows in a short time took away that possible irritant. I learned secrets faster and if there was a cliff hanger ending for one show, I would just watch the next show right away. This will all change now since I need to start watching weekly, like normal people do. Still, Lost is on during a different show that we watch (Criminal Minds) but thanks to the lovely invention of DVR, I can record it and watch it on a different day while fast forwarding through the commercials. Isn't technology great? There was one 'episode' that was kinda interesting and kinda irritating. It was a show to catch up people with the show. Basically, a flash back show where they introduce the characters and update you on the basic plot. Usually, I hate these shows, but this on had a few neat insights. They talked about the 'Easter Eggs' or little secrets within the show. Like, when one character is linked to another character, but they don't know it, or throwing the numbers into an unexpected scene. One that was kinda neat was when Hugo was in the hatch drinking milk from a carton and Walt was on the carton as a 'missing person'. I thought it was crazy weird at first since Walt was missing, but then I remembered it was a dream of Hugo's. Oh well, the point of it all is that I am now caught up and can joint in all of the Lost conversations around the water cooler. Fun stuff. Jack and Claire? Who knew?

Comeback of The Season

To all of you Ohio State haters out there, I hope that last night's OSU vs. Tennesee basketball game gave you just a little bit of respect for the Buckeyes. Some of the fouls that were called against OSU to put star center, Greg Oden, on the bench in the first half were BUUUUUUUULLLLLLLSSSSSSHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIT!!!!!! If the fix wasn't in last night to give Tennesee the W, I'd be suprised. Good thing the Volunteers began to suck ass in the second half because they were on fire in the first half. They had a twenty point lead over the Bucks until .1 seconds on the clock in the first half when OSU converted an old fashion three point play (lay up, foul, and making the free throw.) Down 17 at the half, coach Thad Matta must have lit a bon fire under the teams collective asses. The Buckeyes stepped it up on defense and offense and began cutting into the 17 point Vols' lead. Then, the improbable happened when OSU went up after a 60% free throw shooter hit both. To make a long story short, OSU cut the 17 poine deficit and won the game by 1 point. WOW! I was so hyped last night that it was hard to go to sleep. We are now on the was to the Elite Eight to play Memphis for a chance to go to the Final Four.

Thieves Beware

I went ahead and ordered a security system yesterday. It is somthing that Jessica and I had talked about before. True, we move to a beter neighborhood a while ago, but it seems to me that robbers are more likely to rob people in better neighborhoods due to the probability of better things to steal. Also, we used to sleep on the first floor, so I was more likely to hear something in the middle of the night, but now we are on the second floor. There are also times that I am out late and a security system gives me the peace of mind knowing that Jessica and the kids have an extral layer of protection while I'm out. There are also times that I hear noises (probably just car doors opening outside) in the middle of the night and I get paranoid. I have an active imagination at times.

The good thing about getting a security system is that I already have one, but it's never been activated. Apparently, MI homes puts in Brinks security systems in all of their new builds. We have an MI home. The previous owners just never had the service activated. The reason it is good for me is that we get the premium system without paying the installation. Plus, since we are a new activation, we get some free stuff too. I could have gotten motion sensors, but it seems to me that dogs (and people waking up in the morning) would set off the system. So, I got a glass breaking sensor for the back windows. Basically, it picks up the sound of glass breaking in a fifteen foot area. If I had not gotten that, the alarm only goes off when a window or door opens. I need to ask them ifthe alarm is set to go off if the upstairs windows are opened. The control panel is nice because we have three buttons that individually call the police, ambulance, or fire department. Like panic buttons, I guess. Also, the smoke detectors call the fire department when they go off. That could be a problem if we burn dinner. When the weather is nice, we like to have the windows open while we sleep. Well, I really hope that the system is a complete waste of money.

360 Weirdness

Is Weirdness a word? Well, I'm making it a word. As you may know, I like playing my Xbox 360 online. Well, a strange thing happened Saturday when I tried to login to Live and could not. It was telling me that my network could not be found. When I checked the settings, my network was on the list of networks it detected, but Live would not use it. I asked my brother-in-law, Toby, over to see if he could figure it out. After several hours of tinkering, he determined that someone else in my area bought a wireless router liked mine and the Xbox was having issues separating them. Toby tried to rename my server, but it did not work. We gave it up for a night, and I tried calling Xbox support Sunday. 40 minutes on the line later (after trying all of the things that Toby and I had already tried) I called Toby again and he came over a took my Xbox to his house to see if his network would work. No such luck. Since I had bought the replacement plan, I decided to get a new Xbox. Sure, I could have gotten a ethernet cable and hard wired to my router, but I didn't buy a wireless router and wireless connection for my Xbox to end up hard wiring my Xbox. Now, I have had issues with Best Buy in the past, but this time they were awesome. I told the service guy that I was no longer connecting wirelessly and he gave me a new Xbox. I had to take everything back (controller, cords, headset, etc.) but forgot the power box (a separate box that the power cord plugs into and then you plug the power source to the Xbox. probably a surge protector type thing). The service guy said that it was OK and traded out the new power box saying that they are all the same. Well, he was wrong. The new one had two prongs and the old one had three. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get a three prong plug into a two prong slot. So, I took the power box back and got the correct one. Toby then did some tweeking on my network and I am up and popping on Live again, which is good becauseI went out and bought Crack Down. The game in itself is not why I bought it. I bought Crack Down because it gives me access to a Halo 3 online Beta test. (Online, which is why I needed to get Live working again.) I just need to download the demo and then I can play it though the Crack Down game menu. I can't wait to see all of the new toys that the Master Chief gets to play with.

300 was pretty good

Jessica and I went to see 300 this past Friday. I had high expecations for the film based on the good marketing job that movie folk did for the movie. The commercials showed several of the cool scenes, but not all of them. I had mentioned before that the basic story is 300 Spartans holding off thousands of Persian warriors. It was pretty neat. Basically, all of the Startans are bad ass soldiers that are trained in war as soon as they can walk. I won't go into the film too much, because I don't want to ruin anything and there really isn't too much to get into. It is like Braveheart in ways because of the epic battle scenes, but to be honest, there wasn't as much plot. There is enough for you to get behind the Spartans and hate the Persians. I was listening to a radio show this morning and their movie critic gave 300 a D (-on a A-F scale). I think that he was a bit harsh. True, no one will win best actor, but there are some cool effects and great battle scenes in this film. If you liked Sin City (a movie also based on a Frank Miller graphic novel) you will probably like 300. If you put any weight into critic's words, wait for the DVD or go to a dollar theatre. I will probably buy this movie when it comes out. there was enough cool stuff in it for me to get past it's short comings. Jessica said she liked it too. It is a very macho movie though. It made me want to go out and kill Persians. Not really, but it gets your adrenaline pumping a bit. I probably owe Jessica a chick flick now.

Wow. What a game.

A little history:

OSU's coach, Thad Matta (yes, that's his real name) used to coach Xavier. He took Xavier deep into the NCAA tourney back in 2002. He was recruited by OSU, but told Xavier fans that he was not leaving. Well, he did and the Xavier fans felt betrayed and don't like coach Matta too much anymore.

Today, Ohio State's men's basketball team faced off against Xavier for the opportunity to go to the Sweet Sixteen. Things were looking a little shakey in the first half. The favored Buckeyes weren't taking control of the game like I had hoped. It was OK though, because OSU has been know to keep games close against opponents they are 'supposed to beat' and then pulling it out at the end for the win. However, as the second half progressed, it was looking grim. Xaxier opened a lead and was keeping it. With only a few minutes left, Xavier was up by nine. There was plenty of time, but Ohio State needed to get going, and quickly. The game picked up and OSU drained a three and then scored two more quickly after a steal. With the clock winding down and the margin only two, Ohio State stole the ball again, but missed two shot attempts. Xavier got the rebound and OSU quickly fouled them with only 9 seconds left in the game. Going to the line with two foul shots, the Xavier player made the first one, but missed the second giving OSU one last shot to tie the game. Ron Lewis did just that making a three pointer with two seconds left on the clock. The game went into overtime where OSU scored the first seven points and never looked back. Wow. I was literally onmy feet for the last ten minutes of the game. It was the most exciting win I have seen in a long time. I'm sure that it had to be bitter sweet for Coach Matta since he recruited several of the Xavier players and was good friends with the current Xavier coach. Still OSU is going to the Sweet Sixteen to face either Tennesee or Virginia. GO BUCKS!!

The Public (ok, just Amy) Has Spoken

Thanks to Amy for giving me some feedback regarding my blog. Honestly, I was not fishing for comments, although they are nice, I was just out of ideas. I don't want to bore you all by posting the same thing over and over. As expected, Amy said that she skips over my sports postings. They should really decrease after the NCAA tourney is over. After that, I could care less about sports. (I hate baseball. Do they really need to play 5000 game per season?) One quick sports note, OSU won their basketball game last night and advance in the tournament. Yippie!

Amy's comment and the local radio station's website gave me an idea fot my next posting:

The internet. Is it just me, or does the internet scare the bejezzes out of you? Actually, that question is aimed more towards parents. On one hand, the net is wonderful and amazing. Want a gift for someone, but don't have time to run to the store? Buy a gift card that you can print out or a gift that can be delivered to your home. Want to test a new album before buying it? Listen to it on ITunes or Napster. Want to research something for school or something like a trip? Any information that you may want is at your finger tips. Basically, it can be a very cool thing.

Why does it scare the bejezzes out of me? Because I have kids. Why, you ask? The first thing that comes to mind is the Dateline stings on TV 'To Catch a Predator." If you've missed it, the cops set up stings to catch pervs trying to have sex with a teen girl. SinceI have a little girl, I fear the time when she is wanting to be in a chat room. There are SO many pervs out there and the internet makes it SO easy to gain access to children.

The second reason is something that I touched on just a little bit ago. The most viewed picture that I have on my Flickr page is one of Gabriel. I see that it have been looked at 34 times and wonder why. I don't even know 34 people that would want to see my pictures. Mona touched on it in a comment on the post when se said that a picture of her pregnant friend was linked to a sex-type web page. I think pregnant women are cute, but to take a picture off of someone else's baby belly and liking it to an adult oriented site is a little sick. You can also find innocent pictures of little girls in swim suits at the beach that some perves like to adult type sites. Now, I like girls in swim wear, but there has to be a line that you just can't cross. The thought of someone looking at my little girl like that make me a little sick and a lot angry.

Finally, the final reason that the internet scares me is that there is really nothing to prevent children from viewing sites that they shouldn't. The first thing to pop into my mind is nudity sites. The local radio station has a web-cam so you can view the shenanigans in the studio. You are supposed to be 18. Yes, there is a prompt that asks how old you are (so I've heard) but it doesn't take a genius to fake your date of birth. I guess it is not the worst thing in the world for a teen kid to see nekked pictures, I know I saw[pictures of nude girls as a young teen, but there is some pretty gross and intense images out there (like gross and gory things along with gross sex stuff). If you haven't noticed, there is alot of trash on the internet and kids are all about checking out trash. Another child-unfriendly site is the Heineman's Winery site. I know that I have posted thatit is good stuff, and it is, but there is nothing to check the age of the buyer. All you need is a credit card to have cases of wine mailed to your house. I had a credit card my freshman year of college (I was 18 or 19). You know there are kids out there that have no problem lifting their parent's credit card to order online. I don't know how you would be able to prevent under aged kids from buying wine online, other than stopping all online sales.

What do I do? I just don't let Noah use the internet without supervision. I could add parental blocks, but there are ways around them and they are irritating when you don't need them. I know that may make me look like a hard ass, but there are some trust issues in our house. The home computer is in my office and I don't like kids in my office unsupervised. I don't want to air the family's dirty laundry, so I won't get into why. I may buy another computer for the kids to use and add parental controls for the internet. Not sure though.

What to Post, What to Post

I don't know how Woody does it. It always seem that he has something new on his blog every day (I can't see the posts today Wood, so I don't know if you are having issues again. Maybe I am just barred from it, like so many other things in this world.). Sure, sometimes I am not really interested about some of the things he posts (like the Bengals and some of the TV shows he watches that I don't watch. No offense, Woody) but he always seems to have new and original content. Honestly, that impresses me. I try to post daily and I always try to post original items, but sometime (like today if you can't tell from this weak topic) I just can't think about anything to write about. I could tell you how I lost some money playing cards last night (shitty cards ALL night) but I thin I've milked the poker topic plenty. I know that half of my readers stop reading as soon as they see the words Buckeyes, OSU, Go Bucks, or any other sport related words, so posting about the NCAA tourney starting tonight for the Buckeyes would be pointless and irritating for some. I could post about my hobbies, but I don't really have many (other than the afore mentioned poker. I guess I could post about poo-ing. I got TONS of comments when poo came up in the comment section of a post a while back. Mona wanted to use it as a survey topic, so I left it alone. Maybe I'll take it back! What do you all think?
What is interesting? What is dull? What makes you read on and what makes you move on to the next blog?

One thing that I am excited about is this new movie called 300. It looks AWESOME!! This is definately NOT a chick flick. It looks like lots of violence will full this flick. It is based off of a Frank Miller graphic novel. If you saw the movie Sin City, that was also a Frank Miller deal. I thought that Sin City was a really neat. Maybe not the best acting or story line, but the imagry was great. I can sit through two hours of a crappy movie if the special effects and imagry are good. Not that Sin City was crappy, I liked it, it's just not an Oscar-type movie. Still, the sroty behing 300 (if you missed the thousands of commercials all over the place) is that there are 300 Spartans (bad-ass Roman-types. If you remember your Greek/Roman history, the Spatrans were the muscle of the area and were slaughtered by all of the other armies in the area because they were getting too strong and scary) fighting againts everyone else. I'm sure there is much more to the story than just the violence and war. Two bad-ass lines from the movie:

1. "This is where we fight. This is where they die."
2. "Our arrows will bot out the sun." "Then we shall fight in the shade."

I hope we can go see it tomorrow night.

IPods are Neat

So, this weekend Jessica decided that she wanted an Ipod. Honestly, I had been looking at them for a while, I just didn't know which one to get. Anyway, Jessica said that she wanted one to listen to while she is excercising or doing house work and ended up getting a 2 gig IPod Nano. It is the generic white color since I told her it was dumb to pay $50 extra for a pink or blue IPod (she wanted pink). I was nice and let her use my gift cards that I won a while back. I figured I'd be nice since I didn't know what I wanted to get with the gift cards and I figured it best to spend 'free' money rather than dipping into our checking accounts. Of course, this was when I thought that I would have some access to the Ipod. I was wrong. It's OK though. I don't like half of the songs that Jessica put on her Ipod. Alot of classic rock that is alright, but not really my cup of tea. I must say, the Ipod is making me feel old already. I have always been pretty good at figuring out technology, but the Ipod is a completely different monster. I tried to add songs to it and was immediately frustrated. I tried to use Media Player, but apparently, you can only down load songs from ITunes. It's OK though, because it is free and you can transfer songs already saved on Media player over to the ITunes format. It was irritating because, they only gave you a little hand out about loading music. No real step by step directions. I guess they figured that people are smart enough to figure out how to add song. Apparently, people like me weren't in the test group. Still, I think that I am bitten by the Ipod bug. I think I may get one this week. The reason why I didn't get one when Jessica did is because, 1. I thought I would be able to use Jessica's and 2. I didn't want to spend all of our money with bills on the way. All that has changed though since we received out tax return. Now, there is plenty of extra cash to blow on shiney new trinkets. I am thinking about getting a 30 gig IPod so that I can put all of my music on it and put my CDs in storage. I may just go with the 4 gig IPod. It depends on the price and features. Do any of you have an IPod? What do you like/not like?

Hoops Dreams

March Madness, I believe they call it. I am not a huge basketball fan, but I really like when the tournaments start. I always pull for the Buckeyes, but I also love to root for the underdogs. There is nothing more exciting in play off sports than a 'Cinderella Team' taking a top ranked team down on a buzzer beater. You can almost feel the emotion of the game pour out of the television as the under dog's fans flood the basket ball court in celebration. Could I tell you the name of a team that pulled off a 'Cinderella' like win last year? No. I could care less who the team is. I just like the emotion of the moment. The best time is the first week of the tourney when there are a bunch of games going at the same time, but they are staggered a few minutes so that you can see the last few minutes of each game. there is all sorts of potention for tight finishes with the under dog coming out on top. Just DON'T let it happen against my Buckeyes.

With a lofty #1 ranking, the Buckeyes are being projected as a #1 seed. Not too sure why they call them 'seeds'. I guess they need to call them something. The Buckeyes haven't done too well in the Big Dance in the last few years. I guess they emposed a ban on themselves for O'brien's misconduct (he gave some players $$), but they seem to have trouble getting beyond the first few rounds. They did make it to the Final Four several years ago when they had Michael Red and Scoonie Penn, but haven't done much since then. Hopfully they can live up to the hype and move deep into the tourney. A National Title would be nice.

Most Viewed Picture

I really don't now why this picture of Gabriel with a 'boo' (what he called his pacifier) in his mouth has been viewed so many times (34). I guess it is an OK picture of Gabe, but he looks tired or pissed (or both). Maybe people just want to see the bar graph in the back ground. There are many cuter and funnier pictures on my Flickr page, at least in my opinion. For example, Gabe's 'monster teeth'. That always make me chuckle a bit. It has been viewed 15 times, but I think it is a much more entertaining photo. The only comment I have on any of my photos is on a Storm Trooper pic and it's from someone that I don't even know. I guess it is neat that people I don't know find my pictures interesting, but I wonder how this photo was found. I guess if you are looking for Storm Trooper pics, you could find it, but I didn't 'tag' it or anything. Personally, I would think that people would view pictures of Alydia more. She is just too cute for words. I must say, I am a little concerned that this picture of Gabe has been viewed so many times. I don't think I know 34 people that know of my Flickr page. I guess people could be viewing it multiple times, but I guess I am a little worried about perverts looking at my kids. I won't put any inappropriate pictures on the site, but there could be some creep that likes little boys with pacifiers checking out this picture. I am not concerned that anything would ever happen. I don't think there is any way for people to track us down. I just think it is weird that this picture of Gabriel is the most viewed picture that I have. Do you hane any favorites?

I remember why I stopped watching 24

When 24 came out a few years ago, I started watching it. It was an interesting concept, having one day in the life of a government agent (Jack Bauer) trying to stop an assasination attempt on the president. Terrorists kidnap Jack's wife and daughter and make him jump through hoops to save them. It was pretty neat. His daughter, Kim, is played by Elisha Cuthbert. She used to be on my list, but that has changed, as you can see. Still, she is very attractive and played a hot role in the movie The Girl Next Door, a very funny movie about a guy that falls for a porn star that moves in to the house next to him. Anyway, I liked season one of 24. Then season two came around. Same basic concept, only this time Jack has to stop terrorists from blowing up LA with a nuke. Again, a pretty good show. HOWEVER, one thing soured the experience. The afore mentioned Kim. I enjoy some eye candy in TV shows. Kate, in Lost. Sharon in BSG. All of the girls in Charmed (except Shannon Doherty). You get the idea. It all started pretty well in season 2 of 24. Kim running around trying to protect a little girl from her abusive father. Mmmmmm......running. But then it turned into something that seemed like the writers were trying to think up new ways to put Kim in trouble. She has to be the stupidest character on television. Here are some thoughts that I think must have gone through her head throughout the show:

"Someone kidnapped me, but then he helped me escape. I think I will call him for help and then get arrested when he is involved in a drug deal."

"I'm getting arrested for kidnapping a girl, stealing a car, and murdering her mother. Sure the father killed the mother and is an ass, but I will run anyways."

"Hmm...I was in a car wreck. My boyfriend is hurt and a cop is also hurt. I think I will run into the big forest when the sun is going down."

"Uh Oh! My leg is caught in a simple snare trap designed to befuddle bunnies and a mountain lion is after me!! Sure there are sticks and rocks I could throw at it, but I think I'll just sit here and wait to be eaten."

"Hmmm.... This guy that found me in the forest is living alone, has guns, built a bomb shelter, and seems a little crazy (and a lot horney too). I think I will take a shower, put in this revealing tank top, let my nipples get all hard, and hang out with him for a while."

I could go on forever. I just couldn't take how many improbable situations Kim got herself into and got herself out of. How can a character be stupid enough to get in trouble 35 times in 24 hours but then be smart (or lucky) enough to get out of the situations. The only redeeming values the character Kim Bauer had in season 2 of 24 were the running in tight tops and the afore mentioned hard nipples (I know, I am a perve. Get over it.) It did not add anything to the story. The only reason I am watching again (I got the DVDs on NetFlix) is because Woody always posts positive reviews of the latest season and I want to get caught up to see what the hub-bub is about. Season 2 has a good story, but I just kept wishing that the mountain lion ate Kim.

Dead, a Prisoner, or a Cylon?

If you haven't seen last night's episode of Battlestar Galactica and you don't want to know what happened (or yo just don't care) STOP READING IMMEDIATELY!!!!! I WILL be ruining the ending for you.

So, last night's episode of BSG was actually interesting for a change. They really started going into the mind of Starbuck and her past. You get a bit of an idea why she is the way she is. There are a bunch of flash backs to her life with an abusive mother. It really explains her motherhood issues. The premise behind the episode is that the fleet is getting refuled by the one fuel ship in the fleet. It is taking a while, so they are hiding out by a planet that is giving out a lot of radiation that will throw off Cylon sensors. The problem is, it throws off Colonial sensors too. While patroling the area, Starbuck keeps seeing a lone Cylon ship that no one else can see. She thinks she is going crazy and people are starting to agree. She is also seeing herself as a child all over the place and also the Cylon that took her captive on New Caprica. To cut things short, she goes out on patrol again, see the Cylon ship again, goes after is, and the last you see of her is her ship blowing up. It is seen from a distance, so you really don't know if she ejected. The problem with that though, is that the planet has wicked storms and a crushing atomosphere, so she could not live on the ground. So, is Starbuck:

1. Dead? Was Katie Sackhoff sacked? Did she quit the show? I hadn't heard anything about that, but I guess it is possible. Woody is usually on top of things posted on the internet, so I think he'd mention something if Starbuck was out. I think this the least likely option.

2. A Cylon? Honestly, when her ship blew up, I half expected to see Starbuck wake up in a vat of Cylon goo. Could she really be one of the final five Cylons? That would really blow me away. I know that they are saying that one of the caracters on the show is going to be outed as a Cylon, but could it be Starbuck? If so, would she have all of the childhood injuries and memories? I guess that could be how she was programmed. I really don't know about this. It would blow me away.

3. Captured? I think this is the best bet. Leoben said that Starbuck has a destiny and he was in a lot of her flash backs. Maybe she got into her head like Caprica Six is in Baltar's head. No one saw the Cylon Raider, other than Starbuck, but maybe it was real and on a mission to capture her. Leoben said that he was going to see her again (on New Caprica). I think that this is the most likely possiblity. I don't think they are going to kill off such a popular character and I don't think that they will make her a Cylon. I am sure that, if she is alive, Galactica will find her and suspect her to be a Cylon. Either way, I was blown away when I saw Starbuck ger blowed up.

Spring is in the Air

I think Spring is my favorite season of the year. The temperature is perfect, there are no bugs out yet, and plants start to bloom. Sure, the Summer is nice, warm, and sunny, but there are the bugs. Fall is nice too, what with the trees changing color, but there are still bugs. Do you get that I don't really like bugs? Winter is just too cold and dreary, and I always feel lathargic in the winter. Back to spring. At our old house, we had about ten years of overgrowth to deal with. The previous owner was elderly and couldn't really keep up with the yard work. It took the whole time that we lived there for me to get the yard under control. The house we are in now is more of a blank slate. The back yard was mostly all grass, except for a few pre-existing and nice flower beds. I've put in a garden and a few more flower beds. Still, I have a lot more that I want to do. There is an ugly bush on the side of our house that I want to dig up and some other plants that I want to get moved about. I've doubled the size of our vegetable garden and am planning on adding more flower beds. It's alot of work, but it can be fun. Especially when you get to see the results. My parents bought me a tiller for Christmas, so that will help with digging up the dirt. There is a great green house down the road from us, and I could easily spend several hundred dollars there. I just need to make sure that I don't bite off more thatn I can chew. I don't really have the time to do all of the things I really want to do. A few things that I definately want to add to the back are, Wisteria, a wheeping cherry tree, and perhaps a grape vine (for wine making). Our veggie garden will have tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, spinach, green beans, and melons. I also grow herbs like rosemary, cilantro, basil, parsley, and dill. I need to make sure to add a small mesh fence all around the vegetable garden to keep the rabbits out. They liked the lettuce. One thing I need to do, and some advice if you are planning to start a garden, is plant my lettuce on different days. All of my lettuce was ready at the same time and some of it went bad before we could use it. The same goes for cucumbers, as they don't produce all summer long. Well, it's only a few more weeks until spring. If all goes well, when we have our cook out his year, you will get to enjoy all sorts of home grown goodies.

I'm not as smart as a 5th grader

If you have been watching American Idol the past few nights (We have not been. Thankfully, it seems like bot Jessica and I have completely lost interest. There isn't much talent on the show anymore.) then you have seen a new game show called "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader". The gist of the show is that they bring in adults, some with college degrees, and ask them questions from elementary school books. There are also five kids (5th graders) on the show that the adult contestant can use as ''helps". The adults are then asked to pick from categories, like 1st grade art or 4th grade math (1st through 5th grade questions of various subjects) and answer a question from the category. The first question I saw was a social studies question: "what month is Columbus Day celebrated?" I was stumped. I now know it is October, but I could not for the life of me remember before hearing the answer. Another question was a math question: "If the area of a triangle is 4" and the base of the triangle is 2", what is the height of the triangle?" I got this one correct. 1/2 base x height = the area of a triangle, so the answer is 4". Still, I missed about half of the questions. I felt dumb. I think I would like this show, but there are a few things that will keep me from adding it to my normal rotation. First, Jeff Foxworthy. Don't get me wrong, I like Jeff Foxworthy as a comedian. As a game show host, he sucks. He is very dry and tried to incorporate his act into the show. It doesn't work too well. Second, it is only 30 minutes long, so it over before it really gets started. This goes into the third reason, which is the pacing of the show sucks. They are trying to make it all dramatic by adding pauses between the contestant answering the question and finding out if they are right or not (like they pause in Deal or No Deal). As a result, there are only, like, four or five questions asked per game. If I am watching a quiz show, I need it to be fast paced so that it keeps my interest. The long pauses don't work.

All in all, I guess I like the show enough to watch it if there is nothing else on, but I don't think it will go too far. Everyone knows that we, as adults, dump information from our minds that we don't need. I don't need a game show proving that to me daily. I have kids and I know I will feel dumb enough when they ask me for help on their homework. It's already happened.

OK, maybe I will try the WSOP

I found more information regarding the upcoming World Series of Poker tournament at Caesar's Indiana casino. I still need to talk to someone to verify some more information, but it looks like there are several cheap games throughout the week that you can play in to qualify for the big game. I just need to work out the timing, reservations, and get permission from the wife. Not to mention making sure that we have someone to watch the kids while I am gone. It all makes me a bit nervous though. I've never really played in a high stakes poker game before. Sure I've won a few hundred here and there in basement games, but that is a different type of situation. Still, I am going to research this and see if I can make a go of it. It should be fun either way.

Go Bucks, Hoops Style

As you all know, I get a little crazy when it comes to Ohio State football. It is not a suprise. I went to Ohio State and was in the marching band, so I was pretty invested in how well the football team performed. If they did well, we went to a cool bowl game. What you may not know was that I was also in the basket ball pep band. I am not as big of a basket ball fan as I am a football fan, but I am behind all sports that the Buckeyes participate in. I even played in a pep band for the women's volley ball team (maybe more because of the tall, hot women in spandex than because I was a volley ball fan, but the matches were pretty exciting too). Anyway, in the past few years, the men's basket ball team has been pretty mediocre. Last year they won the Big Ten title, which was cool, but before that, they were just average. Well, right now, they are ranked # 1 in the country. It's not all that exciting, since one loss will bump them out of the # 1 spot, but it is pretty cool for right now. Today there is a big game here in Columbus. #1 Ohio State will be taking on #2 Wisconsin. The game has lost some of it's luster since Wisconsin lost earlier this week to Michigan State, but this is the first time in Big Ten history that there has been a #1 vs #2 match up. There is also the fact that the winner of this game will more than likely win the Big Ten title and become a #1 seed in the Big Dance (NCAA tourney). So, to make a long story a little less long, I am hyped amout the OSU basket ball team and the game this afternoon at 4:00 on CBS. GO BUCKS!

No WSOP for me

As you may or may not know, I was considering going to a World Series of Poker event this year. I did some research, and there is a circuit event in Indiana at the end of March. I was a bit confused though, because the WSOP web site indicated that the tournament was from March 25th to April 6th. Two weeks seemed pretty long for a tournament. So, I called the casino for more information. Apparently, there are several game during those weeks. If you win one of them, then you don't need to pay for the main event at the end of the tournament. Thereis a registration fee of $360 for the event that will get you into the first game. My guess is that, each additional even that you want to play in, will cost an additional fee. The main event, if you don't win one of the preliminary events, has a $5150 buy in. That is a bit much for me. What I was hoping for was a $500 buy in tournament. It would be great if I could pay the $360, win the prelim, and then play in the main event, but there is a two week gap between the initial preliminary and the main event. I don't know that I want to take that much time off. I think I need to call the casino again and get a game schedule. I also need to find out if you need to register on the first day of the event, or if you can show up for the last preliminary game and register then. If I could make this a three or four day ordeal, I could probably swing it. But then there is the matter of finding a place to stay. I guess I can stay in my car if I needed, but paying for several nights in a casino hotel could get costly. Especially if I am out day one of the event. Well, I think that my WSOP dreams will have to wait a few more years. I still may research this a bit more and see what I can figure out, but won't get too excited.

On a side note, I was able to win a bit of cash playing cards this past Thursday. I have been playing in a cash game lately on Thursdays. Lately, I have been getting my ass handed to me, but the cards were in my favor this past week. I was dealt pocket queens four times. That makes it pretty easy to win. Still, I played pretty well. I made some good reads and good calls, and also made good bets to get people to fold when I missed my hand. It doesn't always work that way though.

Is it me, or has BSG been a little weak lately?

So, the last few episodes of Battlestar Galactica, in my opinion, have been a little lacking in the excitement department. I guess they feel that they need to do some character development or throw in some filler episodes. Not too much going on in the whole Cylon/human race to find earth. I have been saving this season on my DVR because I like watching them over, but the last two shows haven't really been worth it. I guess it is good that they got away from the whole Apollo Stabuck love tension, but this last episode is dealing with the chief and Cally's love tension. It's not that I am against that kind of episode, but it seems like they are going to that well a bit often this season. We get it. Marriages can be stressful. Now blow up something. Honestly, I found myself not caring if the chief and Cally got sucked out of the airlock and died. I would have felt bad for the baby, but that's about it.

The episode before was pretty dull too. I can barely remember it. Oh yeah, there was a doctor (That magically appeared. Where was he when Adama was shot?) that was poisoning some patients that didn't believe in medicine. Seems to me that you wouldn't need to poison them. Natural selection would take care of them. How could there be a whole colony of people that forsake medicine and yet be OK with space travel and other technology? The gods say it is OK to fly in space and fight Cylons, but not OK to get a shot to fight disease? Come on. I know that not every episode can be space battles or chock full of violence, but there needs to be something that catched my attention. I guess if they just focused on the Cylons and Earth all the time itcould get old too, or they would have to wrap the show up because it would end more quicky. Wel, let's hope that the next episode is a bit more interesting.

Nice things

So, there has been an encentive program at my work lately. Basically, there are two parts: If you meet certain criteria (make few mistakes) every month, you 1. get some time off (like 2 hours) and 2. a ticket thrown into a drawing. The drawing was for two $500 gift cards to anywhere. Well, yesterday, I received a phone call from my manager stating that I had won one of the $500 prizes. Woo-Hoo! I was asked what store I wanted to have $500 from and was stumped. Where would I be able to spend $500? I started to juggle Besy Buy and Target as my top two choices and The Tuttle Mall was also on the list. Actually, the mall was a front runner because it has several stores I could shop in. Then it hit me: Giant Eagle. Giant Eagle is the grocery store where I do my food shopping. "A grocery store?" you ask. Well, Here's the thing: They sell gift cards to all sorts of places, such as Best Buy, Outback Steak House, Sears, and many other places. Plus, for every $50 you spend there, you receive $0.10 off per gallon of gas when you feul up at their pumps. If you can't do the math, $500 = $1.00 off per gallon of gas. I feel brilliant! I can split up my $500 at several stores AND get free gas! Some times I am so smart that I scare myself. Please note: I have already heard all of the "what are you going to buy me" jokes that are possibly out there, so, I will go ahead and say: 'Not a thing!' I may get something for the wife and kids though.

We also got a few new things for the kitchen. Our coffee maker died a few weeks ago, so we got a new one. It is pretty cool. It has a built in coffee grinder. Also, our knives were starting to break and we never really liked them too much (they were a gift) because they are surrated and not really sharp. They are Chicago Cutlery knivesa and are pretty nice. Both the knives and the coffee maker are stainless steel to match most of the other stuff in our kitchen. I get excited about little things sometimes.

Lost in Lost

So, I finally caved to the input of several of my friends and started watching Lost. I resisted the show at first for a few reasons. Mostly, when Lost premired, it ran the same time as another show that I was already in to. The other reason was that I thought the show looked too far fetched for me to get into. A group of people survive a plane crash and end up on a deserted island? Come on. Anyway, back to the point. I added season one of Lost to my NetFlix list, got the first disk, and then after watching it, bought the entire first season on DVD. It's not that I loved the show right away, I just got into it and HAD to find out what was going to happen next. Now, I'm on disck one of season two.

The thing that I enjoy the most about the series Lost is how all of the characters are connected in some way or other. It's like Kevin Bacon. For example, Jack's wife being in the same car accident that killed Shannon's father. I also enjoy how they are slowly revealing secrets of the characters. Like Sun speaking English, Hugo being rich, and Locke formerly being paralized before he got on the island (that was the biggie).

I have to admit, in some ways I find Lost very frustrating. The way they give you tiny bits of information, just enough to keep you wanting more, is driving me a little crazy. Like The Hatch. They find it, and then it takes half of season 1 for them to get it open. Then you still don't learn what is inside until season 2. I am also having a little trouble with some of the things that are happening to these people. Like the polar bears and the invisible monster that snatches people up. I guess there are supposed to be weird things happening to these people, but I don't know that I would be able to accept some of these things and remain sane.

I have heard a few theories about Lost. One is that everyone is really dean and the island is some sort of purgatory or hell. I kinda like that theory, but don't think it's correct. These people have too many connections to each other from the 'real world' for all of the happenings to be a coincidence. Personally, I think that a lot of the things that have happened are linked to Walt. Things seem to happen when he wants them to or is thinking of something. Like, when he is reading a comic book with a polar bear and then there is a polar bear attack, or when Michael said he'd go look for the dog when it stopped raining and it immediately stops raining. I'm sure that Walt is psychic to some extent and think that, somehow, the island is amplifying it. Well, I'm WAY behind in the show, so I'm sure that alot of my ideas are old news. I just wanted to share. If you have any insight, please try to keep it limited to season one. I don't want any of the secrets spoiled for me.

Best Game Ever....

First I just wanted to brag about my best game of bowling EVER. First, let me set the stage. I shoveled my drive way Tuesday and then again Wednesday, screwing up my right shoulder somehow. I can't move my arm up at the shoulder (like flapping a wing) without shooting pain, but I can swing it back and forth (like a bowling arm swing) with minimal pain. Since I could swing my arm back and forth, I made up my mind to 'cowboy up' and bowl through the pain. My first game SUCKED. A 154, which is 40 pins below my average. I think my arm injury made it so I couldn't through my ball the way I usually do, so it dodn't hook at all, and I wasn't hitting anything. Mid way though my first game, I switched my ball to my older ball, which seems to break a little bit more. I struggled with the adjustment at first and my second game was a 191, which is close to my average (192). Then, I started hitting everything. It didn't matter where I threw the ball, I got a strike. I hate how my brain works, because as soon as I have the first three or four strikes in a game, I start thinking about bowling a perfect game (12 strikes = 300). That is what happened last night. I got the first four and then missed the fifth. That was the last miss though. I finished out with all srtikes and ended up with a 279. I was psyched. I get prizes for that too! I get a towel for a clean game (all strikes and spares), a deck of cards for bowling over a 250, and a mug for bowling a 279. My only disappointment was the first game that sucked. It also sucked that I missed a perfect game by one ball, but I'd rather miss a strike in the 5th frame rather than missing a strike the last ball of the game.

Gabe's Party Pics

So, it was Gabriel's 5th birthday yesterday. We went to Chuck E Cheese's to celebrate. My parents, Jessica's dad and brother, and a couple of Gabe's friends joined in the fun. It was a pretty good time. It seemed like we were being rushed a bit though. We had reservations at 4:00 and had to have our food order in by 4:10. We had to eat and open presents and be gone from our 'party' table by 5:30. I guess an hour and a half is a pretty long time, but it seill seemed like we were rushed a bit. Thankfully, there was another table open in the non-reserved area that we could move to.

The picture shown here is, of course, Chuck E Cheese himself. I thought it a bit interesting that there was an animatronic Chuck E Cheese and the live action Chuck E side by side. You'd think that they'd have a curton or something to hide the 'fake' mouse so that the kids didn't get confused.

Let me tell you, ChuckE Cheese's is WAY crazy. Kids running all over the place with little or no supervision while their parents chill out at their tables......nuts. It's a good thing that they give you stamps on your hand that match stamps on your kids hands, or else alot of children could be taken away from there. Personally, I always try to keep an eye on my children regardless of how 'safe' the environment may be. One very little boy was running around trying to bogart on everyone else's games. Gabe was trying to play a basketball thing and the kid was taking the balls out of the bin and shoot them himself.

Well, it seemed like the kids all had fun. Gabriel mostly played on the rides and in the tubes You can see what I mean by 'tubes' when you check out the pictures I put on my Flickr site. Like a jungle gym thingy. There were so many kids in it, the slide exit looked like it was pooing kids. We ended up staying a Chuck E's until 7:00. I think Gabe had a really good time, so it was all worth it.

Online Gaming

So, you may know that I have been playing NCAA 07 Football on Xbox Live over the past few months, and I have been enjoying it. However, I haven't been doing too great. It seems like I have been playing people that commit hours to the game and now I have a prety bad record. Add up the Cleveland Browns' last four seasons and you pretty much have my record. Most of the games have been close and some of my losses are due to my Xbox Live disconnecting (it's an automatic loss if you drop out of the game), but there have been some games that I just got KILLED. Still, it's basically fun and I have met and played several cool people online. A few assholes too. I still am a bit frustrated with the game. There are some teams that have some plays that are un-defendable. Not fair if you ask me. Anyway, I have hung up my cleats for a while and moved on.

Now, I am playing WSOP Tournament of Champions. WSOP stands for World Series of Poker, if you didn't know. I started playing the carreer mode, where I create a player and go through tournaments. It's pretty fun and very realistic. In a plug and play poker game I have, you can win a tournament in about 45 minutes or so, but in this WSOP game, it takes a few hours to win a game. The online play is a bit of a different story. I have played, maybe, six or seven games so far. So far, of the good games I have played, (by good, I mean the players are nice and played well) I won two and came in second twice as well. Then there is the flip side to online playing. Frist, I was in a big game where one player went all in (bet it all) every hand. Sane poker players fold, but when there was a caller, the dumb ass going all in would luck out, win, and then tell us all how much we suck. Then, what do you get when you have 8 or more guys, some drunk, some stoned, and some are just assholes, in a group setting where no one can see each other and no one can asault anyone physically? You get a game where everyone is talking trash and trying to pick fights. It SUCKED. I just want a forum where I can play some cards for free, have some fun, and maybe meet some cool players online. These guys were so rude and ingnorant sounding that I started going all in ever hand so that I could knock them out or get knocked out myself. I was a terrible experience. Most of the time, it's not that bad and usually fun, but some people should just not be allowed to associate with others.

Goin' Back to Cali

It isn't going to be until July, but Jessica and I are taking the kids to California. I have been there once before, when I went to the Rose Bowl with the OSU Marching Band, but Jessica was actually born in California. That's right, I landed me a California girl. Anyway, Jessica has a lot of family in California still, so we are going for a visit. Her Grandma (whom she doesn't speak with) and some aunts, uncles and cousins all liveout west. On her dad's side, I believe. Well, we are going to try to pack in a whole lot of family fun and visiting of relatives. To kick things off, Jessica's cousin is getting married some time or other. That is going to be the major family commitment. Jessica's cousin, Christie, lives out there as well, and Jessica wants to spend some time with her family. I think the plan is to go to Lego Land with them, which should be fun. I'm a bit scared about going to an amusement park made completely out of Legos. It is a bit expensive, but we are probably only going to have the one chance to go. We are also planning on going to Walt Disney Land/World (whichever). We have our flight booked and hotel reservations (5 nights near cousin Christie) and one night at Disney. Basically, it is going to be out whole tax return and will probably also result in maxing out the Discover card. Seeing as how we've never had a real vacation as a family, I guess it will be worth it. I know Jessica is excited. I am just not looking forward to the whole family deal. There's nothing quite like being scrutinized by family members that you have never met before. Hopfully there will be an open bar. I'm really not one for family gatherings. Nervous about meeting new people I guess. Oh, and we are going to try to go to the beach for a day. It should be fun with the kids. I worry about driving over there too. We will have several hour-plus long drives to get to all of the places we are going. I know how to drive in Columbus, but I hear that LA traffic is CRAZY. I will be getting the insurance on the rental. The plane trips should be fun (not) with three kids in tow. I just hope that Gabe and Alydia will be able to sleep and won't freak out on the ride. They are both good in the car, so hopfully they will be OK in the air too.

The hotel that we are staying in for most of the week has two bed rooms and a pull out sofa. There's no way that I would want to sleep in the same room as all three kids. I'm sure it would result in little sleep and less sex. Say what you will, but if I am on vacation, there had better be sex. We bought a DVD camera so that we can take movies and lots of pictures of the kids. I hope that we run into some of the Disney characters so that we can get pictures of the kids with them. I will be sure to post them, of course. I know, it won't be until July, but I really didn't have anything else to post about.

Almost Five and a Question/Something Interesting

Can you believe that, in nine days, Gabriel is going to be five?!?!? I can't He's growing up so fast. We are going to go to Chuckey Cheese's to celebrate. It won't be too many people: my parents, a few friends for Gabe to run around with, us (of course), and probably Jessica's dad and brother. I think I want to get him the Cars game for the Xbox. Maybe a few Transformers too. It's so fun to shop for him because he likes a lot of the same toys that I like. Yes, I just admitted that I have the same interests as an almost five-year-old. It's how I roll.

Question for you: Which show can first? Firefly or StarTrek Enterprise? I ask this because, on Monday, the SciFi channel has been running several Enterprise episodes back to back and I have been saving them on DVR so that I have something to watch in my down time. One of the characters on Enterprise is Malcolm (no, not Reynolds) and he was having a delirious dream about T-Pol (the smoking hot Vulcan science officer on Enterprise) and she was seducing him. Well, while seducing him she said that, in the Vulcan language, Mal-colm means 'serenity'. COINCIDENCE???? Malcolm Reynolds is the capitan of Serenity in the show Firefly. Wow. It is amazing how the universe unfolds.

To Valentine or not to Valentine

So, Valentine's day is coming up soon. A little more than two weeks away. I have been going over in my mind what I should get for Jessica this year. She told me I didn't need to get her anything, but I saw an episode of The Office where Pam told Roy not to get her anything because they were saving up for their wedding, and then she was pissed at him for not getting her anything. I'm not going to make that mistake. I doubt Jessica would get mad if I didn't get her something, but it's the gesture that is important. Even if I just get a card I will make her happy. Still, I think I'd rather go beyond the minimum effort of getting a card. But what should I get her? I've been getting her flowers quite a bit lately (roses for Christmas and more just because) and I bought her a ring for Christmas and our anniversary combo gift. She doesn't really wear bracelets and has errings and a few nice necklaces. Chocolates would be OK, but we are trying to behave ourselves and eat right. I looked on the internet for ideas and there were some pretty weird options out there: Sex games, panties, pajama's, sex books, a million variations of fake flowers and flower shaped items (candies, candles, etc). Still, nothing really caught my eye. Really, Jessica has all that she wants or needs. So, what do I do? I think I am leaning towards flowers again. I guess I'm just not really all that creative.

Flickr

So, I added more pictures to my Flickr page. Mostly, they are pictures of the kids. I arranged my picture files on my computer so that each kid has their own folder. I was adding Alydia pictures to flickr, so that's why there are a lot of her pictures at the top. I have run into a a bit of a snag with flickr. A cross road if you will. Apparently, you can put of all the pictures that you want, but only 200 are viewable by others unless I upgrade and pay money. I'm not sure if I am dedicated enough to do that. Really, do people care enough about my pictures for me to fork out money to have all of them out there? They are just family pictures and some vacation pictures. I have all of my pictures on CDs, so I'm not worried about what would happen if my computer dies. Plus, it seems to take a while to load all of the pictures up. I should be more selective, I guess, but Alydia is too cute to cut out any of her pictures. Well, I guess take a look if you have the time and let me know if the pictures are interesting enough for me to add more.

Poker Poker Poker

I have a few big poker games this week. First, tonight is the conclusion of an eight week tournament thatI have been participating in. First place gets $700. I don't really need the cash, but it would sre be nice. The way it worked out is, over the past few months, there have been 7 games where the winner gets the most points and the other players get fewer points on a sliding scale depending on what place they ranked. Really, no one has run away with the game. Everyone has gotten a failry equal amount of points. Tonight, we get chips equal to the total amount of points we've won so far. I think that, out of eight people, I am 5th or 6th, but there are only a few hundred points separating everyone. It should be fun.

Tomorrow, I am hosting a tournament at me house. I am expecting 10-20 players, depending on who all shows up. It's difficult to gauge the nember of people coming because most people don't RSVP. Honestly, I don't care as long and there are enough people for a good game (8 or more). Last time I played, I got my ass kicked in, so I am hoping that I can have better luck with the cards and can control my gambling nature. I tend to play hands that I should fold. Sometimes it works out when the right cards some up, but if they don't I get killed.

Great BSG episode last night

It was strange watching Battlestar Galactica on Sunday Night. It was kind of nice though. Desperate Housewives followed by BSG makes for a pretty good TV night. Plus, Friday is now free for going out or doing something other than watching TV. Actually, Desperate Housewives was pretty good too, come to think about it.

So, the teaser for this half of the Battlestar Galactica season implies a few things: one, that one of the main characters is going to die and two, one of the main characters is a Cylon that we don't know about yet. Let's consider this, shall we? First, do you think that the person that dies will be the Cylon? It would be a good way to proove who the Cylon may be, since they are reborn into a new body when they die. Honestly, I thought that they were showing Baltar download then Lucy Lawless' model downloaded. There was a BSG marathon on MLK day, and there was a ticker at the bottom of the screen with online comments of watchers speculating who the Cylon would be. I think Baltar is too obvious. Maybe the assistant to the president? I don't see it being a major officer on Galactica though. Maybe Duala? Who will die? I think either Duala or Anders. That will open up more possibilities for the Starbuck-Apollo sexual tensions. Honestly though, I think whomever dies is going to end up being the Cylon. what do you all think?

On a side note, Heroes is supposed to be a "question answering" episode tonight. Apparently there is a list that, if you are on it, you will end up having a power. Or something. Honestly, this show is one big tease after another. I doubt any questions that are answered will just lead to more questions. Still, I'm hooked.

Funniest Damn Thing I Ever Seen

I was flipping through the channels Friday night looking for something to watch, now that Battlestar Galactica has been moved to Sunday nights, and I found the most HI-larious thing I think I have ever seen in my life. Think about that. I grew up with Woody, Moe, Herb and Bryan. We had some pretty funny times together. This, my faithful reader(s?), took the cake, the blue ribbon, and all of the other prizes. I turned the channel to STO (Sports Time Ohio) and saw something I couldn't believe: Cleveland All Pro Wrestling. Picture this: A high school gymnasium (or maybe a middle school gymnasium, as it was very small) with a wrestling ring in the middle, metal blockades to keep out the swarming tens of fans (50 tops), and two lights (the kind from a cheesey DJ turn table that you'd see at a wedding reception) high lighting the wrestler's entrance(covered by a black sheet). I paused a moment in wonder. I couldn't believe my eyes. The amazement turned to mild amusement when I noticed that the announcers were calling out the wrestler's obviously scripted moves BEFORE THEY HAPPENED!!! I began to chortle a little. Still I was about to change the channel from this ridiculous farce of pro wrestling. WWE, it was not. Then, it happened.... the one legged wrestler lept into the ring. I kid you not. My eyes widdened. My jaw dropped. Was I really seeing this? Did Industrial Lights and Magic lend some CGI magic to Cleveland Pro Wrestlers? Nope. It was for real. A one legged man. I guess you could have called it a one legged man in a butt kicking contest. That was not the funny part. He was actually getting around the ring pretty well, and I do not want to poke fun at someone that obviously suffered a terrible accident. The funny part was that he was holding his own. Hopping around on one leg, he was trading blows with the other wrestlers who were acting like they didn't know that they could take him down if they swept the one leg out from under him. I guess it wasn't in the script. It amazed me further when the other wrestlers would pick up the one legged man and body slam him, atomic drop him, and many other moves. I kept wondering to myself if it would make the other wrestlers feel strange beating up the disabled. I guess he moved around pretty well, but still...come on. I also wondered, did they use the easily accessible penis as a handle? My amazed amusement climaxed (no, not THAT kind of climax. pervs) when the one legged man hopped to the top rope and leapt off onto his opponent, knocking him down, and eventually winning the match. Seriously, tears were rolling down my eyes. Now, you may think me a terrible person for laughing at a disabled person, but really, if you are going to put yourself into the situation where you look rediculous while performaing a rediculous showin a rediculous setting ending with rediculous results, and expect people to take it seriously, I am going to laugh. And honestly, I wasn't laughing at the man. He overcame his disability to be able to do something that he obviously loves and I praise him. It was truely amazing how well he could move around that ring. It was just the absurd nature of it all. I have the next CAPW show set to record on my DVR.

Mullet Man

Well, no one wanted to play my game, Which One's the Woman, so I will just cut my losses, show you the provile of the man's 'stache and move on. Also, since Mona likes my butterfly picture, I am posting another one. This butterfly was actually outside at the "War of 18 Holes" mini-golf course (the War of 1812 is the war that Commadore Perry fought in.) W e were able to get inches away from the lil' fella when we took the picture.

Oh, I have put a bunch of other pictures up on Flickr.com. Check them out if you'd like.

American Idol: The Show I Hate to Love

It's that time of year again. Time for American Idol to polute our TV sets. I wish I could say that I am one of the few American's that tunes to something else when Idol is on, but I'm not. I held out for the first few seasons, refusing to jump on the band wagon, but I finally caved a few years ago. I think it was the 'She Bang's" guy (William Hong, I think). I love the first few weeks for the absolutely terrible singers that are hilarious to watch. Plus, I hate to admit that I really like Simon's razor tongue. Not in some homo-erotic sort of way, I think he's brutally funny. I have to say, so far this season, I am not really thrilled with the show. There have been a fair share of people that think they can sing, but really can't, and they always get angry when they don't make it through. I think that the problem is the severe lack of good singers this year. Usually, there are some good singers that catch my eye early. Not yet. At least Jewel was on the first episode for some eye candy. She's is a very attractive woman. Really, I think that the problem so far is the focus the editors are putting on the criers. This is for two reasons: 1. there are SO many criers this year that it is getting old and I stop caring. 2. How can these people put so much hope into their poor talent that they actually bawl their eyes out on TV when they get cut? It's not like they go to Hollywood, get their hopes elevated, and they get cut. You don't have the talent, the looks, or the personality to be a pop singer superstar....get over yourself. At least you got on TV.

Put-in -Bay pics

So, I finally posted some pictures that we took while on South Bass Island (aka Put-in-Bay). I hope that these post the way I want them to. I usually just post pictures any which way they go up. I'm hoping that they stay on the left and that I can caption them.

This first picture is the sun set one of the nights that we were on the island. We were standing at the base of Perry's Monument. For those of you feom NW Ohio, Perrysburg was named after Commadore Perry. He was in charge of a small fleet that protected Lake Erie shores in one of the wars (French/India, I think)






This picture is for a game I want to play called WOW (Which One's the Woman?). You may need to save the picture to your desktop and blow it up so that you can see it better. There are two people in the picture, a man and a woman, and you need to guess which is which. Also, you have to admire the SWEET mullet on the one that is actually a man. I'll post the results on a later date.








The third picture is of the Crystal Cave at Heineman's Winery. It's a giant geode that you can go down into and walk through. Worlds biggest geode, I think. They did cut out part of it so that you can go in and out, but it's still pretty cool. Apparently the crystals are really heavy and really worthless (except for bringing in the tourists). By the way, if you like wine, Heineman's has some good stuf and they deliver. We like the Pick Catawba, Sweet Concord, and Niagra wines.





We went to a butterfly house on the island too. This is one of the butterflies that we saw. There were a BUNCH of them in the habitat. You get to walk through and sometimes they land on you. You need to make sure that they are off you before you leave, because they are not indigenous to the area and would cause damage to the eco-system if they escaped.

I need to look into that web site where you can add a bunch of pictures for free (Flickr?) I could just add all of the pictures at once instead of posting a few at a time, occasionally. We'll see.

Trying to think of something new

I have been pretty one dimensional with my posts lately. TV, TV, TV, and movies. Sorry about that. I really haven't done too much exciting lately. I guess I'm not a very exciting person. I think that comes with the kids. It's hard to get out and about when you have to either drag along three kids or find a sitter crazy enough to watch three kids. Still, I should try to put a little bit more effort into this blog than just recapping my daily TV and movie watching.

POKER UPDATE:

I've been playing in a poker invitational over the past few months. Nothing too big, just some of my poker friends getting together to play on Thursdays for an eight week tourney. Instead of winning money at the end or each night, the winner gets the greatest number of points, second place gets fewer points than first, and so on all the way down to last place getting the fewest points. On the last night, we get chips in the amount of points that we accumulate. I haven't won one of the nights, but have come in high enough positions that I am in the middle of the pack. The last night, we play for the real money. I think first place gets a couple hundred dollars. It's been pretty fun. I'm having a one night game at our house in a few weeks (the 26th if you are interested). I still want to try to get into a big tourney sometime (like at a casino) but need to look into when and where they are held.

I'm drawing a blank on anything else interesting to write about, so I suppose I will cut this short.

Have I Mentioned that I am into Smallville Now?

I'm sorry that my blog has seemed less like a window into my life and more like a TV/movie review page. To be honest with you, TV and movies and my life are kind of intertwined. I's not that I am a looser, I just have access to DVDs all of the time. (I mentioned, I am a DVD whore.) Well, my latest TV series I have been watching is Smallville. It's weird that I like a WB show so much. I used to associate the WB with bad teen Spelling-esk dramas and African American sit-coms that are so silly that the main four networks won't pick them up (Moesha comes to mind). Anyway, Smallville is a really fun show. If you don't know, it is about the adolescent life of Clark Kent, aka Superman. It starts off in his freshman year of highschool. The show is fueled by the meteor shower that followed Kal'el (Clark)'s ship from Krypton after the planet blew up. The kryptonite caused some people to gain strange powers. Clark goes through his days fighting these super powered people and fighting his urges to tell his friends his secret (and fighting his urge to get it on with is hot female friends, like Lana and Chloe).

The frst season had mostly one episode stories where Clark would discover a bad guy, batle a bit with the bad guy, and defeat the bad guy. He'd get close to hooking up with Lana (a hottie, by the way) and flirt with the idea of telling his friends his secret. One of the interesting things about the show is that Lex Luthor becomes one of Clark's friends. If you don't know, Lex becomes Superman;s arch nemisis. Lex and his father suspect that there is more to Clark than meets the eye. They try to get to the bottom of why Clark is saving the day all of the time.

The story takes a weird twist when Clark discovers a cave with old Native American writings on the walls. The writings end up being Kryptonian and lead Clark to some answers about his parents and destiny on earth. I'm not too sure if I liked the fact that there are all sorts of Kryptonian artifacts all over the place that give Clark clues of his past and future. I'm not too familiar with the comic books and all of the Superman history, but it all seemed a little weird. I guess it add a lit of a twist to the show. Especially since Lex and his father are finding the artifacts and are getting close to the truth about Clark.

In the perverse nature of my blog, I will give you the hotties list from Smallville, ranked by me, of course. I am not going to include the guys, but it is my guess that women would find Clark a bit attractive. Anyways, the girls are:

5. Mrs. Luthor (I forget her name)- Lex gets manipulated into marrying a hot brunette who tries to kill him and then disappears. I forget her name, but she was quite attractive. Actually, Lex only hooks up with hot women and there are a lot of them.
4. Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack) - Clark's best friend that could be more, but they are scared to cross that line and loose the friendship. She has very pretty eyes. Chloe and Clark go to the Spring Fling dance together and almost hook up, but then Lana gets caught by a twister and Clark has to run off to save her. Chloe realizes that Lana will always be #1 with Clark and gives up.
3. Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk) - She would be #1 if I hadn't watched seasons three and four yet. That's when Lois and Alicia entered the picture. She is Clark's high school crush. They go back and forth bewteen almost dating and not dating that it gets a little tiring.
2. Alicia (Sarah Cater) - Clark starts dating this girl after she discovers his powers. She also has the power to teleport. She doesn't last long, since she goes crazy and tries to kill Lana and then gets offed herself, but she is definately a cutie. Great smile.
1. Lois Lane (Erica Durance) - This future Daily Planet reporter enters the world of Smallville in season 4. She has a real 'girl next door' look. (I like that) She is definately far more attractive in Smallville than she is in the old Superman movies with Christopher Reeve.

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCKFUCK!!!!

If you watched the national title game and know I am an OSU fan, you know why I am saying FUCK!!!!!!Dammit!!! That was a horrible game. It was never close. OSU got their asses kicked. FUCK!!!!!!!! No posts for a while. Sorry. I am in mourning. FUCK!!!!!

One To Go

Tonight is the night. #1 Ohio State will be taking on #2 Florida in the BCS National Title Game. At first, I was confused. I thought that the game was going to be the Fiesta Bowl, but I guess they create a new bowl game for the National Title. Am I just a little dense, or is this the first time they did this. I was a little thrown when I saw that the Fiesta Bowl was played last week. I guess that the hundreds of bowl games that were already played weren't enough for the college football community. Woody's Bearcats needed their match up against Western Michigan in the International Bowl. There is a funny You Tube link in his rescent archives with a song about the Dot Com Toilet Bowl. Well, the important game is tonight. I haven't really looked into the point spread or anything like that, but I believe that Ohio State is favored by a bit. The media is making a big deal about how fast Florida's team in and speculate that the Buckeyes won't be able to keep up. I think that the media is forgetting that we have a wide receiver that is an Olympic hopeful. His name is Ted Ginn Jr and he is an Olympic hopeful for a running event. I guess that they need to talk about something. I'd rather have them say that OSU will not keep up with Florida's speed than have them say that OSU will kick the crap out of the Gators. I liked seeing a Florida Gators linebacker talking smack about Troy Smith. Nothing too bad, just that he wasn't worried about Troy's skills. Say that now, because I have a feeling that, tonight, Tressel is going to tell Mr. Heisman that he can run, pass, and do whatever he needs to to win the game.

Well, I won't go intot he game too much. I am just looking forward to it. There have been a few other interesting things that I have thing about the whole BCS Title Game experience:

1. There is a small town in Arizona that was named or founded by an Ohio native called Buckeye, AZ. They are about an hour or so from Glendale, so they trick out the town in scarlet and gray and try to draw the visiting OSU fans in to by their trinkets. By the way, the only fire engine in town was names Brutus (OSU's mascott).

2. In the town of Buckeye, AZ, there is a guy that makes T-shirts that say 'Ohiozona, Where Gators Come to Die." I thought that was pretty original.

3. The #1 team gets to choose if they are the home or away team. Since OSU has been the away team each time they have played in the Fiesta Bowl, Tressel chose to be the away team for the upcoming game. This way, they stay in the same hotel, practice at the same field, and keep the same routine as in the previous years.

My prediction: OSU 24- Florida 10