I know, I know… I started off so strongly only to quickly fall into a horrible pattern of neglecting this incredibly insightful, important piece of “cyber art” that I created. Well fear not, my friends, I have returned from my travels and have recommitted myself to making sporadic entries of questionable worth over the next several months.
“OK, that’s great,” you may be saying to yourself, “but where have you been and what have you been doing?”
Football
It all started with our fantasy football draft at the end of August… this is one of those annual events that Becky believes I take much too seriously probably due to the weeks of intense researchI do while locked in my office. That said, I have won the league 2 of the last 3 years and needed to uphold my reputation as a “draftmaster.” The draft itself was fairly mundane (especially compared to last years raucousness), and I ended up a team that seems solid, if unspectacular. It will be interesting to see if my NFC North quarterbacks (Favre & Kitna) can lead McDonald’s Mafia to another league championship this year – there are some pretty stacked teams in our league so it will be tough. So far I am 1-1 after a TOUGH week 1 loss to B.J. in which I had the 2nd highest point total in the league but also had the unfortunate luck of running into a white hot Tony Romo who will flame out just in time for The SuperSloths to lose in R1 of our playoffs.
While we’re on the subject of pigskin I should note my growing addiction to Madden ‘08 for the Wii. It may not be quite the same as GameDay ‘99 (complete with Danny throwing things across the room when I beat him), but I love the way the motion-based control scheme is implemented as it adds a TON to the gameplay as opposed to simply being used as a gimmick. In my first season as the Vikings I was able to come back from a horrid 3-6 start to win the NFC North en route to a Super Bowl victory against the Broncos in which I had an interception return for a TD in overtime to close out my championship season. I’ll be sure to keep you posted on the Viking’s progress as they play through 2008 and beyond.
Pennsylvania: the Keystone State
At the beginning of September, Becky and I took a week off to travel around the great state of Pennsylvania (at least the Western third of the state). We kicked things off by driving our hot rod rental car (a Hyundai sedan) up to Erie, where we would be spending the night at a nice country B&B situated on 100 or so acres of land complete with some nice walking trails. The next day our good friends Brian & Janelle drove up to meet us for a day of wine tasting at some of the Pennsylvania wineries. While seeing Brian & Janelle was great, we were most excited to meet their adorable 6-month old daughter Isabel for the first time. As you can see below, she didn’t disappoint in the cuteness department.
After a great day of wine tasting & wine purchasing the Jensens returned home while Bex and I drove up to southern New York for another night at a country B&B that was out in the middle of nowhere in the midst of beautiful rolling farmland and forest. The next day we took a long leisurely drive down through Allegheny National Forest (Scenic Route 666 is a must-see if you are ever in that area) as we meandered down to the Jensens. We spent 3 days with them chatting, playing games (B.J. & I continually got slaughtered in Sequence), and cooing over Isabel. It was really wonderful to hang out with them and we were very sad to leave.
After a horrific driving experience that I will not even attempt to recount, we made our way back down to Pittsburgh for the highly-anticipated Barone-Lunsford wedding. Despite a few more bad driving experiences in Pittsburgh, we had a blast at both the rehearsal dinner and the wedding. The ceremony and reception were beautiful, everything went off without a hitch, the band was rocking, and the dance floor didn’t have a open area all night long (the free-flowing top-shelf liquor probably didn’t hurt).
On Saturday afternoon we returned home extremely tired and needing a vacation from our vacation… isn’t that always the way it works? I headed off to D.C. for a week of work and Becky started 21 straight days of work… that just about brings us up to today.
A few other random notes:
- Heroes is a GREAT show! If you haven’t watched it, start; if you have, get ready for the beginning of Volume 2 next Monday.
- It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia just started it’s 3rd season on FX… if you haven’t watched it yet check out seasons 1 & 2 on DVD and then start watching the new season. This is an extremely funny show.
- Hot Fuzz is a hysterical movie… watch it ASAP and if you don’t like it don’t bother talking to me ever again.
1 Comment
October 2, 2007 at 9:03 am
You S.O.B…you were in Erie and Allegheny last month and you never called??? Dude, I live an hour away from both spots…consider this the beginning to the end of our friendship you ass!!!