Football Update
Well here it is Tuesday again, and time for another football update.
All that's left for LSU to do is wait to see what bowl we're going to. Unfortunately we need to be Florida fans this weekend and pull for them to beat Arkansas in the SEC Championship Game, which I do not think is a given. As I am an avowed "Gator Hater" this will be difficult. I would love to see LSU v. Michigan in the Rose Bowl even though as Brent Musberger reminded us Knute Rockne took Notre Dame to the Rose Bowl in 1929 so they really do deserve to go. Herbstreet repeated this comment a few minutes later and Andy thought he was mocking Musberger but I'm not so sure. The whole Notre Dame issue is so ridiculous I could write pages about it. Personally I don't think they should be allowed to participate in the BCS until they join a conference. Why do they think they're so special?
Big win for the Saints this weekend although we did not get to watch the game because the Jets were playing at the same time so due to some crazy blackout rule we got to watch three hours of MASH instead.
Another win for the Vegeenas this week...that's a 7 game winning streak. I remain #1 in the standings but the other teams with the same record did gain a few points on me. Ladanian only had 28 points this week but Joe Addai came through for me with 44!! I guess he was tired of Ladanian getting all the glory for the Vegeenas. I was also excited b/c he is of course a former Tiger!! something I took into account when drafting my team and so far they have not dissapointed.
Also, Manchester United and Chelsea tied this weekend so ManU remains at the "top of the table" in the Premier league. Andy has been following ManU since we were in high school and I've never really gotten into it but for some reason this season I find myself really caring about whether they win or not.
Labels: football, vegeenas
Thanksgiving Hangover
Not a literal hangover but just a "I do not want to wake up" kind of feeling. Four days of sleeping late and staying up past midnight really broke my routine. At 12:30 this morning Andy was singing "I'm not sleepy, I'm not sleepy" Bad news for having to wake up at 5.
I'm proud to say that our first attempt at Thanksgiving dinner was a success! The following dishes were delicious: turkey, gravy, rice, macaroni and cheese, cornbread dressing, spinach. One dish was not delicious: green bean casserole. Somehow we managed to mess up the easiest dish. Before I mixed it all together I even said "This is so easy to make...even Nancy cooks this" No offense to Nancy but she is not known for her cooking skills. I was so determined to make green bean casserole that on Wednesday night, in the rain, Andy and I went to five different grocery stores to find french fried onions. Apparently they are not the biggest seller in Brooklyn. Anyway, it was so bad that I could only eat one bite and then I immediately threw the whole pan of it away. I have no idea how I screwed that up so badly.
Also, to celebrate our Thanksgiving in the Northeast we got a cranberry sauce, usually not present at Louisiana Thanksgiving. I found it quite disgusting. It tasted like overly sweet jello and I can't stand jello. I took a few pics of our spread so I'll try to get those up this week.
Labels: Thanksgiving
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!
Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving! Andy and I didn't make it out to the parade but we had a great day nonetheless. We woke up at 6:30 to check to see if it was raining and it was pouring outside so we went back to sleep but then when I woke up again it looked like the sun was shining so I was pretty annoyed but then when I turned on the TV it was pouring and windy at the parade. Anyway, Andy's family started a new tradition this year which is their own version of Michele's family's Thanksgiving tradition where they have to list one thing that they're thankful for for each letter of the alphabet..in this one it's just one thing for every letter of "Turkey or Vegetable Dinner" So here are Andy and I's lists:
Andy's List
T IGERS - Go LSU!
U nderwear
R ooney - ManU's #8
K atie - my lovely sister
E leventh graders
Y oda
O pportunities
R yan - future bro-in-law
V oting - Go Dems!
E MS
G od
E levators
T exas - as long as my parents are there
A wesome Parents!!
B eer - mmm
L ions, Brooklyn Collegiate
E ndoplasmic Reticulum
D oog - one of many nicknames for my beautiful wife
I n-Laws
N YC!
N o Hair - its cool to be bald
E picurean delights
R eptiles
Carolyn's List
T omlinson, Ladanian
U nited States of America
R adiation- die cancer!
K ale- yummy
E lectricity
Y ellow sun
O nly two years left of Bush presidency
R elatives in Louisiana
V egeenas- fantasy football team
E xpedient subway trains
G ames to play with friends
E lle ess shoe
T ootie aka Miss Kitty
A ndy
B est friends
L ove
E ars to listen to my ipod
D ocument review
I ntelligence- thanks God!
N ovels
N eatness
E yes
R edecorating
Labels: Thanksgiving
Pre-Thanksgiving
Since we were already in the neighborhood GH and I decided to drop by and see David Blaine "performing" his latest stunt last night. He's suspended over a parking lot in Times Square in a huge gyroscope. Frankly it was pretty lame. There were about 20 people out there looking at him whereas when he did the last stunt in the aquarium there were hundreds of people. The whole thing just seemed really rushed and sort of thrown together. Plus, he was just hanging there. GH said the only problem he could see is that David Blaine was probably cold. So if he can free himself form the gyroscope in the next two days then 100 needy families get Target gift cards or something. I seriously doubt that if he can't free himself they aren't going to give the families the money.
Also, GH and I have decided to forgo the fancy schmancy Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant and try to cook for ourselves. I went over to Whole Foods this morning to get a turkey breast or a turkey ball as someone called it. The store opened at 8 and we got there at 8:05 and the place was already super busy and there were only four turkey breasts left. I guess that's what I get for procrastinating.
Labels: NYC sights, Thanksgiving
Football Update
I'm sitting here blogging because I have nothing else to do while I watch my fantasy football website update. General Herpes (GH from here on out) is watching Heroes, the lamest new show on TV. It's actually not that bad, it just seems like an X-Men rip off to me. Also, I would rather be watching the football game. But such is the burden of living with only one TV. Ladanian (or Ladonkian as GH calls him) got me 41 points again this week! He is a beast! So as long as Tiki Barber doesn't get 38 points The Vegeenas will win again and I will be in first place in the league.
Andy and my's superstitions almost let us down this weekend as LSU was pushed to overtime against Ole Miss. We were at a housewarming party getting updates over text message and I was still freaking out.
I'm now opening the blog for comments about Marques Colston...I've heard about the TE v. WR argument all season but that may be a moot point now since he's injured. Come on Joe, rub it in...you know you want to....
Off the topic of football, The Office is the best show on television, no question. I thought it good get any better than the episode two weeks ago until this week...I mean, how does this show just keep getting funnier and funnier??! My mouth hurt afterwards I had been laughing so much.
Labels: football, vegeenas
Gym Guilt
This afternoon Andy and I are finally going to bite the bullet and join a gym. Do I WANT to join a gym...no. Do I feel like I NEED to join a gym...yes. I've been thinking about whether a gym is a luxury or a necessity. I can usually motivate myself to work out at home but that's just doing Pilates and there's no opportunity for cardio because it's dark by the time I get home in the evenings. Also, Andy for some reason has an intense hatred of Pilates so he refuses to work out with me. Also, our insurance offers a discount on the gym so how could it be a luxury? It must be a necessity...or maybe I'm just trying to convince myself of that.
I'm actually not a fan of the gym atmosphere. I don't like other people watching me work out and if you know me and how uncoordinated I am you probably know why. I'm always half a step away from falling down. I'm joining mainly just to go in and use the treadmill or the elliptical machine (my favorite!) but they do offer some really cool classes. I was thinking of maybe taking adult ballet in the spring. Once again, I am very uncoordinated. Maybe this would help me with that. I also have pretty poor posture and I feel like that might help. I've never taken ballet so maybe I'll discover that I'm sort of ballet prodigy (is 27 too old to be a prodigy?) and there will be a whole new career ahead of me.
Labels: gym
Football News
As I've talked about before, I am very superstitious about football in terms of where I watch the games, what I wear while I watch, etc... and I think I've finally figured out the pattern for this season. It's probably too little too late but at least I have established that there is a pattern. We can't watch the games live at our apartment. We've watched live at bars and they've won, on tape at our apartment and they've won, and not watched at all and they've won, but the two times that we watched the games live at our apartment they've lost. I was also scrapbooking during both of those games so that could be another variable.
This past Saturday we hung out at Chuck and Christina's before heading to a bar in their neighborhood to watch the game. Well, I watched the game. Andy spent a good bit of time outside playing ping-pong. He seemed to think that a 28-14 lead going into the fourth quarter was enough but, as a life long LSU fan I know better. When I go somewhere to watch a game, I want to watch the game, not fart around. This is the exact opposite of when I watch a game at home. If I'm at home, I have to be doing something else at the same time, hence the scrapbooking. If I'm at a bar I just want to watch the game. I was hoping the ping-pong was over when Christina hit the ball into the outdoor fireplace but unfortunately they had another one. Of course the LSU win was tempered by the fact that Tennessee lost when we really needed them to beat Arkansas. Thanks for nothing Tennessee.
In fantasy news, the Vegeenas beat the second place Suspicious Package this weekend. We are now on a five game winning streak. The last time we played each other it was the first week of the season and I won by three points because a glitch in the scoring counted punts returned for a touchdown twice. We had a big league meeting two weeks ago and voted to only change the scores going forward so I keep the win. I'm firmly in second place now record-wise but I have scored the most points in the league. Thank you Ladanian. Next week I'm up against the first place team, Cactus Maximus.
Labels: football, vegeenas
National Treasure
When we lived in Louisiana, Andy and I saw Bob Dylan five times. For none of these tickets...one of which we were on like the tenth row, did we pay more than $50. Now all of a sudden Bob Dylan has turned into some sort of national treasure and the ticket prices have gone through the freaking roof. The new album has done really well, there was his autobiography Chronicles Vol. 1, the Scorcese documentary, an exhibit at the Morgan Library, all of this exposure amounts to prohibitive ticket prices. I think I should get some sort of credit for being a huge Dylan fan before it suddenly became fashionable again. He's playing one show in the city and the cheapest tickets are $89. There are two shows outside of the city, the cheapest seats $40 for third ring tickets in an arena. I'm used to seeing him in small theatres...so annoying! I know he did the minor league baseball stadium tour but the closest place he came to us was some town small town in upstate New York that was unreachable by train. Needless to say, I will not be seeing Dylan on this tour.
To respond to the comment on the previous post, yes The Office is the best show on television. Andy and I rewatched Thursday's episode last night...I think I laughed even harder this time around. If you don't find this show funny I have serious doubts about your sense of humor.
Labels: bob dylan
Election Day
So on Tuesday Andy and I exercised our rights as Americans and voted. Let me just say, I LOVE to vote. My parents always voted in every election. I remember them looking at the ballot in the local paper and talking about the choices they would make and then we would go down to the local high school and I would get to go into the booth with one of them while they voted. I remember how cool it was to stand behind the curtain and sometimes I would get to pull the levers. It's funny how the atmosphere of the polling station in Brooklyn was exactly the same as small town Louisiana. We voted in the gym at the local elementary school, the poll workers were very friendly, and there were kids there behind the curtains with their parents, just like I had been.
While I was trying to straighten out my voting situation because of the name change, Andy asked one of the poll workers if he could have a ballot for the social studies teacher at his school. The woman instructed him to go ask the information desk, so he walked over there and explained that he was a teacher, etc... and the woman was like, well, we aren't supposed to give them out but go wait in the hall and I'll bring you one. So Andy waits in the hall and she walks up with the ballot folded small enough to fit into the palm of her hand, doesn't say anything, just walks by and slides him the folded up ballot, like they were doing a drug deal. Too funny.
Needless to say I am uber-excited about the results of the election. I really felt like the oppression and the stupidity of the Bush administration was never going to end. I thought that the American people were never going to wake up to the fact that the war in Iraq is/was a terrible idea and based on fabrications by the current administration and that Bush has not done one positive thing for this country. I know the races were local, but I really feel like the races were a referrendum on both the war and Bush policies in general. And then to top this all off with the resignation of Rumsfeld...sooo nice. I really hope this is a new start....and now it's time for the Democrats to step up to the plate...
Labels: politics
Vegetarian, explained (sort of)
Well I was going to post today about my huge sense of relief and excitement over the recent elections and the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld or "Rummy" as I like to call him but instead I will adress the attack on vegetarians in the comments section of Tuesday's post. I'll save the election stuff for tomorrow. Maybe someone even better will resign today...Cheney perhaps?? A girl can dream can't she....
Anyway, here's what I think is commonly accepted:
Vegetarian- does not eat meat or fish but will eat dairy and some will eat eggs
Vegan- no animal products of any kind, dairy, eggs, meat, fish, etc...
Pescatarian- a "vegetarian" who eats fish
I myself am a pescatarian and if someone says I'm a vegetarian but I eat fish, that's wrong. You're not a vegetarian. I usually just say "I don't eat meat" which is true, I don't eat meat but I do eat fish, eggs, and dairy. I have an issue with eggs and have considered cutting them out as well. When cooking vegetarian people often think...oh, I'll just cook a bunch of vegetables, which is what gives vegetarian cooking a bad name. Mushrooms are an excellent meat substitute along with tofu. Potatoes are great, along with my personal favorite, beans.
I also take issue with the fact that people view a vegetarian option as an inconvenience. People become vegetarians for different reasons but I think the main two are animal cruelty and health. So when you scoff at someone for not eating meat you're basically saying either "Why are you being so stupid, stop caring about your health" or "Who cares if animals are pumped full of hormones, inhumanely treated their entire lives and then slaughtered" That person is making a choice that they believe is better for themselves or the world as a whole and you're looking at it as an inconvenience.
A friend of mine who is a vegan told me recently that she feels obligated to cook meat when she has people over for dinner. I told her this was ridiculous. I wasn't complaining about the vegetarian dish at the wedding..it was pretty good. I just thought it was amusing that the caterer was so close minded about what a vegetarian meal could be...just vegetables and pasta? a six year old could have come up with that. This was especially interesting to me since the groom is a vegetarian.
All I'm saying is I think that people tend to be close-minded about what constitutes vegetarian cooking or vegetarian cuisine. Even Andy has become more open to it. It's better for you and it's much more environmentally sound.
Labels: eating, politics
The Reception
Saturday night Andy and I ventured into the depths of New Jersey to attend his friend Cameron's wedding reception. We were initially supposed to take New Jersey transit but at the last minute another friend decided to drive so six of us crammed into a Ford Explorer and headed into the armpit of America. There was a TON of traffic on the way but it did give us time to study the lovely strip malls in New Jersey most of which were filled with sex stores and fast food chains. Also we got a little lost because apparently every town in that area of New Jersey has a Mountain Avenue.
Once we finally arrived everything was really nice. It was interesting mix of people since the groom's family is a military family from Alaska and the bride's family is Puerto Rican and from Queens. The couple, Cameron and Lisa, got married on Halloween but they still did all of the traditional reception stuff, first dance, cutting the cake, etc.. You know you're at a cool wedding when the bride and groom's first dance is to a Flaming Lips song. It was also a sit down dinner, the first sit down wedding reception I've been to. Four of us at the table got the vegetarian option for dinner which was funny because it was basically mixed vegetables thrown on some pasta because when you're a vegetarian all you eat is vegetables.
There was also open bar which was oh so nice. Andy didn't drink because he was the designated driver. Usually a couple of drinks loosens me up and makes me think I have a little bit of rythym and I'll get up and dance a little bit. However, holding your own against white people in Louisiana (which I can't do) is a little different from holding your own against Puerto Rican girls from Queens. Needless to say I did not get up to dance.
Labels: friends, new jersey
The Sports Report
This weekend was the best sports weekend I've had in a looong time. Some of you may recall the Tennessee debacle from last season in which LSU gave up a 21 point lead and eventually lost to them AT HOME. This year we played at Tennessee in a must win game for both teams. The game started at 3:30...we watched the beginning but had to leave for a wedding reception in New Jersey at about 4:45 (more on that tomorrow). LSU was up 7-0 when we left. Needless to say there was no college football talk at the reception so when we got home at about 12:30 a.m. we had no idea what had happened in the game so we went downstairs to watch the rest. With 2:00 minutes to go in the first half Tennessee pulls ahead 10-7. At this point Andy and I just look at each other like, this game is over. Ridiculous. Unfortunately without being surrounded by rabid LSU fans we've become a little bit of fair weather fans. Also, when you're in the National Championship hunt every year, going 10-2 is a little disappointing. We've watched LSU fall apart twice this season against good teams so Andy decided he was going to save us the agony and look at the score. He walks back to the sofa from the computer with a smug look on his face, trying not to smile. He sits down and I was like, what, what, do they win?? which obviously I can tell by the look on his face. We start watching the second half, Jamarcus throws an interception and TN runs it back for a touchdown. I was like, uh, can you go check the score again because I don't think there's any way LSU can pull this out.
Andy finished watching the game but I fell asleep so we watched the second half again on Sunday morning. And they did in fact win even though I didn't believe it until we actually saw the end of the game. It was an awesome game but I'm glad that I didn't watch it live..there would have been a lot of pacing, cursing, and throwing things.
On the soccer front, Manchester United won in decisive fashion, 3-0 and Chelsea lost so it was a really good weekend for Andy.
The Saints won again...maybe one day I'll actually get to watch a game.
The Vegeenas KILLED yesterday!! They posted 175 points...you read that right...175 points. The other team was so scared they didn't even show up. The guy I was playing had an illegal lineup so scored 0 points. It wasn't as much fun since I wasn't really playing against anyone but scoring that many points was still cool.
Labels: football, vegeenas
Odds and Ends
Last night Andy and I ate at a new hibachi restaurant literally across the street from our apartment. We hadn't eaten at one of those in forever and it was just as kitschy and cool as I remember it. The chef did the whole knife show and the onion volcano. fun fun.
We also fed Chester for the first time last night. He's supposed to be fed every two to three days, crickets or mealworms. We gave him three crickets last night and let me tell you, Chester is lethal. As soon as we dropped the cricket in he grabbed it in one leap. He's quite the badass.
We're venturing to New Jersey this weekend for a wedding reception on Saturday which means we'll miss the LSU game. We're going to tape it and Andy and I were saying this morning that we didn't have to worry about anyone talking about the outcome of the game. If we were in Louisiana no one would have scheduled a wedding that conflicted with an LSU game and even if they had everyone would be huddled around a small TV watching the game at the reception.
Everyone wish Nick a Happy Birthday...I know, one day late...sorry!
Pictures from the first half of Andy's Cross Country trip with Mike this summer are up..just click the link on the right. He's releasing them in two batches of around 250 each so grab a drink and settle in before viewing. I also added pictures from the Halloween parade...these are at the end of the "Friends in NYC" album. Check out the puppets..very cool.
The Vegeenas won last weekend behind 41 points from one Mr. Ladanian Tomlinson. We're on a three game winning streak right now and we've risen to third in the league. Hopefully we can keep it going this weekend. Go Vegeenas!!
Labels: chester, football, restaurants, vegeenas
New Addition!
Last night I told Andy to text me when he was leaving school and I would leave work at the same time. Well 5:30 rolled around and he still hadn't texted so I left work...I called him on the way out and he sounded super-chipper and even offered to cook dinner. Karin was walking with me to get coffee and I mentioned that he sound awfully happy for being at work until 5:30. So I got home and he came in about 20 minutes after me with a surprise!! A new pet..a fire-bellied toad. I had been talking for a while about wanting a frog so he went to Petco and picked one up for me. He is super-cute. I'm just assuming that it's a he. We haven't settled on a name yet, waiting to get a feel for his personality. I immediately called him Chester and Andy has been calling him Roscoe or Coe for short. He also threw T-Bone out there but I vetoed that one. Suggestions are welcome. Here are some pictures of Chester/Roscoe. And we are going to pick one name...we aren't going to combine them like when Andy and his sister couldn't decide what to name the bird so they just called him Scooterbingo. Anyway...enjoy the pictures of our new family member! I'm still trying to figure out how we're going to get him in the Christmas card.
Labels: chester, pets
Not So Happy Halloween
As I mentioned in yesterday's post I am not a fan of Halloween but since everyone was all abuzz about it, I decided to to attend the Halloween parade in NYC last night. The parade starts in the Village and goes up to 23rd Street so we decided to catch it near the end since our office is on 30th. So it was me and some co-workers, Karin, Christina, and Michele and then we met up with Andy and a bunch of his co-worker people to have drinks before the parade. Karin, Christina, and Michele left the bar a little earlier than we did and staked out what looked to be an awesome spot on 19th Street. They weren't on the Avenue but the street was going to be blocked off so we could still see everything really well. No one would be standing in front of us.
So we meet up with them and the parade still doesn't start for another hour. There was a little bit of shoving going on but nothing too bad...and the streets were PACKED! Wayyyy more people than were at the Thanksgiving Day parade. It was really cool just to watch all the people walking by in their costumes...my favorite were the oompa loompas and the guy dressed as a vagina.
Anyway..so the parade starts and it was really cool...there were people on stilts dancing and some really cool costumes but the best was all of the papier-mache puppets...very cool. I think Karin got some good pictures and I'll post those later. So about ten minutes into the parade the police for some inexplicable reason start letting people through the street again even though the parade is still going on. So all of the people that had good views before, including us now can't see anything. Pushing and shoving ensues. The whole time we were there Andy had his arm braced on the scaffolding and I thought he was just propping himself up but the whole time people were pushing and shoving in the back and he was shielding Michele and Christina from getting crushed. Then a huge guy behind Andy starts throwing punches so there's a big fight breaking out behind him. Then people start jumping over the barricades and into the street. At this point I started to panic because the fight is going on right behind us and if people really started pushing I knew I was going down so I tell everyone I'm bailing and I jump over the barricade. After that I look back and there's a flood of people pushing over the barricade. The cops had absolutely no control over what was going on. It was ridiculous.
So everyone else that was with me then tries to make it over the barricade. Andy tries to get over and the cop grabs the front of his shirt and pushes him back over the barricade and won't let him through even though he just let the guy that was throwing the punches over...it was a huge mess. Andy, Karin, Christina, and Michele finally made it out of the huge mass of people and met up with me. At that point I was just like, all right, we're getting the hell out of here. Andy and I headed home but the three of them tried to catch more of the parade and ended up getting caught between two more fights again....it was just crazy. I've always worried about getting crushed or stampeded in crowds but last night was the first time that I ever felt like it really might happen. Scary stuff.
One more Halloween note...I was walking up to the office at 7 this morning and I see a girl walking towards me with her hair disheveled and her Halloween costume on and her shoes in her hand. This must be the worst morning ever for the walk of shame. Not only is it obvious that you've just hooked up with some random guy and are making your way home but you're dressed up like a birthday cake while you're doing this. very funny.
Labels: Halloween, NYC sights
