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North Bound

Tonight we drive up to Pennsylvania. In the morning we celebrate little Ashely's 1st birthday. Then later in the day we celebrate Rachel's grandfather's 90th birthday. The man we affectionately refer to as "Pop Pop". Not sure how smart it is throwing a surprise party for a man with a 90 year old heart, but hopefully that all works out.

I was watching CSI last week, and one of my favorite characters from Seinfeld had a small part in the episode. I have no idea what the actors real name is, but he was Poppy Seinfelf. And he was a little sloppy. He played a owner of a street taco stand in Las Vegas. I can't help but to remember him as Poppy. Made me also realize that I haven't really liked a sitcom since Seinfeld went off the air. Growing up I loved sitcoms like Who's the Boss, Growing Pains, Different Strokes and Family Ties. But nowadays, we are stuck with According to Jim and the George Lopez Show. Yuck.

Have a great weekend!

Taco Hell

The other day a co-worker and I had a desire to get violent stomach cramps, so we decided to go to Taco Bell for lunch. I ordered one of the chicken bowls and nachos. The chicken bowl is pretty awesome by the way. When I first realized that there was cold rice on the bottom of the salad, I was like ewww thats awful. But it was actually really good. The little tortilla crumbles add some nice crunch, and there was a lot more chicken than I expected.

Anyway, we're sitting there eating and this group of landscapers pull up in a huge Ford F-350. About 6 or 7 of them got out of the truck, and walked into the Taco Bell. They caught my eye because they were wearing these bright green coverall looking things. They looked sort of like golf caddies at Augusta National. We continued talking and a few minutes after they walked in, two of the men started arguing. They were speaking Spanish, so not sure what they were arguing about. One of the other landscapers who was a older than the two who were aruing tried to intervene and seperate the two. They quiet down, and they placed their orders. As they walked back to their table, one of the guys who had been arguing earlier knocked the tray of food out of the older guys hands. More arguing followed and the scuffle spilled out into the parking lot. After 2 or 3 minutes of shoving and pushing, they call came back inside and finished their lunches like nothing happened.

So in addition to the cramps and the gas, we got a little mid day entertainment as well!

Poker Face

Playing around with some more of the double image shots. Don't like this one as much as the first, but I find something interesting about it. And I like the whole unibomber look :-).

Big Pimpin...

I don't know why, but I find this picture to be fascinating...huh huh midgets are cool! Or maybe it's because I've been up since 3AM.

PUMPED!!!

Rachel and I met with our new representative yesterday and were able to work out a verbal agreement on the house we looked at 2 weeks ago. So now it's just a matter of the realtor meeting with the seller to have her sign the paper contract, and us getting a home inspection done to make sure the home isn't going to fall down. Then we can put our townhouse on the market and hopefully it will sell in a short amount of time.

For a virtual tour of the house, click here

The virtual tour is a model home, but the layout is more or less the same.

If all goes well, we get to move in June 29th!!! Man Rachel and I are gonna be busy between now and then.

Mesmerized

I was lucky enough to hear a few tracks off of Mesmerize, the new System of a Down CD. By far my favorite song is Johnnie. It's a very odd sounding song, parts of it are almost comical. The song reminds me of that kids song, "Where is Thumpkin!". Plus any time I hear Johnnie, I think of Rambo or Principle Skinner having a Vietnam flashback. I can hardly wait to hear the rest.

I was flipping through the channels the other night and came across the Gretta Van Susteren show and saw video of the above man during his arraignment. It was like something out of the silence of the lambs. Scary. It's like a cross between a NHL goalie and a serial killer.

The Washington Nationals have been a huge store here in the DC Metro area. Personally, Im a little disapointed by a few factors surrounding the team. First of all the nickname of the team is the Nats. When I hear Nat, I think of gnats, the annoying little bugs that fly around your head on warm, humid evenings. So why would a team open themselves to headlines that can read Mets swat Nats!



Secondly, they unveiled their new mascot on Sunday. The mascots name is Screech. Anyone between the ages of 20-40 will probably immediatly think of Dustin Diamonds character from Saved By the Bell. I know we did, when we heard it. Plus the mascot is way too cute. I don't think a chubby little baby eagle is going to intimidate anyone. The thing looks like something you would see in a kids Easter basket. And look at the expression on the birds face. It has this "wha'happened" look to it. I'd like to give While E. Coyote five minutes alone with his fruity looking bird.

But I must say, so far the Nationals have impressed me with their play. We'll see if it's just the initial excitement of having a new home, or if they are the real deal. Nick Johnson has been playing well for the Nationals, but he's very fragile. I remember when he was on the Yankees, the guy would hurt himself opening a bag of Cheetos or trying to tie his shoe. The Nationals play their first weekday day game today. The commute home should be WONDERFUL!!!

Movie

Check this out. Someone make a movie using a digital camera. I think it's incredibly creative. I can't imagine how many total photos they must have taken to put this mini movie together, but it turned out amazing. Oh you may want to turn your sound down first.

http://patrykrebisz.com/stills/FINAL_movie.html

New Pope

Im going with Ratzinger. We'll see if Im right shortly...

Bad Weekend

Man did this weekend suck. At the risk of sounding like a bitchlog, here's how my weekend went...
Rachel and I found what we thought was our next house. A former neighbor of Rachel's sister is moving at the end of June. We went to look at the house last Sunday night and Rachel and I both liked it. So we went and got pre-approved for the mortgage on Monday. Rachel and her mom went back with the realtor on Tuesday to look over the house again. On Wednesday we had a realtro come by to look at our current house to give us an idea of how much we could get for it. We went down Friday morning to write up a contract and make an offer to the seller. Rachel and I were pretty confident that our offer was fair and reasonable. We asked the realtor writing the contract as well as a family friend who's a realtor if our offer seemed fair, and they both said yes. So we were pretty confident the offer would be taken. They have till 9PM Saturday night to make a decision whether they want to take it or leave it.
Fast forward to Saturday. Rachel and I drive up to Baltimore to see the Yankees game. 1st inning Gart Sheffield hits a two run home run, oh yeah this is going to be our day!!! I order two hot dogs around the 4th inning. As Im taking my last few bites, my cell phone rins. Too noisy to hear so I let it go to voicemail. I get up from my seat and head out to near the consession stands. I call up Becky who is representing us in the whole matter. She says the contract has been rejected. I was disapointed, but she mentioned that noone else has written a contract yet, so there is still a chance she could accept the offer. So we'll keep our fingers crossed. I go back to my seat and the Orioles close to within 1 of the Yankees. But then the Yankees come back and score 5 runs in the top of the next inning. Very exciting!!! OK, Yankees are gonna break their losing streak. Then the bottom of the 7th happens and Brian Roberts hits a go ahead 3 run home run off of Tom Gordon. Well at least Brian Roberts is on my fantasy team. Oh wait, I didn't start him so his 4 RBI day was wasted by me choosing to let him ride the pine. But that's ok because I have Jim Thome, Moises Alou and Eric Chavez on my fantasy team too. What? Jim Thome has gone 11 games without a home run? Moises Alou is on the disabled list? And Eric Chavez is batting under .200? DOH!!!
By Saturday night I felt like someone had punched me repeatidly in the gut. All the wind was just about out of my sails. Then on Sunday the Yankees continue to get pummeled. It's like the same team from games 4, 5, 6 and 7 of the ALCS. Everyone just looking at one another, waiting for someone else to step up. Everyone stuck, pointing the finger at one another. Where have you gone Scott Broscious? Oh sure Alex Rodriguez will hit 40 home runs this year. But how many of those home runs will come when the team actually needs them? In his first season with the Yankees, it seemed like a lot of his home runs and rbi's came when the Yankees were already ahead by 6 runs. Not when they were down by 2 with runners on 1st and 2nd. Screw that pretty boy, I want Soriano back. I know its only the 3rd week of the season, but getting swept by the Orioles is embarassing.Glad George Steinbrenner is getting upset by their piss poor play. Maybe that will light a fire under their asses.

On a brighter note, ESPN has this new show called that is pretty cool. It's called something like NFL Gridiron Challenge. It reminds me of the old Jeep Superstars competitions they used to have. Im actually surprised at some of the big names that are competing on the show. Imagine if Peyton Manning breaks a leg during the tug o war. Or if Joe Horn were to fall on his cell phone during the rock climbing competition.

Futball De Mexico?

I just heard that the NFL has scheduled a game to played in Mexico City. I can't tell you how much I hate this idea. Football to Mexico is a sport played by men in little shorts, with a round ball. AMERICAN football is a game played by giant, oversized men, where they use a ball that is sort of cone shaped and is dirt colored. If the Mexican people want to see football so bad, have the wannabees from NFL Europe or the Arena League come and play there.

Football is American, maybe I'm being selfish, but I want it to stay that way. NFL Europe can be for the rest of the world. If the Barcelona Dragons want to play a game in the streets of Pamplona during the running of the bulls, they have my full support. But if some piece of eurotrash in Norway wants to see Michael Vick (Ron Mexico) evade tacklers, or Peyton Manning throw touchdowns, it has to happen in Atlanta, or Indianapolis, not in Tokyo, Oslo or Mexico City. So sit your ass on your Ikea futon Gunar, and watch Brett Favre throw a touchdown in the frozen tundra of Green Bay!

Major League baseball has these hairbrained ideas alot too. Several years back, the Seattle Mariners played an exhibition game in Tokyo I believe. The field was in such piss poor condition, that Edgar Martinez wound up shredding his knee. He hurt his knee so bad, he was reduced to being a DH the rest of his career. Last year, the Yankees opened their season against the Devil Rays with a 3 game series in Japan. Mike Mussina, Kevin Brown and Jason Giambi all got violently ill and had stomach parasites because of some bad fish they ate while in Japan. People are blaming the cancer Jason Giambi got on his steroid abuse, I blame Japan!

Im glad the Expos no longer play in Montreal and now play in the capital city of the United States. Next we need to get the Blue Jays out of Toronto and move them to Indianapolis or Las Vegas. How can you have a team in the AMERICAN league east play their home games in Canada? Forget about playing games in San Juan, Mexico City and Tokyo. If a player misses the season because of an injury he sustains during a game, that's one thing. But if I hear that Derek Jeter will miss 3 months of the season because he caught the SARS during an exhibition game in Beijing, Im gonna be upset.

We spent a few days in Mexico last year, and it's a beautiful country. The people couldn't be more friendly and welcoming. So I have nothing against the Mexican people. I don't mind if they are fans of the NFL. But just like I don't want a bullfight to take place at Yankees Stadium, I don't want to have Monday Night Football played in Mexico.

And the home, of the brave.....[fade to black]

Bloomin and Blossomin

Millions of people come to the greater DC area for the Cherry Blossom festival. To these people, I say stay home!!! Look at a picture, it will last longer :-). There ya go, a digital postcare, compliments of Squilky!

Beatallica

A few weeks ago I wrote about Beatallica. Inspired by Niel, I decided to post one of their songs. Check it out...


Garage Days Night

Wow

Wow I guess not everyone thinks very highly of the late Pope

Pope is Burning

Depressing Weekend...

Rachel and I have been living in our townhouse for over 5 years now. The first 2 as renters, the last 3 as oweners. We're ready to upgrade to a single family home, but things aren't looking very promising. Last week I inquired about a single family home I saw listed in an add. The house was listed at $325,000, but it gave very little info about the house. So I got a call back from the real estate agent and he told me the house was only 1400 square feet, which is smaller than the townhouse we have now. I guess he could hear in my voice that I was disapointed, so he asked what price range I was looking to stay in. I crunched some numbers, and figured we could afford a $350,000 home pretty easily, a $400,000 home we could manage and a $450,000-500,000 would be a real stretch. So he sends me a listing of homes in the area, and everything that falls under the criteria of what we can afford is quite old. We went into this not expecting to afford a new home if we stayed in the area. But I was hoping we could afford something a little newer than something build in the late 70's. It's one thing to buy an older house as a fixer upper, but at $400,000 + we can't really afford the house plus another $20,000+ to modernize the place.

The other thing that scares me is that with interest rates going up, I think the real estate market may be close to reaching a plateau. We stand to make a good profit if we sell the townhouse. The same model in my neighborhood is now selling for more than double what we paid for it back in 2001. But my fear is that if we buy a $400,000 home in 2005, that it will still be worth $400,000 in 2010 and 2015. So we're almost tempted to buy a newer home, because the resale value should stay higher. But the monthly payments would just kick our ass. And it's not like we would have to deal with these monthly payments for a year or two, we're talking about a huge monthly payment for the next 30 years!

Now on to the death of the Pope. It was sad seeing him suffer for so long, especially the past month or so, so I'm happy he is now at peace and no longer suffering. But I was still saddened seeing the photos of the Pope laying in state yesterday. I guess seeing someone who seems so dynamic, in such a humbling position is just shocking to me. He looked so small and frail. I didn't realize how much he deteriorated, until they started showing old clips of him when he first because Pope in the late 70's. He looked so alive, so energetic, so healthy. I always thought he had such warm, loving eyes. I never realized how much of that fire and warmth was gone in his final years. I know there are those who will disagree with the Popes stand on modern day issues such as birth control and sexuality, but it's very difficult being in his position in such a science oriented world. Science and medicine have become new religions to people. While some of the Pope's beliefs may be seen as archaic, there is something to be said for sticking to your guns and standing for "standard" family values.

What's odd about the timing of his death is that I happen to be reading Angels and Demons by Dan Brown right now. The whole book is about choosing a new Pope. An ancient underground society kidnaps the four cardinals who will be voted on to become the next Pope (the preferati). So I was pretty impressed at how well researched Dan Brown was. A lot of the rituals and proceedures that take place in the book are to take place for real over the next two weeks or so. Oh and for those of you who may have seen the photos of the Pope laying in state, there were strange looking guards standing next to him. They were almost dressed like court jesters. I learned from reading the book that these men are known as the Swiss Guard. They come from a long line of men who for centuries have guarded the Pope and Vatican in general.

The one bright spot of the weekend was that the 2005 baseball season officially kicked off last night. Man it was great seeing the Yankees playing again, but after playing the Red Sox 52 times over the past 2 years, I'm really sick of seeing guys like Kevin Millar, Johnny Damon and David Ortiz. I'm not saying he was on the juice, but Manny Ramirez looks a whole lot smaller than he did last year. Jason Giambi is growing to Balboni proprtions, and damn it was good to see Tino back as a Yankee. The Yankees dominated the Red Sox last night, reminded me of game 3 of the ALCS last year. Now if only they could have looked that sharp in game 4 of the 2004 ALCS or game 5, or 6 or 7 :-(.

One movie I won't be going to see is Fever Pitch. Jimmy Fallon + The Red Sox, need I say more?
The only thing that could be worse would be a story about the Mets starring Russel Crowe and Renee Zelwegger. Uggghhh