Friday, November 30, 2012

I Don't Trust David Stern

Good morning everyone.  Today I am still going to give you my football picks for this weekend, but a timely basketball story arose that I must give some attention to.  Shortly after arriving at work last night, I saw on a muted t.v. screen that David Stern is planning on giving the San Antonio Spurs sanctions as punishment for resting four of their players last night.  Nevermind that the Spurs were playing their 4th road game in 5 nights, and disregard the fact that this was also their 6th road game in 9 days.  The 10-day road trip that San Antonio just completed was also tacked onto a 6-day road trip that the team endured earlier in the month.  Coincidentally, for this nationally televised Thursday night game in Miami, the Heat were only playing in their fifth game PERIOD over the last 2 weeks...  The Spurs are resting their veterans to put their team in the best possible position to compete for a championship, and David Stern is upset with San Antonio because the NBA schedule makers (who happen to be working for, you guessed it..., DAVID STERN) put the team in this position with their brilliant scheduling...  Oh, and NBA, I'm sorry that we weren't competitive last night, getting "blown out" by a score of 105-100, playing IN MIAMI, and under these circumstances.  David Stern, please do us a favor and try to be a bigger joke...

Well, after going 6-4 on my football picks last weekend, I am once again at the .500 mark for the season with a record of 61-61-2.  I would really like to start heating up now since I will be returning to Las Vegas in less than three weeks.  And for all of you "haters" out there, USC did show up last weekend, didn't they, even without Matt Barkley?...  I took the Trojans plus 7 points and they ended up losing the game by 9, and that was after getting stopped for no points on a first-and-goal situation late in the game.  ANYWAY, here are my picks for this week:


Texas/Kansas State (Under 63 1/2) - Coach Diaz HAS TO stop the bleeding...
Boise State/Nevada (Under 59) - The Wolfpack usually play the Broncos tough...
Alabama/Georgia (Under 50 1/2) - VERY big game, should be tough and lower-scoring...
West Virginia (-19 1/2) vs. Kansas - Can Kansas score enough to keep up?
New Mexico State/Texas State (Over 57 1/2) - Just for us Joey, two STELLAR defenses...

New England (-7 1/2) @ Miami - The Patriots 'O' has been potent...
Houston/Tennessee (Over 47) - The Texans score and don't play much defense...
Tampa Bay/Denver (Under 51) - The weather is getting worse in Colorado...
Minnesota/Green Bay (Under 47) - The weather is also getting worse in Wisconsin...  :)
Indianapolis/Detroit (Over 51) - The dome has no weather...  :)


Have a great weekend and I'll see you again on Monday!
        

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Backpedaling...

Good morning everyone.  Evidently I should focus on photography instead of writing.  Quite often I will choose what I think are inspirational or clever quotes or tweets to serve as my facebook status.  A POPULAR status might earn in the neighborhood of seven 'likes'.  Last night from work, I stood on the rooftop at The Veranda and used my Droid to take a photo of the nearby "Sights & Sounds of Christmas" celebration which is located nearby.  This annual event in San Marcos, America includes over one million Christmas lights, among other things.  Well, this very amateur photo received over 14 'likes' in less than 3 hours.  Thank you Trisha, Jennifer, Allison, Alyssa (Merp), Rene, Connie, Alyssa, Mandy, Kathryn, Erika, Penny, Carly, Denise, and Floyd for pointing me in the right direction...  :)

Well, I have some good news and some bad news about the viewership numbers for this little blog of mine and a prediction that I made about 11,000 views ago.  Sometime later today or very early tomorrow, the total viewcount for 'Bikini Hill' is going to pass the 17,000 mark.  This month will be the blog's biggest month in terms of total views, with that number finishing at right around the 2,000 mark.  This might seem like good news for my prediction that 'Bikini Hill' would reach a total of 20,000 views by the end of this year, but do the math.  The blog that has NEVER reached 2,000 views in a month now has to receive THREE THOUSAND total views in December to reach this mark.  So much for my prediction (???), and where do I go to take up photography?  :)

So I went to Walmart yesterday - yes, Walmart, and I'm getting THREE paragraphs out of this...  The first item that I was searching for was those elusive windpants that our blogging friend Rob has never seen...  My heart leapt for joy when I reached the clothing section and discovered that 'Starter' windpants were selling for $11.96 a pair.  I currently own ZERO PAIRS of windpants after my Las Vegas break-in at the end of August.  The 'Starter' windpants don't have the zipper pockets that I like, but they are much cheaper than the $30.00 Nike windpants that I looked at last week.  After dropping three pairs of these windpants into my shopping cart, I started rolling along when I discovered..., THICK sweatpants, WITH a well-made velcro pocket located on each leg, all for the low, low price of $15.97.  At this point I feel that I should give you a travel tip.  I have flown several times, and you want to be COMFORTABLE on a travel day.  These sweats have comfortable written ALL OVER them...  Back to the rack went the 'Starter' windpants, and into the shopping cart went two pairs of 'And 1' sweats.  Sorry that I won't be able to show you what a pair of windpants is Rob, but maybe I can dunk on someone for you at the poker table.  For those of you unfamiliar with what the cool kids are wearing these days, 'And 1' markets itself as a basketball brand, as in, "he's fouled 'and' he gets '1' free throw - 'And 1'..."            

So I walking down the aisle in search of black olives.  These are one of the myriad of things that I have been putting into the 17,000 salads that I have eaten during the month of November.  When I reached the cans of black olives..., well..., have you ever played..., "Vegetable Jenga"?  This of course is the game where you try to pull out the awkwardly stacked cans while not making the whole pyramid CRASH DOWN onto the Walmart floor...  Sorry my friends, but I WON, and the cans didn't go tumbling to the floor - look for your trainwreck somewhere else...  ;)

Are you looking for a trainwreck by any chance?  So the trilogy of this little Walmart story happens when I'm rolling my cart down the main walkway, past the 'endcaps' of the food aisles.  To help you picture this at home, I'm headed in the direction of the front door, with the food aisles to my right, and those little..., 'merchandise islands' on my left (you know, where they sell the randomly grouped items - cases of Pepsi products, four-packs of Campbell's soups, etc...).  Well, as I'm rolling my cart along, this...  BACKPEDALING GUY (yes, he was literally backpedaling), comes RIGHT OUT IN FRONT OF ME, narrowly missing my shopping cart.  I stop and give him a GOOD rolling of my eyes, but whatever item he is trying to size up as he looks skyward down the food aisle that LAUNCHED HIM still has his attention, as he ignores me, and KEEPS GOING, his back LANDING UP AGAINST one of those merchandise islands...  As the SUDDEN STOP causes him to stumble, he starts mumbling something, probably wondering WHO would put a merchandise island THERE, but I kept my eyes GLUED straight ahead and kept pushing my cart, NOT wanting to be a witness to this trainwreck...  Goodness gracious people!...  :)

I hope that all of you have a great day and I'll see you again tomorrow with my football predictions!


Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

Good morning everyone.  The title of this entry doesn't have me moving back to Las Vegas or canceling my upcoming trip, so don't get excited...  Late yesterday afternoon I decided to take the short hike to the Texas State campus library because they have magazines and I don't.  For most of the day I had been kicking around the idea of driving down to New Braunfels like I had exactly two weeks earlier for the same reason as before, to watch 'Alex Cross'.  I had already blown off the 4:50 p.m. showing, but the idea was still rumbling in my head for the next couple of hours at the library.  The library disappointed me, as the main reason that I had gone was to find the December issue of Texas Monthly.  "But Coach, it's only November" you're saying.  Yes, but my response is that I have seen that issue in stores at least as far back as last weekend, and I am looking forward to reading the second part of a two-part story where an innocent man was wrongfully convicted of killing his wife.  Well, let's just say that I walked back home and started up my car at exactly 6:55 p.m. to try making a 7:10 p.m. showing of 'Alex Cross' in New Braunfels.  First I had to get to I-35, access it at Exit 204, and then fly south to exit for the theater at Exit 188.  Well, somehow Coach was IN HIS SEAT at 'Alex Cross' by 7:19 p.m...  ;)  The 110-seat theater had FOUR TIMES AS MANY moviegoers than it did 2 weeks ago (yes, there were 4 of us this time).  'Alex Cross' isn't a comedy, but I thought that I'd share the funniest line of the movie with you (this is no way spoils the plot).  Alex is in a conversation with his partner when he says, "you know I love you from the bottom of my heart, I really do, but I'd rather take advice from a ham sandwich..."  ;)  Again, Matthew Fox was an outstanding bad guy, and is the motivated person that I need to transform myself back into...

I'm twenty days away from my "Las Vegas Christmas Vacation" now and I have done almost nothing tangible to prepare for the trip.  That would be nothing more than booking my reservations exactly twenty-two days ago.  Once this college football season ends and the bowl matchups are finalized, there will be A LOT of studying focused on those bowl games.  Just a little while ago I was skimming through 'Phil Steele's 2012 College Football Preview' magazine.  Now Phil (and others) consider Phil to be a pretty smart guy when it comes to forecasting college football.  For those of us who have not correctly predicted the outcome of every contest this season, we can take heart.  These are some of Phil's preseason college football projections for the 2012 season:  4. USC;  7. Texas;  21. Notre Dame;  30. Texas A&M...  This makes me feel better anyway...  :)

On the poker front, I was reading my friend Grrouchie's blog post earlier today, and it seems that some mysterious character (and blogger if I read this right) named @cokeboy99 (twitter handle) won a Treasure Island tournament on Monday and then finished the Aria Tournament with a five-way chop yesterday for $1,800.00...  Do we actually have to BE GOOD AT POKER to blog about it???  :)  An $1,800.00 cash almost accounts for any of my TWO BEST DAYS on the green felt...  Congratulations @cokeboy99 - I will be looking for your blog shortly after finishing this entry.

With only five full days (and two travel days) in my upcoming trip to Las Vegas, I have pretty much resigned myself to playing in only a couple of poker tournaments at the most because I plan on spending most of that Sunday (the day before I return to Texas) watching NFL games and begging for my parlay tickets to hit.  I also know that at least a few hours of one of my days in the desert will be spent filling out my college bowl season parlay tickets.  I am strongly leaning toward doing the same thing that I did for this blog last year regarding the bowl games, which was predicting the final score of EVERY SINGLE GAME, and in effect giving you my thoughts on how the spread and the over/under will come out for each contest, along with the outright winner of course.  According to the blog stats, that has been my most viewed post ever...  Yes, we were talking about poker tournaments.  I really do want to play at least one deep-stack tournament if I find the funds to do so (this being in the $100.00 to $150.00 range) while I'm in Las Vegas.  In my mind, you cannot fathom how short a time period only five full days in the desert is, although others will tell you that's WAY TOO LONG to visit...

I'm going to do some other fun things like starting my wash now (one very nice perk to this apartment Lindsey), but I hope that you have a great day and I'll see you again tomorrow with another ramble.  Have a great day!
                    

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

The Little Things

Good morning everyone.  I just went to my mailbox about fifteen minutes ago (this sounds like the lead-in to the MOST EXCITING blog entry that you've ever read, right?)...  Eight days ago (last Monday) I searched all over San Marcos, America (4 locations) for a new case for my Droid 2 Global phone.  After coming up empty, I decided to look online for a case.  I ended up at Amazon.com, and a company called Bastexwireless was selling a Body Glove case (yes, the same Body Glove that all of the cool kids like) for $4.10.  Since this particular case retails for over $25.00 (as would any of the cases that I would have bought from Verizon if they had any in stock), I quickly set up an account at Amazon and put the total of $5.19 (w/tax & shipping) on my plastic.  I am VERY HAPPY to say that my Droid 2 Global now has a new home...  The little things...  Neither here nor there, but I am STRONGLY endorsing Amazon.com as an online shopping option...  ;)  The funny thing about this (you knew there would be a funny thing) is that when I retrieved the yellow envelope from my mailbox, it turns out that Bastexwireless is located in Bastrop, Texas...  For those of you who are unfamiliar with your central Texas geography, Bastrop is only about a forty minute drive from here.  However, just the price of the gas to get me there would have run me about the same amount as the case did, let alone driving home and the time that I would have spent chasing it down.  Neither here nor there, but I am STRONGLY endorsing Amazon.com as an online shopping option...  ;)

So exactly three weeks from today I will be heading out to the desert for a week.  As I've said numerous times before, the sports betting (football predominantly) and poker on tap are the only real draws to Vegas for me.  As it turns out, I really haven't missed either nearly as much as I thought I would this fall, which is one of those life surprises that I briefly alluded to in a recent post.  I do have that winning parlay ticket and some worn down clay poker chips that I can cash in though, so I might as well make the trip.  It's not lost on me that December 21st, 2012 falls RIGHT SMACK IN THE MIDDLE of the dates that I will be in Las Vegas.  In addition to not wanting to be wrong about my prediction that the world as we know it won't end three weeks from Friday, I REALLY DON'T want to die in Las Vegas.  I honestly don't know where I do want to perish, but the desert can just be SO DEPRESSING...

Let's see, some more stuff from work...  (Oh, my phone just feels so good in its new case)...  :)  Okay, twice last week at my post in the "hallway of mazes" (don't get me started)...  well, I witnessed this:  guys with sunglasses on their shirt collars at 1 a.m. walking up to The Veranda (our rooftop bar).  OOO KAYY...  And this, ugghhh...  BEING IGNORED - This has happened on several occasions, although it is far from the norm, and it just bothers me to no end...  In the most recent instance, I was at my post and a group of five people walked up the stairs and went past me to go to the Veranda.  The people in the group were not actively engaged in a conversation at the time, and as each one passed, I greeted them, and in succession, ALL FIVE of the people in the group blew me off and continued walking...  I have a decent memory as it is, and that's the type of thing that I will remember...  In an ironic twist (you knew there would be an ironic twist), one girl that was in a group of 3 young ladies a few nights ago called me "the nicest guy on the Square..."  Another member of the group was celebrating her 21st birthday, and I wished her a "happy birthday" as she went up the stairs.  The girl who gave me the title of "The Nicest Guy On The Square" (each word SHOULD be capitalized, right?) said, "SEE?!  And he's the ONLY ONE who wished me a "happy birthday" when it was my birthday too!"  I have a decent memory as it is, and that's the type of thing that I will remember...  ;)

In case any of you are interested in reading a good blog today, you might want to click on the link to Lucki Duck's blog listed on the right hand side of this page, specifically the recent entry where I am now in SECOND PLACE in the standings of the very elite "bloggers predicting football games contest"...  DON'T EVER count Coach out!  ;)  The Pittsburgh Steelers are currently plagued by injuries and are tenuously clinging to the sixth and final playoff spot in the AFC, but two Steelers fans are at the top of the leaderboard in this contest - go figure...

That is all that I have for you today, but I will return tomorrow with more about my rapidly approaching trip to Las Vegas and the poker world.  Have a great day!


    

      

Monday, November 26, 2012

Hootie & The Blowfish

Good morning everyone.  I just peeked at the blog statistics a few seconds ago and it looks like this month is going to be the most viewed month in the almost 14-month history of 'Bikini Hill'.  Now if only I had something interested to write about...

When I last saw you, I was about to attend a hockey game in San Antonio on Friday night.  The contest was an American Hockey League (AHL) battle featuring the San Antonio Rampage and the Houston Aeros.  The quality of the hockey was outstanding except for the players' lack of ability to control the puck, so I'm saying that...  Yeah...  At one point I turned to my brother and said, "do you realize that with the NHL Lockout, this is the BEST hockey being played in the United States right now?!..."  Merp...  The Aeros beat the Rampage 2-1 for those of you keeping score at home.  It turns out that we went to the wrong game, as our contest featured ZERO fights, and the San Antonio fanbase was just CLAMORING for a fight.  It turns out that on Saturday night, there were several fights, one of which included penalty minutes totaling three-quarters of a period (that's 15 minutes for those of you keeping score at home) for one player.  I know this because I have friends who have season tickets to see the Rampage, and they were posting photos of the "teddy bear toss" at Saturday night's game.  You guessed it - Friday night DID NOT have a teddy bear toss, so somehow I feel slighted...  The Saturday night game also went to a "shootout" to determine the victor - Friday night, not so much...

The game being played in the car to and from the AT&T Center was my third-grade niece quizzing me on the names of the EIGHTEEN students in her class.  The neat thing about this game is that my niece kept naming the eighteen students in order (including herself) because she was seeing them IN HER HEAD in the order that they line up for lunch.  The sad thing about this is that my niece gets her lunch last EVERY DAY because the students are lined up alphabetically based on their last name.  Shouldn't it occur to her teacher at some point that it isn't fair to make the SAME CHILD get her lunch last EVERY SINGLE FREAKIN DAY?!  You can just imagine me sitting by her in the car as I was learning this, can't you?  "Why do you get your lunch last every day?"  Merp...  The most names that I remembered at once was ten by the way, and I had made the deal before that round that if I got ten kids right, the game would end...  :)

So jump back to Wednesday night, which is when my brother and I went to the bar that my dad manages to grab one beer after the family dinner at Rudy's Barbecue.  The fact that we spent about three hours at the bar is neither here nor there...  At one point we were 2 of the only 3 customers in the bar.  The bar is configured in a square, much like the bar on 'Cheers'...  Anyway, we are almost at the far right end of one side of the square, where going from left to right on your computer monitor, it's my brother, myself, then an empty seat.  Going up the next side of the bar is an empty seat and then a stranger, so we have basically the corner of the bar and two empty seats separating the stranger and myself.  I had played some music on the jukebox, and the song currently playing is the last song from a very popular album, which happened to be the highest-selling album of 1995 (I just looked it up).  This song WAS NOT on the mainstream playlist, but it's a very good slow song, so I quizzed my brother - "which band do you think this is?"  My brother is mulling over the answer to this question, and you can tell that he recognizes the voice of the lead singer, and that he just needs to listen to a little bit more of the...  "HOOTIE & THE BLOWFISH!!!"... BLURTS OUT the stranger sitting near us...  "He has a very distinctive voice..."  That was quite possibly the worst moment of my brother's family's visit for me...  It's the bar that my dad manages, so I'm not going to say anything, and really, what could I say, but..., THIS ISN'T A FREAKIN GAME SHOW!!!...  I was asking MY BROTHER who sings this, NOT YOU...  Merp...  Goodness gracious...  :)  Anyway, the album is "Cracked Rear View" by Hootie & the Blowfish if you're looking for some good music to listen to today...

Here's a story from work last night that the doorguys should enjoy...  :)  So I'm working the back entrance, which includes watching the back staircase which leads to our rooftop bar, The Veranda.  A couple that I had met upstairs about an hour earlier was now descending the stairs, about to go home.  I am assuming that they were a couple because I had met them together earlier and they were holding hands as they approached me.  Well, after the girl hugged me for about the THIRD TIME, she hugs me AGAIN, while kissing me on the cheek and telling me that we should go out on a date, and this is while her other hand is holding the hand of the guy that she is with (you can't make this stuff up)...  At this point, I'm trying to figure out how to respond to her while making sure that the guy isn't about to PUNCH ME, and of course the side of my face that she's kissing is in-between myself and her date...  Merp...  (The word 'Merp' means "Ugghhh" by the way, for those of you who are new to the blog)...  Long story short, no one got punched, and off they went...  :)

And in other news, my decimated, struggling, playing with the third-string quarterback Pittsburgh Steelers, who currently sit at 6-5, coming off of a loss to the CLEVELAND BROWNS yesterday, are STILL the sixth-seed in the AFC freakin playoff hunt...  WOW...  (and merp...).  I bounced back on my football predictions with a 6-4 record this weekend and am now back to .500 (61-61-2) for the season.  We'll talk more about that later this week...

Have a great day and I'll see you again tomorrow!
  



Friday, November 23, 2012

Turkeys And Pucks

Good morning everyone.  This would be your Friday ramble since my football predictions hijacked the post yesterday.  I had a pretty good day of football yesterday as I managed to double my win total for all of last weekend.  Thanksgiving football started off great as the Texans and Lions easily covered the 'Over 50' (65 total points). The ruling on the play where the officials messed up by not blowing their whistles, which resulted in the Texans ball carrier getting SEVENTY free yards and a touchdown, which WAS NOT REVIEWABLE after the Lions head coach wrongfully threw his challenge flag on a scoring play (which was to be reviewed anyway) was a total crock however...  You also had to love the part where an extra fifteen penalty yards were tacked onto the kickoff - awesome...  After the ruling I immediately went to facebook and posted, "NFL Rules Committee - SERIOUSLY???"  This would be the appropriate time to apologize to grrouchie and Mateo (another friend of mine) who asked what had happened in response to my facebook post - there is no way that I was going to type all of that out...  :)  In the final Thanksgiving game, I took the Patriots (-6 1/2) over the Jets - final score:  Patriots 49  Jets 19...  The even better news is that I also took the Patriots in Lucki Duck's elite blogger contest this weekend, a contest in which I have not picked a losing team to this point...  :)  And then there was the middle game yesterday, Dallas vs. Washington...  Dear Dallas Cowboys, thank you for not showing up for the first half of your Thanksgiving Day game (Redskins 28 Cowboys 3 - halftime)...  Sincerely, Coach...  So I went 2-1 yesterday (taking Dallas (-3), but that's already better than last weekend's 1-9)...  My remaining picks for the weekend are in yesterday's post if you are interested in checking them out...

So, yesterday turned out SO MUCH BETTER than last Thanksgiving did...  I drove down to San Antonio (okay, to Schertz if you want to be technical) and ate at my sister's house (stepsister if you want to be technical) with my twin niece and nephew, stepmom, and my brother's family, which included him and his wife, and another niece and nephew (there will be a quiz on this at the end of the post)...  There was also one non-family member present for the meal if you want to answer the extra credit question...  My meal consisted of turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, dressing (all of the above covered with gravy), green bean casserole, macaroni and cheese shells, deviled eggs, rolls, and banana split cake.  All of this was on one plate (except for the dessert), and it had my youngest niece inquiring, "are you going to eat all of that Uncle Chris?  that's a lot of food..."  I am proud to say that I did indeed finish all of the very tasty meal...  :)  I hope that all of you had a very enjoyable Thanksgiving also.  I would also like to thank my friends Nicole & Scott, Lindsey, and Debbie for inviting me to stop by their places for Thanksgiving.  I ended up working at 10:00 last night, but it wasn't bad at all, and I had a very enjoyable day.

So tonight I am returning to San Antonio (all the way to San Antonio this time) to watch a hockey game with my brother's family.  The San Antonio Rampage (who I have never seen before) are the city's minor league hockey team.  The home ice for the Rampage is the AT&T Center, which is also the home of the San Antonio Spurs.  I thought that the NHL Lockout had ended yesterday when my brother informed me that my ticket was going to cost over $30.00 - YIKES!!!  Of course this ticket was purchased online yesterday and had an assortment of fees and taxes associated with it, but it is in the row right behind my brother's family, who purchased their tickets at a time when we didn't know what my work schedule was going to be for this week.  I cannot complain though because both my brother and his wife have served our country in the military, and as a result have lived in several different places, so it's not often that we have been able to get together and do things...

I think that I am going to stop here for today so that I can get some more sleep and be rested up for the night with my brother's family (I got home from work at about 4:00 a.m. and then did my laundry, ate, etc...)...  I hope that all of you have a safe Thanksgiving Weekend and I will see you again on Monday!
          

        

Thursday, November 22, 2012

I'm A Hazard To Myself

"I'm a hazard to myself..., don't let me get me, I'm my own worst enemy, it's bad when you annoy yourself..., so irritating, don't wanna be my friend no more, I wanna be somebody else..." -Pink- (Don't Let Me Get Me)


Happy Thanksgiving everyone.  Last week the question here was, "five weeks in a row?" - the answer to that question was a big, "PFFFTTT!!!"  After posting winning records on my football predictions for four straight weeks (6-4, 7-3, 6-4, and 8-2), last week I went a HORRIFIC 1-9 (yes, you read that right - ONE and NINE...).  As I was sitting here formulating my picks last week, I found the slate of games to be pretty difficult, and the thought actually occurred to me - "what if I go 0-10 this week?"...  Of course I laughed that off with a, "right, 0-10..."  Well, I managed to come PRETTY CLOSE, and it seems appropriate that I'm making this week's predictions on Thanksgiving, because I was DEFINITELY a turkey last week...    The only winner that I had was the Patriots (-9) against the Colts, and I will be taking New England again this week because they have a similar line against the Jets, who are not setting the world on fire.  My overall record for the season now stands at 55-57-2.  Here are all of my predictions for this week:


Texas State (-1 1/2) @ Texas-San Antonio - I like this one quite a bit actually...
USC (+ 7) vs. Notre Dame - Putting my "money" where my mouth is - I think the Trojans show up...
Oklahoma (-7) vs. Oklahoma State - Sooners at home for 'Bedlam'...
Louisiana Tech/San Jose State (Over 75 1/2) - Tech OFTEN in contests with video game scores...
BYU (-29) @ New Mexico State University - The Cougars show up this week if they have any pride...

Houston/Detroit (Over 50) - Ideal scoring conditions forecast for the dome today...
Dallas (- 3) vs. Washington - The Cowboys are at home and have been winning...
New England (-6 1/2) @ New York Jets - The Patriots score, and the Jets have trouble doing so...
Oakland/Cincinnati (Under 49) - Scoring 49 would be a big deal for these 2 squads...
Green Bay/New York Giants (Under 50 1/2) - Highly contested playoff rematch from last year...

And there you go...  I will see you again tomorrow.  I hope that all of you enjoy your football today and have a very Safe and Happy Thanksgiving!










  

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

I'm Batman...

Good afternoon everyone.  Before we start talking about Las Vegas and poker and those fun sorts of things, let's talk about my life as a superhero.  After playing the hero twice recently, both times coming to the aid of the same girl, who happens to be one of my newest friends, I decided that I needed a superhero to identify with.  And before you start mocking me (too late?), I am well-suited to play this role.  I am one of the good guys, and I will fight tirelessly against evil,  at least until the football game is about to start or dinner is ready...  Since I can be dark and brooding and I have those private demons that no one knows anything about (hence the word 'private'), and because I'm a night owl by nature (or 'bat' as the case may be), I'm going with Batman...

So a couple of weeks ago Batman was sitting at Harper's (shameless plug) in San Marcos, America, and he was talking to a couple of young ladies.  The ladies were disappointed because they didn't have a Randy Rogers autograph.  Randy Rogers has a little country band and puts on performances predominantly throughout the great state of Texas.  The ladies had seen Randy perform that night (I believe at the Texas Music Theater), and they had been too shy to ask him for his autograph.  They knew that Randy was currently upstairs at the Veranda (another shameless plug), and that's when Batman sprang into action.  Batman told the young ladies that the worst thing that could happen was that Randy would say no to their request, so off they went, Batman leading the two young ladies up the stairs...  Upon finding Randy, who was speaking to one of the owners of the Texas Music Theater (who Batman happens to know), Batman told Randy that the two young ladies would like an autograph.  Randy politely obliged, and asked the ladies if they would like a picture with him also, which Batman happily took (the picture came out EXCELLENT, Batman must say)...

The above story brings us to last night, where Harper's and The Veranda (two shameless plugs) were EXTREMELY BUSY for a Tuesday.  Batman was working, and at closing time, he learned that the same damsel had lost an earring that belonged to her grandmother.  She had searched all over the two bars that were open, and came up empty.  As luck would have it, Batman found the earring after closing and even drove out to the San Marcos Outlet Malls (a shameless plug which in no way benefits Batman) to return it...  After performing this heroic deed, Batman went over to the Nike Outlet Store to see if he could replace one of the three pairs of windpants that was stolen when his Las Vegas apartment was broken into at the end of August.  Batman ultimately decided that the current selection of windpants was too expensive to justify purchasing, but he is still looking forward to his trip to Las Vegas next month.

My trip to Las Vegas is now only 27 days away, and I still have many (a ton of) preparations to make.  Not the least among these is studying my football seriously so that I can successfully wager on the NFL's Week 16 and the college bowl season.  I also have to prepare myself to sit down at a poker table and take some of Rob's money, since he is SO BEGGING for it by repeatedly mentioning that he never got to play poker with me while I was in the desert this summer.  Yeah, I'm sorry that my place was broken into, thanks for the sympathy...  :)  I have many, many worn down clay casino chips that I will also be returning to various spots along the Strip when I visit.  I am going to be staying in the desert for six nights, and this does not seem like enough.  I talk to SO MANY people that say they cannot be out in Las Vegas for more than three days - WHY even spend the money to fly out there?  :)

I mentioned here yesterday that the 2013 World Series of Poker will be taking place in Las Vegas at the Rio from May 29th - July 16th this summer.  Since I believe that it is very unlikely that I will move back to the desert again this summer (unless I really CRUSH the bets on these December parlay tickets), I think that I am going to try to return to Vegas again for some of the WSOP.

I have decided that I am definitely going to put together a 'Team Coach' sponsorship pool (that name may change) for this upcoming December trip, so if any of you are interested in getting a piece of my football (disregard the fact that I went 1-9 on my picks last weekend) and poker action next month, just let me know.  I am trying to collect $1,000.00 total, and I am going to have 30% of the action.  My mom has already pledged $50.00 of the remaining $700.00, so I will be trying to collect $650.00, where $10.00 buys one percent of the action.  These parlay tickets will give me something to monitor throughout the bowl season anyway, and San Marcos will come back to life with the return of the college crowd shortly thereafter.  This town is SO QUIET during the break between the fall and spring semesters, CREEPY QUIET...  :)

I hope that all of you travel safely and are successful in your Thanksgiving preparations, and I will see you again tomorrow with my football picks for the long weekend.  Have a good one!
          

 

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

As Far As It Takes

Rumplestiltskin:  "How far are you willing to go?"
Evil Queen:  "As far as it takes..."
-Once Upon A Time-


Good morning everyone.  You can chalk up the above quote to keeping an open mind and never knowing who or what is going to have an impact on your life.  For someone who is inclined to look at information and circumstances and make a lot of predictions, I will be the first to tell you that I have been surprised many, many times throughout the course of my life.  I hope that each of you is entering this holiday season with many things to be thankful for and with optimism for the new year.

I am going to use today's "Potluck Tuesday" in the blogging schedule to do an extra ramble for this week.  Let me once again thank you for stopping by and checking out my blog.  One of the predictions that I made A LONG TIME AGO was that this blog would reach the 20,000 viewcount mark by the end of this year.  If someone wants to earn some extra credit, you can sift through my old blog entries to see exactly when I made this prediction.  I believe that my blog had somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,000 views at the time that I threw this prediction out there.  Based on the rate that traffic has picked up here recently on 'Bikini Hill', even if the 20,000 mark isn't reached by 2013, it's going to be respectably close.  What is going to hurt that drive is my upcoming trip to Las Vegas the week before Christmas.  For those of you who don't remember my arrival in the desert in early August, I have the WORST TIME trying to make blog entries from my phone.  However this prediction turns out, I really do appreciate you stopping by and taking the time to check out my little piece of cyberspace , and I have a feeling that you will be joined by many others in 2013.

One of my favorite things about the increased traffic here on 'Bikini Hill' is the appreciable rise in the quality of the advertisements that are placed with my blog.  For so long, the ads that I received were strictly print ads.  Now my blog is attracting multicolored, scrolling advertisements from the likes of companies such as Nike...  "Just Do It..."  ;)

One of the high points of the past few days for me came on Sunday, and this was as the result of me acting like an idiot at work on Saturday night.  There was no one at my station when some of my friends showed up, and my newest friend in the group had a beer bottle, so I gave her a cup to pour it in.  She tried to step by me about three times, and I told her about three times that the beer must be poured into the cup.  At this point, she told me that she was just trying to get out of the way of the guy who was standing in line behind her, and I felt COMPLETELY STUPID...  The neat thing about this story occurred when I went into work the next day to get my schedule before making my trip to San Antonio for my "Chinese Thanksgiving" with my dad.  As I was leaving the area behind the bar, this girl summons me from her bar stool, the first that I had seen of her until this point.  I motioned to her that I would be there in just a second, came out from behind the bar, and as soon as I reached her, we both INSTANTLY started apologizing to each other for what had happened the night before...  Again, I'm really sorry Jackie.  Thank you for taking it in stride...  :)

My week-long trip to Las Vegas is now a mere 28 days away, and I will write much more about that tomorrow.  One thing that I did want to say today is that I went online last night and discovered that the 2013 World Series of Poker will be taking place in Las Vegas at the Rio from May 29th - July 16th.  The 'Main Event' will be taking place from July 7th - July 16th, with the final nine being determined on the 16th.

Don't be surprised if I decide to make my weekly football predictions on Thursday this week due to all of the games that will played on Thanksgiving Day.  If I like ANY of those games once I start reviewing the lines, you will see those picks a day early.  One prediction that I made at work last night involves the Notre Dame/USC game.  It is not a lock that USC will win, but going into the game with a 7-4 record, and fresh off of a loss to UCLA, I GUARANTEE that the Trojans will show up for this game...  How must it feel to be Matt Barkley right now, returning to school to go 7-4 to this point?  This game could make the season for USC...

That is all for today folks.  Have a good one and I will see you again tomorrow...




  





            

Monday, November 19, 2012

Bad Day

"And she swears there's nothing wrong, I hear her playing that same old song, She puts me up and puts me on..., Oh I had a bad day again..."  -Fuel- (Bad Day)


Good morning everyone.  Well, that was painful...  After going 8-2 on my football picks last weekend, I followed that up with..., wait for it..., wait for it..., a 1-9 weekend...  UGGHHH...  My pick in Lucki Duck's elite blogger contest even almost lost to a ONE WIN team...  YIKES!!!

Now that we have that out of the way, I was able to enjoy an early Chinese Thanksgiving Dinner with my dad last night?  No, we're not Chinese, and it wasn't Chinese Thanksgiving - he's leaving town before Thanksgiving, so we went and ate some Chinese food...  Anyway, before I ate Chinese food last night, and finished the leftovers five minutes ago, I weighed in at 225 pounds yesterday, meaning that I have now lost 6 pounds since I have ALMOST totally stopped drinking sodas and have a little less almost totally stopped eating foods with carbohydrates.

Speaking of carbohydrates, let's talk about my friend Nick, who is a good sport and a great guy.  I work with Nick and he has a second job delivering carbohydrates with melted cheese and several tasty toppings.  Nick agreed to let me share this story which happened in the aftermath of me initially going to the wrong house a week ago...  So it's now after 3:00 in the morning, and we're sitting around the fire at my friend's house.  There are four of us left who are keeping the dying fire alive, chatting, and finishing our last beers.  I was one of the people who was keeping the dying fire alive, which matters in a minute.  At this point in the conversation, we learn that the two girls left in our group (both from Pennsylvania coincidentally) both HUNTED GHOSTS growing up as teenagers...  This was just something to do in the towns that they grew up in, and they definitely both believe in ghosts.  Nick, who I was sitting by, DOES NOT like ghosts or hearing about ghosts, at least on this particular night...  Since I'm the nice guy that I am, and I happened to be breaking branches and twigs to feed the fire, I SLOWLY reached around behind my friend and managed to just graze the back of his neck with the end of a small branch...  This is when he JUMPED OUT of his chair and almost into the fire...  "HA HA Coach, that's NOT FUNNY!!!"  The rest of us were freakin DYING laughing...  And for some reason people say that I'm a nice guy...

The story above would probably remind my younger brother of a time growing up when he was in elementary school and we were sitting side by side on the couch watching the movie "Carrie"...  I had seen the movie before, and this is the final scene in the cemetery, where serene music is playing in the background, and someone is visiting a grave.  At this point, a hand COMES UP THROUGH THE SOIL and the music goes all HELTER SKELTER...  And yes, when this dead zombie arm came up through the ground, I grabbed my brother's thigh and he SCREAMED!!!  In retrospect, I probably DESERVED to go 1-9 on my football predictions this weekend...

On the account for my blog, I have the ability to see what some of the older posts are that my readers are clicking on.  Well, a few times during the past week, people have clicked on my fantasy baseball draft strategy and 2012 major league baseball predictions posts...  BA HA HA if you remember how poorly I fared in these two areas this past season...  :)

It seems that if I want to share humorous stories from work, I will probably never run out of material for this blog.  This past week when I was manning the post that leads up to our rooftop bar, I stopped a small group and had them pour their drinks into plastic cups (we do not allow glass to go up to The Veranda).  Well, we keep these glasses in a tub, and one of the girls just TOSSES HER GLASS into the tub that is FULL OF GLASSES, resulting in a CRASH that caught my attention (I did not envision her THROWING THE GLASS and therefore did not see it while it was happening)...  I was so STUNNED that as she apologized to me, I was looking at her SPEECHLESS, and like she was from another planet...  After her group walked away, I found that she had managed to break two of the glasses that were sitting in the tub - UGGHHH...

Something else that I witnessed a couple of times this weekend was guys walking past me to our rooftop bar at 1:00 a.m. with sunglasses hanging from the shirt collars - way to be prepared?????

I think that I referenced this topic a long time ago in the blog, but I keep seeing the 'North Face' clothing in our bar and around town as the weather gets cooler.  The thought that keeps coming to me is, "what, the North Face of the step on the sidewalk that you had to climb when you entered the store at the outlet mall to buy that jacket???"  Sometimes I can be SOOOOO CYNICAL...

To recap the..., NEWEST blog schedule here, I will be posting five days a week, Monday-Friday.  Monday and Thursday will be rambles, Wednesday will be Las Vegas/poker-related, Friday will be football predictions, and Tuesday will be potluck...

I hope that all of you have a great start to the week and I will see you again tomorrow!
  

      



Friday, November 16, 2012

Five Weeks In A Row???

Good afternoon everyone.  Recently the blog hits have spiked here on 'Bikini Hill', and to the casual observer, there would be several possible explanations.  In the past few weeks, I have been posting more frequently, I have covered the WSOP, I have done movie reviews, we have touched on ghost hunting, mistaken identity (of a WHOLE HOUSE), and local elected officials have woven intricate plots to make my life miserable...  Of course WE KNOW that the REAL REASON for the increased traffic here is that the "wise guys" in Las Vegas are aware that I have gone 27-13 picking football games against the spread over the past 4 weeks...  ;)  I went 8-2 last week for my best week yet, missing only on the Baylor/Oklahoma over (over 77 - actual 76), and whiffing on Chicago (-1) vs. Houston (actual Houston by 7).  I am now sitting at 54-48-2 overall for the season heading into this weekend.  And now for this weekend's picks...

Texas State/Navy (over 57) - My alma mater is the new Mike Leach in overs...
BYU/San Jose State (over 47 1/2) - Weather should be good in Cali...
Iowa State/Kansas (under 48) - UT and KU had recent defesive showdown at Kansas...
Air Force (-22) vs. Hawaii - Away from the island, in much colder Colorado...
Nevada (-10) @ New Mexico - Wolfpack hasn't dropped that far, have they?...

Baltimore/Pittsburgh (over 40) - So many injuries here that this should be covered...
Dallas (-7 1/2) vs. Cleveland - The Cowboys have been looking much better...
Indianapolis/New England (under 54) - I think that this will be one-sided, and...
New England (-9) vs. Indianapolis - ... the Patriots are at home...
San Diego/Denver (under 48) - In Colorado, big divisional game, should be played tight...

By the way, the Texas State/Navy game is going to be broadcast on the CBS Sports Network at 2:30 p.m. CST if any of you are interested in watching my alma mater play some football against the Naval Academy...  Have a great weekend and I'll see you again on Monday!







Thursday, November 15, 2012

Even The Mayor Of San Marcos, America...

Good morning everyone.  This is another milestone day for my little blog as this is my 200th post.  This is also the day that the viewcount went over the 16,000 mark - well, that is as soon as one person reads this post.  At this very moment the odometer is sitting right on 16,000.  Thank you for stopping by to visit, I appreciate it.

We'll start off this ramble by roasting Daniel Guerrero, who was recently re-elected to serve as the Mayor of San Marcos, America.  I was unable to attend an official roast for our mayor recently, and this really won't be a roast at all, but more of an indictment for the part that he played in the conspiracy to make me feel miserable on Tuesday...  As the loyal readers of this blog know by now, I should have been at the Hard Rock Cafe on Tuesday night watching the Blue October (my favorite band) concert as an official resident of Las Vegas.  As luck would have it, I am once again living in San Marcos, America, and Mr. Guerrero is one of my facebook friends.  WELL..., after winning the election, our mayor's first order of business was to travel west to California and snap as many photos as possible at every Blue October concert that he could find on the left coast...  OUTSTANDING... Even the Mayor of San Marcos, America has it in for me...  Seriously, congratulations on your re-election Mr. Mayor!  In actuality, the mayor and I are very close, as I was invited to attend the Mayor and City Council Oath of Office Ceremony that is taking place here on Monday.  If you need proof regarding the strength of our friendship, I am one of just only 2,857 people that the mayor invited to attend this event...  :)  Keep up the good work sir!



A very strange 'tweet' made an appearance on my twitter account this week...  A Texas A&M supporter posted the following:

     "Serious question:  How many Texas fans who were locked into A&M-Bama couldn't even see their team play ISU on Saturday?  #LHN (The Longhorn Network)"


Now I am a graduate of Texas State University (Southwest Texas State University at the time, don't get me started...), but as a former employee of just over one year at the University of Texas at Austin, I felt compelled to respond to this 'retweet' that I saw.  This was my response:

     "It's funny how A&M fans are still so obsessed with the Longhorns, even after upsetting the top team in the nation...  #envy"


Right?  That wasn't out of line, was it?  If you bleed maroon over in College Station, WHY would you even be thinking about anything concerning the University of Texas after your team had just beaten the previously undefeated, defending national champion, number one-ranked football team in the country?  Very strange...



I am going to confess right now that as far as my current diet is concerned, I did in fact remove two of those Pepsis from my refrigerator for my 'Alex Cross' round-trip to and from New Braunfels on Tuesday night, and that two Pepsis didn't make it back...

On a related note, I should check the Guinness Book of World Records and see what the current mark is for the number of salads consumed by a human being in one month...

I think that is all of the damage that I will be doing for today.  If the City of San Marcos hasn't shut down my blog by tomorrow, I will be back with my weekly football predictions (28-12 against the spread over the past 4 weeks if I haven't gloated about that enough yet this week)...  ;)  Thanks again for stopping by and have a great day!













            

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Just Come In, We're Out Back...

Good morning everyone.  I survived the 13th of November.  I was supposed to be living in Las Vegas and attending the Blue October concert last night, if not for my well-documented break-in...  Trying to keep my mind off of the fact that I wasn't living in the place where I had planned for the last two years on being, I searched for a serial killer last night.  The serial killer was nowhere to be found in San Marcos, America, so I ventured south and found him in New Braunfels (yes, the same place where the infamous 'Wurstfest' was held).  In a 110-seat theater at a 7:10 p.m show, I was the ONLY ONE watching 'Alex Cross'.  I would recommend the movie to those of you who like the series ('Kiss The Girls'/'Along Came A Spider').  Morgan Freeman is not in the movie because the character is a younger Alex Cross, but Matthew Fox did an excellent job of playing the villain.  Fox is one of those villains that you watch on the screen and actually get motivated by, not because he's killing people, but because he's getting things done...  :)

So yeah, there's something that I evidently failed to mention in yesterday's blog entry about the time that I spent hanging out with my friends on Sunday night...  I watched the Texans/Bears game at Harper's, came home and published my Monday blog entry at about midnight, and then I went to my friend's place.  To get to the house, you basically drive up a 'T', and then you take the left or right turn.  I took the right turn and pulled into the driveway at the end of the cul de sac.  The driveway already had five vehicles in it, but mine fit, so I parked and called my friend to see if the festivities were still going on, because it was after midnight after all.  My friend Carlos answers his phone and tells me to just walk in the front door, and that everyone is out in the backyard.  I walk in the front door and there is no one in the living room, so I continue through the back door, and there is NO ONE in the backyard...  (NOTE:  This struck me as very strange)...  What I have failed to mention is that when I looked on the dining-room table as I strolled through the empty house, I spotted a pizza box that wasn't a Domino's pizza box...  This seemed odd to me at the time because my friend Nick (who also lives in the house) works for Domino's.  I mentioned at the top of the year that my New Year's Resolution was to "trust my reads"...  I should have trusted my read in this instance, because I was in the WRONG... FREAKIN... HOUSE...  As I made my way back to the front door, I heard some voices upstairs - what are the odds of that, since there are only FIVE FREAKIN VEHICLES parked in the driveway?...  I quietly opened and closed the front door, stealthily powerwalked to my car, and hoped that my windows didn't get BLOWN OUT by a FREAKIN SHOTGUN as I drove away.  Needless to say, I had an interesting story for everyone when I arrived at my friend's place.  Merp...

Have a great day and I'll see you again tomorrow!
                    

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Tonight Will Be Difficult...

"I go to the trouble like a light..., or like... a dare, trouble is just a friend to me, I know, it'll always be there, be there..." -Shawn Colvin- (Trouble)


Good morning everyone.  Get ready, this is going to be an introspective, depressing, self-pitiful post...  Today is November 13th, exactly a month after my birthday, and tonight I was supposed to be going to the Blue October concert hosted by 'The Joint' at the Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas, Nevada.  I would have been living in the desert for just over 100 days now after my move west at the end of July, I would have a job (or be homeless), and I would be coming off of a four-week stretch of football betting where my record has been a solid 28-12 (70%) against the spread.  This past weekend I posted an 8-2 record which was capped off last night by the Steelers and the Chiefs combining for 29 points (under 42 1/2).  Instead, in the very early hours of Saturday morning, September 1st (Labor Day Weekend), I listened to the song at the opening of this post on 'repeat' for the last three hours of the lonely drive from Las Vegas back to San Marcos, America following my break-in (and yes, I often listen to songs that I like on 'repeat' for those of you who read my last post).  I was up for 34 straight hours from the time that I woke up in Las Vegas on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. on August 30th, went and made football bets, played poker, returned home at just after 1:00 a.m. to find that my place had been broken into, packed, and then arrived back in San Marcos after making the 20-hour drive home.  Everyone should try this at least once in their lifetime (not so much)...  Instead of watching my favorite band belt out the tunes at the Hard Rock tonight, I have to find something to do, something that will keep my mind occupied, or I will go "bat-crap crazy..." (-The Big Bang Theory-).  During my slow night at work preceding this post, where I wrote virtually all of this in my head (to some extent), I decided that I am probably going to go catch the new movie 'Alex Cross' (if it has been released yet).  I read an interesting article about Matthew Fox, who is playing the serial killer in this movie, when I made a recent trip to the library on campus.  I became a fan of his from the show 'Party of Five', and although most of you are probably familiar with Fox from the hit show 'Lost', I have never even watched ten minutes of 'Lost', TOTAL...  I owned both 'Kiss The Girls' and 'Along Came A Spider' in the Alex Cross series before passing them along to my sister when I moved to Las Vegas (I gave away a lot of stuff evidently), and I think that Fox will serve as a very intriguing serial killer.  If this plan falls through, I have to find SOMETHING to do tonight...

I had actually planned to include some other things as part of this post and call it a ramble, but judging by the length of this entry, those tidbits can wait until Thursday.  I will mention quickly that YES Alyssa, the Texans did win by more than the Steelers (thank GOODNESS that the Steelers even won), and I should have picked them instead in Lucki Duck's contest...  In addition to Alyssa, last night I got to hang out with some other friends from and associated with work.  Thank you to Carlos and Nick for hosting, and thank you for the "ghost hunting" conversation Anastasia (evidently this is something that teenagers commonly do quite often up in Pennsylvania)...  And Nick, I remember the first time that I jumped out of a chair...  ;)

Have a nice day everyone, and send your good karma to me, please...

                

Monday, November 12, 2012

This Is Like A Maze!!...

Good morning everyone.  I'm just sitting here using youtube as my personal jukebox playing 'Pumped Up Kicks' by Foster The People over and over again as I bring this Monday ramble to you (in case you were wondering how the other half lives)...  I have decided to scale the writing of this blog down to just weekdays because after doing "extensive market research" (looking at the blog statistics) it seems that no one reads on the weekends...  Oh, and if you did stop by yesterday to see a new entry, I do apologize...  For those other poor souls that do plan on stopping by on a Saturday or Sunday, you can go back through some of my "greatest hits" as I have now posted almost 200 times (pretty amazing if you think about it)...  If you knew that English was in about a dead heat with Science as being my least favorite subject in high school, and that I found writing to be the worst part of my English classes, then this might amaze you...

So, I'm off to a 7-2 start against the spread on the football games this weekend, guaranteeing my fourth winning week in a row (6-4, 7-3, 6-4, and this week)...  My 10th pick for the week is the under on Monday night's game between the Steelers and the Chiefs (under 42 1/2).

I have one of the older home scales with the dial instead of a digital readout, but depending on how far it resets from zero and how fast your eyes dart back and forth, I am still 3 to 4 pounds under the weight I started at (231 pounds then) when I changed my eating habits about 3 weeks ago.  Through no conscious choice of my own (at least to begin with), I still haven't touched any of the Pepsis in my refrigerator during the last 3 weeks, I am eating a lot more vegetables (a.k.a., A LOT of freaking salads), and I have cut down on my carbohydrate intake.  Considering that my friend Sam gave me an unexpected plate of barbecue to enjoy while watching the Texans/Bears game tonight at Harper's, I'm not going to complain about my mild weight loss...  Just sitting here thinking about it, that plate of barbecue may have added a pound to the weigh-in I just did...

A few nights ago at work I was told by a coworker that I "move like a ghost..."  I'm evidently very stealth when I want to be...  ;)  At the station that I man at work on the busier nights, I am often offered a variety of handshakes, high-fives, fistbumps, and hugs.  One of the stranger things that happened occurred a few nights ago when a girl walking by reached out slowly and touched the tip of my nose, with her finger extended 'E.T.' style...

Speaking of manning that station, there is a line that I have heard from customers EASILY one hundred times if I have heard it once...  When the customers round the corner where I am stationed and take the right turn, the phrase "This Is Like A Maze" has been uttered so often that I'm sick of hearing it, and The Veranda, our rooftop bar, has been open for less than two months...  The thing is, the phrase is uttered in COMPLETE AMAZEMENT, like no one has EVER walked down a hallway before.  To the best of my knowledge, mazes have several options of possible paths to pursue, and if they involve mice, there is usually cheese to be found somewhere upon successfully reaching the end of them???

I hope that you had an enjoyable Veterans Day and I'll see you again tomorrow!





  



  

Saturday, November 10, 2012

They Love The Line

Good afternoon everyone.  For my San Marcos/Texas State-related story today I thought that I would write a little bit about work.  The three-story building where I work with a bar on each level is something that was not available to Texas State students until just over a couple of months ago.  It is an interesting place to work for me as I never had the time or money to spend on 'The Square' when I was in college myself.  When I pursued my degree I always had a "full" class schedule and I worked about 20 hours a week waiting tables.  I also didn't reach the age of 21 until the fall of my senior year here in San Marcos.  This is not to say that if I did have the time and money to go out back then that San Marcos, America was the same place that it is now.  I have mentioned here recently that the enrollment of the university has jumped from 20,000 students to over 35,000 students since that time.  With the layout of our building, it is possible to house in the neighborhood of 500 customers (mostly students normally) at once, so it makes for some very interesting evenings...

One of these bright young minds came to the brilliant deduction that I am "retarded" last night...  First off, I have never liked the word (my freshman students would insult each other with it often when I taught high school, which always ended up with me saying, "don't call people retarded...").  Anyway, her train of thought (derailed) for reaching this conclusion is the part that amuses me.  On the busier nights at work, I am stationed in the hallway between the second and third floors (bars) at work.  Our rooftop bar has a fire marshall set capacity of 200 people, so one of my duties is to keep track of how many customers are up there.  Well, the people in the line that forms when capacity is reached are always interesting...  One interesting thing about the line itself later on in the night is that when potential customers for our rooftop bar come around the corner leading to it, they seem to be genuinely disappointed if there IS NOT a line there to wait in.  The absence of the line in their minds signals that nothing is happening up at the top bar, even though it does hold 200 people, and they NEVER ASK how many people are up there when they pop their heads around this corner.  There might be 190 up there and they could walk in right away, but often they will turn away and head back down to one of the lower bars...  Anyway, this girl last night is in the line, and she is about to walk by me with a glass.  No glass is allowed up on the roof - another one of my duties is to make sure that our customers transfer their drinks into plastic cups before they head upstairs.  So, with the girl already past the cups that I have, from point-blank range, a foot from her face, THREE TIMES, I state, "MOVE BACK..., MOVE BACK..., MOVE BACK...".  She FINALLY seems to grasp the meaning of these words and steps back.  I explain that she has to pour her drink into one of the plastic cups.  She tells me that she wasn't aware of this...  I'm thinking to myself that this is pretty obvious since she walked right past the cups, but I keep this to myself because I'm a wonderful person...  NOW she's standing in the middle of the hallway and people are about to walk by her from upstairs, so we go through the same routine again with the instructions, "MOVE OVER..., MOVE OVER..., MOVE OVER..."  At this point, when she finally moves over, she makes the comment to her group of about six people that I am retarded.  Evidently this is because I am the one who has problems listening and following instructions...  :)  If she had made the comment directly to me I probably wouldn't have let her go upstairs, because that was just pretty rude, but being the wonderful person that I am, and totally amused by her path of deduction to reach her conclusion about my intelligence, I just let it go...  Yeah, I could win a lot of money in Las Vegas next month and not be disappointed in the least (said everyone ever)...  :)

Have a great day and I'll see you again tomorrow...

Friday, November 9, 2012

Sugar, We're Going Down

"We're going down, down, in an earlier round, and Sugar, we're going down swinging..."
-Fall Out Boy- (Sugar We're Going Down)


Good morning everyone.  Above is an example of where I can hijack song lyrics to suit my own needs.  Now that my record picking football games against the spread is back to the .500 mark on the season at 46-46-2, I could just be satisfied to call it even and ride off into the sunset...  Yeah, that's unlikely...  Below are my football predictions for this weekend:


Baylor @ Oklahoma (Over 77) - The Bears have been in track meets against the better teams...
Nebraska (- 8) vs. Penn State - Tough road game for the Nittany Lions...
Texas A&M @ Alabama (Under 57) - Hard to envision a lot of scoring in this one...
Louisiana Tech @ Texas State (Over 71 1/2) - This game could go on for a while...
LSU (- 14) vs. Mississippi State - A&M covered this spread in Starkville last Saturday...
UCLA @ Washington State (Over 60 1/2) - Leach's Cougars, what can I say???...

Kansas City @ Pittsburgh (Under 42 1/2) -  Was a really low-scoring game in K.C. last year...
Baltimore (- 7 1/2) vs. Oakland - Have to like this one in Baltimore...
Chicago (-1) vs. Houston - Have to like this one in Chicago...
New York Giants @ Cincinnati (Under 48 1/2) - Feels like 21-17, right?  (Even 24-21)...  ;)

I hope that you have a good one and I'll see you again tomorrow...



  

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Getting Close


It is now only forty more days until I return to Las Vegas for a week.  It's hard to believe that I have been back in San Marcos for sixty-eight days after my August move/vacation to the desert, and now I'll be returning for a week of seeing friends, betting football parlay tickets, and playing poker.  I honestly had not looked at the NFL schedule until after I had made my travel arrangements because I already knew that the window of time from the 16th through the 26th of December was when I would be able to make my trip.  Let's just say that I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the weekend of my stay in Las Vegas will be during Week 16 of the NFL schedule as opposed to during Week 17...  Those of you who follow the NFL closely, or who have played fantasy football,  or have done some sports betting, etc...,  know that it is almost impossible to figure out anything out in Week 17 (the last week of the season) because you have no clue as to how the playoff-bound teams will utilize their rosters.  This means that in addition to the college bowl games, I will also have one weekend of NFL games to bet...  I would LOVE to make some money on this trip after my unexpected departure from the desert at the end of August, and following my slow start out of the gate predicting football games this season.  It's kind of sad that I am semi-ecstatic that my overall record calling games against the spread for the season is back to the .500 mark, but it is back to the .500 mark...  ;)

The best facebook message that I read this morning upon waking up was that one my coworkers, who is 20 years-old, is watching 'Dumb and Dumber' for the first time....  :)  Yes, I think that he is the one person in the world who has never seen this movie.  The film came up in some intellectual post-work conversation when he mentioned that he had never seen it.  'Shock' would probably be the best word to sum up my reaction to this revelation...  :)  Needless to say, I can't wait to work with the guy again...

Glancing up at my calendar, where I currently keep all of my little blog notes, I am realizing that we are exactly 2 weeks away from Thanksgiving, and are just over 50 days from another year flying by...  It's funny as you get older and approach those milestones like getting your driver's license, graduating from high school,  becoming old enough to drink, etc..., how time just CANNOT go by fast enough, and then when you reach a certain age, you are just searching for ANY WAY to slam on the brakes to slow it all down.  The year 2013 coming soon to a life near you...  This changing of the year will surely prompt my recent habit of mulling over "should I move to Las Vegas when my lease ends?" to kick in again, but I will not be nearly as obsessed with it this time around.  Not knowing is always the most stressful and unnerving thing for me, but San Marcos, America has many good qualities, and Las Vegas is a lot different than when I lived there before due to the weak economy.  As I have stated here before, I wasn't very keen on living in the desert the first time around anyway (due to the fact that it's an isolated-feeling desert), so we'll see what happens...

That's all that I've got for today, but I'll be back tomorrow with my football picks, hopefully the ones that put me over the .500 mark for the season...  Have a great day!
  

      

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

'Twas The Week Before Christmas

Good morning everyone.  In 1822, Clement Clarke Moore wrote " 'Twas The Night Before Christmas" (unless you believe that it was written by Major Henry Livingston Jr.).  You poker players know that it is never easy, right?  There is always a sweat...  :)  Well, WHOEVER wrote it, I raised yesterday...  I will be staying in Las Vegas for a week in December, returning home on Christmas Eve...  Yesterday I booked the round-trip flights, with a six-night stay on the Strip, including a weekend, for $388.00 (and that's rounding up)...  :)  Based on a preliminary survey of about three people (I am very thorough), it also looks like I might to be able to get a "sponsorship deal" from some of my coworkers and customers for this trip relating to the poker and football parlay-ticket betting that I plan on doing.  I am currently mulling over whether I want to ask for 5 or 10 dollars per person (to raise $500.00 or $1,000.00 total), where I have approximately a 30-40% stake in the action.  I don't think that $500.00 will be enough, but I think that $1,000.00 is too much, thus the mulling over...  This would allow me to play in the poker tournaments and cash games of my choosing and give us all some action on the college bowl games into early January.  If any of you readers are interested in signing on, just let me know - there is still plenty of time to send me a check (seriously)...  :)

Speaking of football betting and my 19-11 record against the spread over the last 3 weeks, it will be nice to get my grubby little paws on some parlay tickets because I am currently watching these games every weekend half-afraid that I will actually go 10-0 sometime and make $0.00 for my effort...  A 10-team $2.00 parlay ticket pays $1,600.00 if you hit it, and that would just be the first $2.00 bet on those 10 teams...

Oh, the World Series of Freakin Poker...  If you haven't been following the blog on a daily basis, I was in Harper's (my workplace) for about fifteen hours last Monday and Tuesday watching WSOP coverage from the Rio.  Actually, I was watching coverage for about 12 hours while waiting around for the other 3 hours because I got my viewing information from a sketchy online source, but anyway...  ANYWAY, the final 9 only played down to 6 people on Monday night before I "hit the wall" and had to leave at midnight.  Then on Tuesday, when they started the action with 3 players remaining, I watched them play poker for SEVEN hours, and when I left, they still had..., THREE PLAYERS REMAINING...  I only learned the next morning from Lucki Duck's blog that they played for ANOTHER FIVE HOURS before crowning a champion...  I once again enjoyed the "hole cards" being hidden throughout the duration of the hand because I like trying to put people on hands.  One of my friends watching the action with me on Monday as I tried to breakdown the hands said, "you need to play poker Coach..."  Ummmmm, thanks...  :)  Next month, ha ha...  In the fifteen hours of "action" that I watched, I think that Jesse Sylvia alone took an hour of my life that I will never get back while deciding how to act on his hands...  It is funny that I started rooting for Jake Balsiger (the 21 year-old from Arizona State who took 3rd place) to win on Monday AFTER I made a correct read on one of his hands.  The flop came K J x, and after he quickly, subconsciously glanced at this chips, I said, "he's got something out there, at least the Jack, maybe the King..."  What baffled me in a few of the hands that I saw was players checking top pair on boards where they were giving their opponents free cards to hit flush draws - very strange...  That is probably the reason why I will be asking for donations to play 2-4 limit poker in Las Vegas next month...  :)  Actually, I want to play in at least 3 tournaments when I visit, with at least 1 of those being a $100.00 plus deep-stack buy-in event.  We'll see how that goes...

I hope that you have a great day and I will see you again tomorrow for my Thursday ramble.           

 

   

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Wurstfest Is The Bestfest

Good morning..., ummmm..., good afternoon everyone.  No sports post today, sorry.  Instead we are going to talk about Wurstfest.  Wurstfest (in my words) is a celebration of food and drink (and carnival rides and games and face painting and caricatures, etc...) that has been taking place in New Braunfels, Texas since 1961.  My 64-ounce souvenir beer pitcher says "since 1961" - who can you trust if you can't trust your souvenir beer pitcher?

Coors Light, whiskey, Miller Lite, Fireball, wine from a bag, your random dark beer, 911, lemon drop, Irish Car Bomb, wild pork wings, pork chop on a stick, funnel cake, fried mushrooms, sausage, turkey sandwich with chips and a pickle - yes, all of these are things that I probably should not have drank and eaten during the festivities last night.  Yes, I am being dead serious, and that 64-ounce pitcher is included in that laundry list, plus multiple extra beers and multiple fireball and wine shots...  Did I mention that I just woke up about 45 minutes ago?...  :(

All of the above was worth it to see the joy on the children's faces and hear the chants of "Coach, Coach, Coach" as I got out of my seat and joined some of the others dancing in the aisle as the party bus made its way back to The Square.  I actually did the above exactly for that reaction, being the team-player that I am, wanting to help make everyone's Wurstfest trip a memorable (or forgettable?) one...  ;)

As with all of your well-planned events, our bus wheels started rolling out of San Marcos about 45 minutes later than planned, but this group of people was DETERMINED to make the most of that time...  Several stuffed animals of various species and sizes were won (a number of these at a game where 4 milk bottles had to be knocked over to win a football jersey, and I never saw anyone on the Wurstfest grounds wearing any football jerseys of any kind last night)...  This fact did not stop our valiant warriors from trying (I did not participate, as I was busy gorging on the laundry list of items mentioned previously)...

Have a great day and I'll see you again tomorrow...  ;)

Monday, November 5, 2012

If You Don't Run


Good morning everyone, and off we go...  In the near future, some of my college friends are helping to sponsor an event aimed at raising money for young people, the event being a 5K run.  One of these bright young ladies came up with a slogan which obviously won't be used for the event, but I LOVED IT:  "If you don't run, you hate children..."  :)

I went 6-4 on my football picks this week, bringing my record to .500 for the year (46-46-2), and I am now 19-11 against the spread over the last 3 weeks (I know that you couldn't bear to wait until Friday for that information)...  I am ashamed to say that I gave up on the Steelers game at halftime yesterday because the officiating was so blatently awful in the first half.  The game fell right into the wheelhouse of my current sleep schedule, sleeping days to work nights, and I was getting tired, but after watching the officials give the Giants two touchdowns as the result of a phantom pass interference call and a "fumble" where Big Ben's arm was obviously going forward (LAUNCHING THE BALL compared with similar instances where I have seen the same play ruled as an incomplete pass), I had had enough...  Since I left early, the final score was:  Steelers 24  Giants 20.  The Steelers have now beaten the Giants, Jets, and the Eagles (among others), while losing to the Raiders and the Titans (and Broncos)...  We are a mystery wrapped in a riddle...

So tonight I will be getting on a bus with a bunch of my friends and heading about 15-20 minutes south to New Braunfels to experience my first Wurstfest.  I have heard that a lot of food and alcohol are consumed at this event, but my group is strictly a "milk and cookies" type crowd, so it will probably be a pretty boring trip...  ;)

If I am sober enough to function tomorrow, at some point in the day after I write my blog (well, after 2 p.m. to be exact), I will be pricing flights and hotel rooms to Las Vegas for the month of December.  Tuesday afternoons are the time when the maximum number of seats are supposed to be made available for flights on airlines.  Hopefully I can find a price that I can justify paying so that I can see my Vegas friends, bet some college bowl games, and play some poker...

Recently I have heard two great lines that I intend to add to my repertoire (yes, I had to look up the spelling of the word 'repertoire', and this will bring the total number of great lines in my repertoire to two...).  Somebody at Harper's (a customer or a coworker, and I can't remember which) used this one - it's appropriate after you say just the right thing to that person you're trying to zing:  "Would you like some ice for that???  BURN!!!..."  (HEY, I like it...)  The other is from our friend Grrouchie, and for those of you who didn't see this in his blog, this is for the times when you come up short of that goal you're trying to reach:  "It was a big fat fail with a side of not even close..."

What would my ramble be if I wasn't ripping off other people???  :)  Have a great day and I'll see you tomorrow (maybe)...  ;)
   



Sunday, November 4, 2012

Poor Man's Ramble

Good morning everyone...  Okay, first off, if you know me at all, you would know that EVERY RAMBLE that I write is a poor man's ramble (rimshot - ba dump, ching!)...  On the advice of my friend, I went back to bed and actually went back to sleep after my initial three-hour nap earlier this morning, and I just woke back up.  I had said under this new blogging schedule that Sunday is a day for random topics, and a rushed, clipped ramble is definitely random.  I also saw one of my most loyal readers of the blog last night, and I'm talking since its inception, and she was totally on board with the idea of me doing three rambles per week...  :)  Okay, after waking back up, and actually finding that "extra hour of sleep" that is supposed to be afforded to us for setting our clocks back, I realize that it wasn't a dream - I DID go 4-1 on my college football predictions yesterday.  Now the strange "I'm going to hurry up and finish this blog entry" part of this is that 4 of my 5 picks for today involve the early games, which begin in about 5 minutes...  Also included in this bunch is my pick for Lucki Duck's contest, where I took the TEXANS Alyssa...  Anyway, I am going to get myself together and rush down to Harper's since I have the whole day off, and I am going to start it by enjoying some lunchtime football.  I posted all of the picks that I am referring to in Friday's post if you want to keep track.  A 9-1 week would be very sweet (and redeeming).  Heck, a third winning week in a row would be MIRACULOUS considering the start that I got off to this year...  ;)  In other news real quick (and yes, you'll still get a "real ramble" tomorrow, and yes, I still have something for you Mojo...), I haven't touched any of the cokes in my refrigerator in two weeks (other than to throw the previously mentioned two stale already opened cans away).  I am eating more vegetables, and salads are RUNNING when they hear my name.  I am going to Wurstfest for the first time ever tomorrow night, and I will probably be mentioning what that is all about in tomorrow's ramble.  Oops, it's noon folks, and I've got to get out of here...  Enjoy what outside of my window looks like a beautiful Sunday, and I will see you again tomorrow...  ;)

      

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Always Evolving

Good afternoon everyone.  Yes, I know that I'm a little late today, and that's after being a little late yesterday.  As I try to straighten out my dysfunctional sleep schedule that I described earlier in the week, my first nap has extended into the 10:30 a.m./11:00 a.m range, so now I'm getting about 4 hours of sleep just a few hours after arriving home from work, and then sleeping another 4 to 4 1/2 hours before I go back to work (do not try this at home folks)...  Tonight promises to be a very interesting night at work as daylight savings time is upon us once again.  Remember to set your clocks back one hour before you go to sleep tonight.  This time change means that we will be open for an extra hour tonight.  The bars in San Marcos, America have to close no later than 2 a.m., but tonight when it becomes closing time..., "HEY, just kidding, we're going to be open for another hour..."  Outstanding...  :)

With my new blogging schedule, today is San Marcos/Texas State day.  I wanted to write a little bit more about Texas State University today because last Saturday was a brief overview of all of San Marcos, America, including the university.  I have/was having a little bit of writer's block, and I am still not sure where this is going to end up, but I am going to write a little bit about how my alma mater seems to always be evolving.  This is the definition of me thinking out loud while I'm typing, so we'll see where this ends up...

When I arrived in San Marcos, America 100 years ago, Southwest Texas State University (oh, and I had a hard time with the name change, and that could possibly be a whole blog entry in itself...) had an enrollment of about 20,000 students.  There was a lot of construction taking place on campus at that time and there was a lack of adequate parking.  Fast forward to the present, and the university has approximately 35,000 students (probably a few more), there is a lot of construction taking place on campus, and there is a lack of adequate parking...  The 'University Star', which is the campus newspaper (you probably couldn't figure that out), once printed an issue while I was an undergraduate that had headlines from an issue that had been published about twenty years earlier.  It was bittersweet to read that parking was also an issue at that time...  I have mentioned here before that I make frequent visits to the campus library, and a few years ago I came across the 'Campus Improvement Plan' on the first floor of the library.  This book had the university's "vision" and construction plans laid out for the next fifteen years.  Guess what folks - the construction on campus at Texas State is never going to end...

When I arrived on campus, I moved into a dorm that is no longer with us.  Thomas Hall (the "Buzzards" being our mascot for intramurals) was located between Jackson Hall and Jones Dining Hall (both of which were around when I hit town and are still thriving).  The J.C. Kellam administration building was the library at that time, and we did not have a student rec center.  So yes, RIGHT AFTER I graduated, the new libary AND the new student recreational facilities opened up - WONDERFUL...  Oh, and the new student center...  Yeah...

When I sat down to type, I thought about intertwining today's little entry with a segue to how my personal life is always evolving, but since that seeps into the blog so often, and seeing how we're going to be open an extra hour at work tonight, I'm going to ditch you until tomorrow.  Tomorrow's topic is very likely going to be 'Wurstfest', which is an annual event that takes place in New Braunfels, a small city about fifteen minutes to the south of here.  I have never been to this event, but it looks like I am going on Monday on a bus with a bunch of friends from work.  Let me tell you one thing that this trip WON'T BE, and that is boring...  :)  Have a great day and I'll see you again tomorrow!
        

Friday, November 2, 2012

Two Weeks In A Row

Good morning everyone.  Before I begin with this weekend's football picks, I would like to express my condolences to the family and friends of Sarah Campbell, a 2009 San Marcos High School graduate who died in a single vehicle accident here early Thursday morning.  I did not know Sarah personally, but I do have many friends who are grieving right now.  Rest In Peace Sarah.

Last weekend marked the second week in a row that I made winning football picks for the blog here on 'Bikini Hill'.  After going 7-3 last week, my overall record for the season is now 40-42-2.  This gives me a record of 13-7 against the spread over the last 2 weeks, which is a 65% winning percentage, just like those guys you see advertising on t.v. and in those magazines...  Below are my picks for this weekend:

Auburn (-22 1/2) vs. New Mexico State - Finally a team that Auburn can beat?  Sorry Joey...  :)
Alabama (-8 1/2) @ LSU - Bama has been dominant so far...
San Jose State (-19 1/2) @ Idaho - Alma mater beat Idaho by 31, SJSU beat us by 11...
Washington State/Utah (Over 49) - Total of 49 in a Mike Leach game...
Oregon (-8) @ USC - Big opportunity for the Ducks...

Baltimore (-3 1/2) @ Cleveland - If the Ravens lose, the Steelers benefit (Win/Win Situation)...  ;)
Buffalo/Houston (Over 47 1/2) - Lots of offense, not so much defense in this one...
Detroit (-4) @ Jacksonville - If the Lions can't cover 4 against the Jags...  #longseason
Denver/Cincinnati (Under 47 1/2) - Bengals need to keep the score down...
Tampa Bay/Oakland (Under 46) - Not the most prolific scoring teams...

And Alyssa, I took YOUR TEAM in my blogger's football contest, so if you could stop the "mean-mugging" - you know, for just one week, that would be AWESOME...  ;)

I hope that you have a great day and I'll see you again tomorrow!


 

Thursday, November 1, 2012

I Will Unfriend You...

Good morning everyone.  This is the first morning of November everybody - can you believe it?  It's sad that the best month of the year is now in our rearview mirror, but somehow we'll have to cope...  If you could only understand how much of a baseball fan I was growing up, and to have my birthday in the same month as the World Series (which I don't believe I've even mentioned in the blog)...  Now my favorite band has the word 'October' in its name, and this year the final table of the World Series of Poker was even played in this great month.  The month bids us farewell with Halloween...  October is tough to beat my friends...  When I was walking home from the library on Tuesday evening, and was very close to home, I saw this written on a wall:  "If you're still free, start running away..."  I wasn't even sure what type of context it was being used in, but it sounded like a great idea for some reason...  :)  Reading this happened moments after I passed a pair of people walking down the hill, and the girl was wearing a pink tanktop that said (as I cringe)... "San Marvelous" - now these people have SHIRTS, and all that I am fighting back with is this blog.  Remember friends, it's San Marcos, America...  ;)  Okay, this is the point where the ramble turns from its sometimes cutesy self to a more serious topic.  I am a person who generally has a lot of patience.  I am not one of those dramatic people, always ranting and raving about something or arguing with people.  I am the type of person who doesn't lose my temper often, but when I do, I make it count...  I say this to lead into the fact that I see of lot of silly things on facebook.  Facebook is a way to communicate, and there are a lot of silly people, so seeing silly things follows.  Yesterday however, while reading through the facebook Halloween posts, I read something that resulted in me "unfriending" a person in less than a minute.  This was the status, which was preceded by the culprit adding, "this is the best post that I've read today":  "Well, it looks like New York is dressing up as New Orleans this year..."  Oh, you're HYSTERICAL...  How many people has the storm on the East Coast killed?  How many people died in New Orleans during Katrina?  How many people are currently displaced, or without food, power, heat, a way to communicate with their families?  HILARIOUS...  What amazed me to about the same degree is that TEN people had liked this status up to the post when I had read it....  AWESOME...  It's really hard to understand people sometimes, ya know?...  Thank you for letting me get that out in the open.  It is going to be interesting when I see this person and they ask me why I unfriended them, that is for certain...  I hope that you have a great day and I'll see you again tomorrow with my football predictions for this weekend.