Friday, June 28, 2013

Sisters

"I'll march this road, I'll climb this hill, upon my knees, if I have to..., I'll take my place, upon this stage, I'll wait til the end of time, for you like everybody else..." -Tim Capello- (I Still Believe)

"Did you think I could hate you?..., or raise my hands to you?..., now come on, you know me too well..., how could I hurt you, when darling I love you, and you know..., I'd never hurt you..."
-Billy Vera and the Beaters- (At This Moment)

"Oh please, we all know I'm the friend you call when you have no other options.  If we were the Justice League, I'd be Aquaman..." -Raj- (The Big Bang Theory)

"Where did I go wrong?..., I lost a friend, somewhere along in the bitterness, and I would have stayed up, with you all night, had I known, how to save a life..." -The Fray- (How To Save A Life)

"No, I don't believe, you went to bed at 10:15..., Victoria..., you're tearing me up, you said you'd call I waited up..." -Eve6- (Victoria)



Good morning everyone.  First I've got something sad to report to you, and then we'll get to what I did yesterday afternoon, and to the sisters who are the stars of today's blog...  As I was surfing the net yesterday, I learned that the poker room at the Riviera closed earlier this week.  For those of you who may not know this, I dealt poker at the Riviera from July 2005 through April of 2007.  Working at the Riv was my second job after arriving in Las Vegas, which followed being employed as a chip runner at the 2005 World Series of Poker.  My plan for today was to write about some of my memories from working at the Riv, but I know that I've done this before (probably several times), so I thought that this would be a good opportunity to direct you to the "in blog search."  Over on the right, you can use the search window to look for any person or topic that I've written about in this blog.  I'm hoping that more people will see this, since this post will be the landing page for visitors over the whole weekend.  Who knows..., maybe I'll just start pointing it out in my entries every Friday...  ;)

Now for today's feature...  After walking around San Marcos for two hours in the middle of the afternoon on Wednesday as a part of my ongoing effort to lose weight (the second day in a row that I did this), I decided that I would go in a different direction yesterday.  In related news, the high temperature here today is forecast to be 102 degrees, followed by 104 DEGREES tomorrow...  :O  While I've been doing laps around Bikini Hill in my efforts to lose weight, I've been getting pretty jealous of the people that I've seen who have actually been IN THE RIVER, so yesterday I decided to join them...



So yesterday I get into the river, and this is for the very first time all year.  Now the water is low right now, but you can still get in the river and let the current take you for about a 3 to 5 minute ride, which brings you to ladders about 100 yards from where you started.  Okay, so I'm floating on my back, just beginning this short trip, having JUST GOTTEN INTO THE WATER, when from above me to my left, I see this girl FLY INTO THE AIR, landing in the water about ten yards in front of me.  Now my first thought was that this girl could have KILLED ME - we're not talking about a girl who is 5 foot nothing and 80 pounds here, but about a relatively tall and athletic girl (and I'm just kidding Victoria - I am very elusive for a man who is a hundred years old, and I was never in fear of being killed)...  ;)

>>>>>  Now before we continue, we have to take a short break here so that I can give you some background - after everything that I am about to describe to you occurred, I introduced myself to these young ladies (Victoria and Trinity), and asked them if I could use this story in the blog today.  They gave me their permission, and even gave me their last name (which I wouldn't use here since I had just met them, but which came in handy..., well, sort of, when I was trying to figure out which one is which)...  :)  You see, after I spoke to the girls and returned to Bikini Hill and my memo pad, I remembered their names, but just not which girl was which...  OOPS...  :(  However, it was very easy to find them on facebook, due to knowing their last name and the fact that we have a couple of friends in common.  So I find them on facebook, and I STILL CAN'T definitively tell the two apart.  At this point I messaged one of our mutual friends, Taylor, who was just recently in the blog with a quote that she passed along.  Taylor helped me A LOT in telling the girls apart when she responded, "they're twins!"  OKAY..., thanks Taylor...  :P  Actually, Taylor did confirm that they are athletes, when she told me, "I love them.  Playing soccer with them was a blast!"  My point is this:  For the purpose of this story, we are going to assume that Victoria was the first soccer star that jumped into the river, and that Trinity was the second.  If I had to bet on it, this is the way that I'd bet, although I could be completely wrong...  If you don't trust me, or if it makes you happier, then you can imagine that Trinity was the name of the first jumper, and that Victoria followed her...  :) <<<<<

Okay, so I was almost killed (just kidding Victoria), and I started thinking about how the river is low, which makes it even harder to see if someone is floating beneath you before you jump in.  However, these sisters strike me as being pretty sharp, and knowing that our mutual friends are Taylor and Konnor, I'm thinking that they probably did look down into the river before they jumped.  So I'm lost in thought, thinking that I have to be aware of people possibly landing on top of me, when you guessed it..., Trinity comes FLYING OVER THE EDGE, landing in the same vicinity as her sister Victoria, about ten yards ahead of me.  So now a few seconds go by, and I'm floating along, paying attention to the cement walkway on the upper left, and to what is happening ahead of me in the river, when Trinity emerges from the water, and I hear Victoria ask..., "REALLY?!...,  I don't want to jump in..., so I'm going to jump in..., RIGHT ON TOP OF YOU?!!!"  :)  I could not stop myself from letting out an audible "PFFFFTTTT!!," but they either didn't hear me or didn't acknowledge it...  I actually assumed that the girls were sisters not long after this, because that comment was the END OF IT - they didn't argue or fight afterward, they floated the river, they hung out together, etc...  The thing that I didn't realize at the time, maybe because they had different swimsuits..., or maybe because their hair looked different (I don't know Taylor???), was how much they LOOK ALIKE...  :)  TWINS..., GOTCHA...  :P

I hope that you have a great weekend, and thank you for stopping by to read the entry that is going to put this blog over 40,000 total pageviews!  I'll see ya on Monday...  :)

                        






Thursday, June 27, 2013

I Remember The First Time (23)

"It's not like you, to say sorry, I'm always waiting on a different story, this time I'm, mistaken, for handing you a heart worth breaking..." -Nickelback- (How You Remind Me)

"There are many things that I would like to say to you, but I don't know how..., because maybe..., you're gonna be the one that saves me..." -Oasis- (Wonderwall)

"I'm gonna make a change, for once in my life..., it's gonna feel real good, gonna make a difference, gonna make it right..." -Michael Jackson- (Man In The Mirror)

"I can't really help it if my tongue's all tied in knots, jumping off a bridge it's just the farthest that I've ever been and..., anywhere you go..., I'll follow you down..." -Gin Blossoms- (Follow You Down)

"What is this attraction?, I only feel the pain, there's nothing left to reason, and only you to blame, will it ever..., change...?" -Duncan Sheik- (Barely Breathing)



I remember the first time that I experienced a case of mistaken identity..., OVER AND OVER AND OVER again...  Good morning everyone.  I guess that this is just a by-product of being a hundred years old, but EVERY TIME that I heard the name Duncan Keith of the Blackhawks announced during the NHL playoffs, I kept thinking back to Duncan SHEIK, who sang the lyrics that I typed immediately above.  The thing was, I couldn't remember Duncan Sheik's last name, so I'd be sitting there trying to remember..., "what WAS the name of the guy who sang..., that song...???"

I remember the first time that I made a blog post early in the morning again...  I'll probably be publishing this entry at right around 9:00 a.m. CST, which is quite a bit earlier than anything that I've posted for a while...  This is a result of sleeping last night from... (get ready for it), 9:30 p.m.-5:30 a.m...  I KNOW..., RIGHT?!  My sleeping has successfully been flipped!!! #nolongeravampire

I remember the first time that I meant to remind you about something...  This is a segue back to the song lyrics at the very top up above (I'm getting REALLY GOOD at making segues, by the way)...  :)  Anyway, over on the right, the search window is part of an IN BLOG search feature.  If you've ever been in the blog before, and you want to find the entry (or entries) that you were in, or if there's a certain topic that's been in the blog that you want to read about, just type it into the search...

I remember the first time that I had a great idea...  Okay, walking for two hours again yesterday probably WAS NOT a great idea...  For some reason it seemed even hotter yesterday, but I survived the walk (which was probably at least six miles).  For those of you familiar with San Marcos, this involved going down North LBJ, down Sessom, several laps around Sewell Park, down University Drive, then over to the Square, down to Zelick's, and then backtracking the same path until I arrived back at the top of North LBJ...  PHEW!!!  When I returned home, I saw that some people were out at the swimming pool.  If you've been following my blog for more than a minute, you know that I moved into this complex back in September, on the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend to be specific...  Anyway, I had never been in the pool before..., well..., not until yesterday anyway...  :)  AHHHHHH!!!

I remember the first time that I told somebody that their cat was in my blog...  After I changed clothes yesterday to jump into the swimming pool, I ran into my neighbors from across the way.  These are the neighbors who are Freia's owners...  The conversation went something like..., "Hi..., I didn't think that this was something that was urgent enough to bother you about..., but a while back I put Freia in my blog (when I looked back after swimming yesterday, I realized that the first time that Freia made the blog was in an entry that I titled after her back on FEBRUARY 20TH!...), ...it's 'Bikini Hill, 6th, & The Strip,' and there's a search window... blah, blah, blah..."  :)  These neighbors (who I don't know by name) were receptive to this (THANKFULLY) and responded, "cool, Freia's got her own blog!..."  :)  For those of you who have been sitting on the edge of your seats waiting for another Freia update, well, we're basically as thick as thieves now, and whenever she sees me, she'll approach me..., well, that's unless she's been sleeping, and she's just laying there..., still half out of it..., in which case she could care less about who I am...

I remember the first time that I meant to tell you something...  Yesterday when I was telling you how arduous (it's a word..., look it up) it is to hike up North LBJ, I was about to compare that to walking in Austin.  The apartment complex that I'm about to move back into in the ATX IS NOT at the top of a humongous hill, and I can easily navigate West Campus, the Drag, the University of Texas, and even make it to 6th Street in not much more than half an hour if I'm really motivated.  I won't lie to you - I'm completely ready to be back in Austin near the campus of UT, approaching a college football season where the Longhorns are ranked in the top 5 in the nation, where the Longhorns and Bobcats don't share a single home football date this year, where I'll be regaling (I think that's a word...) you with tales of football and 6th Street and whatever other trouble I manage to get into, since I WON'T be glued to Pokerstars this time around...

I remember the first time that I moved to Austin...  I'm curious - is pizza your "moving food?"  The vast majority of the time when I move, I always seem to end up ordering delivery pizza (not Digiorno), and it was from Domino's this last time around, as they're located not too far away from the apartment complex that I'll be moving back into...  I also need to give a shoutout to WhichWich here I guess, as my meals for one of the  first days that I lived in my new place came from the three sandwiches that I bought during an early afternoon trip to the Drag (hey, WHY would I walk to the Drag more than once on a hot day in early August if I didn't have to?)...  :)

Okay, I'm done remembering for today...  Have a good one and I'll see you again tomorrow!
    

  












Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Victory

"And I don't want to forget how your voice sounds, these words are all I have so I'll write them, so you need them just to get by..." -Fall Out Boy- (Dance, Dance)

"I named my dog '5 miles' so I can tell people I walk 5 miles every day..."
-via Randy Haverda- (facebook)

"So I speak to you in riddles, 'cause my words get in my way..." -Staind- (Epiphany)

"Welfare was never intended to be a career opportunity..." -via Barbara Angel- (facebook)

"Now that I know what I'm without, you can't just leave me, breathe... into me and make me real, bring... me... to life..." -Evanescence- (Bring Me To Life)



Good afternoon everyone.  You are going to be SO PROUD of me...  :)  While I was working at my bar job (at Harper's/Slackers/The Veranda), my "normal" sleep schedule would be somewhere in the neighborhood of 6:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m., and then 3:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m.  There is a great quote from Tom Cruise's character (Brian Flanagan) in the 1988 movie 'Cocktail' that pretty much sums up working in a bar:  "Days get shorter and shorter, nights longer and longer..., before you know it, your life is just one long night with a few comatose daylight hours..."  Incidentally, I tagged a lot of my facebook bar friends to this post just so they could see that quote (in case you were wondering guys)...  :)  Well, thanks in large part to a "nice little walk" that I took yesterday, last night I slept from 11:00 p.m.-5:00 a.m., and then again from 8:00 a.m-10:30 a.m.  I'm almost sleeping like a normal person - Victory!!!  :)  And it's only taken me two and a half weeks to accomplish this feat..., this total flipping of my sleep schedule...

So Coach, tell us about your nice little walk, and how it helped you to sleep through the night...  Although I have been successful in losing weight, due to the situps I've posted about, my vastly improved diet (which includes no cokes or energy drinks during the past couple of weeks), and the walking that I've been doing at night, I decided that my progress wasn't coming fast enough.  Well, we've had a recent spike in our temperature here in San Marcos, America, so I thought that I might try walking during the day.  Yesterday the forecast high was 99 degrees, and carrying a gallon Igloo jug of ice water with me, I went out from 3:20 p.m.-5:20 p.m.  It was sunny, it was HOT, and it was beneficial...  :)  For those of you familiar with San Marcos, I walked down from the top of North LBJ to Sessom Drive, went to Bikini Hill and walked about 4 laps around Sewell Park, stopped for about 5 minutes to say hi to my friend Lauren at Superfly Music (Lauren of 'The 5th Annual Lone Star Music Awards' Lauren, my most read post EVER), walked over to and around the Square once, and then returned to Sewell Park via University Drive.  Once I was back at Sewell, I walked about another 7 laps around the park and Bikini Hill, walked back up Sessom to Bobcat Nation, where I chatted with my friends George and Andrea for about 5 minutes, before hiking back up North LBJ to my apartment, where I promptly collapsed and died...  Okay, I might not be dead just yet...  ;)  I'll tell you though, if you don't have the money to join a gym, just try doing what I laid out for you above - GUARANTEED to make you sweat!  I intend to do the same today, but I'm going to try to extend the length of time that I'm out because I simply had too much ice water left in my jug when I got back home...  ;)

WOW..., in breaking news, it seems that Aaron Hernandez, formerly of the New England Patriots (he was released today) has been charged with murder...  That's all that I know at this point...

Back to yesterday, that walk officially put me on the low side of 230 pounds.  I can't remember if I put this in the blog or not, but the day of reckoning for me came on May 18th, when I got on the scale and weighed-in at 240 pounds.  When I saw that number, I basically said, "this stops NOW!.."  So that's 10 pounds in 5 weeks, and I'm not even close to being done.  Like I said earlier in the week, I'll let you know when it gets down to 225...

Speaking of North LBJ Drive, another reason that I'm looking forward to getting back up to Austin is that when I go walking in my neighborhood, this is NO FREAKIN MONUMENTAL HILL to navigate...  :)  Anytime that I'm on the Square and I tell someone where I've walked, I'm SURE that it seems longer than it actually is because they're picturing that MOUNTAIN OF A STREET that is North LBJ (for those of you who aren't familiar with San Marcos, America)...

I'm going to stop it here for today so that I can get prepared for my walk, but don't fret - it's almost the end of June and I'll be up in Austin soon, so you'll be reading stories of football and Sixth Street in the very near future.  I want to take this opportunity to thank you for stopping by - 40,000 views for my little blog is in sight now, and that is pretty humbling...  Have a great day and I'll see you tomorrow!


    

    










Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Could You? (23)

"And it's been a, long December, and there's reason to believe, maybe this year will be better than, the last...,   I can't remember all the times I tried to tell myself, to hold on to, these moments as they pass..." -Counting Crows- (A Long December)

"Only a fool trips on what is behind him..." -via Benchmark Insurance Group-

"Comin' down, the years turn over, and angels fall without you there, and I'll go on down to lead you home, and, all because I'm, all because I'm, I'll become what, you became to me..."
-Goo Goo Dolls- (Black Balloon)

"Don't settle.  Don't finish crappy books.  If you don't like the menu, leave the restaurant.  If you're not on the right path, get off it..." -via Taylor Ralph- (facebook)

"I don't ever wanna feel..., like I did that day..." -Red Hot Chili Peppers- (Under The Bridge)



Could you focus Coach?  So even as I'm writing this, I just realized that Don Draper (Jon Hamm's character in Mad Men, which is arguably my favorite show) was in 'The Day The Earth Stood Still' (the 2008 version with Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly).  As I was getting those quotes and lyrics typed in up above, I heard this character state, "as scientists, we can't allow that..."  I was like, "WOW, that sounds a lot like..."  :)  Pay attention Coach...

Could you fact-check your jokes Coach?  Not too long ago, when I told the story about the home game with Texas Tech here last fall in San Marcos, America, I had some fun with my friend Tim.  I was unable to make it to any football games last season due to my work schedule, having to stay up until at least 4:00 a.m. when I worked.  For my story, I looked up Tim's (Hawkins) position online, and came up with quarterback and receiver, so I made some crack about him playing the "glamour positions."  Well, I was browsing through my newly purchased Phil Steele's College Football 2013 Preview magazine last night (SHOCKER), and it talks about Tim being a RUNNING BACK last season.  Okay, so now we have quarterback, wide receiver, AND running back...  WHAT position did you NOT PLAY during your career in San Marcos Mr. Hawkins?!  :)

Could you sneak in a little plug for your alma mater Coach, even though the season is so far away, since we're already talking about football?  Okay, so as I continued to browse the Texas State pages of the preview magazine, it seems that the Bobcat special teams ranked 4th..., IN THE NATION last season, and that we have ALL of our special teams players back from last year!  We have switched conferences (we will now be playing in the Sun Belt), but Mr. Steele still has us as the 7th-ranked special teams unit entering the season..., IN... THE... NATION... - NICE...  :)


Could you send your sympathy to the Bruins fans today?  WOW, that Stanley Cup clincher last night was unreal...  Boston took a 2-1 lead over Chicago with 7:49 to go in the game, and a Bruins win would have forced a seventh game in this series tomorrow.  The Blackhawks pulled their goalie for an extra skater with about 1:30 left to play, and managed to tie the game with 1:16 remaining...  Pretty unbelievable, and I was all ready to make my customary tweet and facebook status update about ANOTHER GAME in this Stanley Cup going to overtime (this would have been the 4th in 6 games), when all of a sudden, the Blackhawks score AGAIN with 0:59 left on the clock, and Chicago is carrying the 120 year-old trophy around the rink not too much later...  Congrats to both teams on a very entertaining series, and to the Blackhawks on winning the Cup.  Below is my prediction for the 'Final' (just because I always do this)...  :)

My Prediction/Actual Result

Bruins over the Blackhawks in 6 games/Blackhawks in 6 games

Let me say here that Lightning (his blog link is over to the right) picked Chicago to win the Cup in six games, AND that he is a Blackhawks fan...  Lightning had a blog post up in VERY SHORT ORDER after the game was decided...  :)  Let me also note here that I jinxed the Bruins by picking them to win the Cup (an accusation that before last night's game I told my brother would make the blog if it did indeed play out that way)...


Could you put me to work?  As you know, I've been giving a very concerted effort to losing weight, which has included a lot of dieting, situps, and walking around San Marcos.  Well, I took a very rare daytime walk a few days ago, and I stopped by my old workplace to get a cup of water.  I had been there for about TWO MINUTES when my friend Sam hands me a UPS slip and says, "Hey Coach, can you go pick this up?"  My first thought was, "you KNOW that I don't have a car with me..., I'm WALKING...," but then I realized that a package had been left down the street at Jimmy John's.  The things that you have to do for a free cup of water...  

Could you include more song lyrics in your blog Coach?  Yes, I think that I will...  I have a pretty sizeable CD collection that started growing when I got my first vehicle that had a CD player in it, and all of those discs have at least one song on them that connected with me for some reason.  Okay, yes..., I do realize that I just made a pretty obvious statement, because why would anyone buy a CD if they didn't like at least one song that's on it - SHUT UP...  :)  Anyway, I thought that I would share some of the lyrics from these songs that struck a chord with me (pun intended - ba dump, CHING!), so be expecting more of these and fewer quotes to lead off my upcoming posts...  

Could you remind us about what's happening with the blog?  Okay, first we're going to stay with the Spurs color scheme through the rest of this week.  When Bikini Hill returns to its new "neon look," I will also resume posting entries four days each week (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday), and this should be the norm for quite some time.  Due to moving, or in the event that something unexpected arises, I might miss a post or two, or change a posting day for that week, but M/Tu/Th/F seems to work the best for me.  Mondays will address various topics, Tuesdays will be under the 'Could You?' format (can you BELIEVE that this is the 23rd week of this ALREADY?!  That's almost half a year for you lay people)...  ;)  Thursdays will continue to follow the 'I Remember The First Time' format, and Fridays will be sports-related, with football predictions dominating that day of the week in a few short months - YES!!!  I still plan on predicting a final score for every Bobcat and Longhorn football game in the fall (a new idea, whose implementation should be very interesting...), while giving you my ten 'best bets' for games taking place that weekend.

Could you talk about the in and outs of the blog just a little more Coach, because we're not completely bored yet, and we need something to put us to sleep???  SURE...  :)  This does look like it will be the 6th straight month that the blog will have at least 3,000 views, and the 40,000 total view milestone should be reached by the end of June.  This does make things interesting for my prediction for the blog reaching the 75,000 mark in total views by the end of the year, since there will still be 35,000 views to go (an average of almost 6,000 views per month needed, when the blog has yet to reach 4,000 total views in one month).  The wildcard here is that the blog has always received more views during football season, when I make my weekly predictions.  You know, the 'Coach picked X, so I'll bet Y' strategy surely being utilized...  ;)  

Okay, well the bell just rang, and you're free to leave for the day.  Have a good one, and I'll see you again tomorrow!
       




      



         








Monday, June 24, 2013

I Have A Problem

"Come back - Veranda is not the same without you guarding the entrance..."
-@GiselieMo- (via twitter)

"You know, when you think about it, all bands are local, somewhere..."
-102.1 The Edge/Dallas-

"Trying to phone a person who lives in San Marcos before noon is a complete waste of time.  Wake up friends..." -Stefanie Adams Pyle- (via facebook)

"So, as excited as I am about hearing of Dez Bryant's dominance this offseason in OTA's and 1-on-1's, it creates a cause of concern to me about Claiborne's inability to play him.  Is this a legitimate cause for concern or can I chalk it up to Bryant just being that good?" -James Needham- (via facebook - my friend's question is currently on the front page of dallascowboys.com)



Good morning everyone.  Let's start off with my fantasy baseball standings this morning, and then we'll get to the funny stuff (yeah, I know, NOTHING is more humorous than my fantasy baseball performance...)


League 1 (25 entry fee - 1st place/125, 2nd place/25)

1)  DraftDodgers                                         75.00 (clinging to 1st place)
2)  Neshanic                                              72.00 (solid hold on 2nd)
3)  Pappys Boyz                                        59.00 (jumps back into 3rd)
8)  The View From Bikini Hill                       46.50 (was actually in 7th place yesterday)


League 2 (40 entry fee - 1st place/300, 2nd place/50)
                                     
1)  Breaking Bats                                        82.00 (commanding lead at the moment)
2)  4troublemakers                                      67.50 (has some distance from the logjam)
3)  Loons XXIV                                            60.50 (starting to make a move)
6)  The Bikini Hill Bobcats                            50.50 (there's some potential here)


League 3 (40 entry fee - 1st place/300, 2nd place/50)

1)  Nappy Heads                                          69.00 (leading a hotly contested league)
2)  Mad Men                                                65.00 (could win an Emmy and this contest)
2)  jonnylove7                                              65.00 (right in the dogfight)
3)  Pittsburg Crawfords                                 63.50 (same as above)
5)  The Bikini Hill Nine                                  58.00 (things are getting interesting)


We're still a few weeks from the MLB All-Star Break and the Bikini Hill brand is starting to look a little bit better.  Despite having EIGHT players on the DL, the blog's old namesake is hanging around in the cheap league.  In that second league, the Bobcats are starting to hit, which might keep me moving up in the standings.  In League 3, you really get a good idea of how competitive that race is going to be, looking at the top 5 teams today.  As the season draws closer to finishing, I will let you know who some of the key players are for each of our teams, so that you can keep up with the race for the money...


Okay, now for a slow lead-in which gets us to the title of today's entry, and then we'll give you a funny story to start your week off with.  My weight-loss efforts are going well, with about ten pounds being shed so far.  I'll give you my next specific update when I get it down to 225 pounds, which will hopefully be sometime in the first week of July (yes, sometime next week).  I reached my new high in situps last night (350), and I've decided that I'm going to try to bump each set up from 50 to 60 now, so that I can get them done in less time.  I think at the end of the month I'll give you a total that I completed for June.  Anyway, I wanted to get into some sort of shape (in addition to getting my sleep straight - which is almost there now) before getting too far into the job hunt.  As I've told a few of my friends, I don't want to go into job interviews looking like Humpty Dumpty, or a Weeble (Weeble's wobble, but they don't fall down - anyone old enough to remember that?)...

Anyway, with all that I just said above, I can also tell that I'm closer to getting my freshly inspired life back together by what I did last night.  Forever, and I mean FOREVER, I was using planners (those little calendar books) and making lists to keep my life in order.  When I was in college, and when I was teaching and coaching, this was ESSENTIAL because I was so busy.  I had not bought a planner yet for this year, and I decided that it was time to last night.  I was pleasantly surprised when I walked into Walmart and discovered that they were selling planners which spanned from July 2013 through the end of 2014 - WORKS... FOR... ME...  They were selling one type of Mead planner for just under $10.00 which looks to be the same size as an 8 1/2" x 11" notebook (plenty of room to write).  They were also selling big desk calendars (also a Mead product) that spanned from July 2013 through the end of 2014 (these are what I have basically been using to keep my life in order without a planner, but they aren't very "mobile")...  Something came up recently that made me wish that I had a 2014 calendar already, so there you go...  My free advertising for Mead gets us to this:  that last quote at the top of today's entry, about my friend who sent his question to the official website of the Dallas Cowboys..., well..., in the process of chatting with him yesterday, I told him that it was kind of early to be talking about football, because it would get me all amped up, with so long to wait.  I told James that I had seen Phil Steele's College Football Preview magazine in the store yesterday morning, but had not bought it (I had not even thought about it again until I read James' facebook status with the Cowboys question).  WELL, when I returned to Walmart last night, I NOT ONLY picked up a copy of Phil Steele'e magazine, but I ALSO bought the Athlon Sports Pro Football 2013 Preview issue...  Yes my friends, I do realize that today is only June 23rd, and I admit that I have a problem (that's the first step, right?)...  :)  I would highly recommend the Phil Steele magazine, the Athlon Sports magazine, and the Mead products (maybe I'll be a paid endorser someday)...  ;)  While we're talking football, let me hit you with a few interesting notes before we move on to my crazy friend Megan.  I had previously told you that the Texas Longhorns and the Texas State Bobcats do not share a common home date this season (they don't).  Looking at the UT schedule more closely last night, I realized that after a September 21st home game, the Longhorns will not play another game in Austin until November 2nd.  In that timespan, the Bobcats will host 4 games in 5 weeks in San Marcos.  Also, Texas A&M will play 8 of their 12 games at home this season.  What could hurt the Aggies playing Alabama this year is that the Crimson Tide will be coming off of a bye, while last season they were coming off of a close game with LSU (thanks Phil Steele!).  ;)  I hope that it's not too early to post about football, because you'll be seeing more and more of it from now through February (just for you Miletus)...  ;)

Megan, Megan, Megan...  My crazy, beautiful, interesting friend Megan...  :)  Exactly a week ago today, I was looking at my facebook page, when I saw that Megan had posted a photo.  The picture shows Megan laying on the beach in a bikini, with about 25 seagull spectators in the background, and at least 8 other seagulls hovering right over her, the lowest of which is about an arm's length above her.  There had been a couple of comments made regarding the photo when Megan responded to the first commenter:  "Look really close at my left boob...  There may or may not be a Dorito there for the seagulls to swoop down and grab.  :D"  First, let me stop here to say to my fellow bloggers that you KNOW that Rob's head just EXPLODED!  Second, you're welcome for the free advertising also Doritos...  :)  Of course when you examine the picture more closely, you can see that there IS, indeed, a Dorito resting on Megan's chest, and that the lowest seagull that I referred to before is already ZEROED IN ON IT.  The best part is that Megan has an expression on her face that totally resembles those shots that you see of people riding rollercoasters, just loving every minute of it...  :)  It wasn't until about a half-hour later when someone else commented on the photo that I realized that Megan had made this her COVER PHOTO...  At this point I told her how much I missed her (Megan has moved away from San Marcos), and she responded:  "And I'm being 100% serious about the chip.  It was crazy how they swoop down to get food."  Yes Megan, the SEAGULLS are crazy...  I love ya to death Megan...  :)

I hope that all of you have a great day and I'll see ya again tomorrow!  And Pete..., Lightning..., Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final is tonight, in case you were not aware...  ;)

                







Thursday, June 20, 2013

I Remember The First Time (22)

"Don't ever worry about labeling yourself - people will always come up with plenty of labels for you..." -@Scdavis24- (via twitter)

"According to these ghost hunting shows, every house in Ireland is a castle..."
-@BaldyLockzz- (via twitter)

"I wish men were nicer to women that have their children..." -@heatherjs- (via twitter)

"My life coach is pizza..." -@TheNastiestB- (via twitter)

"Your face will always tell me the truth, even if your mouth lies..."
-@Cass_Sniperess- (via twitter)




I remember the first time that the situps, the walking, and the dieting started to pay off...  Over the coming weekend, I am likely to pass the 10-pound mark for weight lost since May 18th.  Now my blogging friend Grrouchie (link over to the right) can seemingly lose this much weight in his sleep (VERY IMPRESSED with your progress Grrouch), but for me it's been quite an accomplishment...  ;)

I remember the first time that Coach made situps and math fun...  Okay, I crunched a few numbers for you.  I told you recently that when I started doing situps while watching t.v., they would be in sets of 25 every 15 minutes.  This lasted for about four days, until the reps became too annoying because I was bothered by doing them so often.  I felt fine doing 25 situps, so I bumped the number up to 50 per set.  I am now doing the sets of 50 situps every 30 minutes, and although it feels like I'm actually accomplishing something, I still feel okay.  I have done 300 situps each of the past 2 nights, and here's my little math lesson for you:  Even if a person only does 300 situps 5 nights a week for 50 weeks (taking off 2 days per week, and 2 weeks per year), that still comes out to 75,000 situps in a year...  Accordingly, doing 200 situps for 5 nights a week for 50 weeks will give you a total of 50,000 situps for the year.  This is definitely something that I am going to try to develop into becoming a habit...  ;)

I remember the first time that I sent a tweet to a t.v. station...  I did the majority of my situps last night during the Stanley Cup Final, during a Game 4 that the Blackhawks won 6-5 in overtime.  I didn't see the game-winning goal however, because KXAN, the NBC station out of Austin, WENT TO A NEWS PROMO DURING LIVE ACTION, and when they returned to the game telecast about a minute later, the Blackhawks were already celebrating...  I LOVE spending hours of my time invested in something without getting to see it to its conclusion...  The tweet that I sent to KXAN you ask:  "BRILLIANT job on the hockey coverage - are you SERIOUS?!  Show your news promos at some other time than during LIVE ACTION..."  Surprisingly, they haven't responded, and yeah, I wasn't happy...  :O

I remember the first time that I had the worst time in getting my sleep straightened out...  Honestly people, there were workweeks where I had three days off and had better luck sleeping at night than I have over the past dozen or so evenings.  I did manage to sleep for more than 10 hours during the past 24, and I finally got the number of those during darkness up to over 5 - WOO HOO!!!  :)  As I write this, I'm wondering if you even get eight hours of sleep per day.  I have run into so many people in my life who tell me that they get by on 5, 6, etc... hours of sleep, and I don't know how they do it.  While I was coaching, I almost never got eight hours of sleep in a single night, but I almost always made up for that by CRASHING on Sunday...

I remember the first time that someone saw me "working out..."  Since the weather became nice again in San Marcos, America, I have been getting out and walking as much as possible.  Invariably, almost any night that I worked over my last two weeks, someone would tell me that they saw me out "running" or "working out..." This makes me smile because in my younger years (and remember, I'm 100 years old now, though not really) I completed 3 marathons, a half-marathon, and would routinely go out jogging 3-5 times a week.  I honestly find walking to be easy and relaxing (it's where I get a lot of my thinking done, that "walker's high" ya know...).  :)

I remember the first time that tubers made the blog...  So it's about 10:50 p.m. last Friday, and I'm walking by Bikini Hill on my way to the Square (and don't worry about me, I actually took part in enjoying the Square last Saturday).  After having blogged several times about how there's a river that runs through our beautiful little college campus here, it did my heart good to see 2 female tubers walking their tubes up Bikini Hill and to their car..., at TEN-FIFTY at night...  :)  Actually, the university routinely organizes "midnight floats" here.  How do people go to school anywhere else???  :)

I remember the first time that it was ten minutes later...  So now it's 11:00 p.m. last Friday night, and I'm walking down University Drive, which runs right in front of campus (what an aptly-named street)...  ANYWAY, about ten bicycles come FLYING DOWN THE STREET in my direction, where I'm on the sidewalk to their right.  Then one of these cyclists reaches out, offering me a "high-five."  I decline, and then another one of these cyclists does the same, with me again declining.  Now if you've read the blog for any length of time, you know that I'm not averse to high-fives, handshakes, fistbumps, hugs, etc..., BUT at the moment, I've got my Droid (music) in one hand, and my poker chips (shocking) in the other.  Also, I'm not too keen about having my ARM RIPPED OFF by these guys, or about the prospect of possibly pulling one of them OFF OF THEIR BIKES...  I mean, have you ever been on the receiving end of that "too hard" high-five (or handshake, or fistbump)?  Have a nice bike ride guys, but no thanks...

I remember the first time that Game 7 was tonight...  I may be forgetting a series somewhere, but off the top of my head, this is the most competitive NBA Finals that I can remember since 2005.  I was working as a chip runner at the World Series of Poker during these finals, and this was the ONE NIGHT that I went into work late (my shifts had normally been running from 6:00 p.m. until 2:00 a.m..., ummmm..., whenever...), when I stayed home for a few extra hours, watching the Spurs beat the Pistons in a very competitive seventh game.  The Heat are favored by six points tonight (at the moment).  I have no read on how this game is going to go.  The Spurs gave so much effort last game, and had so many chances, but our outside shooting was nowhere near what it had been.  The Heat should be stoked tonight at home, but Chalmers had an uncharacteristically high-scoring Finals game on Tuesday, and Wade has that iffy knee (to go with Parker's iffy leg, to go with, to go with...).  This is why I have NEVER..., EVER... bet on sports...  ;)

Have a great day, enjoy Game 7 tonight, and celebrate safely, no matter which side you're on...  ;)  See ya tomorrow!
    


Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Could You? (22)

"Decide what makes you happy and fight for it..." -via Jade Monahan- (via facebook)

"It's amazing I've been able to stay above water in #FantasyBaseball with David Price, Bryce Harper, Ian Kinsler, and Jose Reyes all on the DL..." -@AMAAS- (via twitter)

"One smile can start a friendship.  One word can end a fight.  One look can save a relationship.  One person can change your life..." -@BestTextMsgs- (via twitter)

"The Heat are going to lose tonight..." -@texasguy04- (via twitter)

"It's better to look back on life and say, "I can't believe I did that," than to look back and say, I wish I did that"..." -@thechrismyzter- (via twitter)



Could you tell me about the new feature that you added to your blog today Coach?  Good morning everyone.  There is now a search window over to the right (I haven't been able to figure out how to label it) that allows you to search for words that are included in every single blog entry that I've made (I tested it earlier by typing in 'Ginobili'...).  ;)  I know someone named Alyssa who should have HOURS OF FUN with this...

Could you let us know what you neglected yesterday?  I meant to include that fantasy baseball tweet that's shown above in yesterday's entry.  And HE THINKS that he's having problems with his fantasy team...  :)  Click on a few of my recent Monday entries Andrew...  :(

Could you tell us about another famous UT Twitter follower that you've picked up?  The UT-Austin Albino Squirrel is now following me in Twitterland...  In the first of SEVERAL posts that I'm sure to mention the squirrels at UT in the coming months, well..., you can follow this on Twitter by going to @AlbinoSquirrel5.  While working at UT-Austin, I saw this squirrel on numerous occasions, and I'm SO STOKED that I found him on Twitter...  :)  The squirrels at UT will actually APPROACH YOU for food instead of scampering away, and I'm talking about almost attacking you, even if you don't have food...  :)

Could you give me my money back?  I watched Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final last night (a Bruins victory over the Blackhawks - Boston now leads the series 2-1), and the game DID NOT go to overtime...  I want a refund...

Could you FIGHT for my chicken wrap?  I walked over to McDonald's on Father's Day (I spent Sunday with my Dad at the bar that he has worked at for almost 34 years), and the wrap was among the things that I ordered.  I was honestly waiting very patiently, and the wrap was the only item that wasn't ready.  As the cashier is standing at the row of obstacles separating him from the kitchen, he starts POUNDING HIS FIST on the handle of the refrigerator door as he's looking back, wondering what is taking the cooks so long to come up with the wrap.  His impatience was inspiring...  :)

Could you miss me?  I've visited my old workplace several times during the past week during walks around San Marcos, America, and I actually went there on Saturday night just to see how the other half lives...  :)  It was then that I was told by one of my former coworkers and friends that I'm a "legend..."  Evidently, one of the customers that approached this friend of mine asked, "Where's that man that's always here?  He's a LEGEND..., with the knee braces..., and the poker chips..."  I don't even know what to say...  Ha ha...

Could you tell me what's going on?  Speaking of customers, I had a chat with my friend Tim on Saturday night.  A loyal customer and a good guy, Tim also played a little bit of football for my alma mater here at Texas State over the past few years (quarterback, wide receiver..., the glamour positions, you know)...  ;)  Oh, and congratulations on earning your diploma Tim!  :)  Anyway, when I told Tim that Texas State and UT don't share any home football dates this fall (which is great for both schools), the topic of last fall's Bobcat home game against Texas Tech came up.  The Tech game was the first to be played in the expanded 30,000 seat stadium here, and Tim told me that as the team bus approached the stadium, there was tailgating taking place almost as far out as I-35 (the Valero station), and that the players on the bus were just looking at each other in DISBELIEF...  The previous capacity of the stadium was about 15,000, so the newly doubled capacity pretty much forced people to park and tailgate ALL OVER TOWN for this game, which was a sellout at 30,000...

Could you get yourself in the proper frame of mind?  That tweet above from @texasguy04, well..., I like the way you think!  Go Spurs Go!  ;)

Have a great day, enjoy Game 6 of the Finals tonight, and I'll see you tomorrow!

















Monday, June 17, 2013

The SECOND I Knew About Manu...

"Stay positive and think clean..." -@BuckyGodbolt- (via twitter)

"You can't climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets..."
-Arnold Schwarzenegger- (via Leanne Calderon/facebook)

"Prediction:  Look for Ginobili to show up tonight..." -@coachatx- (via twitter)



Good afternoon everyone.  We have a lot to get to today, so let's get started...  I want to start by giving a shoutout to Bucky Godbolt.  Coach Godbolt is a former Longhorn football coach and is the host of the 'Buck On Sports' show on 1300 AM from 6am - 9am daily in the ATX.  You can follow Coach Godbolt on Twitter at the address shown above with his tweet, the very tweet that he sent to me when he decided that in addition to following 286 of his closest friends, he would also follow ME on Twitter...  Don't look now, but my little blog is about to BLOW UP..., 200..., 300 years..., tops...  ;)  Seriously, tune into Coach Godbolt's show for your morning commute.  All you need to do is read his welcoming quote to know that he's a solid guy...

Speaking of solid guys, let's segue to my favorite basketball player, Manu Ginobili.  Yesterday my facebook friends and Twitter followers were treated to a rare occurrence, and that was me hitting on the one prediction that I'll get right in my lifetime...  ;)  There had been a lot of talk about Manu's performance in the first four games of the NBA Finals, and then yesterday I heard the pregame analysts talking about how Ginobili had answered an interview question leading up to last night's tipoff.  In response to a question about his play, Manu said that he was getting sick of doing rehab for his injuries, and that this might be his last year, etc, etc...  As the analysts dogged him, they also mentioned that he was going to be in the starting lineup for last night's game.  At that moment, I instantly knew that Ginobili would show up for last night's game (and I shared the good news with my facebook friends and Twitter followers)...  :)  I didn't know that he was going to go for 24 points and 10 boards specifically, but when have you EVER heard Manu crying about his career in that manner, ESPECIALLY during the NBA Finals?  I'm positive that all of that was for Miami's benefit, and as the Spurs relentlessly pushed the pace last night with Manu hustling and scoring and making precision passes, I was all smiles...  :)  I wonder if the Heat really believed that Ginobili was just going to give up and whimper and whine as he walked away from his stellar basketball career...    

Speaking of the Spurs (as I continue to segue), I had an interesting conversation with my friend Steve (and a few others) before he attended Game 5 last night.  Steve has been a Spurs season ticket holder since 2006, and he gave me a collectible 2013 NBA Finals lapel pin before he left for the AT&T Center (a "lucky pin" if we win the title)...  ;)  I was curious if there were many season ticket holders who were selling their seats for the Finals, and when I asked Steve if he was seeing any different people around him than he had during the regular season, "EVERY GAME" was his response...  :)  I was also told yesterday that courtside seats at the AT&T Center have been going in the neighborhood of $5,000.00 - $6,000.00 for games during the Finals, and that the cheapest seats in the building have been selling for $300.00 - $400.00.

Speaking of championship playoff series (here on segue day), Game 3 of the NHL Stanley Cup Final will faceoff tonight in Boston at 7:00 p.m. CST.  In case you haven't been following the "ice soccer" (courtesy of my friend Denney), my wishes have been answered as the first two games of the Final have gone to OVERTIME!  :)  The first game went to THREE overtimes as a matter of fact...  The Bruins and the Blackhawks are currently tied at a game apiece, and although you already "know" that the Bruins will take the series in six games (having read it here), watch anyway because they'll appreciate it...  ;)


And now for my fantasy baseball teams (and GET READY, you're not going to believe this...):


League 1 (25 entry fee - 1st place/125, 2nd place/25)

1)  DraftDodgers                                   75.50 (2 weeks in a row at the top)
2)  Neshanic                                        71.00 (still hanging around the top)
3)  Rocky Roto                                     58.00 (moves up to 3rd this week)
8)  The View From Bikini Hill                  43.50 (NOT last, NOT 9th, but 8TH!!!)  :)


League 2 (40 entry fee - 1st place/300, 2nd place/50)

1)  Breaking Bats                                 83.00 (the 80's are impressive...)
2)  4troublemakers                                68.00 (the race for 2nd/3rd is close...)
3)  Loons XXIV                                      65.00 (see, told ya...)
6)  The Bikini Hill Bobcats                     48.00 (focus on League 1 improvement...)


League 3 (40 entry fee - 1st place/300, 2nd place/50)

1)  Mad Men                                        68.50 (still my most competitive league)
2)  Nappy Heads                                  68.00 (see, told ya...)
3)  jonnylove7                                       63.00 (see, still told ya...)
6)  The Bikini Hill Nine                          53.00 (again, focus on League 1 improvement)


In disabled list news, The View From Bikini Hill had 1 new player going to the DL this week, while 3 came off of the list (FUN team to manage, let me tell you)...  The Bikini Hill Nine only has two players on the DL, and my pitching staff is SO DEEP on that team.  I'm happy that they're in my competitive league currently, because they have a shot...  My Bikini Hill Nine pitching staff:  Starters this week - Kershaw, Kimbrel, Colon, Arroyo, Scherzer, Lincecum, Jim Johnson, Corbin, and Strasburg; Bench this week - Lynn, Weaver, Medlen, C.J. Wilson.  The team does have pitching (and maybe that's all)...

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






                                



        



Friday, June 14, 2013

The Silver Lining

"My signature move is walking sexy down the street until I have everyone's attention, then tripping over a pebble and face planting... -@SweetestSarcasm- (via twitter)

"Best of three now.  Let's get it.  I can't wait for Sunday..." -@mchalmers15- (via twitter)

"When someone appears in your dreams, it means that person misses you..."
-@MostSecretFacts- (via twitter)

"It's easier to come on here after a win.  Still more work to be done..." -@m33m- (via twitter)

"Paintball sounds like fun because you get to hurt people in the name of art..."
-@iheartgunts- (via twitter)



Good afternoon everyone.  The heart of today's post will revisit my Las Vegas break-in back at the end of August, highlighting the silver lining of that unexpected situation.  Let me touch on some other things really quickly, and then we'll get to that.

First, you may have noticed that above I posted two tweets from players (Mario Chalmers and Mike Miller) who are members of the Miami Heat (I also retweeted these on Twitter).  This might seem strange to you since I'm a Spurs fan.  However, since I recently posted a facebook quote and a tweet here that weren't exactly pro-Heat, I thought that I'd give them their day.  Of course I'm going to notify them that I used their tweets (which I always do), while letting them know that I'm a Spurs fan...  ;)  This segues in several directions...  Today I changed my Twitter handle to @coachatx (you can always find this at the top of this page).  I wanted to line up my handle with my new Twitter bio and my new blog name.  I'm not living in the desert, so I don't see the point of @desertcoach being my handle.  Back to the Heat and the Spurs, I did expect a very close series (a seven-game series is what I predicted), and the series is now tied.  What I did not expect is for the games to play out in the way that they have.  I pretty much expected that each and every game of the series would be similar to the first game - a close game, wire-to-wire.  Now we are left with basically a best-of-three series, with the next game being played on Sunday in San Antonio, followed by a Tuesday tilt in Miami.  A seventh game (if necessary) would take place in Miami on Thursday.  In a non-related (but very important) story, remember that Dave Smith (Memphis Mojo) will be participating in Event 26 (the $1,000.00 Seniors No-Limit Hold 'Em event) of the World Series of Poker, which begins today.  Please send him your good karma...

Okay, now for the silver lining of my Las Vegas break-in.  To give you a quick recap, I moved to Las Vegas at the end of last July, packing everything that I could into my Montero Sport, before making a one-way trip from San Marcos, America to the desert.  After spending about ten days with the very gracious Carmel Josephine, I moved into a pay-by-the-week apartment that was in the same neighborhood that I lived in when I was in Las Vegas before.  The neighborhood is in a low-income area, but I never had any problems there before, and it's close to the Strip.  Well, at 1:00 a.m. on the Thursday night/Friday morning heading into Labor Day Weekend, I returned home from playing poker to find that my front door had been kicked in.  In spite of the fact that everything that I owned was in that apartment, all that was taken was three pairs of windpants and my Droid charger (yeah, I know...).  I agree with the police that the thief (thieves?) was probably spooked, especially since it was obvious that closet doors and drawers that I had left closed were now open.  During the hour and a half that the police spent investigating, I decided that I was going to move back to San Marcos.  I figured that it was probably not a good idea to just stay where I was, giving the criminal(s) another chance to get the rest of my stuff.  Like I said, this happened on the front end of Labor Day Weekend, and it would have been expensive to find another place to stay with such short notice.  I was also still looking for a job at this point in time, which played a major role in my decision.  After the police left, I spent the rest of the night repacking my things (which didn't take long), and at 7:00 a.m PST (9:00 a.m. CST) I made some phone calls to San Marcos, America.  First I called my friend Ollie, asking him what he thought about the prospects of me getting a job when I returned to town.  Ollie is the same friend who hired me on the spot at the Texas Music Theater a few summers ago when I told him about my inability to get back into teaching and coaching in the tough economy (and yes, the last couple of years of my life have just been STELLAR...).  Anyway, Ollie said that he would speak to Sean for me, who ended up hiring me at Harper's/Slackers/The Veranda, where I had worked "spot shifts" during the previous year.  Actually, the Veranda (the bar on the roof - yes, upstairs, and not in the basement) was not open at this point, but would be opening in the middle of September (two weeks later).  Then I called my friend Lindsey, who was the manager of my apartment complex the year before.  As fast as San Marcos is growing (the fastest-growing large city in the U.S., remember?), I didn't know if there would be any available apartments anywhere in town.  Lindsey actually oversees two complexes, and this is how the conversation went (and this is a story that I have told SEVERAL TIMES during the past year):

Lindsey:  "Well, we don't have any units available at your old complex, but we still have two units at the other complex.  Now these are two-bedrooms, but we can lock a bedroom, and rent it to you as a one-bedroom..."

Me:  (OBVIOUSLY THINKING, 'well that's incredibly nice...')  "That's great, but I won't be there until about..., 4:00 in the morning tomorrow???" (remember, this is the Friday morning of Labor Day Weekend, and even if I did make the 20-plus hour drive straight through, the office would be closed until Tuesday, while I would be arriving very early on Saturday morning)...

Lindsey:  "That's okay.  I'll just leave the door unlocked, and leave the keys and the parking permit in the apartment, and I'll see you on Tuesday morning..."

Me:  (OBVIOUSLY THINKING, 'well that's incredibly nice...')  "Thank you Lindsey..."  :)


Like I said, it's been an incredibly rough past couple of years for me, but you have to look for the silver linings...  Have a great Father's Day Weekend, and I'll see you again on Monday!






                        





Thursday, June 13, 2013

I Remember The First Time (21)

"If there is such a thing as the right side of the bed, I've never woke up on it..."
 -@WideOpen357- (via twitter)

"Sometimes, we have to fight for what we love and care about.  Other times, we have to find the strength to let go of the things we love most..." -@DearJohnFilm- (via twitter)

"Dunkin Donuts now has a bacon breakfast sandwich on a glazed donut...  this is big."
-@spencepascuzzi- (via twitter)

"Don't allow your wounds to crush you...  allow them to strengthen you..."
-@MikeDavis_1- (via twitter)

"This isn't actually overtime.  The Bruins and Hawks are just going to make up for every period of hockey missed during the lockout..." -@PensNation_Ken-



I remember the first time that I got exactly what I wished for...  So if you've been following the blog for the last month, you know that I LOVE multiple overtime playoff games in the NHL.  Last night, it's the first game of the Stanley Cup Final (I evidently used an incorrect word - 'Finals' - on facebook and Twitter throughout the night last night...), and the Blackhawks and Bruins went to TRIPLE OVERTIME.  Not only that, but they went LATE into triple overtime.  I believe that the game was the fifth-longest in the HISTORY of the Stanley Cup Final (c'mon guys, it's FINALS...).

I remember the first time that I almost got my sleep right...  Okay, so I went to bed at 1:00 a.m. last night (early this morning), and I woke up at 4:30 a.m.  I took another shot at it at 9:00 a.m., and woke up again at 1:30 p.m.  I'm SO CLOSE...  :)

I remember the first time that I told you about one of my dreams...  Okay, that would have been in the entry 'Rattlesnakes and Dreams,' but when I just woke back up at 1:30 p.m., I remembered my dream, so here you go...  I was on the West Campus of Texas State (and evidently younger than 100 years old, because I was on a meal plan).  Well, my meal plan had actually run out (I believe that they use 'Bobcat Bucks' now, but 100 years ago, you could prepay for your meals for the whole semester).  I don't know if you can still do this, but prepaying for your meals for the whole semester in the cafeteria-style setting they were implementing allowed you to eat all-that-you-could-eat...  Good times...  :P  ANYWAY, I'm talking to the guy about getting meals for the last week (and I'm REALLY HUNGRY as I'm doing this).  He takes me into an office located just off of the cafeteria, where I find out that it will cost me $90.00 to eat for the second week of December (the last week of the semester).  Well, that's too much for me, and some other people (like three) come into the office, so I make my way out, but I grab two pieces of baked chicken before leaving the dining hall.  As I exit, walking down the sidewalk which takes you past where the Student Rec. Center is now located, I'm peeling the skin from the chicken and tossing it away, all while eating the chicken in a way that my body is shielding my eating of the chicken from the view of anyone who might be watching from the dining hall (evidently I'm very James Bond-like when I'm stealing poultry in my dreams)...  :P  In totally unrelated news, it just started POURING here in San Marcos, America...

I remember the first time that I updated you on my workout regimen...  Okay, so last night as I watched the hockey game, I ended up doing 275 situps.  I thought that I would keep track so that you would have some idea as to how many I knocked out doing 25 of them every 15 minutes.  I actually only ended up doing them until the start of the second overtime, and twice during that time period (start of the game through the start of the second overtime), I missed a set (for whatever reason)...

I remember the first time that someone sounded like they were from San Marcos, America...  With a river running right through campus, the water is a very big part of life here at Texas State (and don't worry UT - I'll be writing stories involving you soon enough...).  Anyway, at work last week, I heard the following from one of our regular customers:  "I haven't been on the river this WHOLE YEAR!..."  Keep in mind that this statement was made on JUNE 7TH, leaving our friend only almost all of June, July, AND August (and September, and honestly most of October also) to enjoy the river...  :)

I remember the first time that I wondered, "WHAT IN THE HELL IS THAT IDIOT ON THE MOTORCYCLE DOING?!"...  Like I said, I woke up at 4:30 this morning, so I decided to go do some grocery shopping.  Well, I ran into a train (just past Strahan, and approaching the Bobcat softball and baseball fields, for those of you keeping score at home)...  Heaven knows that I'm going to miss the trains...  Anyway, I'm first in line waiting for the train to pass.  Actually, I'm the only one on my side of the tracks who is waiting for the train to pass, when I see this motorcycle approaching in my rearview mirror.  But this bike doesn't pull up behind me - NO, it starts to PASS ME on my right!  As I stated above, I was pretty much, "WHAT IN THE HELL IS THIS IDIOT DOING?!"  Then the motorcycle stops on my passenger side (it's a nice night, and my windows are already rolled down), and I hear something in the ballpark of, "why are you still up?"  At this point I realize that it's MY FRIEND Chris, who I worked with last year at the Texas Music Theater...  Of course I recounted everything that I just typed above to him as my stress level immediately plummeted...  :)

I remember the first time that a story had a happy ending...  So my friend and recent spring semester graduate Natalie (yes, the famous Natalie, as opposed to the non-famous Alyssa - HEY Alyssa...) had a job interview recently.  Shortly after completing the interview, Natalie told a few of her friends that an ambulance showed up, because she KILLED the interview.  NOTE:  I've heard this story a few times now, and I haven't told Natalie that if she "killed" the interview, it probably would have been more appropriate if a hearse had shown up (what is an ambulance going to do for a dead interview?, but I digress...).  :P  ANYWAY, it turns out that one of these friends who heard Natalie's story actually works for the company, and they passed the ambulance story UP THE CHAIN OF COMMAND... (Cue the ominous music - DUN DUN DUNNN...).  WELL..., before Natalie takes part in a second interview over the phone, with the regional boss of the complnay, she receives an e-mail advising her to have an AMBULANCE ON STANDBY for the phone interview...  :)  (I'm hearing the song, "That's What Friends Are For..." in my head right now...).  This e-mail came to Natalie from a guy who is just under the regional boss for the company, one who heard the ambulance line from a coworker..., who heard it from Natalie's friend...  :)  To quote Natalie, all of this was "extremely embarrassing and hilarious when it happened," but Natalie was offered the job the day after the phone interview with the regional boss...  :)  Congratulations Natalie!

On that note, I hope that all of you have a great day, and I'll see you again tomorrow!
    

  





Wednesday, June 12, 2013

The Roof In The Basement

"This dude once asked me what reciprocity was...  The entire concept was so foreign to this fool, he'd never even heard the word before..." -Jessica Johnson- (via facebook)

"One subpar game - okay, everyone has an off night.  But THREE in a row?!  Yet another example as to why LeBron shouldn't be compared to Jordan..." -Eric Keller- (via facebook)

"Snow boots and shorts are not a fashion statement - it's more of a mental health statement..."
-@Up2Long- (via twitter)

"Birdman looks like if meth was a person..." -@kumailn- (via twitter)

"Sometimes all a girl wants is for you to fight for her attention..."
-@taking_a_CRIPE- (via twitter)



Good afternoon everyone.  I'm happy to say that I've got my sleep completely under control now.  I went to bed at 2:00 a.m., woke up at 5:30 a.m., and have not gone back to sleep...  UGGHHH...  I'm hoping to publish this and then take a quick nap before tonight's Stanley Cup faceoff at 7:00 p.m.  While we're on the subject of sports, do not mistake the quotes that I included above as overconfidence on my part that the Spurs have the trophy wrapped up.  I'll remind you here that I predicted the series to go the full seven games, and I think that it's far from over.  Throw in a Tony Parker hamstring injury, just to make things interesting - WONDERFUL... (<<< Kelley word).  However, I do think that Keller's statement about people who try comparing LeBron James to Michael Jordan is completely accurate, and the Birdman quote made me laugh immediately, because it seemed to make sense...  :)  Now don't get me wrong about the series - I would LOVE to see the Spurs win it in five games (just to win it, PERIOD).  I've said before that I do my very best to keep personal bias out of my predictions, and I don't want the series to go back to Miami just so I'll have the chance to get my prediction "exactly right..."

My current plan for the blog is to make an entry every weekday.  I'm not promising anything, except that it's more difficult for me to make posts on the weekends, and there seems to be less interest, which is understandable.  I know that I'm far less inclined to make Saturday or Sunday posts once the football starts anyway, plus I plan on using that time to roam around the ATX or San Marcos, America trying to find something else interesting to write about...  ;)


As promised, I still have some "leftover" work stories to give you, so let's take a moment to do that...  Last weekend in the hallway on the way up to the Veranda, a girl made a comment that was impossible not to laugh at:  "I remember when you had to throw somebody out - it was the best day of my life!"  Yeah...  :)  Also last weekend, when I was in Slackers monitoring the early traffic that was heading up to the Veranda, some of our customers were mistakenly walking up the staircase inside of our shot bar, thinking that was the way to go.  This is how one of those interactions played out:

Me:  (Motioning to the customers)  "The roof is this way..."
Customer:  "Upstairs?"
Me:  (Nodding my head 'yes', as I thought to myself, "No, the roof in the BASEMENT...")

It will truly be a challenge finding things to write about now...  ;)


I have, slowly but surely, embarked on my exercise program.  As I tweeted last night (my twitter address is at the top of the page), if you want to make any television program go by a little bit faster, do 25 situps every 15 minutes while you're watching it.  I plan on doing this again while I watch the hockey game tonight, and hopefully I'll be tired enough to fall asleep sometime around midnight.  I am an extremely motivated person right now, and it's my hope that you'll be reading a lot of positive things in this blog in the months to come...

Speaking of positive things, Zach Greinke, my favorite fantasy pitcher, was involved in another brawl last night...  MERP... (<<< Alyssa word).  To his credit, when Greinke got hit in the head by a pitch while batting (don't you love that pitchers have to bat in the National League???), he stood there and DID NOT charge the mound, or anybody for that matter (although a brawl ensued anyway, as a result of earlier hostilities that occurred in the Dodgers game against the Diamondbacks).  I just see the day coming where one of my fantasy teams has as many players on the disabled list as it does in the starting lineup...

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







    





Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Could You? (21)/Stanley Cup

"Is it really necessary for you to clap along to the Fraggle Rock theme song every single time? -My dog, probably-" -@okaymachado- (via twitter)

"Keep on dreaming, even if it breaks your heart..." -@niles_melissa- (via twitter)

"Every time I think of going back to school for my doctorate, I just read other people's tweets who are in school, and then go back to sleep..." -@DanaDavidson- (via twitter)



Could you do yourself a big favor and get your sleep right Coach?  You'll love this...  So last night, after having stayed awake until 6:00 a.m. on Sunday night/Monday morning, I stayed awake until 9:30 this morning...  YEAH...  Hopefully I can stay awake now without taking a nap for the next ten hours - if I can do that, I should be okay.  I don't know about you, but normally an hour of sleep keeps me awake for two hours (much like the "normal" 8 hours of sleep keeps people going for 16 hours)...  Well, I slept from 9:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m., so that should keep me going until just after midnight, and THEN, if I can just manage to crash through the night...  :)  It's becoming vital that I straighten it out now, because every waking moment in my near future will be focused on how I can make the most out of living in Austin, Texas (more people who can help me to do that are awake during the day than at 4:00 in the morning is where I'm going with that)...

Could you think about hard enough that you might finally "get it" Coach?  Okay, so I'm walking through the Texas State campus to go to the Square yesterday, and I pass the 'Paws N Go' store located just off of the Quad.  I have walked by this store SEVERAL TIMES, but this time it occurred to me:  "Paws N Go, as in, pause to buy something, and then go...  Is that how they meant it?..."  I don't know if I've been so dense that I FINALLY had this "REVELATION," or if I'M THE CLEVER ONE, and no one else has EVER read that into it, including the creator(s)...  Yeah, I've probably been that dense...

Could you give us one of those cold, hard, facts of life kind of quotes from an unexpected source Coach?  Colleen, who is one of my friends and a former coworker, is one of the sweetest sounding, most unassuming sources for the words that you're about to read.  I honestly don't remember what we were talking about (and I may have just walked up on this conversation at closing) when I heard the words, "If you don't have common sense, then you deserve it..." come from Colleen's mouth...  Like I said, I don't remember the context, but let me give you an example of a situation where I believe that this would apply:  As I was waiting  at an intersection (the bottom of North LBJ) to cross the street onto campus a few days ago, there was a pause before the second car in line moved after the light turned green, and when I looked over, I saw that the driver was flanked to two dogs in the front seat, AND that her delay in moving forward was caused by her texting, which she CONTINUED TO DO as she made her way through the light, and onto the construction heavy Sessom Drive...  Now if she were to get into an accident, reference Colleen's quote above, right???  I swear, you have to be SO CAREFUL AND ALERT...

Could you be more outgoing Coach?  Yeah..., RIGHT???  :)  I was enjoying the air conditioning in Slackers at work a few nights ago when I got into a conversation with one of our customers.  After a few minutes, Katie stated, "You're cool.  You don't talk in the hall..."  HUH?!  :P  As I tried my best to respond to her like she wasn't crazy (I probably failed), I asked Katie, "WHAT are you talking about?  I ALWAYS talk to people who stop and want to talk..."  And then she said, "I asked for your name, and all you said was, 'Coach'..."  (She played the part of me in a mocking voice also, saying... "COACH...")  ;)  And then I looked at her as if to say (while I actually said it of course), "yeah..., that's what you asked me!"  :)  It was nice meeting you Katie, and when you speak of me..., please speak kindly...  :P

Could you make a prediction for us Coach?  I PREDICT that if I had a DOLLAR for every time that somebody refers to me at Harper's/Slackers/The Veranda between now and the end of the year, that I could move to Las Vegas and live off of that money for a year, and that the amount would be at least $20,000.00 (for those of you who are math impaired, that means that it is my belief that I will be referenced at least 20,000 times between now and the end of 2013).  Now this reference could simply be 'Coach', or it could be, "where is that one hundred year-old guy that used to work here?", or it could be, "yeah, the guy with the blog..., the most NON-WRITING GUY that ever had a blog...," or "that poker chip guy," or "that sports illiterate dude..."  ANYTHING along those lines is what I'm saying - just ANY REFERENCE to me, by ANYONE...  TWENTY-THOUSAND TIMES...  I feel bad for my former coworkers...  ;)


Could you stop stalling, and give us your prediction for the Stanley Cup Finals?  Okay..., but first, let's look at my predictions for the last round:

My Prediction/Actual Result

Blackhawks over the Kings in 5 games/Blackhawks in 5 games (OF COURSE!)  ;)
Penguins over the Bruins in 5 games/Bruins in 4 games (UH OH...)  :O

WELL..., let me tell you what I've been thinking..., what my train of thought has been..., as I've continued to pick against the Bruins in the later rounds.  I VIVIDLY REMEMBER Boston being down two goals to the Maple Leafs REALLY LATE in that game, that seventh game, and have held it against them.  I held it against them as they were about to face a Rangers team that had an exciting series win over the Capitals, and again against a Penguins team that had just been CRUISING through the playoffs...  At this point I'm starting to think that I should have viewed that Bruins comeback much like the Red Sox turnaround against the Yankees when they were down 3 games to 0 in 2004...  The Rangers looked SICK against the B's, ESPECIALLY in Game 3 at home, when the "GARDEN CROWD" was virtually nonexistent...  The Pens offense was virtually nonexistent in this last series...

As for the Blackhawks..., well..., I've had them in every series so far (and I'm 10-4 through 3 rounds of the NHL playoffs to this point).  The Hawks were down 3 games to 1 against the Red Wings, and it really did look as if there was no way that they were going to beat Detroit at that point, as well as the Wings were playing (a commentator's thoughts, which I had to agree with)...  Of course Chicago came back, and then they beat the defending champion Kings in five games - sometimes I'm right...  ;)

Now the NHL utilizes a 2-2-1-1-1 format as opposed to the NBA's 2-3-2 format to determine who is hosting each game of the series.  The Blackhawks have home-ice advantage entering this series, but the Bruins have STIFLED their last two opponents, so I'm sorry Lightning, and I hate to jinx you Pete (and Bruins fans everywhere, including my friends up in New England), but I'm predicting...

Bruins over the Blackhawks in 6 games


I hope that all of you have a great evening of basketball (Spurs vs. the Heat - 8:00 p.m. CST - ABC) and I'll see you again tomorrow!
  










  




Monday, June 10, 2013

The Next Chapter...

"Woman are all best friends at 2:00 a.m. in the bathroom at the bar..."
-@cuckoo_cachu- (via twitter)

"Ever noticed that life lets you win every now and again..., just to keep you interested..." -@P8NT4R- (via twitter)

"My new diet started off really well this morning until I got hungry..."
-@Matty_Lombardo- (via twitter)

"Looking over your shoulder only detracts from accomplishing the task ahead..."
-@MarcusOreally- (via twitter)



Good evening everyone.  I apologize for the very late Monday night post, but I have some good news for you (or likely VERY BAD NEWS if you enjoy reading quality writing)...  :)  I plan on posting more frequently in the near future, and if I don't post daily, it will be almost daily...  Today I realized that I have a backlog of things to say and more time to say them...  The next chapter in my life has begun as my last day working at Harper's/Slackers/The Veranda was on Saturday, and as you can tell, I haven't straightened out my sleep schedule yet - this post would have already been published if I was sleeping in the realm of normal people, and not on vampire time...  I added John Lackey (Red Sox/pitcher) to one of my fantasy teams today, and I woke up from an early evening nap (double segue - sleep schedule and fantasy baseball) in time to see the Sox bullpen blow a win for him (this surprises NO ONE by now, I know)...  As a matter of fact, let's get the fantasy baseball out of the way right now...


League 1 (25 entry fee - 1st place/125, 2nd place/25)

1)  DraftDodgers                                   73.50 (new leader in this league)
2)  Neshanic                                        73.00 (my belief system is crushed now) :P
3)  Shazzam                                        59.50 (just ahead of a logjam of teams)
9)  The View From Bikini Hill                  39.00 (amazed I even have 39 points)


League 2 (40 entry fee - 1st place/300, 2nd place/50)

1)  Breaking Bats                                 83.00 (impressive lead)
2)  4troublemakers                               69.00 (leading the next group)
3)  Loons XXIV                                     67.50 (reaching for second)
6)  The Bikini Hill Bobcats                    49.50 (had a pretty rough week)

League 3 (40 entry fee - 1st place/300, 2nd place/50)

1)  jonnylove7                                      66.50 (tenuous lead in my most competitive league)
2)  Nappy Heads                                  65.50 (again, my belief system is crushed) :P
3)  Mad Men                                        62.50 (my favorite show, hanging tough)
5)  The Bikini Hill Nine                          55.50 (my best chance to get my money back)
5)  Pittsburg Crawfords                         55.50 (1 of 6 teams within 11 points of 1st place)

Okay, so The View From Bikini Hill has NINE PLAYERS on the disabled list now, and as I'm fact-checking right now, I see that Jedd Gyorko (who is still in starting lineup) was placed on the DL today.  IF I WAS TRYING to pick the players that I thought would get injured, I couldn't hit a number this high!!!  As long as you're laughing, it's okay though - I'm here for your entertainment...  ;)  #courtjester  The Bikini Hill Bobcats, by comparison, only have five players on the DL.  The Bikini Hill Nine only lists four players on the DL, which probably explains the success of that team.  OH, and The View From Bikini Hill is the team that I added Lackey to, the team who suffered through the Red Sox squandering the SIX RUNS that they scored in the FIRST INNING (on a related note, Alex Cobb is NOT a starter for ANY of my teams, so that's a tough break for someone out there)...  ;)


As I said, I have a myriad of subjects to write about, and I will get to them in due time.  There are some of them that I can't put off until later however.  First of all, I want to give a shoutout to all of my friends at Harper's/Slackers/The Veranda.  As I wrote in my three weeks notice (yes, an extra week - I'm a visionary, I know...), it was a great group of people to work with.  I was also told that I'm welcome back anytime, and I THINK that was meant as just more than as a paying customer...  ;)  Seriously, great group of people to work with, and a lot of great customers...  Thank you...

Next, Amy, Mo, and Raymond get special shoutouts for getting me some of the FOOD that I listed in my "going away food wish list" post (the entry wasn't actually titled that, so don't look for it under that name)...  Mo brought me 2 bags of Haribo Gummy Bears (is it completely horrible that 1 of the bags has disappeared already?), and her friend Amy brought me a bag of Snyder's of Hanover 'Hot Buffalo Wing' pretzel pieces... I know that I requested Gardetto's, but Amy said that she couldn't find them.  HOWEVER, this little bag of pretzels (only half-eaten) has a code on it which enables me to get 14 issues of Sports Illustrated for $1.00.  It's a damn shame that I don't like sports, huh?...  ;)  And as we waited for our establishment to get busy on Saturday night, Raymond ordered some PIZZA from Papa John's!!!  I woke up really early (4:00 p.m.) for my 8:00 p.m. shift on Saturday night, so the pizza was a LIFE SAVER...

And then there's ELLEN...  :)  This girl is the proof that I'm one hundred years old...  Back in my second year of teaching and coaching, and my first at a new school (a hundred years ago, of course), I coached with Ellen's dad and taught with Ellen's mom.  Chris and Paula were nice enough to let me stay at their house on Friday nights so that I didn't have to make the half-hour drive back to Dallas, followed by the quick turnaround on Saturday mornings to be back in town by 8:00 a.m. on Saturday mornings when I was coaching football.  Well, Ellen was born during that fall (during the best month of the year by the way, and that has nothing to do with the fact that my birthday is in October also), and for some unexplained reason, this little girl likes me...  I actually had a few photographs of Ellen as a youngster included among the myriad of pictures that I would display on or near my desk in my classrooms as I moved on to other schools, and was asked several times if she was my daughter.  Of course my response was always along the lines of, "a girl that pretty..., MY CHILD???  C'mon..."  ;)  Well, Ellen graduated from high school on Saturday (a year early I might add - overachiever...), and did so as the VALEDICTORIAN OF HER CLASS, and I'm very proud to give her a paragraph in my blog as she moves on to the next chapter in her life also.  Congratulations Ellen - I'm SO PROUD of you!!!  :)

I hope that all of you have a great day and I'll see you again on Tuesday (which is probably today)...  :)

    




 




Thursday, June 6, 2013

I Remember The First Time (20)

"Sometimes you never really know the true value of a moment until it becomes a memory..."
-@AdamDelane- (via twitter)

"I'd have less of a headache if I put my phone away each time I have free time..."
-@b_jai2012- (via twitter)

"Believe in yourself and there will come a day when others will have no choice but to believe in you..." -@Okema_07- (via twitter)

"You're never too old to be young..." -@Starlight2112- (via twitter)

"Everyone's all like "summer's finally here" and I'm over here like "summer started a month ago"..." -@luhoral- (via twitter)



I remember the first time that I knew that somebody lived in San Marcos...  As soon as I read that last tweet above, I KNEW that she had to be a Bobcat...  Forecast high of 91 today, in case you were wondering...

I remember the first time that I was quick...  Last night "Socks" (one of our regulars who is a local tattoo artist) walked by while I was going through my usual ritual.  He commented "you and your poker chips...," and I instantly fired back, "you and your tats..."  ;)

I remember the first time that I got positive feedback about Bikini Hill's new look...  Everything that I've heard about the changes here has been upbeat, especially in comparison to the bright green that I had recently implemented.  If you have any more feedback for me (good or bad), please let me know...

I remember the first time that I wasn't surprised...  Stephen Strasburg and Jake Peavy both went on the disabled list yesterday.  Strasburg is one of my fantasy pitchers, and Peavy..., IS ONE OF MY FANTASY PITCHERS...  Shocking, I know...

I remember the first time that I was punished for doing something positive...  George Karl was named the NBA's 'Coach of the Year' less than a month ago, so naturally the Denver Nuggets fired him today...  As bad as I feel for Coach Karl, it's strangely reassuring to know that I'm not the only person who's ever been unappreciated and ambushed - hang in there Coach...

I remember the first time that I felt even better about being a Spurs fan...  Last night at work when I looked up at one of our t.v. screens, I saw a shot of Justin Bieber wearing a Miami Heat ballcap... That's all...  :)

I remember the first time that it was my last weekend at Harper's/Slackers/The Veranda...  This is it folks - it's time to start a new chapter in my life (I'm really wishing now that I would have learned how to read)...  Ba dump, ching!..  ;)  ANYWAY, if you want to give me that goodbye handshake, hug, fistbump, pile of cash, list of complaints, etc..., come by and see me tonight, tomorrow night, or Saturday night...

Have a great day, and remember that the first game of the NBA Finals is TONIGHT!  See ya on Monday... :)







  








Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Could You? (20)/NBA Finals

"When you become number one and everybody talks about how much you're going to kill the other team and they've done nothing but lose and you're on the road, it's at night and it's cold, it's a trap game..." -Mack Brown- (University of Texas/Head Football Coach)

"We need to play.  We don't need to play a game, take a week off, play a game, take another week off.  That's not a very good schedule for us..." -Dennis Franchione- (Texas State University/Head Football Coach)

"We have guys that are inspired by these types of moments in the bright lights..." -Erik Spoelstra- (Miami Heat/Head Basketball Coach)

"I asked them if it wasn't too much trouble, if I wasn't being too pushy, if they could execute what we were trying to do.  And if it didn't make them too angry, if they also wanted to play some defense on the other end, that would be great..." -Gregg Popovich- (San Antonio Spurs/Head Basketball Coach)




Could you write a lot about sports and colleges today Coach?  Yes, I believe that I could, and good evening everyone...

Could you leave the predictions to me brother?  So after the first game of the Bruins/Penguins series, a game that Boston won 3-0, my brother predicted that the Pens would change goalies before the series was finished.  Fast forward to the second game of the series last night, where Pittsburgh pulled their goalie at the 3:29 mark of the first period after the Penguins fell behind 3-0 - good call Pete...

Could you tell us about another text that your brother sent you?  I have to admit that I don't watch even close to the amount of college softball that I used to since I stopped coaching it as a high school coach.  Last night I get a text from my brother that says, "how about this softball game?"  I change the channel to find Tennessee and Oklahoma tied 3-3 in the top of the 12th inning, after each team had just scored all 3 of their runs in the 11th inning.  After Tennessee was retired in their half of the 12th, the Sooners got a runner on base.  At this point, Oklahoma sends a batter to the plate that has been hitting very well, and the commentator says, "Will they walk her? No..."  And then, BAMMMMM!!!  When I look up from my computer monitor, I see a ball clearing the fence just inside the left field foul pole, and the game is over.  The Sooners now lead the championship series of this year's NCAA Women's College World Series 1-0, with the second game taking place tonight at 7:00 p.m. CST (ESPN).


Could you tell us something about Texas State University and the University of Texas?  Well, yesterday was the first day of summer classes at Texas State, and Thursday will be the first day that summer classes meet at UT.  You know that this only means one thing:  the upcoming football season is now less than three months away...  ;)  Being the team player that I am, I researched the 2013 football schedules for each of these programs today, and I'm about to type them for you below...


Texas State Bobcats 2013 Football Schedule

Aug. 31  @ Southern Mississippi
Sep.   7  vs. Prairie View A&M
Sep. 14  OFF
Sep. 21  @ Texas Tech
Sep. 28  vs. Wyoming
Oct.   5  @ Louisiana-Lafayette
Oct. 12  vs. Louisiana-Monroe
Oct. 19  vs. Georgia State
Oct. 26  vs. South Alabama
Nov.  2  @ Idaho
Nov.  9  OFF
Nov. 16  @ Arkansas State
Nov. 23  vs. Western Kentucky
Nov. 29  @ Troy


Texas Longhorns 2013 Football Schedule

Aug. 31  vs. New Mexico State
Sep.   7  @ BYU
Sep. 14  vs. Ole Miss
Sep. 21  vs. Kansas State
Sep. 28  OFF
Oct.   3  @ Iowa State
Oct. 12  vs. Oklahoma (@ Cotton Bowl)
Oct. 19  OFF
Oct. 26  @ TCU
Nov.  2  vs. Kansas
Nov.  9  @ West Virginia
Nov. 16  vs. Oklahoma State
Nov. 23  OFF
Nov. 28  vs. Texas Tech
Dec.   7  @ Baylor

The thing that pleases me the most about these schedules (and that should make San Marcos and Austin businesses smile) is that the Bobcats and Longhorns do not host a single home game on the same day as each other this fall...  That's the reason that I chose the specific Coach Fran quote above that I did.  Between open dates and one team being on the road while the other is at home, I will have the opportunity to see any home game that I choose to attend this fall...  :)  I have also decided that as a part of making my weekly football predictions, I will predict the final score for all of the Texas State and UT football games this fall... :O

Could you please stop stalling and give us your prediction for the NBA Finals Coach?  Well, before I do that, let's take a look at the previous rounds...  After the first 3 rounds of the playoffs, I am now 10-4 picking the winner of each series.  Below is a recap of my predictions for the last round, and my prediction for the finals:


Third Round - My Prediction/Actual Result

Heat over the Pacers in 7 games/Heat in 7 games
Spurs over the Grizzlies in 7 games/Spurs in 4 games


NBA Finals Prediction

Spurs over the Heat in 7 games


As a Spurs fan, I obviously want the Heat to lose, but I try not to be biased when I make my predictions here.  If you remember my preseason predictions, I predicted that the Thunder would meet the Heat in a rematch of last season's NBA Finals.  At the time I made that call, OKC still had Harden, and Westbrook hadn't suffered his playoff injury.  That is the reason that I don't like making "prop bets" - too many things can happen over the course of a season.  Well, these developments opened the door for the Spurs.  The Spurs and the Heat played each other very closely in each of their games in the regular season this year.  As  you might recall, each team played a game without its superstars.  I'm sure that David Stern remembers, since a team is supposed to make sure that its stars are on the court to please the road fans instead of looking out for its own best interests evidently...  Anyway, one reason that I like the Spurs in this series is that they got the chance to rest a little bit.  Another reason that I like them is that they seem to be more disciplined that the Heat.  If somebody is going to get frustrated or is going to be ejected from a game in this series, I would see that happening to someone on Miami's team first.  I also believe that the Spurs have a deeper bench than the Heat.  And yes, I do realize that the Spurs will have to win a Game Seven in Miami if the series goes that long, but I just believe that it's going to be a great series, much like the Spurs/Pistons series of 2005.

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