February Bonus Day

Good afternoon everyone.  Once every four years we get this day, February 29th.  Just sitting here thinking about it, I cannot recall having known anyone whose birthday is today.  I'm going to give you another ramble today, but I feel less guilty about it looking at the calendar.  In just a few weeks it will be very easy to fuel my Friday entries with sports material for a couple of months, with the random Wednesday sports blog.  Although I like doing this blog on a regular schedule (Monday, Wednesday, Friday at the moment), I do not want it be a chore, which is why I don't spend hours researching random sports-related topics just so I can have something to write about on Fridays.  Football predictions, the NCAA basketball tournament, etc..., when I am guaranteed to be following what is happening, writing the Friday entries is EASY...  ;)  To recap my gameplan for a couple of entries that I will be making next month, I will be making a multitude of different NCAA Tourney predictions on Wednesday, March 14th, and I will be making my regular season Major League Baseball standings predictions for every ballclub on Friday, March 25th.  'Selection Sunday' (the announcement of brackets) for the NCAA Tourney will be taking place a week from this Sunday, on the 11th of March.  I had a nice surprise waiting for me when I returned home from work last night regarding my fantasy baseball league.  I signed up for my spot a few weeks back (going on 3 weeks maybe), and at that time I was 2nd of the 10 teams needed to make the league go.  If 10 teams don't sign up for a league by the projected draft time, that specific league doesn't 'make', and you have to sign up for another one.  Seeing that my draft was scheduled for Sunday, March 25th, I really wasn't worried about the league not having enough teams, but it's nice to know that your league is 'locked', and also fun and helpful to find out which spot you have in the draft.  Well, when I left for work last night, the league only had 6 teams in it, but when I returned home to find out if anyone else had joined, I couldn't find my league's draft time on the list.  Sure enough, when I checked my e-mail, I had the confirmation that my league is officially 'locked', and the e-mail came at 7:45.  This means that in about 2 hours, 4 people signed up for my league.  Anyway, I found out that I will have the 3rd overall draft pick in my league.  I picked 7th out of 10 teams last year under the same format.  What I obviously like about selecting 3rd is that if someone asks me to list my top 3 prospects for the draft, I am GUARANTEED to get one of them.  This is a 'snake draft' for any of you who have played fantasy football under the same draft format, so picking 3rd means that I will next pick 18th when it comes back around, and then 23rd, and then 38th, etc, etc... for 28 rounds.  Each team owner has 75 seconds to make their selection each time, and 280 players are drafted all together, so the draft takes a little while (I believe that it took 2 1/2 hours last year).  If you have been following the blog regularly, you already know at this point in my life that baseball season and fantasy baseball just get me to the next football season.  I'm still shaking off that 300 dollar bill on my vehicle repair, and doing everything that I can to make a move back to Las Vegas at the end of the summer.  Hopefully I can save enough money and the economy will cooperate enough to allow me to do so.  It will definitely give more punch to the blog if I have action on the predictions that I am giving to you...  I saw something nice on facebook today when one of my former co-workers who I mentioned here a little while back (the milk story) noted that she was glad that she wore her heels to work today.  This notation was accompanied by her posing in a photo with David Robinson...  She recently received a well-deserved job offer from a radio station in San Antonio and is already 'living the dream'...  I ended up being a 'trooper' and watching the whole Daytona 500 on Monday night.  As I watched the race, I realized that auto racing is one sport that I could not compete in.  I am weary of the idiots on our nation's highways when they get too close to me while we're driving 70 miles an hour.  The prospect of racing HOUR AFTER HOUR on an oval track where I would be driving in a 'pack' of cars traveling at 200 miles per hour does not appeal to me.  The world of auto racing is one of the sports arenas where my brother has managed to outdistance me in life.  I have never been to a live NASCAR race, a live fight (boxing or UFC/MMA, etc...), or an NHL game.  Don't get me wrong, I have been to an NFL game, and NUMEROUS Major League Baseball and NBA games (including all of the Western Conference Finals and Finals home games in the Spurs' title runs in 1999 and 2003).  This doesn't mean that my brother isn't a punk however.  :)  I definitely need to make connections if and when I get back to Las Vegas to take advantage of the opportunities to view these sporting events.  I hope that each of you had as good a month as I did (outside of the vehicle repair).  One of my friends brought me a calendar from Las Vegas for 2012, and I received it at the end of January.  Since the February photo was a picture of a statue (outside of the Statue of Liberty, I could not care less about statues), I ripped the statue photo out so I could look at a Strip photo that features that redone Aladdin, which is now the Planet Hollywood Casino.  I can remember doing this like it was yesterday, and now tomorrow is March.  For all of the little sayings that I may have problems with for whatever reason, you better BELIEVE that TIME DOES FLY...  I hope that you have a great day and I will see you again on Friday.
      

I Won't Lie, It Hurts...

Good afternoon boys and girls.  I apologize for missing my Friday entry here.  I was a little preoccupied with the condition of my vehicle, and today I found out the damage - THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS...  The alternator needed to be replaced, so hopefully I won't have the urge to eat very often this week... ummm, month...  I'm trying to save up money to move back to Las Vegas, and that bill was painful to say the least.  Weather permitting, I will have the chance to watch other people with car trouble tonight as the Daytona 500 is scheduled to start in about two hours.  Yesterday the broadcasters said that this is the first time that they've ever had to change the day of the race, and we'll see if they can actually race tonight...  With my engine running, I was able to do an errand for my friend today, which allowed us to witness an amusing confrontation...  (Yes, this is my normal Monday ramble now...).  As I was leaving the grocery store after picking up a rotisserie chicken to eat my depression away, my friend called me and asked if I could pick up some cigarettes for him (while I'm sitting in my car with my then-hot chicken - what are the odds??)...  Anyway, I go back in and pick up the smokes, and then proceed to my workplace.  My friend and I go out front after I drop off his delivery, and happen upon a confrontation that is occurring in the alleyway, as two drivers are trying to use the same one-car alley, and are yelling at each other from behind the wheels of their respective vehicles (maybe they knew I needed material for my ramble).  The cars are facing each other left-bumper to left-bumper, head-on, with the guy who had obviously just turned into the alleyway (I know this because he has advanced maybe 10 yards into the alley) yelling at the driver of the other car, "you'll have to back up because my car doesn't go in reverse..."  (true story).  The woman driving the other car yells something back at him (it was easier to hear the guy because his open driver's side window was literally facing us and was feet from where we were standing), to which the guy responds with something to the effect of "it doesn't bother me..." (as if he is prepared to sit there for the long haul)...  After about another minute (count out a literal minute to yourself) they start chirping loudly again, and then the guy somehow manages to squeeze his car in-between the lady's car and the wall of the opposite building - Freaking surreal...  :)  This all followed the events of about 45 minutes earlier when I walked to pick up my vehicle from the mechanic, and had to use the same crosswalk where I was almost rundown a few months earlier (the incident which I described in a blog entry a little while back)...  I am waiting to get the go-ahead from the crossing light, and as the light turns red, a truck pulls up to the signal, stops at the red light, and then GUNS IT, BLOWING THRU the light as the opposite light turns green and we get the go-ahead to cross...  I roll my eyes (I WAS NOT on the crosswalk yet, thankfully) and the girl crossing from the opposite side of the street sees what happens and my reaction, and I nod as she says something to me about his genius driving in passing...  There are a few people from San Marcos, America that I would like to enter at Daytona tonight - I think they would spice things up a little...  ;)  There is still room in my fantasy baseball league at www.cdmsports.com if anyone is interested in joining.  Under the 'Draft & Play' option, it's a 25-dollar league that is drafting on Sunday, March 25th at 11:00 a.m. CST using rotisserie-style scoring (not points).  The 10-team league still had 5 spots open when I looked this morning.  I hope that all of your vehicles are working and that you get to enjoy the race tonight.  I will see you again on Wednesday.
    

GRRRRRRRRR.....

Good afternoon everyone.  Today's post will be an impromptu ramble after I didn't make a trip to 'Bikini Hill' for the third day in a row on a BEAUTIFUL San Marcos Wednesday...  GRRRRRRRRR.....  Instead I have wasted half the day (over two hours, divided by a lunch break) trying to start my car after it decided to revert back to its behavior of a few months ago.  The battery has juice, but the connections to the battery aren't giving me the necessary charge to start the engine.  GRRRRRRRRR.....  This seems to be a result of me having to hit the brakes pretty hard in a parking lot last night to avoid a collision with another vehicle, at which point the battery and brake lights lit up on my console.  GRRRRRRRRR.....  Anytime that this happened during the summer or fall, I was able to readjust the battery cables and get the car to start.  I will probably end up giving it another go later tonight because I am really not keen on the idea of paying to have my car towed and then paying again to have it fixed...  After working and cleaning up after work last night, I can confidently say that my least favorite part of Fat Tuesday is feathers...  Little orphan feathers, laying all over the place...  I can't do a ramble for you without another bank story.  This time when I went to the bank, I had a cup full of change that I have been saving since I moved back to San Marcos in August.  After I gave the cup to the young lady to dump into the change machine in the back of the bank, she reappeared to let me know that there would be a 2% service charge if my change totaled $100.00 or more.  My initial response (in my head) was that I hoped the total didn't go over 100 so I wouldn't have to pay a fee, but then it occurred to me that if the total DID go over 100, I'm only giving them 2 dollars for EVERY 100 that I get back.  Human nature is a funny thing...  As it turns out, she asked me to guess how much change I had after the machine had counted it (the tellers like playing this game with their customers as this has happened to me before).  I guessed that it was $50.00 and it turned out to be a little bit more than $65.00...  If you find a moral to that story then you are a better person than I am...  :)  Leaving the grocery store last night I saw that there is a new 'tabloid' about reality shows.  It is really sad that we have gotten to the point that we have so many reality shows that there is enough drivel to fill a tabloid with on a regular basis.  Yeah, I'm pretty bitter because my car won't start, but still...  If you've been following the blog regularly, you've probably figured out that my t.v. viewing habits are sports, 'The Big Bang Theory', sports, 'Law & Order', sports, poker, and sports...  I am going to give up for today because I am a little tired after pointlessly attempting to get my car to start.  I hope that you're having a better day than I have, and I'll see you again on Friday.
    

President's Day & 'Toddlers And Tiaras'

Good morning everyone.  I hope that you are enjoying your President's Day.  As I stumble out of bed to do my ramble today, I am doing so after enjoying about as much sleep in a 24-hour period as I have for quite a while. I went into work for an early event on Saturday, which meant that I slept less than normal beforehand.  Of course this was accompanied by working longer than I usually do for a normal shift...  Anyway, I am well-rested now, and if the weather forecast holds up, today may be the first day of 2012 that I make a trip to the actual 'Bikini Hill'.  It is supposed to be 67 degrees and sunny this afternoon in San Marcos, America, which would be perfect for stretching out and digging into my fantasy baseball magazine on my day off.  In the meantime, let me do some rambling...  Last week one of my friends showed me a clip from the show 'Toddlers And Tiaras' on her phone.  GOODNESS GRACIOUS...  This may be the most disturbing thing that's ever been on television.  The clip that I saw focused on a six year-old girl who is a little beauty pageant contestant, and she was hamming it up for the cameras...  At one point as she's dancing around she actually says, "A dollar makes me holler"  WOW...  This is actually someone's CHILD!  Completely unacceptable...  On a much lighter note, as much as I will bash commercials that I don't like, I found one that I do like this weekend.  Clorox has a commercial where a mother and child are waiting at a bus stop and the child is wiping his nose with his sleeve.  The mother says, "don't use your sleeve" - the boy then proceeds to wipe his nose on the sleeve of the white dress shirt of the man that is standing beside him...  Well played...  :)  I read something from the AllVegasPoker website that I have referenced here before that I truly had a hard time wrapping my brain around.  A poker player was discussing sports betting in his story and he made this statement:  "I have a feeling with sports betting (that) you can bet either team and as long as there isn't an upset, you have a good shot at winning..."  HUH??!!  If you bet the FAVORITE and there isn't an upset, then...  :)  My brain just FROZE for a moment as I tried to process his statement...  As I try to determine whether or not I'll be able to make a move back to Las Vegas at the end of this summer, I am reminded of the movie 'Apollo 13'.  There is a point in the movie where they are going through a checklist of problems that will need to be solved in order to bring the crew back, and someone basically points out that we'll worry about that when we get to it because we're only this far down the list right now...  (The actual movie quote is much better, but I can't seem to find it online right now).  Between saving up money, and finding a job in the desert where the current unemployment rate is 12.7%, and finding a place to live, and, and, and....  Well, I have this afternoon to look forward to if the sun does indeed break through as forecast...  Oh, by the way, 'Bikini Hill' has gone over 4,000 views now, so we'll see if we can get 16,000 more views by the end of the year to reach the 20,000 that I predicted...  :)  I hope that you have a great day and I'll see you again on Wednesday.    
                           

Approaching Tipoff

Good afternoon everyone.  There is a lot of housekeeping going on in San Marcos, America today at the home of 'Bikini Hill'.  Not your literal housecleaning, but preparations being made for future blogs and things of that nature.  With the NBA All-Star Game being played next Sunday on February 26th and the NCAA Men's Tournament Selection Show taking place on Sunday, March 11th, I am slowly but surely gearing up for MY basketball season.  I may have touched on this before, but for those of you who may be new to the blog, this is what my sports year looks like at this point:  Football Season; Basketball Season (beginning with the college conference tournaments and the NBA playoff run); Hockey Season (beginning with the playoff run); Baseball Season (picking up on the heels of basketball and hockey finishing).  I play fantasy baseball to get me through the summer and to September when the football season starts over again.  Intertwined in the sports year I will watch the Golf 'Majors', the big NASCAR races, various UFC fights, the World Cup every 4 years, the Olympics every 2 years, etc...  As I typed in a moment ago, the NCAA Men's Tourney brackets will be released on Sunday, March 11th.  I have decided to do my blog with various NCAA Tourney predictions on Wednesday, March 14th.  The tournament will actually begin on that day, so my blog will come out early to precede any action.  One of my predictions that was gold last March (I made the prediction on facebook because I did not begin writing this blog until September) was my call that NONE of the #1 seeds would reach the Final Four - NAILED IT!!!  ;)  Come back on March 14th and we'll see if I can get anything right this year...  Regardless of what I predict on that Wednesday, I will predict games up through and including the national championship game in subsequent Friday blogs.  By the way, if you are an NCAA hoops fan and a Las Vegas fan, the opening weekend of the NCAA Tourney each year (Thursday - Sunday) is the only event that rivals the Super Bowl in the desert annually for the amount of action that is wagered on games.  In a nutshell, it's a GREAT PLACE to watch basketball games for four days if you ever get the opportunity.  If you are a baseball fan, I will be releasing my regular season predictions for the upcoming MLB season on Friday, March 23rd.  This will include my guess at the records for each team this year, just like I did for the NBA regular season a few months back.  One of the predictions for the MLB season that I made last Friday is that the Philadelphia Phillies will win the National League's berth to the World Series this year.  They just have SO MUCH pitching.  For any of you who are looking for a place to play fantasy baseball, I play at www.cdmsports.com and have been playing there for years.  The league that I joined actually has eight spots left in it if you are interested in competing in the same league as me.  I am playing in a 25-dollar rotisserie league using players from the American and National Leagues (that's the cost for the whole season).  It is a 10-team league under the 'Draft & Play' option, and the draft is on Sunday, March 25th at 11:00 a.m. CST.  CDM offers various other options (AL or NL players only, different entry fees, different scoring types, etc...) if the framework of my league doesn't suit your taste.  If you do join my league, my team's name is the Bikini Hill Giants.  I am going to let you mark all of those dates on your calendars now, and I will see you again on Monday with my ramble.  I hope that you have a great weekend!
          

The Unstoppable Jeremy Lin

Good morning everybody.  Today's post is going to spotlight the new sensation in New York City that is Jeremy Lin, and then it will trail off into a ramble as we all wonder how we are going to survive until next Valentine's Day...  :P  As I typed here recently, it is going to take me a few more weeks to get into the full spirit of basketball season, but something is happening up in Gotham that is going to help me along.  As I was flipping through the channels yesterday, Stephen Colbert hit me with a great line.  In reference to Jeremy Lin, Colbert said, "You know that times are hard when a Harvard Economics Major has an easier time getting a job as an NBA point-guard than as a Wall Street bond trader."  Evidently Mr. Lin went undrafted after his college playing days ended, and he was released by the Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets before finding a spot to sleep on his brother's couch (this is very similar to the story in which I ended up on my sister's couch for a few weeks this past summer after failing to find a teaching and coaching position, but I have yet to hit it big time either sports betting or playing poker...).  ;)  The Knicks signed Lin to gain some needed depth at the point-guard position, and after some recent injuries he got his shot and has taken over New York City by storm.  His most recent heroics came last night in Toronto when he drained a three-pointer with less than a second remaining in the game, breaking a tie and giving the Knicks a 90-87 victory over the Raptors.  This comes on the heels of a two-point win by New York over the Timberwolves in Minnesota in their last game.  The game prior to that, which is the game when he appeared on my radar, he outscored Kobe Bryant at Madison Square Garden in a 92-85 triumph.  The Knicks are currently riding a six-game winning streak and Lin has been an instant celebrity.  It will be interesting to see if Lin is just a flash-in-the-pan or if he is going to be force for years to come.  He seems to be a character guy and I am rooting for him.

As I give you a little mini-ramble here, I hope that all of you enjoyed your Valentine's Day yesterday.  I followed the facebook posts yesterday, which included the sister of a co-worker of mine getting proposed to - very nice...  I also saw photos of cards and flowers and heart-shaped pizzas as Hallmark enjoyed one of its favorite holidays.  I worked last night, which started a five-day stretch for me that was extremely humid as San Marcos, America is preparing for a 75-degree day today on the 15th of February.  The chance of rain that is accompanying it doesn't make the weather ideal for going to Bikini Hill, but it beats 3 feet of snow and 20 degrees below zero, trust me...  Speaking of weather (like that segue?), I saw at the Weather Channel's website that a new show will be debuting on February 23rd.  'Lifeguard!  Southern California' will be hitting the airwaves, and the ad that I saw features a photo of a female lifeguard running along a beach 'Baywatch' style...  I predict that this show will become one of the network's highest-rated programs (see, I just can't help myself when it comes to making predictions).  ;)  Speaking of predictions, the friend of mine who was kind enough to give me a job when I struck out in the education field this past summer was FULL OF PREDICTIONS after work last night.  Of the three that he threw out there, I believe that the most-likely to occur is that Peyton Manning will never play football again.  Now read that carefully - I didn't say that I THINK that Manning will never take the field again.  I just said that of the three, that one is the most likely.  His second call was that Robert Griffin III won't see the field in his first two years in the NFL (not counting preseason games).  I jumped all over this one, saying that Griffin would see the field in special situations or even in a slash role (wide receiver, etc...), and that's IF he didn't get starts as a quarterback.  The third one, which really made me smile, is that he said that I couldn't stay off of facebook for two days, and that he was willing to bet me.  He was actually willing to bet on the Griffin prediction, but offered a much bigger wager on the facebook one.  I don't know how this wager would be monitored, but it reminds me of one my favorite quotes that I coined about myself:  "People have underestimated me my whole life."  ;)  Have a great day and we'll see you on Friday.
             

Las Vegas Deals

Good evening everyone.  As I begin this ramble, I have discovered recently that reading stories about Las Vegas does not quench my thirst for wanting to return.  I have recently rediscovered a website that is a compilation of personal stories about poker excursions to Las Vegas. Just take a moment to visit this site at www.allvegaspoker.com/tripreports.php if you want to skim through the over 2,000 poker trip reports that have been submitted to date.  You will also find a lot of comments here that speak to the quality of the hotels if you are looking for a play to stay on your next visit to the desert.  The site is up to date as stories have been submitted as recently as two days ago.  While on the subject, let me also take a moment to once again type in the address of my friend's blog, who lives in Las Vegas and is very talented at telling tales from the green felt.  Visit pkrdlr.blogspot.com/ (Life As A Las Vegas Poker Dealer) to skim through the over six years of stories that my friend has archived.  Today was a very lazy Monday for me as I slept as much as possible to prepare myself for working the next five days.  One of the things that I did accomplish today was renewing my driver's license though.  For those of you who live in Texas, you may renew your driver's license any time within a year of its expiration.  I was not aware of this and only made the trip to the office today to change my address on my license.  After waiting in the usual line, I was immediately sold when I was offered the option of renewing my license for the next five years, thus having to stand in this line one fewer time.  I made the clerk smile when she asked me for my weight, which resulted in me looking down at my waistline before answering...  :)  My weight will fluctuate depending on what I have been eating and how active I have been, so when I looked and answered "220", I managed to get a little smirk...  As I hung out around my apartment for most of the rest of the day, I realized that I am not in the mood to immerse myself in the current basketball season yet.  It seems like the optimal time to do this will occur in two weeks, when the college teams are preparing to compete in their conference tournaments and the professionals will be reaching the halfway point of their stunted season.  I do have a little rant for you about one of the NBA players who was at the microphone in the past couple of days though.  The Los Angeles Lakers won a very close game at Toronto, one that saw the Raptors turning the ball over with seconds remaining in the game due to a five-second call.  When asked about what happened after the game, Kobe Bryant basically said, "I was surprised.  I didn't go to college, but I can count..."  Brilliant...  I think that they teach you how to count to five in like..., kindergarten, but I am very impressed that you can count to FIVE Kobe...  Congratulations!!!  I'm not sure how the league will survive when a player with so much class leaves in a few years...  I was looking at the Yahoo! headlines a little earlier in the day, and when I skimmed down to the entertainment section, I found this GEM:  "Miley Cyrus cuts her hair again"...  REALLY?!!!  I wonder how many people clicked on that headline after reading it... (Yes, I'm rolling my eyes right now...).  This week I bought a box of ice cream for the first time in a while (yes, the ramble is hitting a new low right now), but have you bought a box of ice cream recently?  The box that it came in doesn't have the normal 'slot' closure like it used to (similar to that of a cereal box), but it closes more like a moving box, where you have all of these flaps that you have to fold over one another.  Now I went to college, but when it comes to folding a box that contains frozen food...  ;)  I hope that you have a good one and I'll see you again on Wednesday.