Happy Birthday Bro!

I want to give a big happy birthday to my brother! He turns 38 today.

As it falls, he turns 40 on a saturday. I think this has Vegas written all over it....

Top Chef Finale

On my goodness. What was Carla thinking??? The worst part is that she knew she screwed up. Each chef in the finale got the help from another chef (who happened to be from the show from year's past). Well, Carla's helper talked Carla into changing directions of her dishes. What a huge mistake and it cost her the championship. She has no one to blame but herself. The first two dishes she served the judges loved. She was leading. The last dishes were a disaster all because she changed what she was going to do. So frustrating. I really did not like Hosea and Stephan is just a jerk. Stephan was easily the most qualified or the best remaining chef but his dessert was too plain. Never leave the judges with a sub-par dish.

Anyway, it was a good season and I am looking forward to the next one.

April 17, 2005

That is the day I met John Elway. Elway is the reason I became a Bronco fan as a kid. I love him . Thanks to Murph having his wedding reception out in Rosemont right next to where the Chicago Rush play football, I had the pleasure of meeting Elway. You see Colorado's arena football team was playing Chicago's team and Elway was staying at the same hotel I was (he is part owner of the team). So Sunday morning, I sat in lobby starting at 9 am and talked with friends as they were checking out but mainly I was stalking Elway. Finally, Elway came walking down to the lobby. I was of course in my old school Broncos shirt. I walked over. Shook his hand and thanked him for all the years. He was gracious and probably scared. I then walked away on cloud nine. I will never forget that day.

Why am I telling this story? Well, this article/story blows away my little run-in with Elway. Once again, Elway delivers in a big way!

I am now going to watch some highlights from superbowl XXXIII.

No Swearing

Well, today is the start of Lent and being the "good" Catholic that I am, I am giving something up. I am giving up swearing. Every time, I swear that will cost me $1. So, if you hear me swear, let me know.

All proceeds will go back to the church.

Have a good day!

Autobots RULE!

It was an honor to meet one on Sunday and he is a movie star!






He also had three friends with him that were in car form.

I can not wait until the second movie debuts.

Random thoughts

This weekend was a little hectic but we got good sleep. It really did not start out that way but ended up that way. Here is a rundown of events.

1. Had a few beers after work on Friday. I was craving a cold one and luckily I knew a few people that were meeting up. So Michelle and I met them at the bar. We were home by 7:30 and in bed by 9:30.

2. Saturday morning started with a workout. Then I headed to the LU game at 3. At halftime, we left the game to head to a birthday party. LU did much better when I was not there.

3. The birthday party was fun but I broke my diet (well drinking the beer on friday broke the diet) and had two pieces of deep dish pizza and 4 beers. We left the part at 8 and went home. We were in bed by 10.

4. Sunday, we went to the autoshow in the morning. Bumblebee was AMAZING! He says hi to everyone. Once it started getting crowded, we took off and met Ploth and Stacia at PJ Clarkes.

5. I watched people eat at Clarkes and then we headed to the movies. Ploth and I saw The Wrestler. I LOVE IT. It is a sad movie and truthful. Mickey nailed the role. I mean nailed it.

6. We finally got home at 4:30 (left at 9:30) and we went to bowling at 6:30. Funk had an awesome series, 542, his highest ever. Many more are on the way. I guarantee that. I could not string any strikes together but bowled ok. I had a 493 I think. It is around there.

7. Hope you all have a great week!

The Autoshow

Lets just say that I am super excited to go to the autoshow this year. Usually, I don't go to the autoshow. Maybe if I am impressed this year, I will make it on an annual basis. The problem is I really do not like huge crowds and the autoshow is always one of the biggest. Crowds outside are fine but inside is a little different.

What is really pushing me to go to the autoshow is Bumblebee! I can not WAIT to see him and talk to him. I love transformers! I am so excited! I am also excited for July 4th weekend when the new transformer movie comes out. YESSS!

Anyway, I hope everyone has a good weekend!

What a TEASE!

This is a Top Chef blog. You are warned.

So, at the beginning I picked Jeff to win it all. Well he was recently eliminated and last night was the final four. Well, the show starts off with the last three to be eliminated cooking against each other for a chance to be back in it. Jeff is one of the three and he ends up winning! I AM BACK BABY! Now, we have five chefs and by the end of the show there will be three. The only catch for Jeff is that he must win the competition this week. Yikes.

So, the show is taking place in New Orleans and the cooks are doing a competition revolving around creole food. Since two of the competitors left are from Europe, they are immediately at a disadvantage. They don't know soul food! Well, to make a long story short Jeff rocked the competition but Carla was just a tab bit better and she ended up winning. ARGH! I am gone once again. BOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

As predicted the two Europeans (they call themselves team Europe - Stefan and Fabio) were in last place. Stefan has won the most challenges so far but is soooo cocky. Fabio has won some challenges as well but his demeanor is so much better. He is very charismatic.

They eliminated Fabio. I am a little shocked by this for one main reason. Whoever wins is basically an ambassador for the show. Stefan is a cocky, rude but very good chef. If he stays in the kitchen, he is fine. The problem is when you win the show, you do more than cook. For that reason alone, Fabio should have stayed.

Anyway, the three chefs left are Carla, Hosea, and Stefan. Stefan and Hosea are a bit of rivals and both come off on the show as jerks. Carla, I guarantee, is America's choice. She comes off very down to earth, funny, and modest. I think most people think, "I could be friends with her." I am no different. I hope Stefan and Hosea spend all their time and energy bickering as Carla walks in as Champion.

Sunday was A GREAT DAY TO BE A RAMBLER!

HELL YES LU!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, just wow. Loyola defeats the number 15 team in the nation, Butler! YES!!!!!!

How big of an upset is this? Well, check the RPI: Butler came in No. 13, Loyola No. 219. Whether you like the RPI measure or not, either way, one team is very good and one team is not so good.

Now, LU ends the season with three home games. Hopefully, we win both conference games.

On a sidenote, with LU beating Butler as my motivation, I bowled a 569 last night or average a 190. We too 5 out of 7 points as a team. Again, yesterday was a great day to be rambler!

Realignment of Baseball

With pitchers and catchers reporting this weekend, baseball is back in full swing. Before I even get to steroids, I wanted to bring up the lack of salary cap in baseball. Lets be honest. Baseball is making hand over fist right now and has been for some time. As a private business, they are doing exceptionally well. With that being said, it really is unfair to think that a small market team like the pittsburgh pirates have any chance of competing year in and year out with a team from Chicago or New York. Last year the Yankees payroll was $209m payroll and the Florida Marlins has a $21m payroll. Now, Tampa Bay had a $43m payroll and they were much more successfull, obviously, than the Yankees. The problem is that the small market team has a much smaller window to be successful. Once the playoffs are set, anything can happen. In a short series, the best team may not win.

Here is what I propose. Keep the AL and NL seperate but each yeah divide the divisions up by total payroll. You want to spend a lot of money. Fine. I agree that you should. If you have it, spend it. The only advantage you get is that the highest payroll division has four teams.

Here is how last year's AL divisions broken down.

AL East --------------AL Central -------------AL West
Tampa Bay---------- Chicago -----------------California
Boston--------------- Minnesota --------------Texas
New York ------------Cleveland --------------Oakland
Toronto --------------Kansas City------------ Seattle
Baltimore ------------Detroit

Here is how last year's AL divisions would have broken down according to me.

AL Macro------------AL Middle ----------AL Micro
Red Sox -------------California -----------Tampa Bay
Chicago --------------Toronto ------------Minnesota
New York -----------Cleveland -----------Kansas City
Detroit --------------Texas ---------------Oakland
----------------------Seattle --------------Baltimore

Now, I see this as a much more fair way of doing it. Bud Selig has already smeared baseball in so many ways. Why not help balance the payroll issue everyone is crying about?

Just an idea.

Editor's note: These divisions would be determined on an annual basis. Each year, teams would be re-assessed by their payroll.

Wrap-Up

So over the last week, I have been to Vegas and back. I have also picked up a wicked cold. Anyway, here are a few facts and figures from my last week.

1. I visited Utah for the first time ever. Put my feet in the state. Yeah Utah! I give it two thumbs up.
2. After beating your immune system down in a 48 hour period, spending 2 hours in a airport and then a 3.5 hours on a flight is not the best idea. Shockingly, a day later, I was sick.
3. If at any point I have a cigarette in my mouth (I can count on one hand how many times I have done this), tell me to cash in and go take a nap. I have no business gambling money.
4. Craps table can be very good and very bad, not much middle ground on the craps table.
5. Downtown is so much better than the strip. It is not even close.
6. If you ask the pitboss for decks of cards, they hand them over for free.
7. If I was going to make a list of the top 100 people I would randomly run into in Vegas, Smitty's parents would not have made the list. Yet, these are the people I ran into!
8. When the tables are not doing well, a bar crawl is just a fantastic idea. Thanks Ploth!
9. A completely painted house looks SOOOO much better than an all white house.
10. An orange room is really bright when the light is shinning in.

Happy hump day.

Superbowl Commercials

I thought the commercials were pretty good. Doritos easily took first place as a whole for their commercials. Let me review my top three individual commercials.

1. Ummm, the Heroes play football again NFL greats. At the end Elway flies down in his OLD SCHOOL BRONCO JERSEY to play QB. It was AWESOME! LOVED!
2. The doritos commercial with the crystal ball. LOVED IT! Easily number one if it wasn't for Elway.
3. The bud light commercial where the guy gets tossed out of a three story building for his terrible idea.

Good times!

Another Bronco gets SCREWED!

So, Shannon Sharpe was up for the hall of fame this year. He is 2nd in every TE category career-wise. He won three super bowls in a row. He is one of the greatest tight ends ever. But as usual, Broncos are not allowed in the Hall of Fame despite their 6 superbowl appearances and 2 wins. I personally never want to go back to Canton. F them.

Aaron Schatz from Football Outsiders really did nail it.

"I've been offline all day and just saw this news. Can somebody honestly tell me with a straight face that Shannon Sharpe is not a Hall of Famer? Shannon Sharpe was one of the two best tight ends in the NFL for a decade. He is second all-time among tight ends in pretty much every statistic, behind only Tony Gonzalez. You want a winner? The dude has three rings. It's hard to look at Terrell Davis' stats and say "wow, clearly this was a guy whose tight end sucked at blocking." Oh, and did we mention that Denver is the most under-represented franchise in the Hall of Fame? What, did they decide that talking with marbles in your mouth now disqualifies you from Canton? What the hell?"

Well said Mr. Schatz. Well said.

So, this is why I don't gamble for a living

I liked the Steelers minus 7 and the under. Well, it ended up being Arizona and the over. Both spreads though were very close. Nice job on Vegas for nailing those.

Speaking of Vegas, I am heading there on Thursday! Lets hope my gambling tendencies turns around. Baby needs a new pair of shoes!

Also, congrats to the Steelers and the Steeler fans. What a fun game to watch. I think it took 5 years off my brother's life though.