Double standards...

no, of course not, not in the NFL.

"How's this for a four-game stretch of NFL greatness?

W, 49-14
W, 41-10
W, 41-9
W, 51-24

That quartet of one-sided scores comes to you courtesy of the 2004 Indianapolis Colts from a November-December period during which Peyton Manning and Company annihilated the Texans, Bears, Lions, and Titans, respectively. And, you know it's funny, I don't remember one person whining about them running up the score."

This was written by Eric Wilbur for the Boston Globe, please feel free to read the rest of the article here, it's interesting.

I still don't know how I feel about the Patriots doing what they are doing. On one hand I think they should do whatever they want. Then I also wonder why they're doing it this way?

I can't wait for Sunday to be over.

Happy Birthday...

to my brother David.

To the man that did Letha and I's wedding ceramony....

Happy Birthday to You.
Happy Brithday to You.
Happy Birthday dear David, Happy Birthday to You.

I love you brother, see you Sunday.

Honeymoon...

So when panning to come to the Boston area we found out that Niagra Falls conveinantly was right in the middle (8 hours from Indy and 8 hours from Boston).

We arrived on Monday night around 9:30. When checking in they informed us that they over-booked our room type. So to apologize they were bumping us up to a suite. The suite was NASTY (in a good way), I mean NASTY!!!! It was two floors (16th and 17th), 2 full bathrooms with a hot tub...and EACH floor had a GINORMOUS window overlooking the falls. It was a nice place to spend our first night there, the only down fall was that we had to move to one of OUR type rooms the next day.

The next morning we went down stairs to get our new room. We were then informed that we could stay in the suite for an extra $150 a night. It was nice...just not that nice. We get to our regular room (mind you that it's a queen bed with a hot tub and another HUGE window over looking the falls) and open the window to another beautiful view. Afterwards we walked down to the Falls. It is such an unreal place, it doesn't look like it could really be real. It is awe inspiring to watch as the water flows over the side. I think for the 61 hours we were there, I must have watched the falls for a good 16 of it. After gawking at the waterfalls for a while we did a little bit of shopping and then hit one of the casinos. We walked out $30 richer, not a whole lot, but we were there for less than an hour and only played slots. After we got ready at the hotel we headed out to the TOURIST AREA (I'm not kidding, they actually mark it as THE TOURIST AREA) and went to Marvel Adventure City. It was a lame attempt to cash in on the tourists (Imagine what use to be Block Party, half the size and everything has Marvel Comic characters on it), I was such a sheep that night. It would have been cool to go with my neice and nephew, they would have LOVED it.

The next day we did the ADVENTURE PASS.

First on the adventure pass was the JOURNEY BEHIND THE FALLS. You get to go down and be almost parallel with the river, right next to the falls, pretty impressive. Also, they have tunnels that they have dug behind the falls to light it up at night, you get to walk down 2 of these tunnels and see the water rushing in front of you (it's basically a white wall of loud moving water), but it was cool to see.

Second was the MAID OF THE MIST. This is where you get on a boat and you get kind of close to the American Falls before going in the middle of the Horseshoe Falls. You get soaked but it is also something to marvel at.

Third was the WHITE WATER WALK. This part of the pass takes you down the river and brings you back down towards river level to show you how massive the rapids are (they are classified as a Class 6, some of the deadliest in the world). It was really cool.

That evening we went to eat at Wolfgang Puck's restaraunt (really good food for a high reasonable price) as our dress up dinner for the trip. Afterwards we headed back to the casino, only to lose $100 in less than an hour. That's when we called it an evening. I also found that evening Kinder Eggs, which I use to get ALL the time when my family and I lived in Germany.

The next day was just us backing up and heading home. It was a great time and I was glad we did it for the Honeymoon.

Your 2007 World Champion...

RED SOX!!!!!

I stayed up until 1 in the morning (Why is baseball so stupid? The game could have been started at 4 P.M. You lose any chance that kids could enjoy the game. Stupid commissioner, real stupid.) watching baseball related television. I do have to apologize to the skipper. While I didn't agree with the way the second half of the season went, it played out exactly the way they hoped. I'm done critizing Francona. 2 championships in 4 years after an eighty-six year drought is fantastic managing.

Then to top it all off, we have a ton of YOUNG players that are only going to get better.

Lester pitched a beautiful game, one year after finding out he had cancer.

And Jacoby Ellsbury is just NASTY. My brother David has been raving about this kid for a couple of years now. I STILL think the Sox should keep Crisp somehow, but hey...this front office has done some amazing things so far.

I enjoyed watching my Red Sox win the whole thing again, and I hope they can do so when I have kids old enough to care. Maybe by then it will be at an appropriate time slot.

The other thing that popped into my brain today was this:

The Patriots were the first of my friends teams to win the Super Bowl recently. Then the Steelers added their 5th and the Colts their first. I wonder if this means the Pirates and the Cubs are due for World Series wins...interesting.

In other baseball news, A Rod has opted out of his Yankee contract. I hope he goes somewhere that pays him a lot of money where he can break the home run record and never sniff the World Series again. I don't like this guy, and while he's an amazing player, never would want him to be a Red Sox player...EVER!

The BIG day...

so it started with a trip to Dunkin' Donuts. I had a breakfast sandwich and a Boston Creme doughnut. Then we went and got the whispering generator (it was awesome and VERY quiet). We set up the chairs (thanks everyone) and the audio equipment, then I was off to get ready.

I honestly didn't get nervous until it seemed all things were going to fall apart an hour and 30 minutes before the ceremony. I got there and took some pics before it happened.

Then the beginning happened. Our mothers lit the unity candles, the bridesmaids came down followed by the flower girl and ring bearer. Then the beautiful bride (escorted by horse and carriage) began walking down the aisle.

I can't explain to anyone how it feels to watch the woman walk down the aisle to you. You're worried, excited, scared, and anxious all at once. It wasn't a hard choice to marry Letha, it was just hard to believe it was actually happening (heck, I still can't believe it happened). I messed up during the exchange of rings (I thought I put her ring on her wrong hand, we were miked up and everyone heard my worry), I just smiled and chuckled with the rest of the crowd.

Letha and I took some pics afterwards around the ceremony site. Then came one of my greatest moments ever. I asked Letha (right after we got engaged) if we could walk in using the Superman music, she agreed. What she didn't know was I had planned something fun for everyone in attendance. I had gone to the "bathroom." I put my Superman shirt on underneath my tux. With my tux shirt unbuttoned I stopped after entering and pulled open my shirt to show off MY logo. I will put a picture up as soon as I have one.

We then had a great time at the reception with everyone. The food was good and the cake looked amazing.

After that we all got to hang out at Lee and Laura's house for a little after party. It was a very long day, but one of the best of my life.

Top 25...

Awesome Action Heroes?

This is an article that was on EW.com. It has some good points, but I don't agree with it all.

#1 is right on the money. Enjoy looking thru them, I know I did.

http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20153598,00.html

Happy Halloween Week...

My brother David sent me this great Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strip. Calvin was a popular comic strip in my houselhold growing up. I think that my parents thought I was alot like Calvin.
So this brings back some really good memories.

Thanks Dave.

P.S. - Anyone ever notice that Zits looks like Calvin 10 years later?

One week...

until the showdown in the dome. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

The 2 last undefeated teams in the NFL (The Patriots and the Colts, the best 2 teams in the league for the last couple of years) are going to meet on November 4th.

Brady is leading the highest scoring offense vs. Manning leading a team that can score at will.

It's hard to pick who will win this game. As a Patriots fan I hope and expect them to win. As a football fan I think the Colts are one hell of a team, that is going to be hard to beat. I'm not too worried about it, no matter who wins...there will be a rematch in the playoffs.

Brady was absolutey nasty today. He threw for 3 TDs and ran for another 2. I was more mad about us giving up points compared to scoring so much. I'll see how much I am willing to write a blog after next week's game. We will be celbrating the birth of David Maier next Sunday. His birthday is Thursday this week.

If you like...

Marvel or DC comic book movies you should check out these knock offs of the Mac/PC commercials. Some funny stuff (the After Hours are better than the regular ones).

The day before...

the wedding was relaxed for the most part. Letha, Phil, Justin and I cleaned up the ceremony site a little in the afternoon (people leave trash all over the place).

We had the rehearsal at the gazebo (where the ceremony was being held) that evening and then headed to dinner at Buca Di Beppo (ummmm...yummy... :-P). It was here that Letha and I gave all of the wedding party and our parents their presents.


Letha and I also exchanged gifts that evening too. I gave her a set of sapphire jewelry and a jewelry box that she liked. She then blew me away (she's good at giving presents) by giving me a Breedlove Guitar: The Atlas Plus Edition. I have wanted to learn an instrument (I've messed around with the keyboards a couple of different times) and figured this was something that is easier to travel with. The really cool thing about this guitar is that it has a built in tuner. So thank you very much Letha.

Editor's Note: My version doesn't have the built in tuner.


After dinner some of us headed up to Noblesville to a brewpub (they brew their own) called Barley Island. Good food and my friends (Rebuilt) were playing that night. I walked thru the door just in time to hear the 2ND half of their last song, which sucks because I wanted to hear at least a couple of songs. I use to see them almost anytime they played, but hadn't seen them since I moved to Massachusetts. But we all hung out there for a couple of hours and had some fun.

Then a few of us crashed at Justin's apartment that night while we watched The Monster Squad, ahhh the good ol' times. This movie is written co-written by Shane Black (and I'm friends with Shane WHITE, coincidence...I think NOT), and was a BIG flop in the theatres. Imagine The Goonies with classic monsters (Dracula, Wolfman, The Mummy, Frankenstein's monster) in it. The movie found life on T.V. and VHS, and people begged for years (at least to me) that they release it on DVD. It was released not too long ago and I bought it (well Shane WHITE bought it for me and I paid him back).

The Bachelor Party...

was down in Orlando. Joe goes to mechanics school down there (he's learning to work on motorcycles). So when I land in Orlando (everyone else flew in from Indy), I get to the bar and everyone is pretty good (just a little drunk). I sat down and had a couple while waiting for Mike.

Once Mike arrived we went and got the rental car (Dodge Charger, don't bother with this car), hung out at Joe's and played Guitar Hero II (I love this game), and then headed to our condo that Lee found for us (Thanks Lee!).

This place was huge and slept all of us comfortably. It had it's own small pool on the back deck and gave us access to the clubhouse.

The next day we went Universal Studios. It was a blast, we rode almost every ride and got to go to both sides of the park. My favorite part of Universal Studios was Terminator 2 in 3D (it made me excited to see a GOOD part of the sega, not the abomination that was T3 or what will be T4). The coolest part of Adventure Island is The Hulk roller coaster.

Then our last day was spent chilling at the housing development's pool (it had a water slide).

It's been a while...

since I last wrote. If you know me then you know why. So I am going to write a few new blogs in the next couple of days to chronicle what's been going on.

I will be adding pictures in the next couple of days as well.

Spider-Man 3...

If you hated the movie anywhere near the amount that I did, you will love this!

It's GREAT!!!!!

Spider-Man 3: The Way It Should Have Ended

Go Pats, Go...

Did anyone else stay up to watch the Chargers gets shell shocked? I know I did...it was GREAT to see the team bounce back after the week they had.



L.T. just doesn't look like himself so far this year, and you're not going to hear me complain. When we lost our offensive and defensive coordinators, it took us a while to get going again. But the Chargers also lost their head coach...how you fire someone after a 14-2 season is beyond me.

I think right now there are 3 teams in the AFC that are going to be there the WHOLE year long:

The Patriots
The Colts
and The Steelers

Mike Tomlin looks like he has instilled a desperation to win in Pittsburgh. They are a team to watch this year.

Randy Moss is NASTY. Yes, I said nasty...he has a good team and a good attitude. He's happy because he's WINNING. He wasn't happy anywhere else because he was losing all the time. Now, IF we start losing while he's on our team then he will become a cancer. But I don't think with Brady at the controls, that we are going to see those days for a while now.

Tom Brady has been throwing up some VERY impressive numbers for ANY QB. He finally has the weapons he's always wanted. The Patriots can play how ever they want now...run the clock out and play you slow or throw the bomb down field and go fast. Great teams dictate clock usage.

Go Brady, Go...

Patriots punishment...

I would have to say that this is a fair punishment for something happens across the league. When the Dolphins did it to us last year, did anyone blow the whistle? No, it's because they weren't a winning team at the time.

Now I don't agree with what the coach did, I'm okay with the penalty because he did cheat. Now the only saving grace he has is IF we win a lot of games and go DEEP in to the playoffs. Notice I said IF. IF we win it all then no one has anything to complain about. If we don't then the GENIUS of the coach is in question, and the Krafts should punish him by firing him. That's right I said they should fire Bill Belichick IF he can't produce a deep run into the playoffs (at least the AFC Championship). IF they don't make it far, then it proves to me that he wasn't a genius, and cheated to win.

If you get caught or you don't doesn't excuse ANY kind of cheating.

Kaylee

This is my puppy. I always wanted one, and it never worked for one reason or another. But I love Boston (the family dog), and so glad my Dad has him. But now there is a new dog who is near and dear to my heart. This beautiful black lab was free to Letha and I. As we both love the ways labs look (even if we weren't going to look for a puppy until after the wedding) we felt this was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

Here's a few more pics for you guys, mainly my brother Mike, so he'll stop complaining. I'm gonna get back to training my pup...

Blogs...

I know I have plenty of friends that blog, but thanks to the Celtics page of Boston.com, I found a website that has a lot of athlete blogs. Yardbarker.com. You can look at Greg Oden's (he's from Indiana and my high school rival - Lawrence North), Isaac Bruce (he talks about Troy Brown in his latest blog), Rajon Rondo (plays for the Celtics), and many others.

I like Oden's blog because it seems to show his down to Earth side.

If you have the time and care what some athletes think, head on over and have a read or two.

Things I learned whilst drunk...

First, that Madden 2008 can't hold my jock strap!

So I played the first game of the Patriots season last night, after I closed the theatre. It was against the Jets, and I decided that I would just try to run the ball to set up the pass. It worked beautifully...I won the game 21-0. I think it was the first time I shut out a team EVER in Madden (Madden has ALWAYS had a way of making sure the other team ALWAYS scores somehow, usually within the last 2 minutes of each half - my friend Mark and I call them Madden NASTIES). By the time the game ended I realized I had 3 beers in me already (I was a little tipsy). Then I saved my franchise (in case I lost, then I could blame it on the alcohol) and played the Chargers. I was so worried about losing this game (mind you I was already half way thru my 4th beer at kick off) that I called Justin Rachal to express my concern for LaDainian Tomlinson (who is THE best running back in the NFL).

Man, I guess I was silly to worry...somehow while I was finishing my 4th and 5th beer (which were AMAZING, I'll explain in a second...) I DESTROYED them 42-7. I abandoned the running concept with this team, and played like the Indianapolis Colts. I threw for 400+ yards and 4 TDs with Tom Brady, caught 2 interceptions and returned them for TDs, 1 TD catch for 80 something yards, 1 TD catch for 60 something yards, and gave up 1 sack. LT had one run for 80 yards, which was one of the Madden NASTIES.

Second, so while I was drinking my Sam Adams: Summer Ale, I had let it sit too long...so it had gotten warmer than I like my beer. This is when I had the idea of dropping a couple of FROZEN grapes in to help it cool down again. Now I know what you're thinking FROZEN GRAPES????? These things are amazing (to my own fault I have only tried this with white seedless grapes, but those are the only grapes I like), they taste like popsicles, and they're good for you (well better for you than REAL popsicles anyway). Everyone reading this should try them, if you haven't already, and then post a comment on here about how GREAT they are...then maybe eventually we can get the whole world to try them. :-)

So back to the beer with the FROZEN grapes in them (I swear, my parents could have gotten me diagnosed with ADHD when I was a child). This beer had gone from good to AWESOME for me. WARNING!!!! Be careful when you put them in a full bottle as the grape juice interacts with the beer, it tends to foam up. I now drink until the beer level is below the neck of the bottle before dropping in the grapes (2-4 depending on my mood). The best part is...after you finish the beer the grapes drop down the neck (and fairly easy to get out) and then eat these WONDERFUL tasting grapes soaked with beer. hhhhhmmmmmmmm...I think I have to buy some more grapes on the way home tonight.

Anyone up for some XBoxing?

Crazy About You...

I worked on a movie a long time ago...it was a slight variation on what at happened in my life with a certain ex-girlfriend. It turned into a script that I thought really related to the way us men think. It's been a while since I had seen a film done from the man's side of a breakup. SWINGERS is the only one that actually comes to mind.

Well, I took this movie and the footage in January and told everyone that I would get the new edit done after a trailer. Well the trailer has been done since January and I just the other day started messing with the edit. I must praise Shane's work as the original editor of the film, he did a great job. I am only messing with tightening up the edit. I might go back later on and change some of the shots used, we'll see.

Who knows this movie might get done by 2010!

Few and far between...

So on my day off, as I watch the Red Sox lose the third game in a row (ARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!), I was surfing and headed to WebMD. That's where I came across "11 Don't-Tell-the-Wife Secrets All Men Keep." It got me interested since I am just over a month away from getting married myself.

This article is great and true for us men. My personal favorite is:


Secret #11: Give us an inch and we'll give you a lifetime
I was on a trip to Mexico, standing on a beach, waxing my surfboard and admiring the glistening 10-foot waves, when I decided to marry the woman who is now my wife. Sure, this was three years before I got around to popping the question. But that was when I knew.
Why? Because she'd let me go on vacation alone. Hell, she made me go. This is the most important thing a man never told you: If you let us be dumb guys, if you embrace our stupid poker night, if you encourage us to go surfing -- by ourselves -- our silly little hearts, with their manly warts and all, will embrace you forever for it.
And that's the truth.


Not too many women know how to let their men go out and have a good time without them. I'm lucky enough to have landed one of the few, but I know PLENTY of women in relationships that don't follow this simple rule, hell I use to be involved with one of them. It's not because we don't love you, it's because all of us guys NEED alone time...or GUY time. The sooner ALL women realize this the better ALL relationships will be.

And please (any women who read this) don't take this blog to mean us guys don't do anything wrong. This is just a simple rule that makes everyine happier.

On a side note: Why is it that us guys get so tangled up in how our sports team does? For something we have no control over, it seems to have plenty of control over us? Red Sox BLOW another one...