What I've been up to...

Well this past weekend I finished a book, MARLEY & ME by John Grogan.

If you have a dog (or ever had a dog or even wanted a dog), then this book is for you. It's a great story about John and how he had a wonderful dog named Marley. I won't lie...it is the entire life of the dog including his death. I was crying so hard at this point, I couldn't read the book...I would have to calm down enough to continue, only to end up sobbing a few sentences later. It took me a while to finish that chapter.

The only reason I was having such a difficult time, was because I kept thinking of Kaylee the entire time.

Speaking of Kaylee...she got spayed 2 weeks ago and is recovering nicely. She is lively as ever...I will put up some pics of her in her cone (to keep her from getting at the stitches) in the next couple of days...

I saw FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS and THE LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA on DVD at home. FLAGS was an okay movie...not Eastwood's greatest, but LETTERS was great. For being a movie from the Japanese perspective...I thought it was done superbly.

On other movie news...Letha and I are watching the Indiana Jones trilogy currently (she hasn't seen all of them). I also wanted to see all of them before the new movie coming out this summer. We watched RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK...still a great film over 20 years later. We just got TEMPLE OF DOOM in the mail, and we're going to watch that one in the next couple of days...

Speaking of movies and rentals...Letha and I are members of NetFlix. This service is awesome, I don't accumliate anything that takes up space (mind you, that I will still buy movies if it's something special). We got a subscription for Christmas (Thank you, McNear) and it's been great since we started watching DVDs at home more than going to the movies.

Biggest choke...

Yep...that's right, the Patriots (who went undefeated for the entire season) lost on Sunday night to the Giants. If that game were played 10 times, I would say the Pats win 7 of them, but this is a ONE game championship...and the G Men were the better team last night.

This loss goes up there with the New York Yankees collapse in the '04 post season, the Red Sox mess up in '86, the Bills making it to 4 Super Bowls and NOT winning, and the Patriots collapse last year in the AFC Championship.

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!! THIS JUST IN...

Tiki Barber just released a statement to the press. According to him, he NEVER actually filled out his retirement papers and the Giants never released him either. He his now owed his entire salary and his Super Bowl ring. "I felt I should keep this news close to my chest until the proper time, WE'RE SUPER BOWL CHAMPS!!!!!," was the way he chose to end his press release.

And now back to reality...

Our defense was amazing last night...but a defense can't play the whole game without making some mistakes. The Patriots D was present for 50 minutes of last night's defeat. The offense is another mess...they might have shown up to play for 10 minutes last night. That's half of the the game, and we were in it till the end. Tom looked horrible all night long.

Congrats to the NEW YORK fans...to the rest of you that are celebrating (like your team won it all) when someone else's team wins...you should be ashamed of yourselves.

Hey...I'm not too sad, the Red Sox won the World Series, and baseball season is coming up shortly...the Celtics will make it deep in the playoffs, most likely...and we only have 6 months until preseason starts all over again.

And on to Arizona...

So as I watched the last two games of the Patriots I have tried to not get SO emotionally attached. I remember how I felt after last year's AFC Championship, heck I got the flu right after watching our last regular season game this year. I get so into the games (Patriots, Red Sox, and Celtics) that I boil over one way or another. This is something I am attempting to control. I enjoy the game, I just don't get so mad or sad that I get sick anymore...or so I hope.

Now if the Patriots don't win the Super Bowl...I will be the first one to say we choked. Do I think that the Giants have what is needed to beat the BEST team in the HISTORY of the NFL? No! What everyone (who's watching) is experiencing is history. This is the BEST offense EVER. We have an amazing defense and THE best coach to ever coach the game.

People want to just judge his on the field antics (Spy Gate included), but this coach does so much more. He's the one who wanted Sammie Morris, Wes Welker, Randy Moss, Adalius Thomas, Corey Dillon, Junior Seau...the list goes on and on. He's a great coach who doesn't draft the best. We have had a lot of bad picks since he's been here. The people he has put around him to coach the players that he gets for this team have performed at such an amazing level this year.

Now the Patiots are on their way to their 4th Super Bowl in 7 years. I wanted to win last year so that we could be the second team to win 4 in 6 years (the Steelers did it in the 70's), but we folded in the second half of the AFC title game. Not this year...we have been hurt, like a lot of other teams by the injury bug (Scott, Colvin, Morris and Thomas) all impact players, but we have made it thru to the title shot. Our linebackers have been amazing during the playoffs. Who would've thought that the oldest linebacking core in the NFL would be able to do what they've done? When Colvin got hurt, I was really worried about it. Now it seems that they have made sure that years and wisdom have over come speed and youth, one more game to go.

The last thing I wanted to address was the running game. If not for our running backs we would have not made it to the AFC Championship. Maroney has silenced most of his critics by having 2 122 yard games, by running down hill. I hope he keeps it up next year as well.

And the HERO of the game was Kevin Faulk. The guy that when he touches the football, my brother and I both go, "DON'T FUMBLE!!!!!!!" He was known to cough up the football quite often early in his career, but not anymore.

The other thing that was interesting is that the Giants made it to the Super Bowl. Letha commented to me that she was happy because they made it without Tiki Barber. The guy who did nothing but be as selfish as possible for the entire last year he played. Then after he left he wanted to sling more mud. I hope he feels stupid for being a selfish football player (the ultimate TEAM sport) who's team made it to the big game the year HE decided to leave.

And a happy new year...

Hello everyone...it has been a while, with the birthdays, christmas, busy time at work, and getting sick something awful...I haven't posted in a while.

So the new year is here and the first topic is...

16-0, BABY!!!!!

I have only missed one Patriots game all season long (the first one against The Bills) and I have been a serious fan of the NFL for around 8 years now...I would have to say that this year's Patriots team is THE BEST regular season team EVER.

No other team has EVER gone undefeated in the regular season while breaking as many records as the Pats did this year. The most points scored by an offense, most TDs by a QB, most TD catches by a WR.

Some people like to point out that we played in a weak division (to which I agree), but that is not an excuse...we have also played 6 teams in the playoffs. The 1972 Dolphins had a cake schedule as well, funny how no one talks about that anymore...

And is there a more dynamic player than Randy Moss?

This guy is amazing...I was one of the people who thought he had a bad attitude and I wasn't sure if he'd fit in right...but he proved me (and a lot of other people) wrong. His one handed grab against the Colts, was one of the best catches I have seen in the last couple of years (as well as the grab Marvin Harrison had against us last year in Foxborough). But the one I will remember for a LONG time is the catch that took him and Brady past the record books. He streaks as fast as he can and Brady underthrows him...so what do the Pats do? They go back to the same route and THIS time Brady hits him in stride. It was beautiful...the cornerback was so wasted (from running with Randy the first time) he didn't have a prayer of keeping up with Moss this time (see picture).

He's so far gone that the people on the sidelines can't believe it...look at how their mouths drop in awe...

The second topic is the Playoffs...with the AFC teams being...

The Patriots
Colts
Steelers
Chargers
Jaguars
Titans

Now the first match ups are Jags at Steelers and Titans at Chargers.

Game: Jacksonville Jaguars at Pittsburgh Steelers:

Everyone gives a lot of credit to the Jags (and they should). I normally wouldn't believe they could go into Pittsburgh TWICE in one year and beat the Steelers, but the Steelers did lose their BEST weapon for the season (Willie Parker) and I don't see Big Ben winning this game on just his arm. Game Winner: Jags

Game: Tennessee Titans at San Diego Chargers:

The best running back in the NFL (LT) is going against a good defense. The key to this game is taking away LT and making Rivers beat you with his questionable arm. This kid is still green and gets rattled VERY easily. Tennessee...put 8 men in the box and keep your eye on LT, while you blitz the hell out of Rivers, make him hurt. Don't let LT get on a roll, or you'll be in trouble with the play action, which I do thing will happen against the Titans. Game Winner: Chargers

If the playoffs go this way...then the next games would be...

Game: San Diego Chargers at Indianapolis Colts:

The Colts defense showed up this year...just as important as their offense at some points. The key is the same as it would have been for the Titans...STOP LT. The Colts can I think better than the Titans. Plus, if you get in a shoot out who do you want on your side? Manning or Rivers... Game Winner: Colts

Game: Jacksonville Jaguars at New England Patriots:

The Jags are the one team that we haven't played in our conference this year, that I wished we did. Their running style is amazing and poses the biggest threat in the playoffs for the Pats. If they can control the clock and keep Brady off the field, they have a very good chance of beating us. On the flipside, Brady and Moss don't need much time to get it down the field. If the Jags get up by more than 2 TDs in the second half, than I would think they could hold on. Do I think they can get up that much on THESE Patriots in the playoffs? I don't, and Brady has proved many times that all he needs is a little over a minute to get down the length of the field. Game winner: Patriots

The AFC Championship (the way it should be this year)...

The Colts and Pats have matched up so many times since they stopped being divisional rivals, they might as well be in the same division. THIS will be by far the HARDEST game to play for the Pats. These two teams are so evenly matched, you might as well flip a coin. But since I am a Pats fan, I say that Gostkowski is going to kick the winning field goal as time expires... Game winner: Patriots

and the NFC teams being...

Cowboys
Packers
Bucs
Giants
Seahawks
Redskins

Let the games begin...I don't know much about the NFC (as I'm a Pats fan and the wife is a Colts fan) I watch mostly AFC games. But I think that the Giants beat the Bucs, the Skins beat the Seahawks, the Giants lose to the Cowboys, the Packers lose to the Sins, then the Cowboys beat the Skins to make it to the Super Bowl.

We have already played them once on their field...(and I hope not to make you mad Justin, Noah or Joel, if you read this) but I think the Patriots are playing on a higher level this year. I think it will be a close game for most of it, but at some point the Patriots are going to turn on the afterburners and win by 10-14 points.

Now with all of this being said...it is of course my opinion and watch my Patriots make an arse out of me and lose in the divisional round, while the Titans win the whole thing. That is after all why we watch, so we may be entertained. So no matter what team you root for be happy...it's playoff time.

Terminator 4?

Why...oh GOD, WHY!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

But then I saw this article on Comingsoon.Net.

I can only hope that one of the men that SAVED the Batman franchise can also save the Terminator franchise. Just ditch the NOW storyline and fast forward to when humans are hunted down by SkyNet.

It's sort of like what I want with an Alien vs. Predator movie. Give me the colonial marines in the middle of a battle of Aliens and Predator(s), that is something you could make kick some arse. I don't get why the war is ALL OF A SUDDEN happening on Earth every couple of years. It doesn't have to happen now, give me a story line of some marines that get in a sticky situation while Ripley is asleep (for 75 years).

Cool movie...

I hope they do something like this for the HALO movie...whenever it comes out.

9-0...

it's nice to be undefeated.

A couple of things from the game on Sunday:

Randy Moss' one handed catch was one of the nastiest catches I have ever witnessed.

Our defense played REALLY well (I'll go more into it below).

Joseph Addai ATE us UP. But, it might have been the idea all along. Let's take Manning's receivers away from him. Let's let their running game beat us. Which is different than we've played Manning before. It was always...stop the run and make Manning throw it all day long.

But it does come as a curse as well, there are 2 sides of my fandom. One side that wants to see my team win and is very happy when it happens. The second side that wants to not have to beat my wife's team to make me happy.

It is no secret that I am a Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins (although I don't watch Hockey as much as I would like to) fan. My wife is a New York Yankees and Indianapolis Colts fan. This means that during MOST key match ups in the 2 seasons, that one of us is usually unhappy afterwards. It's harder for me with football than baseball. While I loath the Yankees, I have gotten use to seeing my team lose to them (I was worried to see them in the playoffs this year). I dislike the Colts a lot too, but the Patriots have been able to handle them a lot better than the Sox/Yankees. It's also tough for us because we enjoy football more than any other sport.

But since we live near Boston and Letha never really cared about basketball, she has decided to be a Celtics fan. So now we have one team we can both care about. As a side note, the Pacers are looking better than anyone thought they could (myself included). I didn't think they would be the worst in the East, but I didn't think they would be in the Top 10 either. I got to give it up to my boy Shane for calling it. I will admit that I have always been a Celtics fan , but always hoped the Pacers did well. I loved Reggie Miller, he's the only player on any other team (other than my own) that I liked.

AVP...

the really cool version.

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.