Got Matsui!

Hideki Matsui, proudly drafted in a fantasy baseball scene in Knocked Up.

There's a funny scene (one among many) in Knocked Up where a wife thinks her husband is cheating on her, so she follows him to a mysterious address. She sneaks in the house, preparing to catch him in the act, but when she flings open the door, she finds him sitting in an Orioles jersey with 20 other dudes drafting players for fantasy baseball. Not amused, the wife walks out. "Got Matsui!" the husband cries, hoping to win back his wife's affection. (It didn't work.)

Last year, I played in only one league of Fantasy Baseball. This year, I'm in three (fortunately my girlfriend doesn't mind...she even plays with me in one of them). Last year, I won my league going away. This year, I've got some catching up to do. All three leagues are ten team leagues, and I am in 3rd, 5th, and 6th places.

In one league, Pops and Karen are also playing, and they are #'s 1 and 2 in the standings. I can't let my girlfriend beat me (can I?).

Anyway, I love playing fantasy baseball.

Another little fantasy baseball thing I'm doing is on mlb.com. It's called "Beat the Streak," the object being to choose a player every day, in hopes that your chosen player will get a hit. If you beat 56 games in a row (Joe DiMaggio's MLB record hit streak), you win a million bucks! So far, my longest streak is 6, but I'm still trying. Someone got up to 39 games...that's the longest streak so far this season. Haven't picked Matsui yet; maybe I should...

Of Brats and Weiners

Karen, her kids, and I had a nice Memorial Day on Monday. We finished the grill-work before the rains came, then enjoyed the good eats (my apologies to Alton Brown).

The plump brats and polish sausages were scrumptious, topped with a creamy cole slaw. If I recall, a few bottles of fine ale were also consumed.

(Thanks Karen, for purchasing only the finest ales and stouts in the land!)

Back to the daily grind!

So sue me, I took a break from blogging.

"I'm blaaaaaaaaccckkk..."

South Beach, Miami, Florida

Okay, I know it's been a while since I've blogged, but, in the words of the immortal (and hilarious) Chris Rock, "I'm Blaaaaaacckkk."

Speaking of Chris Rock, I was reminded today of Allen and my trip to Miami four years ago. In one of the most spontaneous acts I have ever entered into, my cousin and I drove (yes DROVE) from Huntsville, Alabama to Miami, Florida. That's 851 miles. It takes about 5 hours to get to my parents home in southeast Alabama; Orlando is about 7 hours from there; and I remember seeing a sign in Orlando that read something like: MIAMI 282 miles.

At the time, my life needed a bit of a kick start, so off we went. I went down there with long hair (what I had left), and returned with a shaved dome. Allen and I had some memorable moments down there.

Some of the more memorable:

• Eating dinner the first night down there. We ate at a local Denny's; the waitress came out, flashing her gold teeth, and piercing my fluffy pancakes with her long and grimy fingernail. I almost hurled.


• Sleeping till noon every day.


• Watching Chris Rock's Never Scared on HBO. "Kracky Kremes" anyone?


• Cruising the main drag in my Accord (not exactly a sportscar, but it got the job done), listening to Depeche Mode's Violator. (It was hearing a song from that album today that jogged my memory).


• Eating more than once at Rascal's Deli. Allen ate bizarre dishes like Beet Bortsch, while I dined on Rueben's and the like. They had delicious pies with 6 inch meringues.


• Walking and visiting shops in South Beach. Beautiful people everywhere. Did we fit in? That's not for me to say...


• A couple of other clandestine stops we made (all in fun).


• Also, we made a few other stops along the way: Tallahassee, Jacksonville, St. Augustine...nice towns, all.

Feel free to add any other memories copus...

Three Forgotten Songs

I have XM Radio in my car, which allows me to listen to all kinds of music, and, of course, every Major League Baseball game during the season ("Read my lips...every game."--love that commercial where Big Papi says that in his Dominican accent.)

My favorite XM stations are 80's, 90's, Highway 26 (a combination of 90's and newer rock), XMU (music cool enough for the college kids), and Verge (alternative breakout type artists)

Some of my favorites I re-heard for the first time in a while recently are:

"Beds are Burning", Midnight Oil, 1987 (I remember watching MTV for hours straight waiting to see this video...if only we'd have had the internet and youtube back then!)

"Major Tom", Peter Schilling, 1983 (very cool science fiction type song about a spaceship in outer space...love the line, "Send my wife my love...")

"The Middle", Jimmy Eat World, 2001 (good message for the kids and all of us!...just be yourself, don't worry about what others think of you!)

I hear a lot of good new music on XM. And I always love hearing the old favorites.

Oh, I almost forgot this gem from the 80's...so nice. (Back off haters!) I heard it yesterday on the way home, and sang it loudly driving on a busy Parkway, embarassing myself...but who cares?

Back from the Beach

The Southeastern U.S.' largest ferris wheel...at The Wharf at Orange Beach, AL...we rode it!

Karen and I recently returned from Orange Beach. In addition to sunning on the beach, outlet shopping, and internet surfing in the hotel room, we ate at some tasty establishments. Our choices were as follows:

Night 1, Mellow Mushroom (pizza with garlic based sauce, topped with cheese, mushrooms, onions, and sausage...was great, but was a bit cold, since we ate it in the hotel room after checking in).

Night 2, Cosmo's (new trendy mid-price range place, very popular with the locals...we had some spicy shrimp for appetizers, followed by a delicious mahi sandwich (mine was blackened perfectly) topped with some tasty remoulade...also tried polenta for the first time...this was a great place, to which we shall return).

Night 3, Niki's (one of the local favorite "dive"-type seafood places...we had all you can eat fried shrimp, hush puppies, fries, and slaw...it was a belly buster, but damn good).

Night 4, Lambert's Cafe (this is the famous home of "throwed rolls"...that's right, servers walk about and throw hot rolls at people who want them. The portions of food are huge...I had a one lb. hamburger steak smothered in gravy, mushrooms, onions, and peppers...Karen had a large burger...very crowded place, and good for a change, if you need, from the seafood).

We also went bowling, and saw the new Judd Apatow (he of 40-Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up fame) flick Forgetting Sarah Marshall. It was an entertaining comedy/romantic comedy, with many funny moments. After Karen and I left the Rave Theater, we hopped on what they told us was the highest ferris wheel in the entire southeastern U.S (pictured above). It was huge. After that fun ride, we fled The Wharf quickly, to avoid the droves of Widespread Panic fans congregating for a special concert. (Neither one of us likes Widespread Panic at all, so we vamoosed to Niki's (see Night 3 above).

Now it's "back to life, back to reality." I went to the grocery store today, buying, among other items, habanero peppers, some of the hottest known to man. I can't wait to slice and dice them and load them onto my chicken quesadillas! Oh yeah, I also made this lemon meringue pie, which turned out very well. Mmmm, it's tasty!

Boring Masters

I don't watch much golf any more, since I don't play any more, but I do keep an eye on the final rounds of major tournaments, like the Masters, which was yesterday. I have to say, it was the most boring final round of a major I've ever seen. Even my dad agreed. No drama. No comebacks. Just boring golf.

Oops!

Go HERE for my latest blog post on the band Cake