UngsungBlog: A (Fantasy) Sports Blog

Quick-hitters:

- One of the fun things about installing a SlingBox-like device on my mom’s cable box is the occasional phone call I get from her, hysterically screaming “Why is my cable box changing channels on its own???”

(That pretty much spoils part 3 of my covert ops mission, I realize.)

I’ve explained to her several times now that the Sony LF-B10 I installed on her cable box, and yet she still insists that her cable box is haunted :P.

As I’ve whined about before, she really needs to upgrade to an HD STB. What a waste of a $1,000 TV!

- Thank you yet again, Time Warner. A SlickDealer posted a deal for free HBO (and potentially Showtime) with just a simple phone call. Then again, based on my experiences with Time Warner, I don’t think there is such a thing as a simple phone call with them.

I called CS, and got an English speaking woman. Yes!, I thought to myself. Once I gave her my phone number, she immediately transferred me to the sales department. Booooooo!

When I got reconnected, I got a woman with a VERY heavy accent. I asked her about the promotion, and she put me on hold…for about 15 minutes. When she came back on the line, she advised me to contact another phone number to inquire about this promotion.

The number sent me to Time Warner’s Business Development Operations Group, said the recording on the other end of the line. I’m going to take a wild guess and assume that they sent me to the wrong place.

Thank you, Time Warner.

- It’s time for the latest rebate processor rant, and it deals with Logitech Rebates/rebatestatus.com. Logitech must be bleeding money, because I’ve seen several excellent deals on computer peripherals in the past months—mice, webcams, keyboards, etc.—all with rebates attached to them. According to my records, I’ve purchased six Logitech items in the last few months, and submitted all six rebates well before the postmark deadline.

Of the six rebates, ONE was processed without issue. Two are now in processing, and only after I emailed copies of my rebate submission, and the other three were mailed out recently (though one is approaching 30 days since the date of mailing without a notification from rebatestatus.com).

Grrrrrr…

- Raise your hand if you saw Game Five of the WCF go like that: the Spurs rolled out to a big lead, the Lakers’ bench rallied the team close, and then the Spurs’ age showed big time in the second half.

Honestly, I did not expect the Spurs to fold like they did in the fourth quarter, even while watching Ginobili limp and stumble around in the fourth quarter. Parker was a factor early, but he wasn’t really heard from again until it was too late. Duncan was a beast again, but (I can’t believe I’m going to say this) he needs more help around him! When the Spurs had the big lead early in the game, they were a few missed treys from stretching the lead to 20+. Once the first half ended, you kinda sensed that the Spurs were in huge trouble, if not finished altogether.

Three parting thoughts:

1) Throughout the series, I kept wondering how Luis Scola (remember, he was traded to Houston before the season started) would have looked in a Spurs uniform, especially in this series. Could he have checked Odom on defense? Probably not. Could he have helped, offensively, against the Lakers? I think so. At the very least, he could have taken some pressure off Duncan on the offensive side of things, right?

2) What is the legacy of this series? Is it the end of the Spurs’ every-other-year dynasty? Is it a start of a new reign of dominance for the Lakers in the West? Or is the series forever stained by the non-call at the end of Game Four? And how different does this series look if the call was made, and the Spurs ended up winning the game in OT? Or what would have happened if the Spurs didn’t choke leads of 20 and 17 in Games One and Four, respectively?

What if…right?

3) Sasha Vujacic…what were you doing launching that triple at the end of the game?  It would not have surprised me to see Cheap Shot Rob Horry offer a forearm to Vujacic during the end-of-game handshakes.

Until next time!

Tags: free hbo, logitech rebates, los angeles lakers, luis scola, promotion, rebatestatus.com, san antonio spurs, showtime, time warner, western conference finals by Peter
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I didn’t watch much of the Detroit-Boston game, partially because I watched the Dodgers choke away another lead against the Cubs, and partially because the game kinda bored me to tears :P.

Quick-hitters:

- Oh dear…for the fifth time today, I’ve seen that stupid McDonald’s commercial that insists on telling me what the ingredients are in their new Southern Chicken Sandiwch…in Spanish.

Pan. Pepinillo. Pollo. Phuck off.

(Yeah, I’ve got issues.)

McDonalds needs to take note of the latest DQ commercial, where the dad refuses to share his ice cream with his kid until the kid repeats a really long word (EDIT: antidisestablishmentarianism), which the kid does. Now THAT’s funny.

- Backache update: it was really stiff this morning, but loosened up dramatically as the day went on.

I’m guessing that the 8 Tylenol I’ve popped throughout the day helped, though it might be time for me to think about buying a new mattress…

The real crappy thing about the backache is that I haven’t been able to lift weights lately. Argh…

- So Bobby Petrino couldn’t find a better way to resign from the Atlanta Falcons, eh? I heard this story on The Jim Rome Show earlier today, and Petrino’s quote, if accurate, is borderline stupid:

When asked if he could have handled it any differently, he said, ‘Not that I know of. Because of the timing of it and both sides of the fence, that is kind of how it worked out. It was a situation where you have no other choice.’

Pardon me for being repetitive (as in, repeating what Rome said), but you couldn’t find a better way to resign than leaving non-personalized cards in each player’s locker? You had no other choice but to quit on your team without even a face-to-face talk with them? And timing??? There were four games left in the season! You couldn’t stick around that much longer?

(Obviously not, as he was in Arkansas doing their team cheer not long after “resigning.”)

Idiot.

- Speaking of idiots, when will Joakim Noah figure things out? Days after being arrested for marijuana possession and having an open container of alcohol, he then proceeded to commit a pair of traffic violations on the University of Florida campus. Well done, genius. Why not go for the trifecta and commit petty theft? I don’t know about most people, but if I get busted once for something, I’m going to make damn sure that I don’t get busted doing something else for, at the very least, the foreseeable future!

I love this quote by Noah’s father:

“I don’t understand all that fuss for just drinking a beer on the street,” Yannick Noah said Tuesday at the French Open.

All that fuss? It’s freaking illegal! Maybe if your son didn’t commit a crime, there wouldn’t be any fuss!

Idiots.

- Let’s lay off the idiots for a while and talk about my Memorial Day weekend.

The short-short-short version: CVS, food, food, and lots of food.

Yep, I spent an hour or two of the weekend at CVS. Hey, I couldn’t resist more free stuff, including Sobe Life Water bottles for better than free after rebate!

(Off topic note to self: Never, ever, buy MetRX protein bars again, even if they’re better than free after rebate! When I chew on a “Chocolate Roasted Peanut” bar, I expect the filling to be of a different color than the chocolate coating.)

I also hit up another Ross, and to my amazement, I found a sweater I had returned a few weeks ago. I checked the tag, and noticed that the sweater was marked for clearance at $9.99, or half what I originally paid for it! Naturally, I re-purchased it :P.

As far as food is concerned, I think I ingested 10,000 calories on Sunday. For lunch, my dad made some steamed pork dish that was awesome. My mom, not to be outdone, made this crepe dish filled with ground chicken, chopped long beans, bean sprouts, and shredded coconut. I wish I knew how to make that.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, my mom and aunt decided that they wanted to BBQ that night. They bought several New York Steaks, which they were going to cube and use for kebabs. I managed to snag two steaks (one for me, one for my sister), seasoned them with kosher salt and black pepper, sprinkled them with some melted butter, and grilled them to medium rare. Damn…I’m not sure why I never thought of using butter on my grilled steaks before! I’ve always done so when I pan-fry a steak, but now I know how well butter works on a BBQ’ed steak!

The kebabs were made with cubed steaks marinated in Korean BBQ marinade (why???), and arranged with mushrooms, green and red bell pepper, tomatoes, and Italian squash. Have I ever mentioned how BBQing makes veggies so damn tasty? As if that wasn’t enough, we also had chicken wings and drumettes, marinated in the same Korean BBQ marinade.

We also had grilled pineapple, which was amazing, and I think I ate the equivalent of half a pineapple. I couldn’t resist! Between the pineapple, the three or twenty kebabs I managed to inhale, the few chicken wings that happened to find its way onto my plate, and the steak, dinner had to be somewhere around 5,000 calories :P.

If the weather permits, I might BBQ again this weekend.

Tags: atlanta falcons, backache, bbq, bobby petrino, chicken wings, idiots, joakim noah, kebabs, marijuana, memorial day, new york steak by Peter
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Sorry for not blogging for a while.

Quick-hitters:

- Argh.  My back has been killing me all day!

I think it’s time to go see somebody

- Current rebate-o-meter:  $1,290.  I can’t believe I didn’t buy anything over the weekend!

- What a dogfight that game was. The Lakers got off to a fantastic start (shades of LAL-UTA, Game Six, Western Semis), but you knew that the Spurs were going to get back into the game. I just didn’t expect the Spurs to get back into it THAT quickly. The fourth quarter was filled with great drama—Kobe proved that he deserved the MVP, eh?—but too bad it ended with that terrible missed call.

(Phil Jackson had the quote of the year. When asked what changed in the last few minutes of the quarter, when the Spurs made a push to get back in the game, Jackson said, “You want me to be honest with you? The guys with the whistles.” Unfortunately for the NBA, he was right on the money.)

Even if you argue that fouls that occur during the course of the game aren’t going to be called down the stretch, Fisher clearly bumped Barry. Why Barry didn’t jump directly into Fisher, though, is anyone’s guess. If he does that, then we’re probably looking at a 2-2 series going back to LA. Then again, If the refs had called that foul, Barry should have been awarded two shots and not three. As Reggie Miller said, he shied away from the contact, and only after Fisher hit him did Barry go into a shooting motion.

(EDIT: When the Lakers took their final shot, I wondered why the shot clock didn’t reset. I could’ve sworn that Fisher’s shot hit the rim. TNT just showed a replay, and it sure looked like the ball glanced off the rim. That’s TWO terrible calls down the stretch. For the next few hours, we’re going to hear about how the Fisher non-call was a “make up” call. Ugh.)

(EDIT #2: What a class act that Brent Barry is. He could easily have been screaming, “YES that was a foul!” Instead, he took the high road, admitting that that call probably wasn’t going to be made.)

(EDIT #3: Wow. Even Pop insisted that that was not a foul.)

Back to the fourth quarter: the Spurs were colder than the polar ice caps down the stretch (they reminded me of the Kings in the fourth quarter, Game Seven, 2002 WCF), and it sure looked like the Lakers were going to win the game going away.

And then the last minute happened. And then the missed calls happened.

Are the Spurs dead? Not a chance. Can they recover? They’re champs, are they not? Will they come back to win this series? Sorry, I just don’t see the Lakers losing three straight, with two games at home. Maybe if Joey Crawford referees all three of the remaining games…

Next time:  my Memorial Day weekend recap, and eventually, I’ll finish up my covert ops mission story

Tags: brent barry, derek fisher, kobe bryant, los angeles lakers, missed call, referees, san antonio spurs by Peter
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Quick thoughts regarding Spurs-Lakers Game Two:

- There isn’t much I could say about tonight’s game.  With the game tied at 37, Doug Collins made the point that the Spurs, despite their shooting woes, were “close.”  That’s when the Lakers rattled off a 9-0 run that was the start of the Spurs’ second-half collapse.

(I’m watching the replay of the game on TNT right now, and I’m still in shock by that rejection by Farmar.  No, it was not Tayshaun Prince-esque, but it was pretty sweet nonetheless.)

Fisher rebounded nicely.  Odom was very good, though he did commit two bad offensive fouls.  Gasol still worries me, especially with the way Duncan has dominated him in the first two games (I thought Gasol’s two early fouls were going to crush the Lakers’ chances).  Most importantly, the Lakers backcourt reserves—Farmer and Vujacic—played excellent ball.  And was that a Trevor Ariza sighting?

(Tangent:  Please, TNT announcers…enough with the jokes about The Bill Engvall Show and House of Payne.  Very funny.)

If I’m a Spurs fan, I’m worried sick about Manu Ginobili.  I’m starting to think that the ankle is MUCH worse than he’s letting on.  Without a 100% Manu, I don’t see any way the Spurs beat the Lakers four times in five games.

Laker fans, on the other hand, should worry about the following:

1) Duncan’s continued dominance of Gasol.  I expect Duncan to carry his team to victory in at least one of the next two games in San Antonio.

2) The Spurs’ outside shooting.  Finley, Bowen, Barry, and Horry are going to drain outside shots sooner or later, no?

3) Tony Parker’s gonna play a complete game sooner or later, right?  And if Manu Ginobili suddenly gets healthy…

I’m probably going to skip blogging about the NBA for the next couple of days (quick-hitters only, if anything), just to get some non-sports thoughts out of the way.

Tags: doug collins, los angeles lakers, manu ginobili, san antonio spurs, trevor ariza, wii fit, wnba by Peter
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Quick-hitters:

- Awesome. Time Warner just aired a commercial touting their awesome picture quality.

The commercial (and the channel it aired on) was snowy…when there was actually a picture. In fact, my entire High Definition lineup is now out.

You rule, Time Warner!

- Current rebate-o-meter: $1,350. I got some spending cash in the mail today :D.

(I also have $500 in rebates or so that need to be filed by next week. :P)

- During the Dodgers-Reds game earlier tonight, Vin Scully mentioned that STL Cardinals’ 1B Albert Pujols “took out the whole Padres’ battery” tonight.

I thought he meant it figuratively!

- Tim Duncan was nearly unstoppable. Tony Parker played great for three quarters (there’s an APB out on him now; where did he go in the fourth?).

Manu Ginobili? Next question.

As soon as the Spurs got out to their twenty point lead, I couldn’t help but start wondering if the Spurs were just going to sweep the Lakers right out of the playoffs. Duncan was ridiculously efficient (if one can be “ridiculously efficient”), and Tony Parker carved the Lakers up. Most importantly, as TNT analyst Doug Collins pointed out, the Spurs did not have a dry spell in the first half. Really, the Spurs could easily have been up by double figures at the half.

Predictably, thanks to the announcer hex, the Spurs cooled off and the Lakers made their push. Not surprisingly, the push was led by the MVP. Even at the end of the third, when the Spurs still had a seven point lead, I thought the Spurs were in control of the game. Little did I expect the Spurs’ drought to extend into the fourth. Did you see that stat late in the fourth? The Spurs went 5-for-25 with 7 TOs??? The San Antonio Spurs?

As far as the officiating is concerned…next question :P. To say Kobe got away with a few things would be a slight understatement. And didn’t Manu get absolutely mauled on the second to last Spurs’ possession, or are playground scrums perfectly legal now? Speaking of Manu, I’ve never seen so many “What, me?” looks in a single game! Even Michael Finley had that look on one play! Maybe I’m just not watching Spurs’ games closely enough.

Excellent point by Kenny Smith in the postgame show: (paraphrasing) You don’t know how many times you’ll get an exceptional performance by Kobe, but you know the Spurs will bring their game consistently. If we replayed this exact game 100 times, the Spurs probably win 75% of the time.

Tags: kobe bryant, los angeles lakers, manu ginobili, san antonio spurs, tim duncan, time warner, tony parker by Peter
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Quick-hitters:

- When the hell did Subway neuter their $5 footlong deal? I had a hankering for some Subway tonight, and was bent when I saw that the $5 deal only applies to seven of the crappier Subway sandwiches!

Good thing the sandwich I really wanted—a Subway Melt—was only $6.

I think it’s time to start eating at Quiznos. Even if their deal is limited to a few sandwiches, I’d rather have Quiznos over Subway anyway.

(EDIT:  I just saw the commercial for this change.  The commercial states, (paraphrasing) “Due to the fanatical (???) response, we’re putting regular $5 footlongs on our new Subway Value menu.”  My apologies to Subway…I guess.)

- Current rebate-o-meter: $1,600, and I expect it to rise with the Memorial Day sales upcoming.

Current toothpaste-o-meter: a hell of a lot (+4), though I finally finished a tube last night! W00t!

Current backache-o-meter (number of consecutive days I’ve woken up with a stiff back): three. Where the hell is my Theragesic???

(Tangent: The following thought is rated R.

Certainly I’m not the only person that has had this happen to him. I applied some Theragesic to my lower back on Saturday, and either I rubbed some a bit too low, or the stuff spreads along one’s back like wildfire.

After applying the cream, I went to sit down on my sofa, when I felt a burning sensation…um…right in the crack of my ass. I had no choice but to take my second shower of the day right then and there :P.)

- For the love of everything that is good in the word, please make the Mac v PC commercials stop!

I have a feeling that McDonalds and Apple have minority stakes in TiVo.

- First, some thoughts on Cavs-Celtics, Game Seven.

LeBron 45, Pierce 41. That might have been the single best 1-on-1 playoff matchup I’ve ever watched (key word: “watched”; I have never seen the famous Bird-Wilkins duel in 1988). That game was one of those where the casual fan, like myself, was begging for at least one overtime; it was really that amazing. Pierce had it going the entire game, and LeBron’s back has to be sore, after carrying his team on his shoulders in the game.

(Tangent: Sometime during the game, the announcers were talking about how Pierce was the third option on the team, behind KG and Allen. I’ll concede that Pierce belongs behind KG on the pecking order, but Ray Allen? Ray Allen five years ago, maybe, but not the 2007-08 Ray Allen. I would have made this argument even before the playoffs started, even before Ray Allen aged before our very eyes.

How can Pierce be considered option #3? I always see him ranked so high on Yahoo’s Fantasy Basketball rankings! :P)

Now, could you imagine LeBron had some decent help? Sure, Z is a nice player, and West and Szczerbiak were decent parts, and maybe Ben Wallace wasn’t as much of an abomination as I expected him to be, but none of them exactly strike fear into the hearts of their opponents. Next year, though, the Cavs could really be a force to reckon with, with tons of expiring contracts ($30 million worth, I heard somewhere).

As for the Celts, they better hope to get something out of Allen in the next round, or there’s no way they’re getting past Detroit, assuming Detroit doesn’t put it in cruise control for the first few games of the series.

Now, on to Spurs-Hornets. At the start of series, we heard a lot about the Spurs’ championship composure as a huge advantage in the series, but we saw none of that in the first three games in New Orleans. Then Game Seven happened. The Spurs clogged the paint, and the Hornets morphed into a jump shooting team. It didn’t help that their shots weren’t falling, while the Spurs looked like they were shooting a tennis ball through a hula hoop.

Speaking of bad jump shots, Reggie Miller hit it right on the head in the fourth quarter: why was Jannero Pargo taking so many shots?

(LIVE EDIT: I stand by my comments, even after watching Pargo hit a pair of threes. Could the Hornets not draw up anything for Peja?

LIVE EDIT #2: What was with THAT shot by Pargo? I guess the Lakers better start preparing for the Spurs.)

If that is the Spurs team that the Lakers run in to starting on Wednesday, they could be in serious trouble. Who is going to guard Tim Duncan? Who is going to guard Manu Ginobili? Who is going to keep Tony Parker out of the lane?

Back to the Hornets: what happened in that third quarter? It appeared that the Hornets came out of the locker room completely listless, with zero sense of urgency, almost as if they knew a rally was coming. Unfortunately, that rally never materialized, and now they’re going to play golf.

Until next time.

Tags: $5 footlongs, back pain, cavs, celtics, chris paul, hornets, jannero pargo, lebron james, paul pierce, quiznos, spurs, subway, theragesic by Peter
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No quick-hitters.  Let’s just get to basketball.

- Raise your hand if you didn’t think that Deron Williams’ last-second shot was good.

Now THAT was a great playoff game.  The Lakers punched Utah in the mouth for three quarters, and the Jazz made their inevitable push by finally draining triples down the stretch.  Leave it to Derek Fisher, an 88% FT shooter, to brick that free throw late, giving the Jazz a shot at the tie.

The story of the game (other than Kobe’s virtual game-clinching 6-0 run, including that dagger trey and the “bank’s open late” and-1), though, had to be the two offensive foul calls on Carlos Boozer.  The one right before halftime was a pretty weak call, and I thought the one in the third quarter was even worse.  Think Utah could have used a not-in-foul-trouble Carlos Boozer down the stretch of the fourth quarter?  I will entertain the argument that Boozer got taken out of four games by foul trouble, and in at least three of them, he drew some pretty weak foul calls.

(That being said, what was Deron Williams complaining about right before halftime, when he obviously fouled Derek Fisher on the left arm?  In fact, I’d argue that he fouled Fisher twice on that shot:  once before the release, and once on the follow-through.)

This begs the question:  did Carlos Boozer do something to deserve the lack of respect he got from the refs?  Did he spill a drink on David Stern at an NBA function?

At least Utah has a bright future ahead of them.  Deron Williams made “The Leap,” and their team will return largely intact next year.

(Like that is supposed to make Jazz fans feel better, I know.)

Speaking of poor officiating, that charge call on Paul Pierce, late in the fourth quarter of Celtics-Cavs, was abysmal.  Instead of Pierce shooting two to potentially trim the Cavs’ lead to three, the Cavs got the ball back.  Matt Harpring getting run over by Pau Gasol in Game Five of Jazz-Lakers thought that call was horrible.

The Ray Allen non-goaltending, on the other hand, was absolutely the correct call.  I always thought that goaltending couldn’t be called if a shot had no chance of going in, and who would argue that a shot hitting the side of the backboard had a chance of going in?  Michael Wilbon insisted that the basket should have counted, but I was happy to hear that I was, indeed, correct.

Anyway, what a pair of Game Sevens we basketball fans have in store in the next few days!

Tomorrow, part 3 of my “covert ops” mission.

Tags: boston celtics, carlos boozer, charging, cleveland cavs, derek fisher, deron williams, fouls, kobe bryant, lebron james, los angeles lakers, paul pierce, utah jazz by Peter
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Raise your hand if you saw all those plot twists coming! Tonight’s episode was awesome, though I’m not sure where I’d rank it compared to the mid-season premiere.  Did anyone notice how almost R-rated the finale was?  Pregnancies, a marriage proposal, a foiled one, a hazing involving the idea that one worker is “special,” fraud, and a mentally scarring make-out scene at the very end?  Was this The Office or Scranton, PA, [zip code of Scranton]?

Jan’s pregnant? And it’s NOT Michael’s? Not that that was much of a surprise; Michael did have THREE vasectomies, no? And how could he have gotten her pregnant while he was sleeping by the foot of her bed?

(Talking about the three vasectomies still hurts, BTW.)

The donor came from a sperm bank? I thought it was Hunter’s baby for sure! And now Michael thinks he’s back with Jan, throwing away a possible relationship with the new HR girl?  Sure, his “relationship” with Holly was completely rushed, but it looked like he was going to wise up, before Kevin’s fateful call.  And what happened to Jan not wanting kids???

Also, raise your hand if you noticed that Holly kinda resembled Jan. Nice job by casting to get a bunch of actresses to look like Jan after their breakup!

Damn Dwight for telling Holly that Kevin is “special,” causing her to treat Kevin the way she did.  I think Kevin enjoyed Holly’s affection a bit too much.  And I loved the way the other office workers acted around Kevin in the presence of Holly, especially Phyllis’ “Kevin, take your shoes off first!” as he runs towards the moon bouncer.  Holly’s treatment of Kevin got exponentially more weird as the episode progressed.

I guess “the temp” will be spending the next few years in prison for fraud. Yeah, like people weren’t going to figure out that he demanded the sales staff to enter their sales twice. Wunderkind, or what-a-dumbass? And who didn’t enjoy the way Jim taunted Ryan? “…you obviously have your hands tied!”  Talk about dropping a bomb!  Ryan had it coming, though. “Congratulations!  Don’t interrupt!  Congratulations on doing your job.”  What an ass!  As the episode progressed, I was thinking that Ryan was going to try to implicate Jim in the fraud, citing the two “threatening” phone calls as some sort of proof of the allegations.

(Actually, that could be a great future storyline. Ryan could eventually come back on the show and accuse Jim of ratting him out. Of course, that depends on how much time Ryan spends in jail.)

Poor Toby! All he got out of his last day was a party, a watch, a few pics with an unhappy Pam, a horrible tribute song (that’s stuck in my head as we speak), and an escort off the office premises by security?

(Tangent: Did anyone notice that the certificate on the wall behind Michael’s desk is a Certificate of Authenticity for a Seyko [sic] watch? So Toby got a FAKE??? LOL!)

Farewell, Toby Flenderson. Be sure to tell Dwight to update his office hierarchy!

(EDIT: I just noticed that Toby’s “new” watch went off right as he left the office for the last time, just as how Michael set it. Nice attention to detail!)

As for you “Jam” lovers (that’s Jim-Pam, for you non-”shippers” out there, not that I am one), you must have hated the finale. I’m pretty sure you guys were screaming “F**K YOU ANDY!” when Andy stole Jim’s thunder with his own marriage proposal. My sister nearly threw something at my TV when that happened.   What is next to happen in Jim’s relationship with Pam?

(What really stinks about the whole ordeal is that Pam has no idea that it was Jim that put up the money for the entire party!  Yeah, I know…typical guy response…worried about the money :P)

Throughout the episode, I was almost sure that Jim was going to quit his job. From the first phone call to Ryan, to the huge amount of money he spent for the party (I didn’t know you could get a same-day Ferris wheel rental :P), I thought he was gone for sure, whether or not Pam accepted the marriage proposal. Then again, what would the show be without him? And did you see the look on Pam’s face during her last talking head? Then again, could you blame Jim for not proposing after what Andy did? What’s going to happen when (if?) Pam enrolls at the art academy?

During that talking head, did Pam mention starting a family with Jim? How far their relationship advanced in a year’s time!

And Dwight and Angela making out in the darkness of the office? ZE GOGGLES DO NOTHING! And Phyllis was the one to discover this?

Overall, I loved tonight’s episode, especially because of all the potential story lines that this episode set up for next season. By next season, Jan should either be close to giving birth, or would already have had the baby. Pam might already have started her art career, unless she decides against it for some reason. Andy could be in the midst of wedding planning. Maybe Toby will have second thoughts of leaving his position. Maybe Ryan will plea bargain his way out of prison. And what’s going to happen with Jim and Pam?

Most importantly, what the hell am I going to do between now and next season?

Favorite moments:

• Who didn’t enjoy watching Jim screw around with Dwight’s phone? As if the writers weren’t going to give us one interaction between these two in the finale. “Hang that up right now”? Dwight had the phone in his hand. Why didn’t HE hang up? If you’re keeping score at home, that’s now two phones that Dwight has destroyed. (EDIT: I didn’t notice it the first time, but apparently the phone rang again while he was trying to destroy it! HAHA!)

(Tangent: I’ve dealt with five or six different Bluetooth headsets in the past, and I don’t recall EVER getting good sound quality from any more than three feet away from the phone itself. Yet Jim was able to speak to two different people just fine? Amazing!)

• Michael’s shoe money. I don’t even want to imagine how long that money’s been sitting there.
• Pam: “…So the timing’s perfect. And THAT is the first time I’ve ever used the word ‘perfect’ in here!”
• Holly: “What do you do here?” followed by Creed’s talking head. “Qua-something…[qua-sounding junk]…”
• Toby:  (screaming at the top of his lungs) “DOES ANYONE HAVE A CAMERA HERE?”  Something tells me he ran off to the nearest Staples to buy a digital camera.
• Jim explaining that all his firsts with Pam occurred at the office.  How pathetic!  Then again, that makes his attempted proposal to Pam at the party even more fitting.
• Kevin:  “I am totally going to bang Holly!”  Did that come out of right field or what?
• Jim finally growing a pair and chewing out Ryan.  Too bad that Ryan probably never got the message.
• That entire exit interview was awesome, in a truly awkward sense.  I would have loved to see Toby throw the rock through the window.
• Yes, Hank, I thought Kelly’s talking head about visiting Ryan in jail was damn funny.  I’m coming around!
• How did Michael resist the temptation to say “That’s what she said!”???
• Michael getting flustered after Holly touched him, followed by the talking head.  Jan didn’t show affection?  Well, I suppose sex != affection.
• Pam:  “Don’t tell him [Toby] I said this, but I always thought he was kinda cute.”  Wait until that gets back to Toby.
• Michael:  “Are you nauseous?  Do you have cravings?  You never touched by Propecia…?”
• Michael:  “You cheated on me?  When I specifically asked you not to?”
• Holly:  “Andy proposed to one of your accountants…”  Michael:  “Well, I can see Andy proposing to Angela.  I can also see him proposing to Oscar.”  How did I know that was coming?

One final thought: now that Toby has (seemingly) been written off the show, and it seems that Ryan won’t be around (for at least a good while), does this mean that B.J. Novak and Paul Liberstein are no longer going to write/produce on the show? And if they do, wouldn’t it be kinda weird to see their names in the credits, even though their characters are gone?

Tags: goodbye, review, season finale, The Office, toby by Peter
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Quick-hitters:

- Thank you, Time Warner. My internet connection was out as soon as I finished blogging last night, and was still out when I first signed on earlier today.

The connection was eventually fixed (not sure when), but now my ESPN-HD feed is out! Oh well, I’d rather watch the season finale of The Office.

- I got a “final notice” renewal letter on my Car n Driver magazine subscription today. Now I could’ve sworn that the sub was good for at least another few months.

After a few minutes of researching, I saw this notation next to the address of the renewal notice:

Oct. 08

I didn’t realize that last notices come five months before the fact. Who do these people think they are? BofA?

- Before I get to my review of The Office season finale, let me quickly give my thoughts on last week’s episode (Job Fair):

(Note: I’m doing this on-the-fly, so pardon any grammatical/structural/spelling errors!)

Michael in a shirt and jeans? Haha.

Michael: “Pam will be eye candy.”

Jim’s on probation? Shocker. And he has to play golf with a potential client? AND Andy has to go golfing with him? I’d submit my two weeks’ notice now.

(Of course, if he had tried, he wouldn’t be in this position, now would he?)

Did Dwight really admit that Jim is in charge once Michael is gone??? And did he just admit that both he and Andy are third in charge?

Dwight: “I will tell on you.” (shudder…)

I’m amazed that Creed is still in the office! (EDIT: This was before the rest of the Office decided to “ditch this b!tch.”

Michael has a normal ring tone?

Michael: “Who cares? I’m not there. Jim’s not there. Why should anybody else be there?”

Pam: “Are you serious?” Michael: “Yes. And don’t call me Shirley.” Sigh. Yet another epic reference ruined by Michael Scott.

Why the hell is Pam only taking ONE sheet of paper? TWENTY MILES???

Tell me they did not just destroy a golf cart for THAT!

Michael: (paraphrasing) “I would rather be jobless, on a beach, with a huge inheritance, than to take one of these crap jobs.”

Michael: “I wouldn’t say this to her face, but she is a wonderful person and a great artist.” Oscar: “Why wouldn’t you say that to her face?” I spit out my bite of spaghetti on that scene alone. And it took me a bit of time to realize that the Justin kid was the first kid that visited the Dunder-Mifflin booth.

So was Jim’s block-the-car-to-get-a-sale “trying” enough to get him off probation? Hey, at least he shot 102!

Michael: “Jim could do anything he wants, but he chooses to sell paper…like me.” And Pam is thinking about moving on to a graphics design job in NY or Philly? What a great storyline episode; think about how many possible story arcs there are for the finale. Dwight and Angela seem to be at peace with each other. Jim had to fight tooth-and-nail to score the client and (probably) keep his job. And now Pam might be finished as the receptionist?

Why do I have the feeling that we’ll be left with a brutal cliffhanger at the end of the finale?

I plan on replacing this quick-hitter review with a thorough one, once I get around to watching this episode again.

Tags: car n driver, job fair, renewal, The Office, time warner by Peter
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Quickie blog tonight. Expect tomorrow’s blog to have two Office reviews, both last week’s episode, and the season finale.

(Tangent: Season finale??? Don’t the writers and producers owe us a few extra weeks of television shows after the writer’s strike? And what about the DVD sets for this season’s TV shows? There’s no way that these shows can charge us full price for a half-season’s worth of episodes, right?)

(Tangent #2: Dwight Schrute just announced that he is running for VP on John McCain’s ticket on The Tonight Show! He’s got my vote :P)

(Tangent #3: Howard Dean just offered Dwight Schrute two flamethrowers. I sense a change in loyalty.)

One quick-hitter:

- I can’t believe I have not seen this video before, but check out the curve on this curveball!

Clayton freaking Kershaw. Let’s hope he’s closer to the next Sandy Koufax than the next Darren Dreifort.

BTW, Andruw Jones got two hits today??? CRAZY!

- Ross is officially evil. I went back there today to return a few items of clothing, and got ~ $50 returned to my credit card. That’s when I decided to do some quick shopping.

After browsing through the clearance racks, I ended up buying two pairs of shorts and a cheap T-shirt, and I almost walked out with a $55 jacket marked down to $10.

I’ve been to Ross five times in the last two weeks now, and even though I’ve made returns three times, I haven’t walked out of the store without purchasing anything. Grrrrrrr.)

(Tangent: Speaking of evil stores, my sister walked into Target last night to look for one item.

She walked out with a nalgene water bottle and a copy of SingStar Rocks with two microphones (clearanced to $24.99 from $49.99). The hilarious thing about the trip to Target was the fact that we thought the store closed at 9:30. It was 9:15 or so when we got to the store, and we made a pact to bee-line towards the one item she needed.

Once we found out that Target closed at 10, the spending spree began :P).

(Wow. Four tangents in a single blog? This must be a record!)

- I could easily flip over my assessment of Game Four of the Lakers-Jazz series on its head, and it would be wholly appropriate. There were some pretty questionable calls—Gasol practically ran over Harpring in the fourth quarter, and Odom was barely touched on his dunk that was assisted by Gasol.

(By the way, Okur completely flopped on the critical offensive rebound and dunk by Gasol. As if Gasol could shove a seven-footer, 250+ pounder six feet with his left arm.)

It’s easy to blame the refs for bad calls, but that would ignore the real reason by the Jazz probably blew their best chance to steal the series: the third quarter. How many chances did Utah have to take the lead in the third quarter? Missed layups, bricked jumpers, and TOs…THAT’s the reason why Utah gagged away Game Five. Add a dash of Pau Gasol, and Utah has to be kicking themselves right now. Was he huge or what down the stretch of Game Five?

And has anybody seen Carlos Boozer? How has he disappeared in the three games at Staples?

One quick comment about the Celtics-Cavs game: I almost pulled off an unprecedented double Ung-hex. Early in the game, the Cavs were up by double digits, and I declared the Cavs the winner of the game, going so far as to say that the Cavs were going to win the series in six games.

Late in the fourth quarter, I switched over to the Dodger game, figuring that the Cavs were done. When I switched back to Cavs-Celtics, the Cavs got within four points. Too bad the Cavs couldn’t pull off my double Ung-hex the victory.

Until next time!

Tags: clayton kershaw, clothes, curve ball, double ung-hex, evil, jazz, lakers, mehmet okur, pau gasol, ross stores, target by Peter
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