UngsungBlog: A (Fantasy) Sports Blog

Wow! It’s been over a week since my last blog entry?

Lemme make this one a quickie (well, as quick as possible).

Quick-hitters:

- I hate being sick. I hate people. I’m not sure which one I hate more.

- Seriously, how hard is it to change seven digits? The damn HOA that runs my apartment complex, apparently, cannot figure out how to do such a seemingly easy task. It’s been two weeks since I’ve requested that my front-gate intercom # be changed to a new phone number, and they haven’t done anything about it yet! Two weeks! That’s 2 days per digit!!!!!

AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

- Current rebate-o-meter: ~$2800, although it appears that I’m going to be jerked around for about $150 of that rebate money.

’tis the rebate game, after all…

- Given that this week’s Office episode might be the last episode for a while (thanks to the WGA strike), I wasn’t really looking forward to tonight’s episode.

That being said, tonight’s episode was great! It had a little bit of Jim/Pam (boy does Jim suck at ping-pong!), psycho Kelly (and I’ll admit that the Kelly character is growing on me, in a fingernails-on-the-chalkboard kind of way), and most importantly, it had the pathetic, let’s-feel-sorry-for-him Michael Scott! Poor Michael; he must have felt like he got stabbed in the back after finding out that Jan gave him a less than exemplary, albeit warranted, performance review! Despite that, I was REALLY surprised that Michael didn’t agree that Dunder-Mifflin “exhibits a pattern of disrespect towards its employees,” especially after hearing David Wallace’s deposition. Not to mention, isn’t Michael always whining about his superiors–first Jan, and now Ryan? Obviously this revelation is going to scar Michael’s relationship with Jan…or will it?

(I also wonder how long it’s going to take for Michael to realize that he blew a chance at a share of $4 million.)

By the way, I don’t know a single guy that keeps a freaking diary. I was half-expecting to see one of those tiny locks on the front cover. And when I saw Michael actually decide to sit with Toby for lunch, I was suckered into believing that he would actually be nice to Toby for a change (yeah, right!).

I loved the Kelly/Darryl and Jim/Pam scenes, and I especially loved Kelly’s smack-talking. That stand-off between Pam and Kelly at the door of the women’s bathroom was one heck of an awkward moment! At the end of the episode, though, I was hoping for Pam to slug Kelly right in the face, prompting an all-out-brawl. You could imagine my disappointment when they started playing ping-pong instead.
(I assure you that I say this not as a chauvinistic pig who wouldn’t mind watching two women clawing each other’s eyes out. I swear this on a grilled porterhouse! :P)

Favorite moments:

• Ryan demanding that Michael answer the call from a very important non-existent client.
• Pam: “I bring him juice…My boyfriend is svelte.” (LOL!)
• Jim convincing Dwight to play ping-pong by suggesting that the client challenged Jim to a ping-pong match.
• The diary entry: “…tan all over…Jan all over…he he”
• Jan: “I stole your diary and gave it to my lawyer. You e-mailed a topless photo of me to everyone in our company. Let’s call it even” followed by the awkward exchange of “I love you”s.
• “Who is this other woman…Ryan…who you refer to here as ‘Just as hot as Jan, but in a different way” (*gag*), followed by Toby’s girlish laugh.
• Dwight: “Wait a minute…Darryl is the client? He works here, dumbass!” (:P)
• Michael: You expect to get screwed by your company, but you never expect to get screwed by your girlfriend.”

Dwight and Mose’s ping-pong rally at the end of the episode was pretty awesome as well.

Now, to go cry a little over the fact that there will be no more Office episodes for the foreseeable future.

- Here are (very quickly) my Week 10 (Fantasy) Football thoughts.

1) I’m 5-5 in the BargainShare fantasy football league (tied for first…and last :P), and just plain pathetic in the other leagues (4-6, 3-7 in the LT league, and somehow 5-5).

In the BargainShare league, I started Justin Fargas (he of eight fantasy points) and Travis Henry (he of DNP). On my bench? Selwyn Young (18 pts) and Ryan Grant (19 pts). Fortunately I didn’t need either of them.

I hate Fantasy Football.

2) The Pats are the most awesome-est team EVAR! They are so super cool! They’re not going to lose a game for twenty years!

(I just put that little blurb up there to appease Boston myopics; if I didn’t, Pats’ fans might accuse me of disrespecting their team).

By the way, Pats’ fans, I love how you guys are whining that the Colts are going to make excuses now that DE Dwight Freeney is out for the season. I can’t wait to see how myopic you guys are going to act when the Celtics begin their playoff run.

3) You know your football team is sad when you are pissed that they got their first win of the season.

Stupid Rams! Go 0-16! Get the #1 pick next year!

Oh well, hopefully Miami continues their run towards history :P.

4) What was more depressing to watch last weekend? San Francisco’s “offense” or Peyton Manning throwing six picks?

Who am I kidding? San Francisco by ten miles!

5) Donovan McNabb? HUGE game!

What does this mean for fantasy owners? People will start him next week, and he’ll probably lay an egg.

Until next time (whenever that is)!

Tags: Fantasy, Sports, The Office by Peter
1 Comment »

 Yeah, yeah, yeah…the product review is going to have to wait.

So sue me.  Just don’t wish a torn knee ligament (or three) on me.

Quick-hitters:

- Did you know that “aluminum” is spelled and pronounced “aluminium” in Britain?

Krunk pointed that out to me today, but I already knew that, thanks to Eddie Izzard :P.

(Tangent:  Why wasn’t the movie Speed called La Vitesse?)

- One of these days, I’m going to figure out what’s wrong with my sister’s fried-again computer.

Not today, though.  me <– opens a can of Coke Zero.

- My current rebate-o-meter reads over $3,000 in rebates owed.  This figure went up over $700 today alone.

(I should mention that the only reason why this figure jumped so high was because of an error in my rebate Excel spreadsheet.  You remember The Simpsons episode where Homer tried to gain weight, and kept getting his gut caught on the towel rack, throwing off his scale’s reading?   My miscalculation reminded me of this episode.)

At the rate I’m going, I’m probably going to have to buy myself a free after rebate Christmas gift.  Nothing says “Merry Christmas” like Norton Antivirus 2008, right?

- How would one spell out the sound a buzzer makes (you know, like what you hear at the end of a basketball game)?

I could really use that.

- Don’t you hate it when you check out of an store, only to find (moments later) another item you wanted to buy?  For reasons other than S&H–not that S&H doesn’t matter–this hurts a heck of a lot more online than at a brick-and-mortar.

- I had some leftover spaghetti sauce that was sitting in my fridge for a couple of days, so I decided to make some baked pasta.  I had some round Spaghetti-O-like pasta that I bought from Trader Joe’s (that store is evil, by the way), so I boiled that up, heated the sauce, threw everything into a glass baking dish, topped it with some CoJack cheese–it’s all I had–and threw the whole shebang in the oven until the cheese melted.

Man, that’s some good stuff; it was definitely a heck of a lot better than anything that came out of a can!  I added a mixed greens salad and a glass of cranberry juice, and damn, I could go for another helping right now!

- I’m too tired to give my loyal readers my Week 4 NFL thoughts, but here are my Week 4 Fantasy Football rants and raves (mostly the former):

1) Stupid Brian Westbrook.  Stupid Rudi Johnson.  Stupid Donovan McNabb.

2) I lost in three of my four leagues last week (see #1), and I really lucked out in the BargainShare FFBL league, thanks to a last-minute scratch of Lawrence Maroney.  I was up by a mere three points, going into the Monday Night Football game!  Hey, I’ll take wins any way I can get them.

Unfortunately, in that league, both of my starting RBs–Rudi Johnson and Travis Henry–are hurt.

I’m screwed.

To recap:  I’m now 1-3, 1-3 (in the LT league, and I could very well be 0-4), 2-2, and 3-1 in the BargainShare league.

Fun fact:  my sister and I are both 3-1 in the BargainShare league.  One GM and his son are each 0-4.

(I hope he doesn’t read this :P)

3) I face LaDainian Tomlinson in two leagues next week, and I have him in one league (though that team is 1-3).  It should be pretty obvious which way I will be rooting.

4) Have I ever mentioned how much I hate Fantasy Football?

Until next time!

Tags: Blog, Fantasy, Food by Peter
5 Comments »

I know I promised a product review, but I haven’t yet finished it.  This entry will be a quickie, “inspired” by Hank’s warning about being knocked off his blogroll if I don’t blog enough.

(Oh, Hank said two months?  I thought he said two days :P)

Quick-hitters:

- I have finally found a commercial more annoying than those John Mellencamp/”This is ourrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr country!” commercials.  If I hear that new iPod nano commercial, featuring Feist’s 1 2 3 4, during a football game one more time, I’m going to toss something at my TV.   In fact, I’d rather listen to “This is ourrrrrrrrrrrrrr country” on infinite loop than listen to that commercial once.

Yeah, it’s THAT annoying.

- You know you’re addicted to hot deals when you are looking forward to buying tampons, moisturizing cream, lotions, and hair spray because of the potential for making money on the deal.

(And do I even need to say that I am NOT buying this stuff for personal use???)

- With Christmas season coming up (three months away = “coming up”), what should I buy myself this year?  I’m thinking about a Wii, a Sprint-compatible PDA phone, or a very nice LCD monitor.  Any suggestions?  The best suggestion wins a day’s worth of my admiration.

(ARV:  Priceless, of course.)

- Today’s single topic will deal with the recent string of sports writers, analysts, and commentators professing their (wo)man-love for New England Patriots (the 4*-0 Patriots, I might add) WR Randy Moss.  Yeah, he had another strong game today, scoring two touchdowns on nine catches for 102 yards, and look at what he has done so far this season!

(Tangent:  Damn…I wish I drafted him in one of my fantasy leagues.  More on (fantasy) sports next time.)

My question is:  who, honestly, was surprised by this?  When Randy Moss tries, he plays well!  Look what he did in his early days with Minnesota, and then later when he was paired with Daunte Culpepper.  And then look at what happened when that team melted down; Moss’ numbers plummeted.  Look what he did last year with the Raiders, when it was obvious that he didn’t give a damn.  And look at him now, now that he’s actually trying!

(By the way, props to the Raiders for actually playing pretty well this year.  I hope the injury to LaMont Jordan isn’t too serious.)

It bugs me a lot that Moss was basically able to shut himself down–Vince Carter thinks that Randy Moss’ act was ridiculous–forcing the Raiders to trade him to the Patriots for twenty-five cents on the dollar (a fourth-round pick), but the love affair that the press has for Moss is downright sickening!  I do not need to hear Tony Kornheiser, for example, keep pointing out that the Patriots made a great trade with the Raiders, and that Moss is “working out” for them.  I don’t need to hear any more “Greatest Ever?” talk about Moss and Brady, and I certainly don’t want to hear any more about much of a difference-maker Moss has been this year.

(clears throat)

OF COURSE A ONCE-IN-A-WHILE TALENT LIKE RANDY MOSS IS GOING TO MAKE (ANOTHER ONCE-IN-A-WHILE TALENT) TOM BRADY’S LIFE EASIER!!!

I don’t want to hear anyone say “Oh, Moss is on the other side of 30, and he’s slowing down” or “oh, he’s oft-injured!  He’s not the same player he once was!”

Bull-freaking-crap.   He plays wide receiver, where you can be productive even into your late thirties.  He’s also 6′4″, and you can’t coach 6′4″.

I’ve got Moss in the same category of athlete as the aforementioned Vince Carter, Allen Iverson, Terrible Owens, and other crybabies who sulk, whine, and dog their team’s future games, until they’re traded away for pennies on the dollar to contending teams:  the “Athletes Who Deserve to Tear Up Every Ligament in Their Knees So That They Never Win a Title” group.

(Harsh, eh?  Hey, if Hank can wish cancer on people who are careless with their shopping carts, I can wish for something as insignificant as torn knee ligaments.)

Kobe Bryant would have made the list, except for the fact that he hasn’t yet been dealt, and he’s already a three-time champion.

I can sleep at night, though, because I know that we are one Randy Moss meltdown away from these media types being forced to write about the colossal failure of the Patriots and the bitter divorce between Moss and Brady.

I can’t wait.  Until next time!

Tags: Fantasy, Sports by Peter
5 Comments »

- Wow, did The Office season premiere deliver or what? There were several LOL moments, and I still couldn’t believe how the episode started!

(spoilers to follow…you have been warned!)

• I was thinking that Michael was going awfully fast, when he turned the corner into what we found out was the Dunder Mifflin parking lot.
• I wonder how many takes it took Pam to say the entire foundation’s name correctly.
• Who didn’t see Michael cramping up during the run, after carbo-loading minutes before the episode, then passing up on the water?
• I want one of those “Support the rabid” wrist bands!
• I did NOT need to see Pam walking into Michael’s office and seeing his (as Pam called it) “dangling participle,” nor did I need to hear Andy talk about his chafing nipples. *gag*
• My favorite moments of the episode:
  • Kevin: “Are you kidding me?…Are you KIDDING me?”
  • Michael: “I’m not superstitious, but I’m…I’m just a little stitious.”
  • Michael: “Occasionally I’ll hit someone with my car. So sue me! No…don’t sue me!”
  • Angela’s hip check into Dwight.
  • The flyer saying that the run was 5,000 miles, not 5 kilometers.
  • Seeing Creed, Oscar, and Stanley (of all people!) running to the taxi. I figured Kevin would have been there, not Stanley. And I loved how the taxi drove them right to the finish line, not a few hundred yards before it.
  • Dwight: “I put Imodium in Toby’s coffee before the race.” Michael: “Excellent…wait…Imodium, or Ex-Lax?”
  • Toby: “He couldn’t have made it a circle?”
• I was actually surprised that the writers touched on the Jim-Pam relationship as much as they did in this episode. I thought they were only going to make mention of it once, and only at the end of the episode, while playing the whole “Oh, we’re not together” angle throughout.
• What??? No Jim and Pam picking on Dwight today? Where was that?

All in all, I was very happy with today’s episode, and I’m really happy that there will be three more hour-long episodes coming up in the following weeks!

- In the BargainShare Fantasy Football league, I needed to avoid a big day from Drew Brees and Reggie Bush to win. Bush did his part to hurt me, but Brees had an abysmal game, and I held on. I’m now 2-1 in that league, but bad news for me: Rudi Johnson is out for the NE game!

In the other league in which I was 1-1, I needed a single point from Vince Young to win there. I’m now 2-1 there, but I have Rudi Johnson in that league too. As for the first of my two 0-2 teams, I rode Donovan McNabb and Brian Westbrook to an easy win, and now i’m 1-2 there. As for the other 0-2 league (aka the “LDT is letting me down” league), my opponent needed nine points from Drew Brees. So now I’m 1-2 there as well. Hopefully I can report four more wins next week :D.

As for actual football, here are my Week 3 thoughts:

1) Another week, another dominating Patriots win. Now they’re 3*-0, and facing a horrible Bengals defense next week. Fortunately, I don’t face Brady or Moss in any of my fantasy leagues next week!

2) What’s more surprising: the Packers at 3-0, or San Diego, Chicago, and Cincy at 1-2? And was that Brett Favre, circa 1997?

3) Didn’t you used to be the Chicago Bears’ D? Crap, my strategy of taking the Bears Defense/Special Teams early looks really bad right about now. And boy did Dallas look good last week! Looks like they’re the favorite to finish second to the Pats, Colts, or Steelers in this year’s Super Bowl.

4) Can we go back to calling New Orleans the ‘Aints? Boy was that a horrible performance, especially at home, and the loss of Deuce McAllister has to be crushing.

By the way, people can stop calling Reggie Bush a bust. No one ever said he was going to be a between-the-tackles, power rusher. Also, this is only his 19th regular season game! Give the guy a break!

At least people can stop with the “Mario Williams has more TDs than Reggie Bush has” comments.

5) How in the world did Indy (-6) NOT cover against Houston???

Next time, more thoughts about sports, but I’m getting tired. So I’ll end today’s blog with this:

- For your bloggers out there, have you ever seen URL-less spam among your blog comments? This is a must-read article about this not-so-new phenomenon, and the two points mentioned in the article make total sense to me.

I used to allow some of these URL-less spam comments, until I noticed that all of these comments were vague; they did not point to a particular subject covered in the blog entry in which these comments appeared. That’s when I figured that these comments were suspicious, and I began blocking them. I mean, why else would a spammy commenter leave an otherwise harmless comment on one’s blog?

Clever, eh?

Happy blogging!

Tags: Blog, Fantasy, Pop Culture, Sports, The Office by Peter
No Comments »

Quick-hitters:

- Rain?  RAIN???  WTF???

I want summer back!

- I went to the Post Office yesterday, and to my utter amazement, I did not come close to getting hit by a car!  Even more amazing than that was the fact that, when I stepped into the PO, there was NOBODY in line!  A guy who walked in with me turned towards me and grinned, as we raced to the front of the line.

(He beat me.)

- “Personal rebate filer” needs to be a real job.  I’m so good at it, it’s ridiculous.

(Tangent:  I really need to get a second scanner.  Maybe I can find a cheapy one on Craigslist or something.)

Hey!  Filling out rebate forms, cutting UPCs, scanning everything, printing to PDF, merging all PDFs into one document, addressing envelopes, sealing and stamping them, and repeating ad nauseum…that’s tough to do!

- So my UPS guy dropped off my latest set of toys today:  a Pinzon 10-piece stainless steel cookware set and a Circulon 5.5qt. Dutch oven!  I was skeptical about the Pinzonset, because of the fact that I’ve never heard of that brand before; however, I was impressed by the number of 5-star ratings, though, so I decided to take a chance.

Wow.  From the moment I took the cookware out of the packaging, I knew I was definitely getting my money’s worth.

(Tangent:  I’ve never had nice cookware before.  The nicest piece of cookware I own is a stainless steel Dutch oven that my mom gave me.

As the Amazon.com reviews say, the cookware was packaged extremely well.  The pots and pans were quite heavy, as well!  Each piece has a thick aluminum base, and it was funny to watch my sister struggle to pick up the 10″ frying pan.  I’m not too much of a fan of the lids–they felt a bit on the light side–but if the lids are the only thing I can complain about, I know I’ll be happy with these things.  I have not had the chance to cook with the wares yet, but that’s what the ground beef (yep, more “premium” stuff) in my refrigerator is for.

- So I have yet another reason to hate Citibank.  I mentioned, in a previous blog, that Citibank no longer reported the credit limit on one of my cards (which had a sizable limit).  Well, I recently pulled up my credit report + score, and noticed that my credit score took a huge nose dive!  Now, I had opened a new credit card and a new checking account (three inquiries; it should be two…thanks, BofA), and that could account for, maybe, a 10-15 point drop in my score.

So you could imagine my horror when I saw the huge drop in my score.  What caused the precipitous fall?  Well, recently Citibank sent me a replacement Citi PremierPass card, that supposedly came with new features.  Apparently, one of these features is the lack of a credit limit reporting!  To make things worse, this card has a limit equal to nearly half of my total credit limit!!!

According to my credit report, Citibank only is reporting the limit on one of my cards, and the limit on that card is a paltry $1,000.  So, I have devised a plan:  I’m going to re-allocate most of my total Citibank credit limit on to this one card, and hope that Citibank reports the new limit to the three bureaus.

I also couldn’t resist opening another credit card:  a Citibank Amex card.   Hopefully my lowered credit score doesn’t disqualify me from getting this card.  Just look at the perks!  5% in Thank You points for gas, groceries, and drug stores for two years, 3% everywhere else, and 15,000 points after making $300 in purchases.

me <– crosses fingers

- Here are my NFL Week 2 (Fantasy) Football thoughts:

1) Two of my fantasy football teams are 0-2.  Two of them are 1-1.  What do the two 0-2 teams have in common?  Donovan freaking McNabb.

(Remind me never to draft a QB one year removed from major knee surgery.  Last year, it was Daunte Culpepper, this year it’s Donovan McNabb).

Speaking of Donovan McNabb, how about the insinuation that black quarterbacks face more pressure to succeed than white quarterbacks?  I don’t agree at all with this opinion.  I don’t believe that black QBs face more pressure than white QBs, but I do believe that McNabb faces more scrutiny than the average QB.  Fair or not, he has had a number of chances to win a Super Bowl ring, and has come short every time.  Whether it’s the Tampa Bay Bucs, the St. Louis Rams, T.O., or whatever else, he has come up short every year of his career.  Because he plays for such a success-starved city as Philadelphia, he’s going to have to face the fact that he’s going to be blamed for much of the team’s failures.

Donovan, this is not a race thing.  This is an inability to succeed thing.

2) So the Pats played real well last week, dominating San Diego.  Congrats, Patriots; you guys are now 2*-0!

3) What were the Colts doing, going pass-pass-pass late in the fourth quarter against Tennessee?

By the way, I love the fact that Indy is tied with the Houston Texans for first place in the AFC South.

4) Was that Cincy-Cleveland or two NFL Blitz teams?  Seriously, 96 points?!?

And Chad Johnson sure has some guts to jump into the seats after scoring a TD.

5) Green Bay’s 2-0.  Houston’s 2-0.  Detroit’s 2-0.  San Francisco’s 2-0.  Washington’s 2-0.  Philadelphia’s 0-2.  St. Louis is 0-2.  New Orleans is 0-2.

Wow.

Finally, nice job, Dodgers.  A four-game sweep to the Rockies?  I guess I’ll have to look forward to 2008.

Happy blogging!

Tags: Cust. Service, Fantasy, Food, Sports by Peter
2 Comments »

Quick-hitters:

- Another trip to the Post Office, another moron running a red light. This time, it wasn’t even close! The light was red for a good five seconds before the car (heading Southbound, just like the ***** who nearly killed me earlier in the week) sped right through the intersection, forcing the two cars going Westbound to slam their brakes and sound their horn.

That one could have been really ugly.

- Hey Amy, I recall you blogging about this horrible movie called “Sunshine.”

Check out this mini-review of the movie, done by ESPN’s Gregg Easterbrook (search for “Sci-Fi Complaint No. 2″). I think you’ll enjoy it ;-).

- Anyone wanna make a bet on the number of years that O.J. will serve in prison for his latest escapade? I’ll put the over/under at 3.5 years, and I’ll gladly take the under.

- Damn you, Hank! Why oh why did he have to talk about the game Peggle? I’m freaking addicted to the damn game now, so much so that I nearly purchased the game a night ago!

- So I took a trip to Costco today, but before I did, I set the over/under on how much I was going to spend at $85.00. I made a bet with an unnamed individual, and I confidently took the over.

(I hate Costco. I really hate Costco.)

Even with the beef jerky, the cheese danishes, and the multiple quantities of juice that I bought, I managed to stay under $85.00!

(Tangent: There is no way that one bag of this beef jerky contains eight servings. I could easily polish off half the bag, and only have to stop eating because my jaw would start aching.)

Anyway, hopefully that unnamed individual doesn’t try to get a steak dinner out of me for winning the bet.

- After the trip to Costco, we swung by our local supermarket to pick up a few things. After today’s trip (which only set me back another $30), I don’t know if I ever want to go back to that place. This wasn’t my first trip to this particular supermarket, by the way, but after what I dealt with today, I don’t know if I ever want to go back to that place.

First of all, I do not understand why people like to obstruct the aisles with their shopping carts either at the ends of the aisle, or in the middle of the aisle, next to areas where there are displays of stuff not on shelves. One of these days, I’m bringing a horn with me to a grocery store, so I can honk at people who block my way.

(Yeah, I have grocery store road rage.)

Related to the first point…grocery stores seriously need to widen their aisles. It is nearly impossible now to pass another shopper in an aisle, and it’s not just because of those off-the-shelf displays being all over the place. Between stupid kids constantly running around, to, um, wide shoppers blocking off the entire aisle with their cart or, um, their backsides, I now have to go through the store 2-3 times just to make sure I’ve covered every aisle.

(Tangent: I’m not exactly the most svelte of individuals, but I try my hardest to not obstruct people when I’m shopping. If I do, it’s either unintentional, or I do it for a couple of seconds at the most. There was one woman who was bent over and looking at the same freaking can of tuna for a good five minutes? How do I know this? I returned to that aisle a couple minutes later, and she was still there!)

By the way, I don’t want to hear the “if you would just make a list, and go into whatever aisles you need to go to, then you won’t have this problem!” argument. I always go through every aisle, in the off-chance that I find a very good deal that I can’t pass up.

As if the experience inside the supermarket wasn’t bad enough, what I saw outside was even worse. As I got to our car, I noticed two shopping carts stuck behind a van parked one aisle from us.
(clears throat)

WHO THE **** THINKS IT IS A GOOD IDEA TO LEAVE THEIR SHOPPING CART BEHIND SOMEONE’S PARKED CAR???

The amazing thing is, there was a shopping cart return area about three parking spots away from these two carts! As I finished loading my groceries, I noticed the owner of the van started loading her groceries. I heard her curse about the carts (understandably so), and I decided to go put away my cart and take the two obstructing her van at the same time. She was very grateful for the help, and I was glad to see that she also took her cart to the cart return area.

As we drove out of the parking lot, we saw a woman driving a Dodge Ram leaving her shopping cart in the next parking spot. Was it cruel for me to have wished for the cart to roll right back into her truck? Seriously, the parking spot is rather tiny, and there are several cart return areas scattered all throughout the lot. Is is that freaking hard to take your cart to the return before you leave?

I was going to talk about football, but now I’m pissed off again. Until next time…

Tags: Fantasy, Food, Random by Peter
10 Comments »

Stupid, stupid me! This blog was supposed to be posted Monday night.

That’s what happens when you click “Save” instead of “Publish.” WTH is “Save” bolded, and not “Publish”?????

(:P)

Quick-hitters:

- On Sunday night, I went to Ralphs and bought some “premium” (< 20% fat) ground beef, with the intention of making some hamburgers. I usually just buy the cheapest ground beef I can find, so I was intrigued in finding out what was so “premium” about this stuff.

After grilling one up for dinner on Monday night, I figured out what is so great about premium meat. Talk about melt-in-your-mouth goodness! That was about the best burger I’ve ever cooked for myself: a ~1/3 lb. patty, slightly seasoned with kosher salt and Mrs. Dash, grilled to medium-well, topped with American cheese and fresh lettuce. It was a shame that I was too lazy to slice up some onions.

I’ve got about three more pounds of this stuff sitting in my freezer (yeah, I know…); methinks I’ll have another one later tonight.

(EDIT: Of course, that didn’t happen…read below.)

- No thanks to Hank, I decided to order myself some Papa John’s pizza last night.

(Note that this entry was added AFTER I realized that I hadn’t yet published this blog entry. Again, stupid me.)

I went with an XL Italian Meats Trio pizza, and a pepperoni thin-crust pizza. Good stuff! I also had some carrot and celery sticks with ranch dressing to compensate for the fact that my pizzas had no veggies on it. No, the tomato sauce does not count as “veggies.”

(I know, that sounds like an awful lot of pizza. Well, I can always freeze what I don’t eat. I now have about 1.5 whole pizzas sitting in my freezer.)

- Damn these Baked Lay’s are ridiculously addictive. At the rate I’m going, I’ll mow through both bags of chips I bought by the end of this week.

(Non-sports fans, you could go ahead and stop reading here.)

- So here are my thoughts of Week 1 of the NFL season:

1) Who, really, was surprised that Randy Moss had such a big game for the Patriots? Isn’t it amazing how extremely gifted players look really impressive when they try? I suppose I should go ahead and anoint the 2007 Patriots as this year’s Super Bowl champs, right? (And yeah, I just threw up in my mouth a little.)

Speaking of the Patriots, how about the Patriots getting caught videotaping Jets’ defensive coaches, trying to find signals sent out by these coaches in order to get an edge? Can we go Barry Bonds on the Patriots and start doubting the legitimacy of their three championship rings now? Who knows how much of an edge Belicheck and his players got from making these videotapes? For all we know, the Patriots might not have won a thing without cheating to this extent!

(Personally, I believe that the Patriots would still have been good enough to win a ring or two without the help of videotaping their opposition. However, isn’t it a tad suspicious that QB Tom Brady wasn’t at all in danger of being sacked during the Pats-Jets game on Sunday? Yeah, I know the Pats’ O-Line is very good and highly underrated, but can even the most die-hard of Pats’ fans say, with 100% certainty, that the Pats got no competitive advantage in the Pats-Jets game from questionable activities?)

A four-game suspension to Coach Belichick, and the forfeiture of two draft picks (a second- and fourth- rounder will do) should be a sufficient punishment for the Patriots.
2) Hey, Baltimore, how about running the ball a few times when you have first and goal inside Cincy’s five-yard line?

3) Hey, Tony Romo, didn’t you used to be Tony Romo?

Speaking of Cowboys-Giants, how great is it that the Giants, fresh off a tumultous 2006 season (and the off-season afterwards), are already screwed one week into the 2007 campaign? Brandon Jacobs is hurt, Eli Manning is hurt, and so is Osi Umenyiora.

I’ll say it’s 50-50 that coach Tom Coughlin makes it to November.

4) The Bears look bad, really bad (and not bad as in good).  Neither Bears’ RB can run the ball, Rex Grossman is still Rex Grossman, and the Bears’ D lost two starters on defense for the season.

I’ll say it’s 20-80 that the Bears’ win the NFC this year.

5) The Colts look pretty good, no?

I’ll have more thoughts later in the week.

- So I am qutting fantasy football.  I am participating in four leagues this year, and I have done something that I have never done in my fantasy sports career:  I have never started 0-1 in EVERY league I’ve participated in!

(The closest I’ve ever come was when I played in three NBA fantasy leagues, and started the season by losing in two leagues, and tying in the third league).

Freaking Peyton Manning.  Freaking LT.  Freaking Tony Romo.  Freaking Plaxico Burress.  Freaking Bears’ D!!!!!!!

Oh well, there’s always next week, right?

By the way, here are my teams for the other two leagues that I have not yet listed (* - waiver wire pickups):

Team 3:

• QB:  McNabb, Big Ben
• RB:  LT, Benson (!!!!!!), Barber III, T. Bell, Turner, C. Brown*
• WR: Harrison, Boldin, R. Curry*, D. Jackson
• TE:  Cooley
• K:  Graham
• DEF:  Baltimore

Team 4:

• QB:  V. Young, M. Hasselbeck
• RB:  R. Johnson, B. Westbrook, D. Foster, M. Turner
• WR:  L. Fitzgerald, R. Wayne, R. Curry, V. Jackson, K. Curtis
• TE:  V. Davis, D. Clark
• K:  J. Wilkins
• DEF:  Chicago

The fact that is most appalling to me is the fact that I didn’t break 75 points in any of my four leagues (74, 72, 72, 69).

I guess I should not have drafted a defense early in every league I participated in

Happy blogging!

Tags: Fantasy, Sports by Peter
3 Comments »

Man, I really have to start blogging more often!  With (fantasy) football season starting in two days, basketball season around the corner, and the baseball pennant chase in full swing, I don’t have an excuse to NOT blog at least once a day!

(Can I blame the lack of blogging on the heat?)

- How hot has it been in recent days?  It was so hot on Sunday night/Monday morning, I woke up to find white lines all over my black shirt.  I had a pretty bad headache that morning, and my tongue was really dry.  Now I see why Gatorade made Gatorade AM.  I must have gotten three hours of sleep that night (at best), and probably no more than ten total hours for the entire weekend.

I don’t think I’ll be going back to Monterey Park any time in the next, oh, three months

On Monday, my dad decided to cook for Labor Day.  What did he make?  A huge pot of curry!

Now, I love my curry.  I usually don’t eat spicy foods, but I don’t mind a spicy red curry.  Heck, even a mild to medium yellow curry hits the spot.  Well, curry’s great…when it’s not a billion degrees outside!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I ate my bowl of curry right next to a fan.

- Later in the day, our automatic ice maker went on the fritz!

(Didn’t I mention I was having a bad few days?)

We had to make an ice run, and the local 7-11 sold out of ice.  We swung by CVS and got some, and stupid me forgot my ECBs!  I could have bought another stick of deodorant, or a tube of toothpaste!

(Tangent:  I went through some of my old coupons, and found more coupons for Adidas deodorant, Colgate toothpaste, and Speed Stick deodorant, the last of which will go on sale next week!  Yay for even more CVS freebies!)

On the way home, I spotted my aunt walking on the sidewalk.  We U-turned, headed back, and guessed that she had gone into the CVS.

(Tangent:  She had some guts to walk around in that heat!)

We went back in, spotted her, realized how nice the A/C was in the store, and followed her around for a few minutes.  We then left, dropped her off, and went back home with the slowly-deteriorating ice.  As soon as I brought the bag of ice into the house, it was pretty much all horded by everybody.  That glass of ice water that I had might have been the best tasting glass of water that I’ve ever consumed.

Fortunately, it appears that temps are starting to drop.  Hopefully this will be the end of my heat-related rants.

- So I’m signed up for five Fantasy Football leagues (one being the BargainShare league), and I’ve drafted in two of them.

Here’s the draft results of my latest draft, held at Yahoo! Sports.  I’m quite happy with my first two picks, and pissed off that I was pretty much forced to take a WR with my third pick.  I also don’t like the idea of having to depend on Donovan McNabb, but I was VERY happy to land Chicago’s defense in round 6 (thanks to those few picks that were ahead of me…Shayne Graham?  Indy’s Defense???)

By the way, please ignore my 13th pick

Until next time!

Tags: Fantasy, Food, Random by Peter
No Comments »

where would I be without my computers?

(Hey, it sounded good in my head!)

As usual, I said I was going to talk about something (my extended stay in MPK), but I’m going to change up on my loyal readers of none once again. I’m only doing this because I’ve got way too much stuff floating around in my head right now.

Let’s get to it.

- Accuweather.com reports that it is currently 106F, with a RealFeel temperature of 109F (current as of 2pm). In other news, I have just lost 20lbs, mostly from sweat. And I thought yesterdays’ 102F/109F was bad! I got a couple hours of sleep yesterday, and it appears that I will not get much sleep tonight either. Maybe I should sleep outside on my patio tonight.

On Tuesday night, my dad was nice enough to pack a lunch for the next day. The thought was noble, but he packed me shark-fin soup! The soup is now sitting in my freezer; he’s got some nerve to serve me SOUP, with temperatures approaching a buck-ten!

(That’s not going to stop me from making won ton noodle soup with the steamed chicken my mom packed for me later tonight.

And yeah, I realize I’m freaking ungrateful.)

- I’m happy to report that my AMD X2 system is running at a very decent 40C/39C (CPU/system temps), especially considering the fact that it’s a billion degrees outside.

(I could hear my sister screaming “It is not a billion degrees outside!” in a Dane Cook-esque voice.)

When the weather cools down, I might try over clocking my CPU. One of the big positives about the Gigabyte motherboard I bought is the ability to overclock using software in Windows. I’ll probably have to buy a more powerful heatsink/fan and some Arctic Silver thermal grease, though.

(Tangent: the only thing I hate about this Gigabyte motherboard is the crap thermal monitoring software–EasyTune5–that is included. The monitoring software that came with my old Asus motherboard–PC Probe–gave me instant readings with a single click on the system tray icon; a window pops open, showing me CPU/case temps, voltages, and fan speeds immediately. The Gigabyte software requires me to double-click the tray icon, click on “PC Health,” then on “Hardware Monitor” to get the temps/fan speeds/voltages. Also, the Gigabyte software takes forever to load!

This reminds me…I haven’t done a product review in a while, and there are a few products I could talk about. Maybe another day…)

- For those of you keeping score at home, I’m already on my second 32oz. bottle of ice water. I started the first bottle when I started typing this blog…

- Quick fantasy football news: the Bargainshare fantasy football league draft occurred a couple days ago, and I got shafted by our league’s auto-draft. I prayed, one day before the draft, “Please, please, please, don’t give me Travis Henry in the first round!”

So who do I end up with my first pick? Travis freaking Henry. Here’s the rest of my roster (12-team league; numbers in parentheses represent the number of starters for each position):

• QB (1): M. Hasselbeck, M. Leinart
• RB (2): T. Henry, R. Johnson, J. Lewis
• WR (3): D. Driver, M. Colston, C. Chambers, J. Horn
• TE (1): V. Davis, H. Miller
• K (1): O. Mare
• D/ST (1): Bears, Panthers

At least I got the Bears’ D; I set the auto-picker to give me a top-flight defense/special teams before getting a second WR (if I recall correctly, I had the autopicker go RB, RB, QB, WR, DST with the first five picks). I’m also very happy to land Colston with my sixth pick; if he comes even remotely close to matching last year’s numbers, I’ll be satisfied. Besides, I could always go on the waiver wire for another WR, or a better TE/K. I also opted to pick a K last; hopefully I can find the next Neil Rackers/Robbie Gould off the waiver wire. I also chose to pick a TE later in the draft; I figured that, if I didn’t land Gates or Gonzalez, I can always play a TE off the waiver wire every week. And who knows? Maybe Vernon Davis will stay healthy and have a stellar season. Besides, WRs and TEs are so damned inconsistent every week.

I can’t wait for the NFL season to start!

(By the way, I love how a Vegas sports book is now taking wagers on fantasy sports. As if fantasy sports and sports wagering weren’t ridiculous enough…)

- Wow. I somehow managed to go 22 days between orders at Amazon.com!

(I’ve placed three orders since :P)

I now have over $2,000 in rebates owed. Perhaps this is a sign that I’m addicted to hot deals :P.

- How bad has my day been today?

• The chicken that my mom packed for me has gone bad.  Dammit!  I wanted chicken and rice!
• I missed out on a great deal at Amazon.com…after going to the bathroom.  I had the item, in my cart, and I was about ready to check out.  When I returned to my computer, the item went OOS.
• I opened a Bank of America checking account a few weeks ago, and I have yet to see my ATM card or a welcome kit.  I called BofA and asked what was going on.  The nice lady calmly told me that “Whoops, we have your address on file wrong!”  The rep assured me that no fraudulent activity has shown up on my account yet, and that she would expedite another ATM card ASAP.  She also assured me that the ATM card and the welcome kit will probably show up returned to sender.  Thank goodness that my signature card (which has my SSN on it) and my temporary online passcode somehow made it to me!

(As soon as I get the $100 in bonus funds for opening up this account, I’m closing it!  Between this fiasco, and the fact that BofA put two inquiries on my credit report for opening one account, I’m done with BofA.  And to think, I’m not even officially a customer yet!)

• My sister called to tell me that she lost her $200+ sunglasses…a week after she bought them.
• I went to the supermarket to get some water (you know, from one of those machines).  I noticed that the parking lot was kinda flooded for some reason, so I was walking slowly through the lot.  That’s when the velcro on my sandals gave out, and my right foot landed right in a puddle.  I would imagine that sewer water is only slightly worse than the water on that parking lot.
• My brand new computer crashed for the first time!  Hopefully it is just user error.
• A Craiglist’er has flaked on me twice in consecutive days, after promising to swing by to purchase a laptop off me.  After the first flake out (yesterday), the woman didn’t even call to apologize the next morning!  She simply asked me if she could swing on by today.

(Well, it’s only 9:30…maybe she’ll swing on by in the next half hour.)

• Out of frustration, I kicked a football really hard.  I put a freaking dent in the wall.

(That’s the way to cap off a great day, no?)

Hey, there’s always tomorrow, right?  Tomorrow can’t be worse than today!

Happy blogging!

Tags: Cust. Service, Fantasy, Random, Sports, Technology by Peter
4 Comments »