UngsungBlog: A (Fantasy) Sports Blog

Sorry for not blogging in so long!

Quick-hitters:

- What is it about potato salad that makes it so ridiculously addictive?

(For the record, my potato salad is simple: diced potatoes, sliced olives, chopped hard boiled eggs, finely chopped celery, mayo, vinegar, and pepper to taste.)

If preparing the salad wasn’t such a PITA, I wouldn’t have a problem eating this stuff often.

- Somebody please remind me never again to wait until near the end of the (typical) 30-day postmark deadline to file my rebates!

I was filing four rebates on purchases that, so I thought, were made on 6/11, meaning the claims must be filed by 7/11. Eventually, I realized that 6/11 was the shipping date, not the order date. The actual order date was 6/9!

Whew.

- Speaking of rebates, my current rebate-o-meter reads $1550, and that’s not counting the several orders I made recently.

My toothpaste-o-meter dropped by one, because cousin David was only willing to take one box off of my hands.

- So I missed most of the Nadal v. Federer classic (and I don’t get ESPN Classic, so I couldn’t watch the replay), but if the last few games were any indication of how great the matchup was, I will have to petition NBC to sell the match on iTunes. His streak of five straight Wimbledon titles was gone in a flash, and after dismal showings (dismal by Federer’s standards, that is) in the Aussie and French Opens, Pete Sampras’ Grand Slam titles record of 14 (Federer’s two back) is starting to look somewhat out of reach.

(By the way, I thought it was really compelling to see Federer’s reaction to his loss, when he was interviewed by John McEnroe. His delcaration that the loss “[hurt],” followed by his near breakdown, was almost humanizing, because we’ve never seen Federer in this position: losing a Grand Slam final not on clay.)

More importantly, have we witnessed a changing of the guard? Nadal suddenly has five Grand Slams, and he has proven that he can win on a surface other than clay. Would it be out of the question for him, currently 22, to have ten Grand Slams by 25? Nadal is a ridiculous athlete; did you see how many shots he made that he had no business getting to? There’s no reason why his game can’t translate on to the hard courts? He might be the man to win the season Grand Slam, if anybody.

I can’t wait for the US Open.

- Friday the Fourth was spent at two locales: an annual Fourth of July BBQ (thanks Aaron!), followed by the fireworks show at the Valley Cultural Center in Woodland Hills.

As we headed out to the BBQ, the weather was awful: it was warm and sticky. Fortunately, the sun was shining brightly when we got there, and thank goodness it was a dry heat. It was hot enough, though, for me to go through three sodas, and (by my count) seven bottles of water.

We brought that addictive potato salad, and for lunch, I had a Hebrew National hot dog, a hamburger, half of a giant Hot Link, an Omaha steak hot dog, guac and salsa with tortilla chips, various fruit, and some awesome spinach dip.

Naturally, I regretted eating all that. That didn’t stop me from chasing all that with a hamburger at 2:30, when Aaron fired up the grill a second time.

My sister and I spent most of the day taking up two seats at a table, and people constantly shuffled in and out of the other two seats. Without going in to too much detail about the individuals sitting in other seats, let me just say that older people are awesome to hang around with :P.

We were about to leave at six, when Aaron fired up the grill for a seventh (?) time. I managed to choke down another two burgers, an Omaha Steak hot dog, and about two servings of insanely awesome baked beans.

I had to be carted out of the party.

For those of you keeping score at home, that’s 3.5 hot dogs/sausages, four hamburgers, five or six sides, three sodas, seven bottles of water, and a stomach ache when all was said and done.

(And if you think what I ate was ridiculous, apparently all I downed was par for the course!)

After food, we swung by the Valley Cultural Center to watch the fireworks show. Barnes Park’s fireworks show, that was not. The fireworks show ran along with music played by the Los Angeles Pierce Symphonic Winds, which was pretty awesome. It would have been cooler if we heard much of the music, though; we were too far back to hear more than the booms from the fireworks.

All in all, a good start to the weekend.

Part 2 next time, and maybe a serious rant on my part.

Tags: barbeque, bbq, deadline, fireworks, Food, fourth of july, grand slam, los angeles pierce symphonic winds, postmark, potato salad, rafael nadal, rebate, roger federer, valley cultural center, wimbledon by Peter
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Nope. No quick-hitters tonight.

- It probably has something to do with the Fourth of July weekend coming up, or it might just have been a slightly atypical Sunday afternoon crowd, or it might have been because we went to a different Costco than the one we usually go to—Northridge—but boy was Costco packed today!

So what does a packed Costco mean? Stupid kids running around, coming nano-millimeters from hitting your cart with their faces, idiot adults constantly blocking aisles with themselves or their shopping carts (remember this?), and the huddled masses blitzing from free sample to free sample.

What was really strange, though, was the fact that our wait that the checkout line was pretty damn short. Either Costco had every register working (I wasn’t paying attention), or everyone was just taking their sweet time shopping while we quickly grabbed what we wanted.

As for the assault to my wallet, I bought some cheese danishes, trail mix, and yogurt. I’ll set the over/under on how long it’ll take me and my sister to finish all three at two weeks.

(Don’t be a fool and take the over :P)

- So I sampled the new Carl’s Jr. Prime Rib Six Dollar Burger on Saturday.

(Those commercials made the sandwich look really tasty!)

I can sum up the review of the burger in two words: IT SUCKED. You know a burger sucks when the best part of it is the (Ciabatta) bun.

(OK, that’s not fair. The meat patty was typical Six Dollar Burger good.)

The three or so pieces of Prime rib that found its way on top of my burger made dirt-cheap Vegas buffet Prime rib taste awesome by comparison. Honestly, I couldn’t tell what was Prime rib, and what was grilled onion. And don’t get me started on the horseradish sauce; it was so sweet, I thought they topped my burger with yogurt! Not to mention, the sauce had as much of a kick as shrimp cocktail sauce.

The worst thing was, the combo costs $8 here in the valley! Can I do a chargeback, on the basis that the item was significantly not as described?

- So let me get this straight. The Los Angeles Dodgers Actually in Los Angeles got five three hits on Sunday and lost, but they got zero hits on Saturday, and won? How crazy is that?

After the seventh inning, I was rooting for the Dodgers to go hitless the rest of the way, just to see history happen. Needless to say, I was elated when Dodgers’ closer Takashi Saito finally got the last out.

(I will neither confirm nor deny that the fact that the Los Angeles Angels Outside of Los Angeles were on the wrong end of history didn’t make the moment a bit sweeter).

By the way, just as I will never call the Anaheim Angels that ridiculous moniker that they choose to go by, I will not call the Angels’ performance anything other than what it should be: a no-hitter. I don’t care what the rule book says; the Angels held the Dodgers hitless for an entire game, and that should be counted as a no-hitter. I couldn’t agree more with what MSNBC’s Mike Celizic wrote:

A pitcher throws a six-inning shutout and gets the win when rain ends the game, he gets a shut-out. If a batter is working on a hitting streak and loses it in a five-inning, rain-shortened game, baseball doesn’t say that doesn’t count because he should have had two more at-bats. So, why this silly rule about no-hitters? Why is a six-inning, rain-shortened game a complete game for everyone else but not for the guy who throws a no-hitter?

And for the record, Scioscia made the right call in pulling Weaver in the top of the seventh. He had to find a way to manufacture a run! Also, I completely disagree with the official scorer on the booted ball by Weaver that led to the Dodgers’ only run. That has to be ruled a base hit; it was much too bang-bang for it to be called an error.

Until next time!

Tags: anaheim angels, carl's jr, cheese danish, costco, evil, los angeles dodgers, no hitter, prime rib, six dollar burger, trail mix by Peter
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Quick-hitters:

- 99 degrees (102 RealFeel) yesterday; 103 (108) today.

It’s only June! Help me!

It’s so freaking hot that I have to turn on the A/C…at 8pm!

(More on the heat later.)

EDIT: We just had our first lights-flickering moment of the season! Rolling blackouts, here we come!

- The Dodgers are on a three-game winning streak! W00t!

Oh wait…they swept Cincinnati. Never mind.

(Now I hear that Rafael Furcal won’t be back until the All-Star Break. Sigh.)

- So after a several-month long absence from eBay (8.25% final value fees + 3% PayPal fees!!!!!), I posted a few things for sale that I couldn’t move on Amazon.com.

Two days after listing the auctions, nine eBay-related messages showed up in my inbox. Of the nine, two were legitimate questions about my auctions, four asked for shipping costs to a foreign country (obviously, these bidders missed the boldfaced part of my auction description that says that I will not ship to international bidders), and three were emails that looked something like this:

Subject: [eBay user] thought you might like this item on eBay

Body: We’re a big shipping company in China [blah blah blah] We specialize in wholesale electronics [blah blah blah] cell phones, laptops, computers, LCD TVs, plasmas, etc.

[blah blah blah] [contact info] We hope to conduct business with you.

One week later, and I got a total of nine or ten of these stupid emails. Never mind the number of phishing emails from fake sites like signin-ebay.com, e.g.

(Tangent: Every time I log on to my eBay account, I see an ad for a discount offer on an eBay symposium. Yeah, like I am going to pay to hear eBay explain why they need to raise their fees even more.)

- So I think my family is officially addicted to Crystal Light. Armed with a $15/39 coupon (SUMBEV39), I ordered the following flavors of Crystal Light for my sisters:

• Crystal Light On the Go, Immunity Pomegranate Cherry, 10-Count Box (Pack of 6)
• Crystal Light On-the-Go Metabolism Plus Green Tea Peach Mango, 14-Count Packets (Pack of 6)

If the temperatures around here stay in the low-100s, these Crystal Light packets probably won’t last more than a month.

- At about 7PM last night, my sister asked me to assist her in installing her Sirius satellite radio antenna in her car. When we started the install process, we noticed something immediately: it was freaking hot!

(Her car thermostat reported 84 degrees, although I don’t think it was that warm. It was still really warm, especially for 7PM, though.)

So the installation of the antenna involved attaching above the rear windshield—the antenna itself is magnetic, and there’s a small piece that is adhesive-backed, which further helps to secure the antenna to the car, as well as protecting the antenna cable from kinks. The antenna wire is then to be fed under the rubber molding that surrounds the rear windshield, followed by threading through the trunk, into the back seat, along the floor, and eventually to the radio itself. Sounds easy, right?

We had three different plastic putty knives (the instructions suggested that we use a putty knife), and a small pocket blade (and by that, I’m talking about those “blades” on a Swiss Army knife), and had nothing but trouble threading the cable underneath the rubber molding. That’s when my sister got this great idea to use index cards to push up the rubber molding, allowing us to push the cable underneath the molding.

The idea was brilliant, although I think I punctured the antenna anywhere from one to a hundred times when I used the putty knife to force the antenna underneath the molding. Once that was complete, we fed the wire through the trunk, down the back seat, along the floor of the passenger side of the car, and that’s when we ran into another snag.

There was enough wire to connect the radio only if we kept the radio near the cup holder. There went any ideas of sticking the radio on the dash! However, my sister loved the idea of leaving the radio near the cup holder!

(Whatever floats her boat, I suppose.)

Overall, installation of the antenna was relatively painless. I just fear that someone is going to rip off the antenna. And if you think I’m crazy, recall that I live in a complex where our “Welcome” mat was stolen…right in front of our front door.

Next time, I’ll mention what else happened with my sister and Sirius customer “support.” Until next time!

Tags: antenna, blackouts, cincinnati reds, ebay, heat, installation, los angeles dodgers, rafael furcal, real feel, satellite radio, sirius, spam, stratus 4, sweep, temperature by Peter
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Quick-hitters:

- I just realized that my blog could be abbreviated as USB!

(Yes, that probably amused only me.)

I should hire someone to spoof a USB icon for my blog

- You know you order too much stuff on Amazon.com when, browsing your recently placed orders, you have to think about why you ordered a particular item…or five.

That being said, I think this Delta Seven-Spray Hand Shower is a huge necessity, don’t you agree?

- So you might recall that, not long ago, I bought a bunch of “marginally healthy” snacks from Amazon.com.

Save the dark chocolate pretzels, we haven’t come close to polishing off everything. The yogurt snacks are just way too freaking sweet. Well, I think I’ve finally found a way to use up my yogurt raisins: healthy cereal topping!

Yogurt raisins + Total = pretty darn good. I wonder what adding crushed yogurt pretzels might do to a bowl of otherwise bland cereal…

- We had to celebrate Father’s Day on Saturday, because my dad had to attend a wedding the next day.

(Who the hell schedules a wedding on Father’s Day???)

He wanted steak, and I wanted to BBQ, so naturally we came to a good compromise:  grilled steak!  My sister then decided that it would be a good idea to go shopping at 168 Supermarket.

THIS 168 Supermarket.

Two highlights of the trip to 168 Supermarket:

1) While going through the still-narrow-as-hell produce aisles, some stupid woman decided to situate herself right in the middle of the aisle down which I was traveling.  I pushed my cart right in front of her—she was facing the West of the store, while my cart pointed North—and waited for her to move ever so slightly.

She did move, if by “move” I mean she bent forward a nano-millimeter.  I decided that there was enough room between her back and the display of whatever produce was there, so I eased my way through the gap.

(Could I have said “excuse me?”  Sure, but I didn’t want the death stare :P)

A couple minutes later, I noticed her loudly talking to another customer (no longer where she initially blocked my path), and for some reason, they were pointing and staring in my direction!  Seconds later, they both walked over to the produce display that the woman was looking through earlier.

Of course, for all I know, they might have actually been cursing me off.

2) Five minutes later (yes, that quickly), we had already finished our shopping, so we headed down one aisle towards the checkout.  That’s when some woman blitzed right past us on our right, but not before leaning her shoulder to nudge my sister out of the way.

If not for the bright pink sweater she was wearing…or the fact that she was 5′1″, or the fact that she was not exactly in tip-top shape, I would have thought that LaDainian Tomlinson ran right past us.

- Steaks were tasty, as well as the grilled veggies—three different bell peppers, tomatoes, and Italian squash—and the potato salad was quite good too.  Well, two of the steaks were quite good.  The rest of the steaks were dry as hell, which is what happens when you attempt to cook steaks to well done on a BBQ grill.

After 25 minutes, I pulled the other steaks off the grill, and they were still slightly—and I mean slightly pink.  Apparently, they were still too pink for the rest of my family to eat, and my dad and oldest sister MICROWAVED their pieces.

(Note to self:  it takes at least 20-25 minutes to get a well done 1″ New York strip, or twice as long as a medium rare steak would take.)

Seriously, how could anyone eat a well done steak?  You’d have to pour on copious amounts of A-1 sauce just to be allowed to call your steak “dry.”  A well done steak on a BBQ?  That’s Death Valley in terms of dryness.  Beef jerky has more juice in it than a well done steak.

- Raise your hand if you saw the epic sporting event of this past weekend?

No, I’m not talking about the Lakers’ near-second monumental collapse, of which I only saw a small fraction.  I’m talking about the US Open of golf!

(Yes, I watch golf too!  And for the scope of this discussion, let’s not debate over whether or not golf is a sport.)

Who didn’t think that Tiger was going to nail that final putt on 18?  Sure, the ball might have rolled around the cup slightly before dropping in, but the ball certainly knew better!  And what a setup we have for tomorrow’s 18-hole tiebreaker:  Tiger and his balky, surgically repaired knee, versus Rocco Mediate.

(Who?  The 158th player in the world, with five CAREER wins—Tiger has 13 MAJOR wins, by comparison—and by the way, a great guy, based on the post-round interviews he gave.)

Tiger has to be the overwhelming favorite, despite the wounded knee, but don’t tell me that Mediate doesn’t deserve to get into the playoffs.  He played a hell of a round, and had at least two shots at putting some distance between himself and Woods.  Do you think Mediate is kicking himself over that missed short putt on (I believe it was) 13?

I think Tiger will win, but I doubt he’ll crush Rocco.

Until next time!

Tags: 168 supermarket, amazon.com, bbq, cereal, new york strip, potato salad, rocco mediate, shower head, snacks, tiger woods, us open, well done, yogurt raisins by Peter
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No quick-hitters tonight.

- On Friday, my sister had the craving for some chili, and armed with a suggestion from her boss, we swung by Chili My Soul that night.

(Tangent:  I’m not much of a fan of heat, and by that, I mean that I’m a wuss when it comes to peppers.  My tolerance for heat is pretty low, and it wasn’t long ago that my tolerance was even lower than it is now.  My sister, on the other hand, could probably chow down on five-alarm chili.)

After sampling two chilis—the Texas Pride, rated 5/10, and a little bit of the Gunslinger (8/10)—I opted for the Texas Pride.  My sister sampled the Gunslinger and declared it “as hot as ketchup,” sampled the Demon (10/10), loved it, but came to her senses and went with the Gunslinger.

I forgot to take into account the fact that sour cream and cheese can kill a significant amount of heat in something peppery, but I was still quite satisfied with the chili.  Maybe next time I’ll go up to a 6 or a 7.

(My sister was pissed after adding the sour cream to her chili.  She’s definitely getting the Demon next time).

- That sound you hear is the Lakers’ bandwagon derailing and crashing into a ravine.

(Please wait for the bandwagon to come to a COMPLETE stop before exiting.  Thanks and see you next year!  And be sure to put away those stupid flags!)

The NBA might as well etch Paul Pierce’s name onto the MVP trophy right now.  I’m not even sure the series is going to return to Boston (well, unless the refs have something to say about that…it wouldn’t surprise me if Kobe attempts forty FTs in Game Three.)

As much as I would love to give the refs a share of the blame in the Lakers’ loss (seriously, look at the FT disparity, and that second foul on Kobe was absolute garbage), that would be deflecting the blame from where it belongs:  the Celtics’ suffocating defense.  When Kobe Bryant doesn’t get into the paint, the Lakers aren’t going to win any games.  Also, when did the Lakers become a terrible rebounding team?  I mean, they were never elite, but is Boston really destroying the Lakers that badly on the glass because of Boston’s superior rebounding, or the Lakers’ lack of desire?

(Tangent:  Please, ESPN/ABC, enough of Paul Pierce’s “heroics” in Game One.  When is Disney going to release the made for TV movie based on what happened?  Kobe Bryant’s image repair over the last few years is sick of hearing about Pierce’s “heroics.”)

By the way…Leon freaking Powe???  And why is it that Pau Gasol plays well for only one or two quarters per game (Game One v Denver excepted)?

(Note:  I typed everything above after the third quarter, when I finally turned off the TV.  I did not watch the Lakers’ near-comeback.)

More thoughts about this game, once the anger subsides, next time!

Tags: boston celtics, chili my soul, demon, gunslinger, kobe bryant, leon powe, los angeles lakers, mvp, paul pierce, texas pride by Peter
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Quick-hitters:

- You know you need a haircut when nearly your entire family rags on the mess on your head that is your hair.

I guess I better get my haircut tomorrow :P.

- I love going back to MPK, even if it’s a last-minute thing.

Why? Food, naturally. My aunt gave me two fresh cornish game hens and my mom sent me packing with some excess stuff from her fridge: a ton of string cheese, and some sauce.

More on the visit home to come.

- Current rebate-o-meter: $1,100! Will I get down to triple figures by the end of the week?

I’ll lay 2:1 odds to anyone willing to take that bet

- So we went home on Sunday because it is my cousin’s b-day on Monday (Happy Birthday!). We decided to go to Gin Sushi on Colorado Blvd and Lotus (St?) in Pasadena. Gin Sushi is decent, cheap, average, cheap Japanese food, if you haven’t been there before.

It took a while for our waitress to take our orders, though that was partially our fault. We spent so much time talking that I don’t think anyone really knew what they were going to order until the waitress came by. For some reason, though, she didn’t take our orders in an organized fashion; you would think that a waiter would start at one corner, and work his/her way down one row, and then finish the other row in a similar fashion. Our waitress decided to start somewhere in the middle, and she ended up taking my order last.

(That last line is very important, as you will see.)

It took about fifteen minutes before the first plates of food came out. A few minutes later, people started getting their meals; apparently almost everybody ordered the two-item combination lunch special, which comes with rice, salad, and your choice of two dishes. Soon after, I noticed that myself and the b-day girl were the only two people that didn’t have food in front of them.

(I found out later that her appetizer was, in fact, her actual meal.)

When the waitress came back to the table—a full half-hour or so after we ordered our food—we pointed out that I had yet to get my food. She came back a few minutes later, showing me her little notepad, pointing out that she had written down my order last and marked it off, signifying that she delivered my food already!

(That’s fine and dandy, but that didn’t change the fact that I did not get my food!)

Knowing full well that only nine plates were delivered, I retorted, “Count the dishes!” As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I felt kinda bad, thinking it was just a mix up in the back.

Apparently she thought we were cheating her or something, because someone at our table (I forget who) thought s/he saw the waitress insist (to a chef, maybe?) that she did, in fact, deliver the tenth plate! I immediately felt no longer sorry for the girl, and we started cracking jokes over what I allegedly did with the missing plate. Apparently, I either hid the plate under the table, or I hid it in the bathroom to scam them out of more food.

It took a bit of prodding (ok, two of my cousins yelled at the waitress, “His food should be free!”), but they eventually agreed to give me my meal for free. At that point, I just wanted to get the heck out of there, so minutes after my food actually came, I asked for a to-go box.

Something tells me the next time I’m there (if there is a next time), I’m going to get special sauce with my tempura.

Until next time!

Tags: bad waitress, gin sushi, haircut, mpk by Peter
4 Comments »

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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(Note: This was supposed to be posted last night. As usual, I misremembered.)

Happy Mother’s Day!

I’ll hold off continuing my story from last night as I recap Mother’s Day weekend.

Quick-hitters:

- Don’t you hate it when you need a critical piece of data or an application to do something, and the site hosting said file just happens to be down?

That happened to me TWICE this past weekend. I’ll recap what happened in a later blog entry.

- More stupid commercials that have caught my eye lately:

• The DQ commercial where the little girl gets a boy to buy her a sundae: “It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.”
• ALL the McDonald’s commercials advertising their new Chicken sandwiches, especially the one with the guy screaming words to ever-changing backgrounds. I might have had a seizure after watching the commercial once.

- Super quick thoughts on the latest in the NBA playoffs:

1) You don’t understand how tempted I am to complain about the horrible officiating in Game Four. You don’t know just how badly I wanted to throw something through my TV after every ticky-tack call went against LA. I spent several minutes explaining that “it’s hard to beat the Jazz when you’re playing 8-on-5.”

It took a while, but the rational side of me realized how the Lakers blew a golden opportunity to end the series, for all intents and purposes. Naturally, the Kobe injury hurt their chances badly, but so did horrible FT shooting (14-25?), terrible 3pt shooting (9-26), little help from role players (APBs are out for V-Rad and Farmar), and just awful shot selection in the fourth quarter and OT. I saw glimpses of 1998 Kobe, jacking up those terrible shots in OT.

And yeah, the bad officiating didn’t help either :P.

I fully expect the Lakers to play well in Game Five, and take a 3-2 lead back to Utah, where I expect the refs the Jazz to force a Game Seven. Anyone wanna put money on that?

2) As much as I dislike LeBron James, that insane dunk he threw down on Boston late in Game Four of Boston-Cleveland was SICK.

- Mother’s Day weekend unofficially started on Friday, when my sister (the one that doesn’t have karmic powers) swung by, and we headed out for some Korean BBQ.  Note to self:  stop ordering the beef brisket; beef brisket is OK in pho, but not particularly good with Korean BBQ.

The bulgogi was quite good, and they offered Jumuluck (sp?) (unmarinated sirloin).  Good stuff, but some of the sirloin pieces were pretty fatty.  Also, for some reason, the waitress would, every now and then, meander towards our table and start flipping the meat around on the grill.  I was tempted to ask her to stop.

(I have a system in place when I go to a Korean BBQ restaurant :P).

After dinner, we swung by Ross; it was already 9:15, so we knew we only had a few minutes to shop, which (we hoped) would minimize the amount of wallet-damage we would do.

(Tangent:  Ross is quickly shooting up the list of evil stores, along with Trader Joe’s, Target, and Costco.  I’ve been to Ross four times in the past few weeks, and even though I’ve been returning some of the stuff I purchased, I still end up buying something else and paying the difference out of pocket.

(Sub-tangent:  Sooner or later, I’ll have to organize all my Lists :P))

I spent five minutes going through the Men’s Activewear section, and grabbed a two-piece sweatsuit marked down to $15 from $50 and a $70 Nike Fit Dry long-sleeve collared shirt marked down to $15.  The sweatsuit was woefully small, which got me thinking that the suit might have been a women’s suit, misplaced and mislabeled.  The Nike shirt, unfortunately, fit perfectly, and now I’m stuck with 2 very nice shirts (remember this?).  Oh what to do…

On Saturday, the family gathered to go to Olive Garden to celebrate an early Mother’s Day.  We arrived at the restaurant at 1pm, and there was a huge wait.  This is what happens when you don’t make a reservation on a big holiday weekend, and only figure out where to go eat two hours before leaving the house.

We found out that Olive Garden was still doing their soup and salad lunch special, and I was contemplating between that and the “Tour of Italy”:  lasagna, fettuccine alfredo, and a chicken parmigiana.  Somehow, I managed to finish the entire plate, and it didn’t dawn upon me that I did so when someone (I forget who) asked me how I managed to polish off the plate.  I felt it immediately afterwards, though :P.

My dad roasted a chicken for dinner in his Ronco Rotisserie (yep, we actually have one!), and the rest of the night was spent playing poker with my two sisters.  All I have to say about our poker game is this:  who calls two raises, including an all-in, with seven-five of hearts?????????

Grrrrrrr…

Sunday was spent on my covert ops mission, so I’ll save that for when I get to that point in my story.  I will mention this:  we got even more tasty food on Sunday!  My mom and aunt prepared spring rolls (not the fried type, but more like this).  I could eat this stuff every day for the rest of my life if I had to.

Until next time!

Tags: jazz, korean bbq, lakers, lebron, mother's day, olive garden, ross, stupid commercials by Peter
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Quick-hitters:

- OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!! Eddie Izzard is going to be at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood from Thursday to Saturday, Aug 7-9!

MUST…GET…TIX!

The new show is called “Stripped,” for the record.

- I made some instant udon noodles for dinner tonight, and the cooking instructions said to boil 19 1/2 fl oz. of water (17.5 fl oz. if I chose to cook the noodles in the microwave).

19.5 fl oz? They couldn’t round it up to 2 1/2 cups? Too bad I don’t have a graduated cylinder. And what’s with directing me to cook the noodles for 5 minutes? Four minutes and 48 seconds would have been perfect.

- I forgot to mention one incident that happened during the Mets-Dodgers game last night. A woman wearing a Mets jersey was leaving the stadium, but not before getting into a mini-argument with a bunch of Dodger fans sitting a few rows in front of us. As soon as that happened, a bunch of Dodger fans started mercilessly booing her.

She turned around, and started speaking what could barely be considered English. I was able to make out something about “you” (Dodger fans, presumably) winning twice in “like a hundred years” while “we” (Mets fans) have won “so many” times.

If memory serves me correctly, the Los Angeles Dodgers have won two championships in their non-Brooklyn existence, and the Mets have won exactly twice as well. Now, if the woman is going to bandwagon and include the Yankees into that discussion, then I guess she has a point. Then again, including Yankees’ championships as a Mets fan is like being a Clipper fan celebrating Lakers’ championships.

I couldn’t help but join in on the heckling, shouting “Remember September of last year?” (in reference to the Mets’ late season collapse last year that cost them the NL East).

- I never did get around to commenting about the disputed shot in the third quarter of Game 2 between Orlando and Detroit, so I’ll let the guys over at Imaginary Hardwood explain why the disputed shot—a terrible mistake by the refs and clock operator, for the record—wasn’t the only reason for Orlando’s 2-0 deficit.

I’ll add this to the discussion, though: why couldn’t the refs start the entire play over again? Reset the clock, and make Detroit bring the ball back up court? What is wrong with that? And I don’t want to hear the nonsense that the refs “knew” that 4.6 seconds (or whatever it was) elapsed from inbounds to shot, thus allowing the basket to stand. Yeah, I’m so sure the refs knew that 4.6, and not 4.5 or 4.7 seconds, ran off the clock. I would have respected their opinion, as wrong as it ended up being, if they had said that five seconds ran off the clock.

ESPN’s TMQ has ranted about tenths of seconds often, and I wholeheartedly agree. Sure, without tenths of seconds, Laker fans might not have Derek Fisher’s “0.4″ shot, but with the proposal I will offer below, he might have had “more” time to take that shot.

I propose that the NBA should get rid of the clock readings of tenths of seconds. If they insist on having fractions of seconds, why not use half-seconds instead?

(Try this exercise: randomly start and stop a stopwatch, and guess how much time elapsed for five trials of varying durations, to the nearest tenth. Now, repeat the trial, and see how many you can get to the nearest half-second. I tried it just right now, and scored 1/5 on the first test; 3/5 on the second test. Of course, it doesn’t take a genius to realize that one is probably going to score better on the second test.)

Wouldn’t identifying “five and a half seconds” make a lot more sense than trying to determine if 5.3 or 5.4 seconds ran off the clock instead?

- Despite getting out to a big double-digit lead early, and keeping it for most of the game, I still saw a lot of chinks in the Lakers’ armor after their Game 2 win over Utah. Deron Williams was an absolute beast in the third quarter, and Paul Millsap might be the key to Utah evening the series in the next two games. I could’ve sworn that every basket Millsap scored was an and-1. If Carlos Boozer and Andrei Kirilenko were able to give the Jazz anything decent in the first two games, this series could easily be 1-1 or 2-0, Utah.

Fisher was huge, Gasol was solid—and I think the Lakers need to establish him more often—and Odom was great. Even still, the third-quarter stretch where both teams were scoring on practically every possession has to be worrisome to the Lakers; you better believe that the Jazz will get stops in Utah. I don’t expect the Lakers to shoot 57% in either Games 3 or 4.

I missed most of the bore-fest that was Detroit-Orlando, but hopefully Chauncey Billups is able to play Game 4. If he’s not, Detroit is going to be in for one heck of a series.

Until next time!

Tags: detroit pistons, disputed 3 pointer, dodgers, Game 2, half-seconds, imaginary hardwood, lakers, mets, mets fan, orlando magic, udon, utah by Peter
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Long post today, so let’s get right to it.

- I decided that it was time to update my wardrobe (read: buy new clothes). On Saturday, armed with a pair of coupons—30% off at Foot Locker and 20% off at Macy’s—my sister and I went to Westfield Fashion Square in Sherman Oaks.

After a quick browse through Macy’s, our first stop was Foot Locker. After about five minutes of browsing, and thirty seconds of trying out one pair of shoes, I decided on the Nike Air Max Tailwind 2008. I just loved how the shoes looked, and the fact that they were comfortable as hell was all the convincing I needed. I wasn’t really looking for a pair of running shoes; I really wanted just a pair of cross-trainers or something similar.

The re-visit to Macy’s was fruitless, so on Sunday, we swung by Ross. Normally, Ross has quite a few sections for me to browse through, so much so that I get sick and tired of looking after several racks’ worth of clothes, and just give up. The Ross I visited, however, had only one small section of athletic shirts, so I was able to finish shopping in a few minutes. I scored a couple Reebok PlayDry shirts, as well as a really ugly (but really nice!) T for $4.

We had to go on a food run, so we went to 99 Ranch, Costco, and JONS Supermarket for a ton of food. I had a hankering for some salsa—it might have been influenced by Cinco de Mayo—so I mixed up a quick tomato salsa (chopped tomatoes, chopped onion, chopped cilantro, chopped roasted Jalapeño peppers, fresh lime juice, and Pico de Gallo seasoning).

While at Costco, I couldn’t resist one of their take-n-bake pizzas; I forget what it’s called, but it has fresh tomato, basil, and globs of mozzarella cheese on it. That was seriously the best take-n-bake pizza I’ve ever had.

Sunday night, I decided to bake some chicken coated with seasoned flour (AP flour, kosher salt, and some Mrs. Dash). After 50 minutes in a 400 degree oven, the chicken came out super-juicy, although the skin was a bit bland. I should probably have coated the chicken in egg first, before applying the flour, but I was lazy :P.

I also bought some frozen Buffalo Wings from Costco; that will probably be my dinner, along with the leftover pizza. Damn…now I’m super hungry again.

- So after watching the MVP do what MVPs do, I gotta say that the Lakers are in serious trouble despite pulling out a Game 1 victory. Certainly the rest helped, coupled with the fact that the Jazz played two tough playoff games in 48 hours, but clearly there was some rust to knock off as well.

At least, Laker fans better hope it was rust, and not a thorough domination by the Jazz on the offensive glass. Twenty-five offensive rebounds??? Plus-seventeen in total rebounds? Was that Memhet Okur or a in-his-prime Dennis Rodman crashing the glass? With Games 3 and 4—and the Jazz’s 37-4 home record—looming, the Lakers better shore up the defensive glass, or the series could easily end in six games.

It’s a good thing that the Lakers have the MVP, who apparently owns an annual pass to the free throw line. I’m actually surprised that Kobe missed two freebies! Anyway, the Lakers better hope for better rebounding, better shot selection, and more solid defense on Utah’s two stars. I have a feeling that Deron Williams will not shoot 5-for-18 in Game 2, and Boozer likely will not commit seven turnovers again.

Something tells me that Utah will pull out Game 2, win Game 3 handily, and lose Game 4 in a nailbiter. If all that happens, I don’t expect a home team to lose again, and the Lakers will win the series in seven games. Then again, it wouldn’t surprise me to see the Jazz win in six.

One other NBA thought: the hard foul that Hawks’ F Marvin Williams committed on Celtics’ G Rajon Rondo was an extremely harsh foul, and it did warrant a Flagrant-2. However, I did not think Williams intended on injuring Rondo at all. What Williams did was extremely dangerous, but Jeff Van Gundy hit it right on the head: 1) it looked like Williams tried to grab Rondo, but Rondo was already airborne, and an attempted grab ended up being a near-clothesline; and 2) if Williams really had a play on the ball—one criterion required to deem a foul a flagrant-1 at worst—why didn’t he attempt to go for a block instead? Was the play dirty? Yeah. Was it with intent to injure? I don’t believe so.

Until next time!

Tags: baked chicken, clothes, costco, flagrant foul, foot locker, jazz, kobe bryant, lakers, macys, marvin williams, mvp, nike air max tailwind 2008, pizza, rajon rondo, rebounds, ross, salsa by Peter
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