The best answer in the show’s history to the time-honored why-do-you-want-to-be-an-American-Idol question:

“I really want to make David Hasselhoff cry.”
--Birmingham, Alabama hopeful Chris Sligh

The stars are blazing like rebel diamonds cut out of the sun

The Killers -- Read My Mind

This is my favorite song off of Sam's Town. I'm glad it's finally getting some decent radio airplay.

...

There is a fine line between a bag of unpopped kernels and a microwave that smells like burning. I did not find that line tonight.

I didn't write it, but I do agree...

The top 15 most annoying noises, in pictures. Amazingly, the article manages not to include the words 'Back' or 'Nickel'

Welcome!

We've been getting a lot of hits from out of state in the last few days. Why now? I don't know. Someone in or around Farmington, Michigan has especially taken an interest having come to our blog about 10 times in the last few days. So whoever you are, welcome and feel free to post and let us know who you are. We don't bite....much.

World Series of Pop Culture

On Friday Brad, Christie, and I went to our audition for the World Series of Pop Culture. Unfortunately it didn't turn out as well as we hoped for. I thought the test was easier than I was expecting so that gives me hope for next year. The first time going through the test, I answered about 80% without even having to think about it. I still had about half the time left to go back and work out some of the others. I had seen all of the movies and tv shows and heard all the songs represented on the test too so I'm on the right track.

It was fun even though we won't be going to New York. Some of the other people taking the test really liked our shirts and team name so that was cool. I can't really post any details about the test since they've been taking legal action against other bloggers who posted too much. I was able to memorize most of the test while I was taking it so after the competition is over we'll see if I can put that up or not.

Who can tell me our team name and where it came from?

WSOPC

Well, today is the big day. At 4:00 pm Brad, Christie, and I have our audition for the World Series of Pop Culture. As part of my training, I tried to memorize the entire box of questions from the Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture edition. I found that many questions on the show last season were taken word for word from the game. However, now the game is just taking up space, because I seriously doubt I'll be allowed to play it ever again with anyone who reads this blog.

According to someone who auditioned in New York, they have been taking 4 teams from each audition time to move onto the next round and it doesn't seem like it's entirely based on who knows the most. As Jules said in Pulp Fiction, "Personality goes a long way." We're not too creative as far as costumes go. Brad made up some shirts with a logo for us which is cool. One of the New York teams showed up wearing puffy shirts from Seinfeld. It's tough since you can't use any image or phrase that is copyrighted.

Anywho, wish us luck. The grand prize is $250,000 for the team so winning this thing would mean the end of all our student loans and a chance to actually move up a bit in life!

Rough day

A few days after Christmas my grandma got a dizzy spell, fell and hit her head. She was taken to the hospital and they gave her a neck brace to wear when she needed. She's been wearing it off and on for the last few weeks, but the pain in her neck wasn't getting better. On Tuesday night my mom took her back to the hospital. They took more x-rays and found that she had broken a bone in her neck. Since it had never been set right, the bone had managed to twist around into a bad spot.

Yesterday I went to see her at the hospital. They had her in a hard neck brace which she hated. The doctor then told her that the only way they could stabilize her neck enough to let her heal was to put her in a halo for three months.


She really didn't want to do that. The only person she has known who had one had to have it on permanently. The doctor said if they didn't do this and the bone shifted any more that there was a huge risk for paralysis.

My mom and grandpa showed up after a while and we managed to convince her that this was something that had to be done. The doctors went ahead and put it on. She was pretty out of it after that so we went home so she could get some sleep. She still has to have surgery some time this week. They are going to do a bone graft with some bone from her hip to try and strengthen her neck.

Anyway, please pray for her recovery. My mom is helping to take care of my grandpa right now because his memory is going fast and he can't really take care of himself anymore so they could use some prayers as well to get through this time.

The evolution of dance

Fixed, Sort Of

I can not figure out how someone else was able to put their photos in my scratcher slide show, so I decided to just make a new one. This is scratcher has photos from Christmas to the preset. We have not done a whole lot in the new year as we are both working full time (at least for this month) and trying to save up some cash. I am hoping to land another long term position in the near future. We will see if it is possible within the week.

I am feeling a bit better, there have been no more stomach pyrotechincs today, however my nose and throat decided to add themselves to my list of ailments. I took another nap today, 2 whole hours. Hopefully I continue to feel better tomorrow.

...

I cannot guess what we'll discover
We turn the dirt with our palms cupped like shovels
But I know our filthy hands can wash one another’s
And not one speck will remain

I do believe it’s true
That there are roads left in both of our shoes
If the silence takes you
Then I hope it takes me too
So brown eyes I hold you near
Cause you’re the only song I want to hear
A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere

Odd

I don't know what happened, but if you do the scratcher thingie in our sidebar all of our pictures are gone. Now it switches off two pictures of some black girl standing around. I went to our account to see if I could figure it out, but it said we had never created a photo/slide show with them. Cyndi said she'll try and do something with it tomorrow since she is the one who set it all up.

Cyndi came home sick today from work. She has a milder version of what I had over Christmas that she picked up from one of her kindergarteners. She was able to eat a little by late evening so we'll see what happens. She's been taking meds, drinking water, and getting lots of sleep today.

I'm just saying...

If you live in Alhambra or Monterey Park these directions would actually seem reasonable.

Pizza Night

I decided to make a pizza for dinner tonight. I used whole wheat flour so it would be a lot healthier. I created the entire thing from scratch. I made the dough last night while cooking dinner then put it in the fridge over night and took it out about a hour before I was ready to make it tonight. The recipe I used makes a double batch, but instead of cutting the ingredience in half I figured if I just made it all now then I can freeze the other half and we can have it another night. These are before, during and after photos. Paul said it tasted good, so score one point for healthier pizza.

Luc, I am your father!

Yesterday was Luc Robitaille day. Ric was able to get off work so we grabbed some tacos at Del Taco and got up to the XTRA Sports station around 2:30. There were a few other people there already so we chatted a bit. They also had filet mignion sandwiches that were really good. After an hour or so they let us into the studio. By that time there were 30-40 of us.

The show's hosts Petros Papadakis and Matt "Money" Smith came in at 4 followed shortly by Luc. They did a live radio broadcast for an hour and took some questions from the audience. Ric's question wasn't chosen...probably because he was trying to dig up some dirt on some of the other Kings players.

After the interview was done, they handed out some raffle tickets. The numbers before and after mine were chosen to be "King of the Day" and sit in thrones down at rinkside for today's game when Luc's jersey will be retired. They gave out some other prizes too, but neither of us were close.

Then they called out the names of the contest winners and one by one we got to go up and get autographs and take pictures with Luc. I didn't have anything for him to sign, but then they brought out official Kings jerseys for the winners, so he signed that for me.


By the time it was over, we were just in time to hit rush hour traffic. It took about an hour and a half to get back to home. Ric and I were going to go put on our NO MA'AM shirts and get some beers, but figured the women folk might not go for that plan. So instead we picked up Cyndi and Jeri and went to dinner at Red Robin.

BTW: Sometime this weekend they should be posting our pictures on the XTRA Sports website. You can also see me in the photo gallery for their All-In Weekend at the Stratosphere on the same page. I'm wearing my Red Sox jersey.

I (heart) crazy people

I know some of you stick it out for the whole season, but I just can't do it. I'll watch anytime they have the bad singers on. After that I'll check in occasionally when it gets to the final group. Even that can be rough when they throw in "ABBA week" or some other garbage no one wants to hear. Seriously, someone loses out on a chance to be a pop star because their cover of a Barry Manilow song isn't good enough?

Anywho, I found this website that's pretty cool. Some guy looked up and linked to the myspace pages of as many people as he could find from the awful Seattle and Minneapolis auditions. My personal favorites? Jessica "super Jewel fan" Rhode who works as a cosmotologist at Glamour Shots and loves the band "the Google Dolls". Steven "big scary red haired viking guy" Thoen lets us know that "it's always 420 somewhere".

My day in sports...

Yesterday was a good sports day for me. (This is where Lisa stops reading the post.) The first good thing was when I walked in the door last night after work. There on the table was my first issue of Sports Illustrated. It was a Christmas gift from my mother in law, so I will be sure to think good things about her every Wednesday when I get the mail (ok, other times as well).

So there I am, watching tv, reading my new magazine, and trying to wind down for bed when Cyndi mentions that there was a message on the answering machine about some contest. When I listened to it, I found out I won a contest on XTRA Sports AM 570 to come to their studio on Friday and hang out with Luc Robitaille. For those of you who don't know, he spent most of his career playing for the LA Kings and recently retired as the highest scoring left winger in NHL history and is in the top 10 in career goals scored. I get to bring someone with me, so my first choice was Ric, who is the biggest Kings fan I know. Hopefully he can get off work early. It should be good times.

I really like this version...

Mail

I finally got my shipment of MS braclets! That means I will get them in the mail to those of you who ordered them tomorrow. For those of you who haven't bought one yet, what are you waiting for? They are only $2 and will go towards a great cause. If you would like to purchase one either post a comment or e-mail me at BUsoftball16 (at) msn (dot) com. Thank you for your support, you have no idea how much I appreciate it!

Ask and you shall receive.

Don't worry Rocket Surgeon...he's already on it.

Recomendation

Two movies that I loved Freedom Writers and Pursuit of Happyness. Both are based on true events. I absolutely loved Pursuit of Happyness (not just because of Will Smith) it really moved me and Freedom Writers had a good message.

That is all for tonight as I have to get up early tomorrow to go "teach" Kindergartners. I hope you all had a nice three days off of work. More on my weekend tomorrow. For now I must sleep.

I would happily give this man my money. Personality goes a long way.

Unpossible

Amy and I tried to put together one of those puzzles that is made up of a bunch of little pictures. It is of Tigger and we thought it would be cool to do. However after two attempts we gave up. We only got a little more than what is showing in this picture completed before giving up. Then it was decided we would play Rummikub. 3 times Paul won. I still want a rematch. Once Bradley got home we played Scene It a pop culture game which Bradley won, but between Paul and Bradley it was a close race. Amy was not far behind them either. I sadly suck mud at this game. I try, and when other people have questions I know them but when it is my turn I draw blanks even on things I know.
All in all we had fun and that is whats important

Window in the Skies (part 2) -- U2