Tuesday Musings

Its 8:53 am

    Went to bed last night with thunder and rain and woke up this morning to a glorious morning,full of sunshine.
Turned on the iPod and am listening to Live while I'm getting my blogging thoughts together. I think coffee is also in order so before I start writing,I'm going to do just that.
 So now I'm back....
Lori came back early Sunday night and I indeed did cook my wife dinner and did 100% of the meal...prep,cook and washing the dishes. I actually had a lot of fun and was really happy when she said she liked my spaghetti sauce better then her own. I know I hear some of you laughing but Lori doesn't flatter for the sake of flattering. That is what made her comment so special....and you know I'll be heading back into the kitchen on Saturday trying my hand at making a Michael Symon kale salad that we saw on Symon's Suppers on the Cooking Channel.
  Sunday saw the annual selection for the NCAA Men's hoops tourney. Shockingly San Jose State did NOT make it despite a 9-22 record including finishing dead ass last in the WAC. Aye,the Berry curse still resides with our men's program. But the women's team did much better this year finishing 4th this year about being one of the worst teams last year not only in the WAC but the entire nation.
  I signed up on Yahoo and filled out a bracket....and I'm picking Syracuse to upend Kentucky to win the title. But I think SJSU's old foe,Long Beach State will make some noise and surprise quite a few people.
Michigan is well represented with 3 schools making the tourney,U of Michigan (c'mon Ohio,please beat that Wolverine ass!!),U of Detroit and Michigan State (maybe Izzo's best coaching job in a long,long time).
Oakland U also got an invite to one of the minor tourneys as well.
 Caught a snippet on the Foster-Valenti Show on a local sports radio station. Valenti was saying that any blue chipper who plays at a mid-major school coached by his father when he has offers from big name schools shouldn't be allowed. See,in Michigan we have had that happen twice in one year. Two very sought after recruits being chased by the likes of Duke,Arizona,Michigan State decided to sign with the schools where their fathers coach,Trey Zeigler of Central Michigan,whose dad,Ernie is the head coach and Ray McCallum Jr,whose dad Ray,coaches at the U of Detroit.
  Valenti thinks its not right that these young men turn down offers from the big boys to stay home and play with their fathers. Really....I mean how completely wrong can someone who claims to know about sports can be? That is the beauty of being recruited,that a young player can look at the whole picture and see which school will suit them best. CMU and Detroit are both excellent schools to get a education,no matter who is coaching. Now maybe you won't be on ESPN every week and some folks may think the father may play favorites but hey,thats going to happen no matter where you go. How many players get recruited to play at a big boy school only to find themselves being the 11th or 12th player coming off the bench to play the last 45 seconds of a blowout game as a senior? This after being wined and dined as the next big NBA type star?
I think its great that these kids decided to stay home and play for their dads,at least you won't see their names on a police blotter doing stupid shit and getting kicked off the team.
  Now there is a risk that if pops isn't coaching too well (CMU was terrible this year),he could be fired and then the question can be asked,will the player stay or transfer? Again,a moot question because of the vast amount of players who transfer every year looking for the magic button that will get them playing on a higher level. Sometimes a transfer works and sometimes (hello Tate Forcier) it doesn't. But questioning a player who wants to play for their dad? Just stupidity.
  Lori and I went over to the new MJR Theater in Westland yesterday. Seems like one of her co-workers had went and watched "Act of Valor"and said it was a good movie. Now Lori isn't into fanboy or violent movies so I was surprised when she said she wanted to see this with me as I hadn't planned on it myself.
 But since we had a day off together and were planning to make a Randazzo's run....we stopped at Subway,got a sammie and headed on over. The new theater is clean and well laid out. The matinee price was 5.00 so that that nice. There was maybe about 15 folks for the 1:40 pm showing,nice and cozy seats.
  Now "Act of Valor" is different then most war movies because the Navy SEALS in the movie are the real deal. To see how they operate in the field was pretty amazing and the movie had 3 great set pieces where the tactics and firepower that they can bring into a fight were full display. I read a couple of reviews about how "Act of Valor" was a SEALS recruiting tool much like Top Gun was for Navy fighter pilots. Not even close,I daresay you might have better odds being a Harrier or SuperHornet fighter jockey then you do a SEAL. The SEALS are the best of the best. The movie was well done and very exciting. The ending titles were pretty sobering as the producers listed the SEALS lost in action since 9/11. Sadly,there were quite a few names that they listed.
  We headed to over to Randazzo's after the movie and picked up fresh veggies. Lori's car needed gas so we went to a tiny station that was selling gas for 3.79 a gallon while everyone else was selling it at 3.92. Needless to say,the place was packed and we had to be very careful getting in and out .
    Filled up and dropped by Big Lots for a pick peek. We got a laugh seeing Jesse James's book "American Outlaw" already at Big Lots. Big Lots is a step up from Dollar Tree when it comes to books. It answers a basic question,"just where do books go to die"after they sit on a shelf and gather dust at a local Barnes and Noble. They get sold to discounters,who sell them to yet another discounter and then to dollar stores and flea markets. You see a lot of books that were just being talked about here at stores like this....I passed on buying it and left.
  Got a note from a very good writer friend of mine. Seems like she has decided to pick up her "pen" and start blogging again. I for one (and I'm sure Slade Wilson agrees),am glad to see this. I read her first entry and I shake my head at how easy she makes this thing called blogging is. While I can't hype her up (per her request),I did post a link to her blog along with another new blogger pal of mine,a English chap named Dave. He too,is now listed on my Blogs I Follow list.
  Alrightly......I'm out for now.  Below is the trailer for "Act of Valor".

Super Bowl Sunday

Its 10:56 am

      Still downloading some tunes on the iPod. Doing so I have discovered that so much of my music is old.
How does one have 1,200 CDs and maybe own 5 or 6 that have released in the past five years? Is it the sad state of radio,the music industry,the lack of a good music store or being broke the past two years? Probably a combination of all of the above.
 Looking at the small stack I brought up to download....will anyone recognize any of these singers/bands?

The October Project
Eric Stuart Band
Van Helsing score by Alan Silvestri
Sarah Brightman,okay I know everyone will know Sarah but wait...I have more!
Monster Mania
Belly
Mary Chapin Carpenter
The Untamed Youth
and one of my very favorite bands and artists,Cockeyed Ghost

  Talked to my brother yesterday. He is works in Portland,Oregon at a shipyard that handles both private and military shipping. Despite some bumps in the road,he has really worked very hard at his craft and now has been rewarded with a promotion. To help him celebrate,the yard's General Manager gave my brother and a another supervisor a pair of court side tickets to yesterday's Nuggets-Trailblazers game.
  One of the guys that my brothers with has been having some serious domestic issues at home as of late. My brother,being his friend and now his supervisor,knows this guy is a valuable teammate and wants to lift his spirits. So what does he do? He gives the guy his ticket and tells him to enjoy himself. The other supervisor says that may have been a bad idea since the GM gave them the tickets,not the regular worker.
  My brother emails the GM,explains somewhat the situation and says he didn't mean any disrespect by giving away such a nice gift. The GM comes back and says that what my brother did was the right call and he was the one who was very impressed by my brother's action.
  Yeah,I'm very proud of Phil....he really is starting to roll and roll large!
Today is Super Bowl Sunday. While normally I would most likely skip it because I have to utterly HATE the hype around the game,my wife likes to watch the ads. This is the only NFL game she'll watch with me,she doesn't mind watching college football and she rather watch my little San Jose State team on ESPN then any Lions/Steelers games.
   I have written about the time where we watched SJSU play Nevada a couple of years back on ESPN2. Nevada scored early and a lot and at 21-0 with no hope to win,we switched the game off...but during commerical breaks,she would encourage me to check the game in case a miracle was happening. No chance of that happening,every time we turned on the game,Nevada was scoring a TD. She said maybe it was a instant replay since they kept showing Colin Kopernick scoring on the same play. It wasn't a replay,he was just scoring...and Nevada ended up winning,62-6.
  But I think she is secretly amused by watching me root for the Spartans,I get so jacked come July and August,I buy the Phil Steele preview book and make it my Bible as I study the depth chart and see how Phil ranks our new recruits.
  The first game comes along and there we are....playing USC,Alabama,Wisconsin and of course the rich pukes from Stanford. I would have added Georgia but since they begged off playing us....*LOL*.
We Spartans fans have come to expect a beatdown in our first game,we get a little depressed but hope burns eternal. I try and explain that SJS used to be a very strong regional power,sort of like the fake Spartans of Michigan State are now. It means we're good but not good enough to go out and play with teams like Bama,USC and Ohio State on a weekly basis.
  She watches as the season goes on and we start losing more and more,the air slowly deflates from my high hopes for a New Mexico Bowl bid and all that I'm hoping for is that we don't lose to Idaho,Utah State or Louisiana Tech....which we did this year.
  But big wins over Navy and Fresno State have left me happy and not really caring about the NFL/Super Bowl.  Of course my fellow Raider and Lions friends can agree with me as the only time they play in the Super Bowl is on the Madden video football game.
 So I guess I'm going to finish my downloads,take a shower,run a errand and get ready for some homemade pizza tonight.....better squeeze in a 3 mile walk as well if I'm going there!
 Tomorrow is House Projects day so there won't be a post.
I'll leave you with the sorely missed The October Project.

and will someone other then the wonderful Pam Kelly drop a comment? *LOL*