RB24Vegas

Lancelot Link

2007-11-12T10:27:00.000-05:00

I am sitting at home in the lap of luxury using one of last vacation days. Instead of wallowing around the house lamenting the OSU los saturday and the Browns loss yesterday, I figured that I will share a few good links.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk! Honestly how does a school feel if you coach looks like this?

Wyoming Coach says you're number one!

Here's a small sampling of some bad tats running around the NBA

I came across this list and just sat here shaking my head while reading it. good times!

While watching the Browns game yesterday, Matt and I discussed the sweet 'do on Jeff Reed photo. I brought up that I had seen an article of some of the best hair in the NFL. So I had to go back and find the link. Not to be out done they also put together a small sample of bad NBA hair.

Also if you have not seen these before Mr Reed has a Fyffe-like quality of disrobing in public places.

Glad to see that other people also agree with me that Simmons is getting out of hand with his writing.

This idea started off with a lot of promise but tailed off quickly. Made me think of an idea to come up with a list of my own someday (but we all know that will never come to fruition).

This is ri-donk-ulous. Way too much time practicing this stuff.

Glad to see that Fat Phil is keeping things in order down in Knoxville.

OK...I have to go and figure out something productive to do today. Later!

My Kind of Town...Chicago!

2007-11-03T21:13:00.000-04:00

Here are some more of Pat's fantastic photos from a great trip to the Windy City-Enjoy!

We had a bet that Greg couldn't go without singing. That didn't last long!

He's still singing -

A Metal Moose on Michigan Ave - Nice Metal Wang!

Stopped by the Billy Goat for some Cheezborgers. This year everybody got a hat!

Murph was a little sleepy, but a nice photo none the less.

Everybody got a shirt as well. They must have been sad to see us leave.

I saw this cool building. It had different pieces of rocks from all over the world. We found a piece from the Buckeye State.

Another sleepy head. We went out to watch the Tribe game at a bar called West End.

Want some of my soft pretzel?

Ready to go out? What are you wearing tonight?

Our Chicago locals, Brett and Carrie

Probably my favorite stop in Chicago -

Peace man!

A couple of Murphys making a Carrie sandwich

Shaking it on the dance floor

Pausing from dancing to take a photo

We should really hang out more and do some singing

Everybody seems to be enjoying themselves here

Now the fun really begins. Its Walrus Time!

And I start hitting on Kristy

Tommy tiara

Not to be outdone -

Black Shirt. Check. Jack and Coke. Check. We're ready!

Pose it up boys. Rick, act like youre getting choked out. Perfect!

Patrick and John Kelly

And I am still hitting on Kristy

This was a nice girl who kept bringing us drinks. Although she kept asking for money too.

This one is a classic late night photo

And so is this one...

Yes sir it was a very good trip!

Can your stomach handle it?

2007-10-31T22:24:00.001-04:00

What's up player?

Heard about this on the radio the other day and finally had to see what all the hub bub was about...Search on You Tube for 2 girls and 1 cup. Watch all of the fantastic reactions to this video.

I will warn you that this is NOT SAFE FOR WORK. It's probably blocked from SW anyway. So go home log on and enjoy (or throw up).

Happy Halloween!
RB

Indians Playoffs 2007 Photo Essay

2007-10-30T15:46:00.000-04:00

Ok it's time for a posting of a some pics from what has gone on over the last month. All of the these fabulous photos game from the hot little camera of Patrick Murphy and he has been kind enough to let me steal them and share with the world. I posted a bunch of these also on Flickr, clicking on the photos should take you to Flickr for a little larger version.

Away we go...

Game 1 - ALDS vs. NYY

Today's fun sponsored by Uncle Sherwin.

2 Murphs and The Magictones on the Home Run Porch

A shot of the Boyz

Lopez, JK, McGee and a happy Tom

JK and RB pregame

It wouldnt be a party unless Rick and Scott were dancing

We should hang out more (Part VII)

Game 3 – ALCS vs. Red Sox

Patrick and I took in game 3 of the ALCS. We had SRO tickets and found a nice perch near home plate.

Here's a happy fella...

A full beer and a Patriotic background, does it get any better?

Here's the kind of JO fans that the Red Sox attract. This lady was a piece of work. She even had Big Papi on her orthopedic shoes.

I know I posted this before but do you know that one guy in this photos has more TD passes than Peyton Manning?

Game 4 – ALCS vs. Red Sox
We sat in the bleachers for Game 4. Good times were had by all.

Fyffe giving the Stink Eye while I look at the bright lights

Another picture of the happy fella

Brothers Murphy

I will get not one, but two large beers

Smile and look like you are having fun

Another favorite pose of RB, the Shocker!

A very nice team photo of the boys.

More brotherly poses for the Murphys

Stamper and Patrick

Game 5 – ALCS vs. Red Sox

We tried to pull a little positive Voodoo out of the CC toys before the game

Pre-Game adventures were also held at Alesci's Downtown

Tom tries to hypnotize with the "Death Stare"

This Fat Kid looked like he wasn't having much fun

Well maybe I was mistaken. Holla!

Greg certainly seemed festive enough

And how could I argue with that look?

Mr. McGee and Ms. Lopez

And I think this look was just a little bit before the Hulkster started up with some of Cleveland's finest and was asked to leave the ball park.

That's all for this installment. I have started working on the Chicago photos as well. Those should be up soon enough.

Good Day, Sir!

A couple of good videos and pics-

2007-10-29T22:41:00.000-04:00

Emmitt Smith breaks down Donald Driver- What???

Thank you to Jimmy Kimmell for saying what we all think -

I always hate these signs when teams run through them, but this is pretty funny.

Penn State fans had a very original sign on Saturday :

And lastly a great video of a guy in Holland with a universal remote control:

http://view.break.com/387953 - Watch more free videos

Thats all for now - Time for sleepy!

Shocker!

2007-10-28T22:12:00.000-04:00

I had every intention to post a bunch of photos from Chicago but I was just too fucking lazy to get it done. The good news is that I uploaded a bunch of them on to Flickr so that I think it will be easier to post them on the blog. So I got that which is nice...

No new post? What A Shocker!!!

I'm doing some good thinking!

2007-10-27T11:34:00.000-04:00

I'm sitting around the house today going through the photos that Murph has taken over the last couple of weeks. I'll put them together and get some posting done!

RB

A Couple of Quick Ones

2007-10-18T15:46:00.000-04:00

I know I havent been around for a year and a day but I have been too busy (or lazy) to get to this. And just when you think you can get some time and post some crap the playoffs hit.

Here is what I have done over the last couple of weeks:

Yankees @ Indians 10/4
ClamBake weekend at Murphy's 10/5 & 10/6
Pistons @ Cavs 10/11
Lake Erie Monsters game 10/13
Red Sox @ Indians 10/15
Red Sox @ Indians 10/16
Red Sox @ Indians Tonight!
This Weekend - ND/Chicago weekend!!!

Anywho...My main man Murph has taken a boatload of pictures from the games. I want to post a bunch of them but havent got around to it. But here a couple to wet your whistle...

Notice how the QB of the Browns wears a Cleveland hat????

GO TRIBE!!!

How Long Has It Been?

2007-09-25T19:26:00.000-04:00

Way too freaking long! I have posts to catch up on but I have stuff that I want to share as well. We'll see if we can get caught back up over the next few days.
Lets jump into some links -

Nice bat skills here:

Have you ever seen Biff from Back To The Future sing? This freaking song was stuck in my head for about a week. It's catchy!

Do they sit next to each other on purpose?

Is this the Longhorns Dance team or Football team ? (Of course I think it's kind of cool)

Is there a back story to the Injuns throwing pies in each others faces?
Who Cares? As long as they keep going deep into the post season!
Here's a cool link as to how this Indians team was put together.

And finally some smut to make your day -
Good to see some College Football fans putting the net to good use. Unfortunately sombody already shut down SEC Poon. But there are a few copy cats sites to try and keep it going be careful out there it may not be safe for work eyes.

Big Ten Tailgate

ACC

Pac Ten

More Big Ten

Big East

SEC

in the words of Nick Burns...You're Welcome!

OK...My goal is to put my Las Vegas trip report together and get it posted over the next couple of days.
Later Gator
-RB

Off To The 702

2007-09-04T22:20:00.000-04:00

In Vegas, everybody's gotta watch everybody else. Since the players are looking to beat the casino, the dealers are watching the players. The box men are watching the dealers. The floor men are watching the box men. The pit bosses are watching the floor men. The shift bosses are watching the pit bosses. The casino manager is watching the shift bosses. I'm watching the casino manager. And the eye-in-the-sky is watching us all.

-Ace Rothstein

As if I didn't slack enough on the blog posting, I have a little vacation beginning on Wednesday after work. I am hopping a bird and heading to Vegas for a couple of days in the hundred degree heat. Ron, Steve and myself are headed out for a short little trip to the desert.

Stevie and I are then hopping back on a bird on Saturday to be home in time for NFL football on Sunday at Cleveland Browns Stadium. I'm going to guess there will be a story or two to be told when I get back.

Try not to miss me too much!

Ricky B

One more thing...

2007-09-02T12:12:00.000-04:00

Matt and I heard this on the way home and both had to laugh. It could be one of the greatest radio calls of all time, in my humble opinion.

App State Radio

-RB

The Biggest Upset Ever?

2007-09-02T11:43:00.000-04:00

The greatest ever? I’m not sure where it ranks but I am glad to say I was there yesterday. I was sitting in Section 18 Row 43 Seat 10. I have the ticket stub to prove it but the story starts so much earlier.

Matt had told me on Thursday that I was the choice (by default but I didn’t mind one bit) to go up to Ann Arbor on Saturday with him to see the Michigan Wolverines open up their season again Appalachian State. Most people know that I am a fan of THE Ohio State University Buckeyes, but I enjoy the pageantry of going to just about any event and I didn’t mind driving up to the Big House to take in a game on the first Saturday in September.

Since I was Matt’s guest I asked him how early he wanted to get going and let him do all the planning for tailgating, pre game etc. We agreed to leave his place by 6:00am on Saturday to make the drive up to Michigan.

I popped out of bed bright eyed and was on the road even a few minutes early on Saturday morning and made the drive to Matt’s house. When I arrived it was about 5:40am, and I pulled in the drive. I noticed that the house was totally dark. I figured that maybe Matt didn’t want to wake up the boss and he was getting ready in the dark house. I walked around the back of the house and then I realized that he wasn’t even awake. There was no movement going on here. I tried to look in the windows to see if my spidey sense was correct. I thought about banging on the door but I didn’t want to wake the neighborhood.

I wasn’t quite sure what to do. I got back in my car and thought about it for a few minutes. I sent him a text message asking if he was awake. No reply. I sat a while longer and called his cell phone. Voicemail. Damn It! OK, now what? It’s now about 6:10am and I am sitting there listening to the radio in my car.

A car pulls down his street and slows down right in front of his house. A guy pops out of the car with a handful of today’s Plain Dealers. He chucked it at Matt’s house and nails the front door. WHAM! That has to wake somebody up. I look for some lights to pop on in the house. Nothing doing…WTF?

It’s now about 6:15. OK…Another call to the cell phone. Voicemail again. I am getting a little upset thinking to myself that I woke up and made the drive for a team that I don’t even root for and he’s asleep. I figure that it’s time for me to cut my losses and say it’s not in the cards for me to go to Michigan today. I send Matt another text message saying that I am bailing out and I'm headed home.

I back the car out of the driveway and hop back on the highway heading east. As I get to East 72nd my phone rings (btw…I set the ring tone to the Ohio State Battle Cry on Friday night). Hey looky there, Matt Fyffe is on the phone. He apologizes and asks if I still want to head on up. I told him that I was almost at the point of no return. I actually had the thought in my head that if I had made it all the way home and he called me, I wasn’t turning around and going. But I was close enough that I did get off at the East 72nd exit and headed back west to his house.

A few minutes later I pulled in his drive again. He came out ready to go apologized several times. I really wasn’t upset about it anymore so we popped on the turnpike and made our way. Traffic was surprisingly pretty light all the way there. We picked a lot to park the car and settled down for some beer drinking.

We chatted over a few beers and killed some time before heading over to the Big House for game time. We were actually a little early heading in so we stopped off at the souvenir shop to pick up some gear. After making our purchases we made our way to our seats.

We were there just in time to see the Wolverines roar onto the field. And then the game started.
If you want the breakdown of the game I will let the fine folks of ESPN, Sportsline or Michigan Zone take care of that for me.

I’ll jump ahead in my story to the game right after Mike Hart ran for a sweet 54 yards for a go ahead TD (followed by their second failed 2 point conversion which I told Matt was the wrong call both times) and App State came out and threw an interception. Michigan didn’t move the ball and had a FG blocked.

App State moved the ball down the field into chip shot FG range, Matt turned to me salty and pissed off and said “Lets go”.

I grabbed him by the back of his shirt and said “No way am I leaving now!”

We watched as the figgie sailed through the goal posts and then made our way to the exits.

As I walked up the aisles towards the gates I looked into the faces of disgruntled and startled Michigan fans and saw a lot of heads shaking. I heard the words “Fire Lloyd Now!” a couple of times as well. Of course as an Ohio State fan, I was silently enjoying this inside.

Before leaving the stadium, Matt made a stop back to the MDen tent and promptly returned the shirts that he had purchased earlier in the day. Honestly, I thought that may have been the funniest thing I saw all day. He was pissed off enough that he said that Michigan didn’t deserve the money after the crappy effort that they had put forth on this particular Saturday.

As Matt came out of the shop I was standing there waiting and listening to the end of the game as Michigan somehow got within FG range only to have that kicked blocked to end the game.

We got out of Ann Arbor and hit the highway back towards the safety of the Ohio State line. The ride home was uneventful as we listened to Georgia Tech beat the crap out of Notre Dame, Matt was taking everything surprisingly well. He said that he would just have to avoid any televisions, newspapers, interwebs and maybe cancel his cell phone plan to avoid all the ribbing that he would be taking for the next few days from Non-Michigan fans.

Honestly, it was a good football game to see and I can proudly say that I was there. I just want to thank Matt for the experience and I’m quite sure that I will never ever get another invitation to go back to the Big House again, but at least I went out with a very large bang.

What's Your Fantasy?

2007-08-24T13:27:00.000-04:00

It’s just a fantasy world...get your minds out of the gutter, people!

First let me state for the record that I am 36 years old. I have a full time job. I am almost a real adult, except that part about being responsible having a nice savings account to fall back on, a place of my own and all of the other really, really important stuff. But for arguments sake, I am somewhat of a grown up and live in the real world.

However...This weekend is Pure Fantasy Baby!
I have not one but TWO fantasy football drafts in the next 3 days.

This Saturday is my auction league with the North Ridgeville boys from work and next Monday we are resurrecting the Murphy Cleveland FFB League. I’m giddy with excitement. OK I know that I shouldn’t be that excited about the prospect of sitting around with other males and picking football teams, but it’s a good time. So there!

I’ve got my spreadsheets in order and I have started to do some studying to determine how much I am willing to pay to score Ladanian Tomlinson in the auction (last year he went for $72). We have a $200 Salary Cap and have to draft 16 guys. It can cripple you if you spend half your cap on one player. But if you are wise with your spending it can also be a blessing. I had the luxury two years ago of having LT and I thought that he was worth every penny.

In the Murphy league, it’s all going to be a matter of luck because we draw for draft spots there will just have to be some heavy prayer work to try and get the lucky number one spot.

Regardless of how dumb we look or what people say I enjoy playing fantasy football. It makes watching or following NFL games on Sundays interesting since I am not a gambling man per se. Although I guess in a way you could consider Fantasy FB as gambling but whatever.

Besides Fantasy Football, the weekend doesn’t have a lot of other things on tap. I will probably spend Sunday kicking myself in the ass for the crappy team that I have assembled but I will have the opportunity to redeem myself on Monday night!

Have a great weekend!

Traffic Jam

2007-08-23T20:42:00.000-04:00

There are just sometimes when it’s good to work in a large city.

As I made my way out of the parking garage today after work, the traffic seemed heavier than normal. I sat in traffic and watched the traffic light go through two cycles and I may have moved a total of 25 feet. I lost patience and decided that I was going to throw a u-turn and take another route to get on my way. After checking the traffic I hit the gas and whipped my Civic in the opposite direction.

As I am completing my turn, I look at the van that was in traffic behind me and noticed that the logo on the side was that of Cleveland’s finest. I thought that I was dead to rights but then I realized that they surely have much bigger fish to fry and I wasn’t worth their time.

Thank you very much CPD!

Jersey Up!

2007-08-22T22:12:00.000-04:00

While watching the Tribe play the Tigers tonight I was doing my usual surfing and came across a great post on Deadspin.com.

Seems that a new website has been started dedicated to find and take photos of the most obscure and outdated jerseys that people are wearing. Good Times!

Here's the link to the Deadspin Post. Some of the commenters tossed around some great ideas.

And here is the website. Love the name – Straight Cash Homey!

Of course after reading this it made me ponder the fact that in the age of free agency, it’s damn near impossible to buy any type of personalized jersey that will be accurate for more than 2 or 3 years.

Here’s a sampling of my “outdated” NFL jerseys that are in my closet:

Keyshawn Johnson – Carolina AND Tampa Bay

Edgerrin James – Indy

Willis McGahee – Buffalo

Eddie George – Tennessee

Steven Davis – Washington

Shawn Springs – Seattle

Terrell Owens – Philadelphia

Ty Law – New England

Lee Suggs – Cleveland Browns

Earl Little - Cleveland

Tim Couch – Cleveland (Autographed Suckas!)

And Finally – Mike Vick (WTF do I do with that one now?)

Thanks Ron Mexico!

A Sticky Situation

2007-08-17T11:39:00.000-04:00

I heard this about this news story on The Adam Carolla Show earlier in the week so I had to find out more about it.

The overview of this is that a guy tried to rob a Liquor Store in Kentucky. Our hero wrapped his head in duct tape to conceal his identity. My first thought is how much that had to hurt when the police pulled it all off his face!

Anyway check out the story/video from the local news outet. Be sure to watch the "Web Extra" footage as well. It's pure comedy gold!

Good Times Indeed!

Weekend plans include a golf outing in Medina tomorrow. I am missing the second Browns preseason game but I'm not all that upset about that. We talked of playing golf and then heading back to Mark's place for a bonfire. Maybe we'll have to try and see if Matt drink enough to do some fire jumping.

Enjoy the weekend!

Four Things About Your Author

2007-08-13T16:13:00.000-04:00

I borrowed this off another blogger and I thought it would be a good way to pass along some useless information. Let's give it a go -

Four Jobs I've Had:
1) Shipping Clerk
2) Part Time Golf Pro
3) Grocery Store Bagger/Stocker
4) Machine Assembly

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over:
1) Quick Change
2) Rounders
3) Oceans Eleven
4) Con Air

Four Places I've Lived:
1) Willowick
2) West Palm Beach
3) Madison
4) Willoughby

Four TV Shows I Love:
1) American Chopper
2) Whose Line Is It Anyway?
3) Miami Ink
4) Seinfeld

Four Places I've Vacationed:
1) Key West
2) Chicago
3) Myrtle Beach
4) Las Vegas

Four of My Favorite Dishes:
1) Lasagna
2) Sloppy Joes
3) Meatloaf
4) BBQ Ribs

Four Sites I Visit Daily:
1) Hurricane Mikey
2) My Space
3) Uni Watch
4) Google

Four Places I'd Rather Be Right Now:
1) Key West
2) Las Vegas
3) A swimming pool
4) On a golf course

Four Things on My Immediate Shopping List:
1) An Oil Change
2) Gasoline
3) Dress Socks
4) Pants for work

Four Songs That Always Put Me In a Good Mood:
1) Sweet Caroline – Neil Diamond
2) Eastbound and Down – Jerry Reed
3) Separate Ways - Journey
4) Cherry Pie - Warrant

Four Things I Refuse to Eat:
1) Cauliflower
2) Broccoli
3) Brussell Sprouts
4) Green Beans (Any one see a pattern?)

Four Things I Can't Live Without:
1) The Internet
2) TV
3) Air Conditioning
4) Adam Carolla Podcasts

Four Cars I Have Owned:
1) Honda Civic
2) Ford Ranger
3) Chevrolet Beretta
4) Ford Explorer

Four Concerts I Have Seen:
1) Garth Brooks
2) Prince
3) Journey/Foreigner
4) Tim McGraw

Four Favorite Candies:
1) Resses PB Cups
2) Pay Day candy bars
3) Peanut M&M’s
4) Hershey Bar with Almonds

Four People I'd Like to Have Over for a Dinner Party:
1) Tiger Woods
2) Adam Carolla
3) Bill Clinton
4) Elvis Presley

Four People Who I Wish Would Do a Vanity Search on Google and Then Email Me:
1) Natalie Gulbis
2) Jessica Biel
3) Suzy Kolber
4) Erin Andrews

Four Favorite Cocktails:
1) Margaritas On the Rocks with a little salt
2) Captain Morgan and Ginger Ale
3) A well made Bloody Mary
4) Ice Cold Miller Lite

Four Favorite Pizza Toppings:
1) Italian Sausage
2) Pepperoni
3) BBQ Chicken
4) Banana Peppers

Four Halloween Costumes:
1) Smurf
2) Jawa from Star Wars
3) Batman
4) Incredible Hulk

Four Pet Peeves:
1) People who say “Supposebly”
2) Rude People
3) Spam Emails – Can’t we get a handle on this stuff?
4) Bloggers who don't update their sites!

-RB

Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son

2007-08-13T11:10:00.001-04:00

As I look back at some things, I realize that I have done a poor job over the last couple of months with this blogging thing.

My excuse is that I have been lazy and slacking. Shocker!

While there are some posts that take a lot of time to put clear thoughts and good story telling skills together, there really is no excuse for not keeping it updated better. And looking back at it, that is not an acceptable answer.

It’s kind of the same way that my exercise schedule has worked out lately. If I get to it, I get to it, if I don’t it’s not a big deal. And to be honest with you that is a shitty approach to take. So maybe it’s time to make some changes and get this ship righted.

Of course we all know that in a week, I will get back to the state of mind where I have been and there will be no posts for another month.

So for my first new post in quite sometime, I wanted to share a couple of links with you. I came across these mugshots on The Smoking Gun website and they are pretty damn funny so I figured that I needed to share them!

Mug Shots 1

Mug Shots 2

Mug Shots 3

Enjoy and hopefully, we'll be talking soon!

Rick

Roller Derby

2007-07-30T19:18:00.000-04:00

In case you are wondering how I spent my Saturday night here's a video for you...

The next matches are August 25th!
Be There!!!

Finally!!!

2007-07-29T12:06:00.000-04:00

A big day today in France...I can't wait to watch the Golf Channel tonight!

Signed,
#1 Stalker

A couple more photos -

I just gotta get that Caddy scholarship, Mr Webb

2007-07-20T16:28:00.000-04:00

I always had a fond liking to Ian Poulter, but after seeing this photo, how can he not be my new favorite golfer? I'm thinking that I may have to try and get a print of this and have him sign it next month at Firestone. How do you think that would go over?

One more note about my boy Ian. He has a new clothing line out. I wonder who gave the go ahead on the logo?

Whizzingly yours,
RB

A time for sharing -

2007-07-15T11:21:00.001-04:00

A little bit of this and that...

To our Big Man CC...I hope you didn't stuff yourself with too much cake!

What could Serena possibly be pointing at? What is Andy Packing?

Got an itch Gay-Rod?

I think I am looking forward to seeing Becks play in LA. The press conference may have been a bit much though.

Glamour Boy tossed out a first pitch last month

I really hate this jackass but this photo was funny.

A couple of videos as well -

Came across this video and figured I would pass it along. It's a catchy tune!

And it's only a couple more weeks and Browns training camp begins-

I'll put some weekend thoughts and stories together shortly.

The Yutes Of America

2007-07-05T11:08:00.000-04:00

As I walked in to work today, I decided that I wanted to stop off and pick up a tasty Asiago cheese bagel and a coffee from Panera. When I walked to the register my total came to $3.61 and I handed the kid a $20 bill. I then realized that I had 4 one-dollar bills as well so I told the kid that I would give him that instead. He then handed me back my twenty, which I put in my pocket. He was just dumbfounded and he had the money in his hand and staring blankly at the cash register. He couldn’t comprehend what just happened. He first reached into the register and handed me another $20 bill. I was Mr. Nice Guy though and gave it back to him (that effing good karma better pay off sometime soon!). I then had to tell him that I just needed 39 cents change back and went along my way.

I know that I have probably seen an e-mail or comedian telling a similar story but it was really mind blowing to see it live and in person.

A concerned senior citizen,
Rick

Photo-Synthesis

2007-07-04T17:53:00.000-04:00

rbue24

I added a bunch of the Key West Photos to my Webshots page so that if you wanna page through them you can do so at your leisure.

Later!
RB

Also came across this and I just had to post it for my pal Scott -

Happy Birthday Coach!

2007-07-03T23:35:00.000-04:00

To one of the best friends a guy could have -

Happy Birthday Coach!

Key West Part 1

2007-07-03T21:44:00.000-04:00

I know that tomrrow is July 4th and this story is quite old by now, but it had to be posted sometime. So here is the first installment of the adventures of Key West. I will continue to work on the second half of it. Also for those that went along, if you feel the need to write up more I would be more than happy to have some guest posts up in here.

Hope you enjoy some of the tales -

Tuesday 5/29

I woke up on a Tuesday morning excited as all get up because I was getting on a bird and heading south for six days! I had done my packing the night before and had my clothes laid out and ready to go. Carol drove me to meet Curt at 6:30am and we headed west to the Fyffe house. After a quick stop there we dropped off the car at Park and Ride and hopped on the shuttle over to Hopkins. We met up with the balance of our travel party, which included Ron, Shana and Scott McGee. The flight down was uneventful as we were scattered through out the full plane. I killed most of the time by listening to music and watching videos on my iPod

Once we landed in Ft. Lauderdale, we met up with Coach Ark who had flown in from North Carolina. After grabbing our bags, I hopped over to the rental car desk and got a pretty cool Toyota 4 Runner for the drive down to the Keys. The drive was pretty uneventful except for the fact that I took a wrong turn and missed the turn to get on the Florida Turnpike. We finally made our way to the Turnpike and were on our way. We touched base with the lead car and they made the call that we were going to stop for lunch in Islamorada at a restaurant appropriately named the “Islamorada Fish Company.” We drove up and down US-1 a couple of times before finally finding the place. We had a good lunch overlooking the ocean views.

After that we hit the road again and made the rest of our journey down the scenic highway crossing the Seven Mile Bridge and finally arriving in Key West sometime around 6pm. It took a little bit of time to find our house since the street that it was on had no signs but after several phone calls we finally managed to track it down. We dropped off our bags, grabbed a drink and mingled with the rest of the crew that had arrived a little bit earlier and settled into our surroundings.

Once we had figured out sleeping arrangements and freshened up, we made our way down Duval Street to take in some of the sights and figure out a place to watch the Cavaliers playoff game against the Pistons. The group split up and headed in different directions. My group was Mike, Ron and Shana. The first bar we stopped in was a place called Bourbon Street. It looked like it had a New Orleans feel to it but after taking a step inside I noticed that the walls were covered in male hot body contest posters. I had a hunch that we may have been the only straight fellas in the place. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but we quickly made a u-turn and kept on going down the road.

The next place we stumbled upon was a small bar called Rhumba’s. There was hardly any body in the place. We made ourselves at home as Coach Ark made friends with our bartender Jim. He told us that it was happy hour for well drinks and he did pour a pretty healthy drink. We hung out and watched the first half of the Cavs game and did some quality drinking.

Mike and our bartender Jim

As we sat at the bar we couldn’t help but notice that the bar across the street had some large “women” out in front trying to attract customers. Jim gave us the low down on the show that goes on across the street. After a while we knew that we had to go and get a picture taken with the ladies. We walked over and they were nice enough to pose with us. Of course the large one that had to be over 7 feet tall with her heels on felt the urge to grab my package while we posed. Who was I to argue? It’s the most action I have had in a while.

Fun with the Showgirls!

After a while at Rhumba’s we decided that we needed to see more of what Duval Street had to offer so we made our way down the street. Our next stop was at Willie T’s to watch the second half of the game on a large screen TV that was on the patio. Jim the bartender along with several members of the rest of our party also joined up with us as we hung out and had many more drinks to celebrate the Cavs win over the Pistons.

Once the game was over, most of the group made their way back to the house but Coach and I had other ideas. With Jim as our tour guide we made our way further down Duval and stopped in a few more bars. To be honest with you, I’m not even sure of all the places that we stopped at. I know that we went to Rick’s for a couple but I probably only remembered that one because of the name. Once we had enough, we parted ways with our tour guide Jim and we walked our way back home.

Wednesday 5/30

Wednesday morning was a beautiful day. Mike and I went out for a walk and stopped for some breakfast at a place called Ricky’s Blue Heaven (I like the fact that a lot of places in KW are named after me). It was a strange place that is known for the live roosters that walk through the patio while people sit and eat. You had to be careful of where you walked when making your way to your table. Breakfast was tasty and we even saw a small cock fight.

After breakfast we had to take the car back to the KW airport. Coach and I hopped in and navigated our way. It has to be the smallest airport I have ever seen. As we pulled in all of the rental car spots were full so I made another pass around before seeing a worker that was in the parking lot. I asked him where I should park the car but his English speaking skills didn’t seem to be the greatest. He mumbled something and pointed towards the terminal. Good enough, and I made another lap around the parking lot still looking for a space. As I pulled around again I saw our friend and tried to ask again here I should park this truck. Apparently, my new friend had enough of me because he said the same Spanglish phrase again and pointed towards the terminal. I couldn’t help but laugh as Coach Ark so eloquently pointed out to me that Gomez had just “jumped my ass!”

We laughed as I finally parked the car and I went inside and settled up my bill.
On our way into the terminal Gomez was sitting there catching a smoke, Coach had to bust his balls one more time and ask where the terminal was. He was very helpful and pointed it out to us. I couldn’t even look at him because I knew I would have just laughed in his face.

We took a cab ride back to the house and it was a perfect day for lounging around the pool. The group all hung out and we had a perfect pool party. Coach Ark brought out the docking station and we cranked tunes off my iPod while everybody soaked in the sun and tossed back some cocktails. It was a great day!
As the afternoon wound down, the group took shifts in getting ready to hit the town and after a while the majority of the group convened at the Seaport Harbor Walk area. Some of the group decided to go and have some food but a few of the heartier souls including myself figured that food was for suckers and kept on drinking.

My team then was Coach Ark, Scott and his friend Jim who had joined the team earlier that afternoon. We hit a couple bars as we made our way back to Duval. A highlight of that adventure was when Jim decided that he needed to sit and rest his eyes at a bar aptly named the Lazy Iguana.

Nap time for Jim

During our walk, I decided that I wanted a few pictures of me while standing by the signs for “Rick’s.” As I am posing for pictures a lady comes up to me and hands me her dog for some photos as well. It was one of those moments that Coach loves. I made the best of it and took a few pictures with the “drunk” dog.

After the photo session we met up with the rest of the gang at Irish Kevin’s. Now I will warn you that at this time I may or may not have been slightly inebriated. I may have been over served so I’m quite sure that many details will be glossed over because I may not remember all of them. Kevin’s had a guy on stage playing acoustic guitar and singing some great tunes. We had a great time singing and dancing along with the show. After a while yours truly was doing his best to get certain songs played as soon as possible. To the point where at one point the singer had to step away from the mike and tell our hero to “Shut the Fuck Up!” After that and a word from Murph that I may be getting out of control I kept my distance from the stage and tried to be on my best behavior. Now of course I still had fun but I tried to do so in the circle of my friends and not be “That Guy” ruining the show for the rest of the crowd. Once he was done singing our friend came off stage and hung out with us for a drink or two.

Details for the rest of that night were very fuzzy for me as most would expect. Looking back at the photographic evidence looks like Scott and I did some shots along with some homoerotic dancing. Got to love the digital evidence that pops up the next day. Dude, are you gay?

Once the gang made their way back home we found that Jim had fallen asleep on a chair by the pool. To have some fun with the guy Scott and Tom decided that he needed to be christened by being thrown into the pool. The video is dark and grainy but you can make some of it out.

Thursday May 31st

The weather was overcast and we were hopeful that it might clear up later in the day. After shaking out the cobwebs, we decided to take a morning walk and grab some breakfast. A group of us walked over to a beachfront restaurant that may or may not have been called “Beaches”. It was a good meal but I know that I wasn’t feeling 100% so it may have been a little bit lost on me. On the walk back we decided to stop over and see the Southernmost point monument. Coach Ark had told me no less that 40 times that he had wanted to get a picture taken there before we left town. As we arrived the monument was loaded with tourists and there was a line waiting to get pictures taken. We decided that we would stop back another time.

Before we left as I watched the people getting their pictures taken a guy that I didn’t know came walking up to me and mumbled something about not waiting to get his picture taken. He was right in my grill when he said it so I turned and looked right at him. I stone faced him and then gave him my best fake laugh right back at him. Needless to say, we all lost it. Mike, Ron and myself were crying laughing for the next five minutes like a group of schoolgirls. I know that it probably isn’t really that funny now but it may have been the funniest moment of the trip.

Half of our gang had intentions of going scuba diving on Thursday afternoon so they made their way to the boat to see if they could get out or not. The weather was really crummy that day as it was still overcast rainy and windy.

Coach and I ended up hanging around the house all afternoon and hung out at the pool soaking and catching up on things. We told stories for a couple of hours in the pool even though the weather wasn’t the best. When the early afternoon rolled around Coach and I decided that we were going to find a good happy hour and get after it for the evening and find a good spot to watch the Cavs game

Matt and Pam came back to the house when we were getting ready to leave so we asked them if they were interested in joining us, which they were. We walked up the road and made a stop at the Green Parrot for a drink. After that we found a place called Kelly’s. They had a nice outdoor patio that we found most relaxing. While we were there we discovered that they had some tasty Key Lime margaritas, which were fantastic. We also ordered some wings that were tasty. The wings had a super Jerk sauce that we all raved about.

As we hung out laughing, eating and drinking, some bird shit suddenly hit Matt. We figured that had to be good luck for the Cavs so we were ready for the game to start. We made our way back to Duval and went to a bar called Jack Flats to watch the game. It was a nice sports bar and we had a good time watching the game while eating some more appetizers.

After the first half of the game Coach and I decided to head back to Willie T’s to see if we could recapture the magic of Tuesday. It ended up being one of the greatest performances that I have ever seen as LeBron carried the Cavaliers on his back for a huge win. I’ll always remember being in Willie T’s when people talk about the amazing game that LeBron had.

Crazy enough after the game we ran into Matt and Curt walking down the street. We figured that some celebrating was in order so we made our way down Duval stopping at a few different bars before ending up at The Bull. This was about the time that Matt decided that he wanted to be one with Nature and get rid of all his clothing. Little did we know that we were one floor below that place that you really are supposed to take your clothes off but as he promised before the trip there was Matt in his full glory running around naked. Mike and I also dropped our pants for a little bit but we left our underwear on.

It was only a matter of time!

After that crazy scene we stumbled back home but we just weren’t ready to go to sleep. We made enough noise to wake some of the others that were trying to sleep. We also made a guest appearance to our friends that were sleeping on the second floor by staging a very rough re-enactment of a cross between the Ohio State and Michigan marching bands. We sang, clapped our hands and I had to have “dotted the i” at least 3 or 8 times. I’m quite sure that they were not impressed with our performance but we had some fun.

Trying my marching band skills

Now that some of the others were awake we came up with the grand plan that we needed to walk down and take some pictures at the Southernmost point. The great thing was at 3 in the morning there was no line for picture taking. Then we came up with the great idea of boosting Matt on top of the monument. It wasn’t easy but we got him up there. Got some great photos of it too!

Giving Matt a Boost!

The truly rare triple moon as seen in Key West

On the way home the gears were again grinding and we figured there would not be a better time for Matt to do his naked run down Duval. Ron and Coach took their position at the end of the road, Matt handed me his clothes and got ready to run. Right before he was ready to go, Matt turned to me and told me a key ingredient to his run. He took off his sandals and handed them to me and claimed, “I run faster without my shoes on.” He handed them to me and took off running down the street. Funny, funny stuff!
Matt's 3am Run

That is all for now...I'll keep working on the rest!
Rick

It's Time To Get Writing

2007-06-19T21:21:00.000-04:00

I guess it’s time for my weekly report. I know that If I was a regular reader of this dumb blog I may have quit looking a while back with the lack of effort being put forth by the host. And if anybody felt that way I would have no argument to stand on. But to lay the cards on the table, I have been somewhat busy lately and when I was not I just haven’t been in a writing mood. Not really sure if it’s because of the hot summer we’ve been having so far or just some other dumb excuse.

Just for giggles let me lay out what my last week or so looked like.

6/09 – Went to Columbus with Murph – Then met Scott and Monge for a few drinks

6/10 – Went to see Oceans 13 with Scott

6/11 – I don’t think I did anything but I can’t remember

6/12 – Went to Flannery’s with Murph and McGee to watch the Cavs lose

6/13 – Day of rest since I was out late on Tuesday

6/14 – Golf after work – Came home after wings & pizza to watch the Cavs lose (also saw Eva Longoria at Tower City)

6/15 – Went out with Scott and Monge

6/16 – 18 holes of Golf, Indians game with Matt (plenty of drinks!)

6/17 – U.S. Open with my Dad

6/18 – Indians game with Matt

Plus there is the whole Key West, Memorial Day, golf outings that I have neglected. I swear I will try and put some of the better stories together one of these days. I’m going to start with a Key West trip report. Sounds like as good a place as any.

One last excuse has to be the fact that I used to have a lot more free time in my old job. It’s like I am expected to work or something. I think that really is the cause of most of my problems. It used to be some of my best quality time for writing.

Hasta la bye bye!

Julio, Donde Esta?

2007-06-12T08:27:00.000-04:00

In the highest of high comedies, I noticed that I have not updated this sum bitch in almost 2 weeks! I think it’s about time that I sit down and do some writing. The problem with that is I have no idea what the heck I have done over the past couple of weeks. That of course is not true, but I need to get some order to my thoughts and make some sense of them. So over the next couple of days I will filter through the killed brain cells and try to retract the Key West tales and maybe put a thought or six out there about the NBA Finals making a Cleveland appearance.

Hang tight!

One more half hour…

2007-05-24T16:13:00.000-04:00

I’m just wondering if I can make it. I am like a cat at the zoo that is pacing back and forth. Wearing a path in the floor. Well that much be overstating it a tad. But I am ready to get the heck out of Dodge and start the launch sequence for my vacation. I was thinking to myself that I am probably not going to get a lot of writing done over the course of the next week to ten days so I might want to get a post in before everything kicks off.

First thing is tonight is golf night at The Creek. Its sunny and 82 as I type this so it should be a beautiful night for it. After golf I am looking forward to some wings and Za, while watching the Cavs kick the shit out of the Pistons (I know that may be a reach but I am thinking positive).

Tomorrow is a vacation day to go play some golf at Yankee Run. Weather looks good. And my thought is that a day away from the office to go golfing surely can’t be all that bad.

After that the weekend is open with the exception of a BBQ on Sunday night. I am quite certain that more things will arise for the holiday weekend. We’ll have to wait and see.

The other thing that I wanted to share was the new banner on the right side of the page. If you are wondering how the hell that got there, let me explain. I got an email back a few weeks ago from a girl named Nikki who had come across my blog. She asked about my interest in WKRP in Cincinnati. I am going to assume that she did some sort of internet search and came across me back in the fall when I was doing my traveling to Cincy on a weekly basis. I had made a few remarks about the show, but it was more just my snappy way of naming my columns.

(Which by the way is one of the hardest parts of writing these things. I usually try to be clever and tie them in somehow)

Anyway she asked if I would be interested in reviewing Season One of WKRP which was just released on DVD last month. I thought that was a pretty cool idea. I got my package in the mail yesterday with Season One of WKRP. Over the course of the next couple weeks I will sit down and see if can write a professional objective review of the DVD set. This week will be a bad time for it with the holiday and my travels but I am looking forward to watching them. Maybe I can make this some sort of habit and get the benefits that come along with it.

OK…I am cutting this short and heading to the golf course. If I don’t check in for a while I hope y’all will understand!

Rick

And then there were 8...

2007-05-21T19:24:00.000-04:00

Seeing as how I am getting on a bird and looking for some warm weather, it is as if the Overlords are looking down and trying to help make things pass on by a little quicker. My schedule for this week is taking shape so that I will be tied up at work with various tasks along with the social calendar looking the same way. Today may be the exception for work, but I can try and deal with that.

(ed note: I had typed this up while at work this morning before I really got going at work. I had a few things pop up and for the record the day whizzed on by)

Here is what I am looking at – One of the Directors here is throwing us a bowling party/team building event Tuesday. It’s supposed to kick off at 11:30 and go until 4:30. In my eyes, I would say that is pretty much my entire day! I have heard that it’s a little corny with some of the team building stuff but if it gets me out of the office for a day, I am not going to complain.

Wednesday we have a meeting scheduled with the upper levels guys that is scheduled from 9am until 1pm with lunch being served. It sounds like it may be a dry long deal but it will be time away from the grind of working. I can sit there and look like I’m paying attention but my mind will be thinking of beaches and margaritas.

Thursday is after work golf day along with my last workday of the week. Work may be a normal schedule but I will surely be looking towards the holiday weekend and the impending vacation.

Friday is a golf outing with Matt and Mark at Yankee Run. They have played in this the last couple of years, but this is my first trip. I’m definitely looking forward to that as well. I'm keeping the fingers crossed that the weather works out for us.

And then it will be onto a holiday weekend, which should include more golf, drinking, cook-outs, and bonfires. Good times all the way around there!

I am usually not the kind of guy to wish the time away but anything to help me get to the weekend of golf and Florida next week can’t be a bad thing.

-RB

Random nothingness -

2007-05-17T16:01:00.000-04:00

Couple of thoughts bouncing around in the empty space between my ears:

Here’s a little hygiene tip for Mr. Weightlifter at the gym. If you grease up your body with Ben-Gay and then go lifting weights while grunting to let everybody know they are heavy, I think you may be perspiring a little bit. And since you are wearing a grey shirt, I can SEE that you are sweating. And you come back into the locker room wipe your self off and get dressed and go back to work? I’m sure that your co-workers are very happy with you. Five minutes in the shower please. This should be required.

Nice effort by the Cavaliers last night. They almost showed up enough to make us think they cared. Now of course, this series will go the full seven games. Instead of sitting home resting, they will have to expend the extra effort just to get along to the next round.

Very impressive work today by young Fausto Carmona, tossing a complete game against the Twins to run his record to 5-1. The kid has earned the right to stay in Cleveland all summer long.

I saw this video and thought I should share it. I thought it was pretty damn funny!

I’m leaving work shortly to go sneak in nine holes. Thankfully the weather is a balmy 53 degrees today. I’m just hoping it stays dry.

Later!

Sexy Picture Time

2007-05-16T12:35:00.000-04:00

We went out a few weeks ago and did some bowling for Matt's birthday. I was too lazy to write about it but here is a photo essay:

What does that sign say?

Did you not see the sign?

Notice the classy Pabst tall boys?

Forsey, can you hula hoop?

They had a great band called The Menus. The lead singer changed outfits a dozen times over the course of the evening. Highly entertaining!

This lady had the best hair I have ever seen. We knew that we had to get a photo of it so we told her were were from out of town and Matt wanted some pictures with the locals. As you can tell she was thrilled to pose with him.

At least her friend smiled for the second photo.

Apparently his face was are very lickable.

Still playing the part!

At this point it was just an excuse to do anything we wanted and take pictures.

This is Matt and Miss April from the SW wellness center

Would you two on the left act serious for once?

We're well behaved in this one.

The lead singer came down from the stage and gave our pal a trophy for best hair. I don't think she was amused.

Doesn't everybody have one of these photos???

Rock on! Late!

Hot Diggity Dog!

2007-05-16T12:01:00.000-04:00

First of all, let me say that I am no Dick Goddard but this Cleveland weather is re-God Damn-diculous! For those of you who live outside the greater Cleveland area, let me break it down for you. On Sunday it was 58 degrees. On Monday, it was 79 degrees. On Tuesday it topped out at a whopping 91 degrees (one degree short of a record, by the way according to weather.com). And today it is currently 59 degrees. If the entire city of Cleveland does not have some sort of cold I would be stunned. Is it really supposed to change by thirty-two degrees in a span of 16 hours? I don’t think so.

Seeing as how the weather was so nice, along with the fact that Murph offered up a free ticket, I took in some Indians baseball last night. I met up with Scotty McGee for some pre-game entertainment at Flannery’s. We had a few pops and did some catching up before heading over to the Jake.

We met up with Murph and his boy Danny once we had hoofed it over. I do have to say that it’s a beautiful thing when the thermometer starts creeping up. The ladies start wearing fewer articles of clothing and it makes me feel all tingly inside. Of course you have the group of ladies that should not be wearing the scantily clad outfits as well, but you have to take the good along with the bad.

Side bar – I typed that last phrase six times before I got it right. And I am still not completely sure I did but I’m going with it.

We stopped at the first beer stand and picked some cold ones and as we made our way to our seats, there just seemed to be a goofy crowd roaming the stadium. I will add that it was “Dollar Hot Dog Night” so that may have had something to do with it. But as I stood waiting for Murph to come back with my hot dogs, I stood around and did some people watching. I pointed it out to Scott and he said he noticed the same thing. It was what appeared to be a lot of people who just seemed like it was their first trip to a baseball game in a major league park. Maybe I am just getting to the point where it going to a MLB game just rolls off my back anymore, but I thought it was odd. Maybe they were looking at me and thinking, “who the F does this guy think he is?”

The game was entertaining as the Tribe put up 6 runs in the bottom of the first and never looked back. It was entertaining to watch the people suck down the Dollar Dogs too. It never gets old seeing the guy coming back from the concession stand with a tray of 10-12 dogs. I did not really do my best work last night as I only dropped 2 dogs on the evening. I wasn’t in the mood to stand in line with the rubes to wait on my hot dogs. I will wait until I get club seats sometime this summer when the dogs are included in the price of the ticket. That is when the dog consumption is impressive. Brings back to mind the summer of ’04 when our foursome dropped 24 wieners in one game, led by myself and Mark each eating eight Sugardales not these measly dollar dogs. Ahhh good times!

According to the weather reports, it was supposed to rain later in the evening last night. And about the 6th inning last night there was a strange feeling that came over the park, the winds shifted and the temperature dropped a solid 15 degrees. A bunch of the families started packing up their things and decided to make a break for the exits. Our group hung around for another inning or so but we had seen enough and we decided to call it an evening. Scott and I had an inking of stopping off for a nightcap but we both talked each other out of it and headed our separate ways.

I made my way home and crashed out watching the Jazz/Warriors game. I'm guessing going home was the right call. I'll live to fight another day.

My aching back

2007-05-10T09:04:00.000-04:00

After golfing for 3 of the last 4 days, I guess something had to give. Well, that and the fact that I am severely over weight. Anyway, I had one of those crazy moments Tuesday that back pain sufferers go through.

I park my car in the garage as normal. I reach around to the back seat to grab my backpack and felt a twinge. Good morning, Vietnam! Alright then. So I hobble over to work with that twinge but I am still doing OK. As I sit longer though, it starts to flare up more and more. Around 2pm I could not take it any longer. I couldn’t sit and work on my laptop. I am guessing that I do not have the most ergonomic work station. I decided that it would be wise to head home and try to lie down and see if that helps my situation at all.

I took a couple of Advil and laid on the floor watching TV for most of the evening. I watched the Cavaliers extend their series lead along with catching Big Break on the Golf Channel. By the way, I am starting to fancy Miss Ashley Gomes a little more each week!

Not a lot of plans on the horizon this weekend. I don’t have any golf planned as of now, which may be a good thing. I think my back could use the time off to recover. I am thinking that it would be wise to rest now and not eff up my entire summer with back problems.

If anything good comes along I will be sure to share it with everybody.

p.s. Key West is 19 days away!!!

An action packed weekend!

2007-05-07T12:17:00.000-04:00

I am glad to be back at work this morning. I need the rest. I was on the go for the last couple of days and I can use the time to sit back and relax a little bit. As I reflect back, I guess it wasn’t that crazy but I just feel like I haven’t stopped going for a while.

Going back to where it started picking up, I golfed on Thursday night at Mallard Creek and shot a 43. After golf we stopped off at Mulligan’s for our usual pizza and wings. The place was a little crowded and we couldn’t get a table. We decided to move down the road to Slim and Chubby’s instead. S&C was a nicer place with probably better food but the bill also reflected that. Our bill was probably double what we normally pay. After that I made my 45-minute ride home. It’s all freeways but it still is quite tiring. I was beat and ready to hit the sack when I got home.

Friday night I did some laundry and drank a couple beers while watching some Indians baseball. That part wasn’t really anything to write about. It was a semi relaxing evening.

Saturday I was up bright and early to golf at Ridgewood in Parma. It was week one of our SW golf league. I played pretty well with a couple of hiccups along the way but finishing with an 82. A nine on a hole and a couple of three puts left a bad taste in my mouth. Matt and I hung out and had a couple of beers post game before heading home.

I laid down and turned on some golf when I got home. I may have seen five minutes of the ladies event before my eyes slammed shut. I slept for about an hour before I had to get up and moving to go to Murph’s for his daughters first communion party. I swung by Matt’s place and picked him up and we were on our way.

The house was jammed with his family members and friends. We all huddled around the TV and watched the Kentucky Derby. After the crowd thinned out a few of us sat around and played some cards. I hung out there long enough that it was time for the DeLaHoya/Mayweather fight. I figured I had to hang out and watch. I thought it was OK but I wasn’t all that impressed by it. I guess I am just not that big of a boxing fan. I like the crazy action fights and this was not one of them. It was more tactical, which to me was pretty boring.

After the fight was over it was getting pretty late so I made my way back towards home. Again it was all freeway driving but I was beat down after a long day. I did however drive by to see if another party that I was supposed to attend was still going on. I drove past Kelbach’s house and saw that plenty of cars and people were still buzzing. I figured I would drop in for a short time and say hello before heading home. As we all know I almost never make those into quick stops. Joe had a fire going in the back yard along with a cooler full of beer. We sat around the fires talking for a while and before I knew it, it was 3 in the morning. I realized that I needed to get some sleep so I made the short drive home and crashed.

I woke up on Sunday with a bit of a headache. I’m sure it had nothing to do with drinking beer and margaritas for 12-15 hours the day before. I did sleep in until somewhere around the neighborhood of 10:30am but I could just tell that I was a little off my game. I bummed around and tried to get rid of my headache as I read the paper and surfed the net for a little while.

After kicking it around for a while, it was time to get moving and get ready for Sunday golf. I cleaned up and picked up Ron as we made our way to Large Hill. We met up with Dan and his buddy and hit the course. It was a little chilly, windy and not exactly what I would call ideal conditions. Damn weather people lied to us. It was supposed to be a nice day! I had and up and down round. I caught a case of the shanks for a couple of holes where I couldn’t make solid contact. It lasted for a couple of holes until I got myself fixed up. I ended up shooting a 91, which I wasn’t thrilled about but I think with my troubles it could have been a lot worse.

After golf I dropped off Ron and grabbed some Arby’s for dinner. When I was done eating I watched the finale of Amazing Race and some re-runs of Miami Ink before falling asleep to baseball on ESPN. I was plum tuckered out.

Not much on the docket for this week as of now. But I’ll be sure to try and check back in sometime in the next month.

What day is it?

2007-05-02T13:36:00.000-04:00

This afternoon I'm sitting here working away for the man, I look at my calendar to figure out when my next adventures will start and I realize that it's Wednesday for cripes sake. Where has this week gone already? The sad part is that I haven't done much for the last couple of days. It's not like I was so busy that I haven't been around to do anything and yet I started to think about that fact that I told none of last week's stories. Even worse is that I have stuff to write about for a change! I have photographic evidence of some fun adventures of last weekend. I have pictures from the Cavs playoff game last week and it was one week ago fer crying out loud! I will correct this.

Just to make sure of something though....I am still in Cleveland, right?

The Indians are in first place. Nice comeback last night after CC gave up 3 jacks in the first.
The Cavaliers are resting and waiting for their second round playoff opponent after sweeping through the Wizards.
The Browns are the darlings of the NFL after getting a cornerstone left tackle Joe Thomas and golden boy quarterback Brady Quinn.

I just wanted to make sure that I was speaking about my hometown teams there. I had to check myself. I can see the Q out my window here at work so I must be in the right place.

I'll see what I can get to tonight to bring everybody up to speed.

Later peeps!

Uh Son, there ain't no draft no more

2007-04-27T10:46:00.000-04:00

In case you have been under a rock for the last month or so, maybe you have not heard that the NFL draft is tomorrow. Which means that we get to watch Chris Berman rant and sweat for a solid 12 hours. Plus ESPN can wheel out Mel Kiper for his big day. Now most everybody knows that I am big fan of my Cleveland Browns, but I just don’t get all that jacked up to watch the draft. It’s cool to think that football is just around the corner and all that but it is the end of April, people! The first game is over four months away. With that being said, I am very interested in the draft to see whom the Browns select.

Here’s how I see it happening tomorrow – The Browns should have their choice of Adrian Peterson, Joe Thomas or Brady Quinn. My quick thoughts on the three of them:

Adrian Peterson – Might be the best choice for Phil Savage and Romeo Crennel. Both of these guys may need to lean this way to see the quickest results. Their heads may on the chopping block if the Browns don’t turn things around. A Pete could be the guy that would step in and make an impact the quickest. The downside is that I saw a report that his collarbone isn’t fully healed yet, which makes me wonder if he’s ready for the pounding that happens in the NFL.

Joe Thomas – According to the talking heads of ESPN and various websites, this is a guy that you can plug into the left tackle spot for the next ten years. Now being a cynical Cleveland fan, we know that may or may not be the case. He will get some sort of staph infection and have to have a limb amputated. I do like the fact that Thomas said he’s not coming to New York because he is going fishing with his dad this weekend. The shitty part is that the NFL wants to send a camera crew out there as well and he agreed to that. I would have told them to F Off, but that may not have been the best way to come into the league.

Brady Quinn – The pretty All-American pretty boy from Notre Dame. I am not sure what to think about this guy. I would give him credit in the fact that he played under Charlie Weis in South Bend, which should help his understanding of a pro style offense. Some people say that he never really won a big game for the Irish, which is true. Does that mean that he isn’t a good quarterback? I’m not so sure about that. (My secret reason behind wanting to see BQ drafted by the Browns would be to see his sister wear a half Browns and half Packers jersey)

Laura Quinn-Hawk, everybody

So who do they take? I have no clue.

My vote would be for Joe Thomas.

My thought is that if we don’t have a solid offensive line, it doesn’t matter who the quarterback is. If he can’t stand up without running for his life, nobody is going to get the job done. Now I don’t think that Charlie Frye or Derek Anderson is the long-term answer, but I like the idea of building the O-Line first. My trepidation comes in thinking forward 2 or 3 years ahead and seeing Brady Quinn leading some team to the playoffs by throwing 5 touchdowns and thinking back saying “Why didn’t we draft THAT guy?”

Joe Thomas will be out of football due to some sort of mental breakdown. He will be living on a Wisconsin Farm with 10000 acres of land that he acquired with his $25 million bonus money from your Cleveland Browns.

Adrian Peterson will have gained 2400 yards in each of his first four seasons and earned Pro Bowl visits in each season. “Yeah, we could have had that guy too.”

I have come to the terms that if they draft any of those three guys I will be happy with it. Bud Shaw put it best in the PD; it really doesn’t matter for the fans. We show up and fill Cleveland Browns Stadium each week no matter who is on the field. We have all drank the kool-aid and we all love our Browns, so we still attend the games no matter how bad the team is.

I think the other thing that I am most looking forward to is that after this weekend I will be able to turn on ESPN and not get more draft fodder thrown down my throat, which is nice.

I’ll try and toss together some updates from my events sometime this weekend too. But if I don’t get to it I hope that everybody has a good weekend.

RB

Where does the time go?

2007-04-25T10:31:00.000-04:00

Just like that we are on to Wednesday this week and for how lazy my weekend was my week is going to pick up starting today. Here is what I have on tap for the remainder of the week:

Wednesday – After work, I am going out with Murph for a few drinks. If the weather co-operates we are going to make a stop over at Jacob’s Field to catch a couple innings of the Indians against the Rangers. The added bonus is that tonight is Rick Vaughn Wild Thing glasses night! No memorabilia collection would be complete without a set of those. At least, not in my book. We just need the weather Gods to give their nod to us and right now I don’t think it looks good. Nice that while the Indians are away it is sunny and 75 outside and yet when they return the forecast calls for rain the next three days. Cleveland in April, does it get any better?

After that stop, we will make the walk over to the Q for game 2 of the Cavaliers vs. Wizards. I was thinking about it that last year I also attended game 2 against the Wiz. Of course, that was the one home game that the Cavs lost in that series. Let’s hope that trend does not repeat. I’m looking forward to seeing the hype and junk that they do before the playoff games. It’s become quite the spectacle to watch pre-game introductions anymore. With all of the yelling and fireworks going on it’s hard to remember if you came to a basketball game or a circus. Anyway, it is another event, and that’s my thing. I love going just to people watch and soak in all of the sights that came along with it.

Thursday - Matt scored up some tickets for an event in Cleveland called Market Under Glass. It is a charity function for Harvest for Hunger that involves local restaurants showing of their dishes. He and Murph have gone the last few years and given it good reviews. My plan is to starve myself all day and then go in and eat as much as possible. Good times!

Friday – Getting the band together and hitting up Put in Bay Lakewood for some shenanigans. Since Matt was in Boston running a marathon for his b-day, we decided to go out and celebrate his birthday this week. We always seem to have a lot of fun bowling and drinking, so I have the highest confidence that we can succeed again on Friday.

Saturday – Tee time at Windmill Lakes for 9am on Saturday. I have a feeling that it’s going to be quite chilly at that time of the morning but I can probably survive on the extra layer of fat that I will have added on Thursday when I gorge myself. My only thought is that I am going out on Friday night and I have to get up awful early on Saturday morning to play golf. I may have to act like a responsible adult on Friday and not like the 22 year old mentality that I normally would have. After golf, Ron mentioned about going to Dan’s house and cooking up some grub and taking in the draft for a little while so that sounds cool to me.

And just like that it’s going to be Sunday. Might be a needed day of rest for Ricky. We shall see. I just think it’s funny that I have times where I am doing nothing for a couple of days in a row but then a week like this pops up. Not sure which one I prefer. I am a lazy bastard most of the time but it’s nice to have plans and stuff to do as well. I just need to win the lottery one of these days and then I can do all of this crazy stuff all of the time and not have this work stuff get in my way.

With that said, I probably won’t have a chance to post a lot over the next few days. I will be sure to try and take my camera along and snap up some pictures of anything good that happens.

Mahalo!

Monday, Monday

2007-04-23T10:31:00.000-04:00

I’m back in the saddle again here putting in my time for Uncle Sherman. It just seems like the weekend buzzed on by with me doing nothing very productive.

Friday night I went out with Matt and Curt and a couple other SW employees. We made our way to Lakewood for some fine tasting beer at the Beer Engine. For dinner, I ordered a burger called the Cyclops. It was a good-sized burger with bacon, cheese and a sunny side up egg on top. I saw it on the menu and had to give it a whirl. It was pretty good eating! The place was pretty crowded and they had a band playing, but it was a good time. We decided around to shut it down rather early and I made my way back to my side of town. I tried to call Steve to see if he was out on the town but I got a text back that he was home sleeping, so I figured that would probably be a good move for me as well.

The rest of my weekend was really dull and boring. I kicked back and watched sports for the majority of it. Yesterday was a good Sunday for Cleveland sports. It was a solid game one victory for the Cavaliers. They didn’t do anything fantastic but they handled their business, which is what they are supposed to do. I do have to admit that seeing Lebron rolling on the floor in agony was not a good sight. This is where the stretched out NBA playoffs will help so that he can rest that twisted ankle.

The Indians also had a nice comeback win on Sunday. It’s nice to see them strikeout 13 times only get four hits and yet come away with a win.

Other than that I was pretty lame for the better part of the weekend. This week has some potential to be quite busy. I have a few things planned and maybe some others will spring up as well. I have a few irons in the fire, which is nice.

Hope everybody has a good week!

I'll take Potpourri for $300, Alex

2007-04-17T21:30:00.000-04:00

First of all I just want to say a small word about what a tragedy the shootings at Va Tech were yesterday. That is one of those crazy things that you just can't explain. It's a shame and lets hope that we don't have any of those crazy incidents again for a long long time. I just feel bad for all of the families of the victims. Our schools and places of business should be a safe place where we don't have to worry about such things but I guess you just can never be too sure.

As I ponder through some random thoughts that are going through my head lately I have realized that I just don’t have a lot of stories to tell right now. Last week I went to the Cavaliers game on Thursday night. There were a couple of small stories but I tried to put them on paper they just didn’t come across like I wanted so they got chopped and landed on the editing room floor.

Same goes for last Friday night. I went to the Indians “home opener” and sat in the cold for a few hours. Essentially it was a Friday night of cocktails and a baseball game but nothing fascinating to report on.

The balance of the weekend was spent at home, watching sports and movies and fucking around with my iPod. The good news is that I think my iPod is pretty solid right now. It’s quite the collection if I do say so myself. I still crack up at the fact that I have 2654 songs on their and its only half full. I am sure when I travel I will throw some video on there to take up some more space. My favorite thing though is that I can download Adam Carolla’s radio show and listen to it while I drive to work without commercial interruption.

I really don’t have a lot else to say but I have some videos and pictures to share. So we’ll give that a shot tonight.

I was thinking this might be a good shirt for Key West -

This video was pretty funny of the Ravens messing with now Cleveland Brown (who probably still can't walk) Gary Baxter.

I remember a video a while back where some kid made shots all over the place with quarters. Kind of the same premise here. Weird, wild stuff.

Looking back I probably didn't need an iPod but how do you resist this sales pitch?

Must be tough to go to college in California and choose between USC...

Or UCLA...

Later peeps-RB

Hey Steve, You want to go out for a sandwich?

2007-04-11T20:51:00.000-04:00

On Monday evening as I drove home from work I decided to give Steve a call to see if he was up for meeting up and grabbing some dinner. I had wanted to make a stop over at Mick’s to pick up my winnings from the NCAA tourney (long story short…I had winning squares from one of the Final Four games, but I have no idea how much it is). I left Steve a voicemail and said let’s get together and grab a sandwich. A short time later he returned my call saying that he’d love to meet up but he had prior plans to head to a restaurant in Twinsburg, he said that he would stop by and pick me up if I was interested in going with him. I figured that was fine by me and I agreed.

We got to the restaurant, which was called Blue Canyon and pulled in to see a jam-packed parking lot. We ended up valet parking the car because we couldn’t find a spot to park. There was quite a wait for a table as well so we ended up sitting at the bar. The reason that we made the trip in the first place was that Steve had met a girl that worked at the restaurant and he wanted to see her again before deciding whether or not he really wanted to go out with her. This meeting was a screening session and he was glad to have me along as a second set of eyes.

As we sat at the bar, Kathryn spotted us and came by to say hello. After introductions we chatted with her but she had to get back to her tables. We found out why the place was so crowded when the bartender told us that the special of the night was all you can eat crab legs for $21.99. Steve and I decided that would be the way for both of us to go for dinner. Kathryn also bought us a calamari appetizer, which was pretty tasty as well. It was very good, but I am not a huge fan of a lot of seafood. Our dinners arrived shortly after and we each made our way through two plates of crab legs. Again I am not a huge seafood guy, but the legs were delicious as well. Overall I definitely think I would make a return trip to Blue Canyon in the future.

After dinner we had a couple more drinks as we waited and Kathryn did the balance of her side work and invited us to join her and some co-workers for a drink at a local bar. We figured what the hell and decided to join them.

We made our way to a place called Rush Hour for a few more drinks. I made friends with Kathryn’s co-worker Danielle and had a nice conversation over a couple of drinks. A couple hours later we figured that we had had enough drinks and I was pretty sure that it was past my bedtime. Danielle invited us to spend the night at her place so that we would not have to drive all the way home. We figured that would probably be a good idea for all the right and wrong reasons. A short time after we got back to the house Steve and Kathryn disappeared. Now the downside to that part of the story for your hero was that another co-worker was just hammered so Danielle spent most of the evening taking care of her. The other pain in the ass was a gay manager that also decided to spend the night. He was whining and bitching most of the evening about something or other. By this time it was 3:30am and I figured that it would be in my best interest to try and get a couple hours of sleep. I opted to crash on a futon and was out pretty quick.

I had set my alarm on my cell phone for 6:30am but I ended up sleeping through the alarm. I woke up a little bit before 7am. It was at this time that I figured that there was no way I was going to make it into work anytime soon, so I made the choice to call into work and take the day off as a personal holiday.

I sent Steve a text saying that we should probably get moving soon and we finally got moving a little after 8am and Steve dropped me off at home. I decided since I was up and moving around that I would go and grab a breakfast sandwich from Burger King. After coming back home and eating I jumped back into bed and slept for another 3 hours.

After shaking out the cobwebs, I got online and made contact with Murph and Ron to let them know that I was alive. I had to make arrangements with Ron about picking him up after work. Unfortunately, our friend Mark’s dad passed away over the weekend after being sick for a while.

I picked Ron up and we stopped off at Angelo’s in Lakewood for a little pizza before making the drive south. We made good time getting down there so we had a little bit of time to waste before going to the funeral home. We ended up finding a bar that was in what appeared to be the town square. Needless to say, it was a local’s joint. We walked in there may have been 4 people there. It smelled like everybody had smoked a pack of cigarettes in the last half hour but we had a few minutes so we sat down and had a beer. Once we finished up, we made our way to the funeral home and met up with the Fyffe’s and paid our respects. After that Ron and I made the drive home and I was very happy to see my bed and crashed for the evening.

So that is my latest adventure of the week. The balance of the week has some potential as I have plans to go to the Cavs game tomorrow night in a Sherman Wilson suite. I also have tentative plans to go the Indians game on Friday night for the unofficial home opener. Let’s just hope that the damn weather co-operates.

Later Gator!

Weathering The Storm

2007-04-09T12:44:00.000-04:00

I feel like I am always a few steps behind with these updates, but that is just the way it has to be I guess. Since we last spoke here’s what happened:

One small point of interest came along last week when my manager called and asked me if I was free for lunch on Tuesday. He said it was just to see how I was coming along in the new team and just wanted to touch base. I couldn’t help but think in the back of my mind that maybe there was something else there. But I turned out to be worried for nothing. We went over to Corner Alley and had a sandwich and a nice chat about mostly work stuff. He’s a good guy and real easy to talk to. So that was a relief.

The rest of last week was lame as usual until we got to Thursday. We had heard a buzz around the office that leading into a holiday weekend we were going to get an early exit around 3pm. A guy that I work with is leaving the company so our group was going to stop off and have a few drinks. Then sometime on Thursday the word came down that we were not getting out early. It was like somebody came by and stole my candy. Eventually the powers that be came to their senses and sent an e-mail saying that if our schedule allowed it that we could leave early. By my accounts, at 2:30 my workload was in line for me to leave. I packed up my stuff and was heading for the door and off to Flannery’s.

Murph joined up with me over at Flannerys’s shortly after and we had a few drinks discussing world peace and things of that sort. After a couple of hours there we met up with Matt at Dive Bar. His football team was having some sort of reception there with some free drinks and food. We hung out there for a few more before deciding to head west.

Another group had a planned a happy hour in Lakewood at a new place called Beer Engine. Murph and I drove and got his van and we made our way to meet up at Beer Engine. It was a pretty cool place that carries all micro brews and home made beers. We hung out there until around midnight before I decided that I wanted to head back east and get some sleep.

Friday was Opening Day for the Cleveland Indians at Jacobs Field. The pre-game plan was to meet at Flannery’s (as usual) before heading over to the game. I met up with Greg and Murph there around 10:45 am for the 4:05pm first pitch. The place was a ghost town at that time. We had totally over estimated the early arrival of drinkers. Maybe it was the fact that it was Good Friday or the fact that it was 30 degrees outside. Finally around noon, people started rolling in ready for some drinking. Things picked up as they usually do for opening day and a nice sized crowd rolled in.

We hung out drinking and watching, as the weather just got worse as the day went along. They snow flurries kept coming down as we hung out waiting for game time. At this point though I pretty much had it in my mind that I was not going to be attending today’s game. I was fired up for opening day but I was not fired up to sit in 25-degree weather with snow coming down. My mind was made up when we turned the pre-game show on they showed the forecast which called for more snow along with wind chills in the mid teens. The Indians announced that they were going to move the game time back an hour to try and clean up the field so that they could play the game. As game time approached and my gang decided they were heading over, I again stood firm that I was just going to stay at Flannery’s nice and warm watching the game along with the Masters. And that is what I did, I stayed and made friends with the people that were next to me and watched the action on TV. After an hour or so of watching the snow delays my gang came back and told me what I wise man I was. We sat and watched as they called the game with the Indians just one strike away from winning a weather shortened game. Instead the game was called and it was announced that it would me made up the following day.

Check out the time lapse video of Friday at Jacobs Field.
This is pretty cool

The balance of the evening was a lot of fun and laughs as we hung out at Flannery’s for the remainder of the evening. Most of the crew had headed home with the exception of Tom, Scott and myself being the last men standing. We spoke of making a trip somewhere else to see some naked ladies but we made the choice to head home. Of course I was not heading home but instead to the friendly confines of the Hampton Inn. I made my way to a stop off at Panini’s for a bite to eat before checking in at the hotel at sometime after midnight.

Saturday I was woke up by my phone ringing at 8am. I looked at the phone to see that it was Murph hitting me up. I was in no mood to have a conversation at that time of the morning in the condition that I was in. I rolled over and went back to bed. Sometime around 10am I got out of the bed and got moving. As I looked out the window of my room I realized that there was no chance they were playing baseball again today. ESPN confirmed this information just a short time later. I popped in the shower and cleaned myself up and made my way back home.

Now for the action part of my weekend, I did absolutely nothing that deserves any mention for the rest of the week. I stayed in the house as the shitty weather continued. I was quite thankful that it was Master weekend so I could justify it that I had no real reason for leaving the house. I watched the coverage all weekend and did not feel one ounce of guilt for not missing anything.

Sunday I did much of the same. The Family came over for Easter dinner and I did my usual routine. I hung out in my room and watched TV away from the annoyances of the family being there. I watched the Cavs lose again to Detroit and then the Masters. It was a fantastically lazy holiday. I am so proud of myself.

Back to reality today though, I am back in the office doing my best to get through the day. I really have no interest in being here. And to make things even more entertaining, I was just talking to Murph about maybe going over to the Indians game today for a couple of innings after work. The wonderful news now comes in that they have again cancelled both of today’s games! It’s April 9th and it is 34 degrees outside with snow falling again. Just last week at this time it was close to 60 outside but today we sit in the freezing temperatures with 4 cancelled Tribe games.

Have a great week!
RB

We're Truckin!

2007-04-03T13:35:00.000-04:00

Time to get caught up on the weekend’s activities.

Friday: I called up Steve on Friday night to see if there were any activities happening on Friday night. He said he was up for a few drinks, so we decided on meeting over at Mick’s for a couple of drinks. It was a pretty calm night for the most part. We hung out and chatted with a few folks for the better part of the evening. Steve’s brother mike joined up with us as well. We stopped off at Panini’s for a sandwich before calling it a night around 1am.

Saturday: I kicked it around the house for the better part of the day on Saturday. There wasn’t a lot on TV early in the day so I watched a couple of movies in between naps. Steve called me and said that he was supposed to meet a friend in Little Italy later that evening. Steve picked me up and we headed down at halftime of the Ohio State game. We went to a restaurant called Gusto and met up with Frank. It was a cool little place that was pretty quiet. A downside was that we had to watch the game on a tiny 19-inch TV. But since the place was so small it wasn’t that bad. We ate dinner and had a couple of drinks before moving the party downtown.

We met up with another friend Chris at Metropolitan Café. After a few drinks there we made our way over to Wine Bar. The highlight there was seeing Jen Schefft of the Bachelor hanging out at the next table from us. She was hanging with a group of 10 gals that looked like they were out for a bachelorette party.

After Wine Bar we made our way down West 6th. I think we hit just about every establishment on the street. We ran into Tai hanging out at Blind Pig. We hung out with her and her friend Kathy for a while before leaving to head over to the Crazy Horse for a last hurrah before heading home. Steve dropped me off around 2:30am and I was out like a light.

Sunday: I was disappointed that I did not sleep in longer on Sunday morning. I rolled out of bed around 9am and kicked back for a while before making some calls to determine my plans for the day. Matt had scored some tickets for the ladies Final Four at the Q. We decided that we were going to hop around to the different bars around the arena to try and soak up the atmosphere of the event. We decided to meet at 2 at Cleats to start off our day.

When I was driving down and parking my car I was very aware that when I looked around I was seeing a large number of what I would have to assume were lesbian ladies taking over the town. After our first drink at Cleats, we moved to Harry Buffalo. It was now apparent that for the rest of the day that was going to be the theme of the day. Since we didn’t want to offend them we decided on calling them ‘Truck Drivers’ for the rest of the day. Matt came up with the name and it fit perfectly.

We hopped around down town to Flannery’s, Pickwick, Corner Alley and Winking Lizard for a couple drinks in each place. We hung out with the truck drivers in each place too. It was quite an interesting experience too. It was like we were visitors to a different planet or something. After the Lizard we made our way to Alesci's to maybe grab a bite. Turns out that they were pretty crowded as well. We ended up hanging out on the patio watching all the truckers walk by. We made friends with Evie who was selling beer on the patio for the Clevelander. She was telling us how many times that she had been hit on by the Truckers as well. After quite a few drinks there it was finally time to head over to the games.

Matt had some passes for a reception at the arena so we stuffed some food down our bellies. We were both felling pretty good at this point, to the point that we had some church giggles going on. I almost choked on some food at one point because I was laughing so hard. It created quite a scene too. Some of the staff asked if I was going to be OK. We wore out our welcome there and decided to go watch some of the games. We did our best to wonder around the arena with much disregard for all of the staff that tried to help us.

Being the well trained stalker that I am, I made a bee line for the ESPN set because I wanted to get as close as I could to Stacey Dales and the rest of the crew. We had one usher that was trying to yield his power but we ended up walking right past and made our way to some open seats right next to the set. Once there I sat and stared at Stacey while she was doing her live spots during the game.

After the crew had done their halftime shoot, Matt hollered to Stacey to ask if we could get a photo. She smiled and of course said no problem. OH MY GOD is she hot!!!

After that highlight we sat and tried to watch some of the Rutgers/LSU game, but it’s women’s basketball. It just is not entertaining. We knew that going in that the games were not the real reason we were going. I personally just wanted to see the experience of what a Final Four is like. I know that the women’s doesn’t compare to the men’s but it was cool to see it. For the most part I just hung out watching the production that goes along with ESPN doing their live broadcasts.

A little while later Trey Wingo came over to our side so I asked him to take a photo as well. It was a little awkward though with Trey. I shook his hand and then tried to get close to him to take the picture but I ended up with my hand on his leg. I quickly apologized for grabbing his junk and he took a picture and made sure that he never came close to my side of the stage again.

After the Rutgers victory it was time for the late game, which was Tennessee taking on North Carolina. This one should have been a much better game due to the fact that it was two number one seeds facing off. But again it was women’s basketball. We hung out and watched the first half before Matt decided that he was done for the night. I lasted about 8 minutes into the second half before calling it quits. I listened to some of the game on the ride home but that was just as bad as watching. I made it home in time to see the last couple of minutes on TV and see that Tennessee made an impressive comeback to beat UNC.

In all it was an interesting day. We had the pleasure of seeing a Trucker Convention along with getting my picture taken with a couple of ESPN “celebs.” Matt and I ended up having a good day of drinks and laughs. Maybe we can do it again the next time they decide to bring an event like this back to town.

Talk at ya later,

Cleveland Rocks

2007-03-29T16:15:00.000-04:00

OK…I am making myself sit down and write a small post to keep up my end of the bargain. But the damndest thing happened this week. Nothing. I have done nothing all week except go to work and come home and hang out. I did laundry the other day. That is very exciting. I loaded more songs on my iPod. Also high ranking on the excitement scale. Other than that, nada. Zip. Zilch.

I am curious to see how Cleveland works out this week for the NCAA Women’s Final Four. There is signage up at the Q (I think I’ll bring my camera tomorrow and take some pictures). I have it in the back of my mind that I would like to find out where the ESPN crew is staying and see if I can catch a glimpse of Stacey Dales or Trey Wingo. It’s kind of cool to have something like that in your hometown. Even though it the longest of shots that I would even attend a game, it never hurts to have that money pumped into the local economy.

There were some rumblings of heading downtown on Saturday night and see if the out of towners would be out whooping it up. I am not sure if I am up for that or not though. I would like to watch the Men’s Final Four where I can see and hear the games. I am sure that I will sacrifice the games for some fun though. We shall see.

-RB

An apple a day

2007-03-26T09:31:00.000-04:00

Good morning people. Here’s what going down on this fine morning.

My agenda for this weekend was to get license plates for my car and pick up my contacts from my eye doctor. I got my butt out of bed and cleaned up and hit the road a little after 10am on Saturday. The license bureau was quick and painless. I had a notion of getting plates with “THE Ohio State University” on them. It’s an extra $35 a year which in the grand scheme isn’t horrible but I decided to just be a regular person and get the normal boring Ohio plates.

After that I made my way towards the eye doctor. The bad part of that trip is that I have to drive by Best Buy to get there. Well of course I stopped in. I had been toying with the idea of getting an iPod or other mp3 player for a while. I just didn’t know which would be best for me. I had tried to research them online and came down to a Zune from Microsoft and the Apple iPod. They are both the same price so I browsed around for a while before I asked the kid working there about the pros and cons of each of them.

After talking it over I made the pull on an iPod 30gb player. I had always in the back of my mind been against the “apple” world for some unknown reason. I was always a Microsoft fan but I am willing to give it a shot. One of the biggest bonuses of me making this purchase is that my new car has an auxiliary jack that I can plug my iPod into and I do not have to carry around a thousand cd’s in the car.

The rest of the day of course I had to play with my new toy. I have accumulated bunches of mp3 files over the years. Because of this I will not have to become a slave to Big Brother and buy songs for a buck each. I did however spring for one purchase from iTunes. For the bargain price of $1.99, I downloaded this years Ohio State vs. Michigan football game. I can now watch that masterpiece whenever I feel like it.

I had the task of fishing through my stacks of disks and decide which are worthy of making the cut. The rest of my Saturday was spent with my computer loading songs and watching hoops in the background.

Sunday was much of the same. I plowed through seemingly endless piles of old cd’s and tried to decide what should be on my iPod. I ended up loading 1800 songs on there. And I have more to go through. Along with a few movie clips and I am still not even close to filling it up. It really is pretty cool technology.

One thing that I had forgotten to get when I was at Best Buy was the cable that I needed to connect the iPod in my car. Not a big deal I thought, yesterday. I will just hop in the car and drive up to my local Radio Shack, which is but 5 minutes away in Shoregate Shopping center. As I pulled in, I was looking for their sign but I didn’t see it. I cruised down to find that they closed this location. Really? WTF? I guess I don’t really visit Radio Shack that often so I didn’t notice it was missing.

I then decided to go to Wal*Mart instead. It was 4pm on a Sunday afternoon. I am going to try and put this nicely, but it’s going to be difficult. The collection of people there was astounding. Where was I? Between the hillbillies, the millions of dirty kids running around the store, it was just fucking weird. I made a direct line to the electronics section, grabbed my $5 cord and got the hell out of there.

To top the weekend off, I got a call from Steve last night asking if I was up for a couple of beers and some dinner to watch the Cavs game. We popped up to Panini’s and had a sandwich and some beers. I made sure to be a good boy and called it a night and was in bed before 11pm so that I could be ready to tackle the week ahead. Yeah right!

Have a good Monday everybody!

My Humblest Apologies-

2007-03-22T11:09:00.000-04:00

First of all I wanted to say that I am disappointed in myself for the lack of writing that I have been doing lately. But to be brutally honest, I just have not had the motivation to do any writing lately. I have really been in a funk as far as writing goes. I was trying to look back and reflect on it. I think it has been a combination of things that have contributed to this.

I have been sort of busy lately. I went to Las Vegas for a week. Now normally that is an excuse to write. I was there with two great friends for four days so there should be plenty of stories that come out of a trip like that. For example, I got a tattoo at Hart & Huntington. That’s a column in itself. It was quite the experience for a first timer. But I haven’t taken the time to sit and write about it.

I was back in Cleveland for a week and St Patrick’s Day weekend happened. I had a fantastic weekend. I stayed downtown in my hotel room and drank on Friday and Saturday nights until 1 or 2 in the morning. Think that nothing happened that would not be good reading material? Again I need to get a cracking and put that into words.

A month ago I finally went out and got myself a new car. I was going to take a couple of pictures and post them. Nah…too busy! Again, I am disappointed in my laziness over the last month.

My new job has been somewhat entertaining lately. One thing that I know to be true is that I used to take some of my precious Uncle Sherman time and write a few paragraphs while I should have been doing something that was more productive. Lately, I have been more productive due to the fact that I am in a new position at work and it probably would not be in my best interest to sit at my desk and write blogs all day. Maybe in the future I can work more of that in my schedule but as for now I am trying to do my job for a change.

So with that I will make a conscious effort to write two or three posts a week to keep the fine following of people that visit on a regular basis.

Thanks!
rb

St Pattys Weekend

2007-03-18T21:14:00.000-04:00

Plenty of fun was had this weekend, here's some of the photo evidence:

Notice the goofs in the background

Rick and Shana

Ron and Shana

Shana and Pam

Murph was very excited to be behind the bar on St Pats

McGee, RB and Mark looking very festive

Posing with the SW ladies Gina and Janet!

We made some friends with the girls from Michigan

JJ, Steve and Me (E keeping a low profile in the background)

After Murph was done working he joined us on the proper side of the bar

Mark sporting a sweet boa

Stephanie from Michigan

Mark and Jess

Jonathon and Robin

Today was a nice recovery day. I need to go back to work so I can get some rest.

-Rick

Viva Las Vegas!

2007-03-13T22:12:00.000-04:00

Here is the photo essay of the trip to Las Vegas:

RK enjoying life in first class

Howie brought along his own in-flight entertainment

We spent our first 2 night at the Hard Rock hotel

From our room you could see the Thomas & Mack Center and Club Paradise

Played golf on Monday at Painted Desert GC - I played so-so on the front but shot 38 on the back. Not bad seeing as how that was the first time playing with my new irons.

Pink Taco inside the HRH

HRH always has these trucks parked out front.

I had to take a photo of my new adidas along with Howie working in the background

The pool area at HRH is awesome

Made friends with a waitress at HRH

She brought me a Cousin Eddie drink, "The Rock Star" it was delicious

Ron hanging by the pool side craps table

A little swim up blackjack. The tables werent open because the pool had just opened up for the season the day before

Heather having some fun with us

A rough day at the pool. We weren't prepared for the pool so we were over dressed.

Howie making a grand entrance to the pool area

He figured he would "work' by the pool for a while

Ron tried to get Heather to sell him her sweats (No luck). I think it was just a good excuse to take a picture of her ass.

The second 2 nights of our trip were at The Palms

Their pool wasn't open yet, but we could see it from our room.

We looked at the new tower from our room

The real action came when I decided that I was going to finally a tattoo done at Hart & HUntington in the Palms. Plus we got our pic taken with Christian Aguilera's look a like that worked in the shop.

Some of the outline is done

Nice smile on my face!

Still going...

The final product

Hail Caesar...King of Rome! Ruler of the world!

A scuba diver cleaning the tank in the Forum Shops. First time I've ever seen that

Howie ordered a mojito with lunch so we needed evidence of it.

It was a good trip, lots of fun. Plenty of laughs.
Hope you enjoy the photos.

-Rick

we're bowling...

2007-03-13T21:25:00.000-04:00

Saturday before I left for Las Vegas we had our annual bowling adventure for Junior Achievement. So here are some photos from a fun filled day.

Greg with the dreaded 7-10 split

Murph slinging it down the lane

Nice Smile Scott!

Tom enjoying the Jester hat (which must be worn after you throw a gutter ball. It must be worn until another person rolls a gutter)

Hey, while you are down there...

Lets take a pic of each other, taking a pic of each other!

Pick me a winner, G

Back at ya, big guy

After singing Sweet Caroline, the bartender thought it would be a good idea for us to have a microphone.

Belting it out!

The Murphy Boys take a turn

Another classic duet

a couple of happy fellas

A nice photo of me and my pal Jen

Then I figured I would get a closer look

A nice group shot of the gang
Things started to get a little out of hand

I have a funny look on my face here. But we ended up at Harbor Inn.

The Vegas pics should be up shortly as well.

I'm back....

2007-03-10T12:13:00.000-05:00

OK party people...I am back safe and sound in the 440. I have plenty of stories to tell. The problem has been getting over the jet lag/time change along with having things to do and finding a chance to sit down and put my thoughts into some enjoyable stories. I'll get cracking and hopefully have some new posts up soon.

Week in Review - Act I

2007-02-28T22:44:00.000-05:00

I guess I should first begin with an apology to all of my “fans” for the lack of posting over the last week. I guess I can say that I have been sort of busy lately and just have not had enough time to post anything. Now most of you who know me, know that probably is not true, but I can try and use that excuse anyway.

When I last left I had given you the story that I was going out last Tuesday night with Steve for a few drinks. So I shall pick up the story telling there.

I met up with Steve and Elvis at the Captains Club in Eastlake after work last Tuesday. We kicked back at the bar for the better part of the evening tossing back plenty of Miller Lites while discussing the need for future golf trips to the state of Arizona. Elvis talked about trying to put a trip together for next January when the Super Bowl and the Phoenix open will be in town on the same day. He mentioned having a place to stay already lined up. I am not sure that I would make cut on that invite list for that or not but it sounds like it would be over the top fun.

Elvis bailed out pretty early in the evening but Steve and I hung out as his brother joined us. We ate a little food and continued to quench our thirst. By this time we had also had a visit from Tai. She and her friend Brittany had stopped up for a couple drinks as well. They left but Tai soon returned because she had left her credit card. So she joined Steve and I for a few more drinks.

Somebody came up with the brilliant idea of going to downtown Willoughby for a few more drinks. Actually now that I think back, I think that was Tai’s idea because she was meeting her friends there. We ended up at John’s Café for a few more drinks before calling it a night. Steve dropped me off but not before stopping in and making a sandwich for his ride home. I also got a late night call from Tai that she had gotten pulled over while driving home but luckily she knew the police officer.

Wednesday, I woke up late because I did not set my alarm before I went to sleep. Gee I wonder why? Maybe because you were hammered when you went to sleep last night dummy!

As just punishment for the previous night, I had to sit through the day of work unable to keep a single thought in my head. My mind was racing all over the place. It was just brutal. Another fine discovery was realizing that I had left my credit card at John’s Café. I called them and they informed me that they did indeed have it. So I had to make a stop there after work to pick it up.

I made it until about 3:30 before I had to call it a day and head home. I had ridden to work with Mom and Dad, so my only option was to hop on the bus and hoof it home from the corner. I figured that it was worth the effort to go home and get a solid nap. I caught the early bus only to find out that there was a cement truck that had flipped over on the highway on the way home and had the freeway backed up. I was ready to scream as we sat in traffic. The bus driver did a nice job of navigating the traffic and I got home about 4:30pm. I hopped in the car and claimed my credit card. Once I got home from that I crashed while watching the opening round of the golf’s match play event. It was a soothing sound that had me out in no time at all.

Thursday and Friday were really uneventful days. I worked I came home. I was gun shy after Tuesday’s events and figured that I should probably keep to myself and stay out of trouble.

I'm still working on the balance of the story and I will try and get that posted soon.

Rick

I know, I know!!!

2007-02-27T22:13:00.000-05:00

I have to apologize to anybody out there waiting for a new post but I did start to put together a post recapping the last week's adventures. So rest assured something will be coming along soon.

Until then, I will share a couple of dumb pictures and thoughts...

They thought I was a former Van B Boy! One of the best episodes ever!

Key West is coming...

But Vegas is closer!!!

This is Shannon. I will inform you about her in a little bit.

I'm a Niners fan, Ted.

This shirt would have looked good on me in Vegas. I may have to get it in time for KW.

We all need a little religion in our lives.

Sad to see the passing of DJ, but I love the picture of Larry Legend with a Miller Lite in hand while talking to Musburger.

I can now root for Man U.

Later-
RB

I could use this today...

2007-02-21T08:38:00.000-05:00

I think I am still drunk. Details will come later when I can put a couple of coherent sentences together so they make sense.

Dance Off

2007-02-20T16:03:00.000-05:00

If you have not seen this yet, I suggest you take a look it's pretty funny. Shaq Daddy is a fun loving clown. Especially since the guy is 7 foot tall and weighs 350 pounds.

Enjoy!

Danger Will Robinson

2007-02-20T15:37:00.000-05:00

Happy Fat Tuesday Everybody! I received a call from the Haicster telling me that the meeting spot tonight will be at the Captain’s Club in Eastlake after work. My plans are to meet up with him there after work. A night out with Steve always has the potential for a great night. I’m sure there will be a story or two that comes out of it. I just wish I had my camera with me for a little photographic evidence. Taking pictures usually helps to bring the story along but I guess we will have to skip that tonight. I’ll be sure to file a full report.

Rick

Also – Here’s a helpful office rule, regarding lunches. Please do not bring Liver to work and heat it up in the office area. It’s smells up the entire area.

Spend like there is no tomorrow!

2007-02-18T22:28:00.000-05:00

Friday night and it is time to hit the town. The plan was for Ron and me to head out to the IX center for the North Coast Golf show. Since the tax man was kind enough to drop off my tax return on Friday morning along with it also being pay day, it was brewing up to be the perfect storm. I was in the market for some new irons and I was looking to pull the trigger if I could find some for the right price. Ron and I arrived a little bit before Matt and Mark. We went up and down a couple of aisles but I was disappointed at the early selection. Matt and Mark arrived just a little bit later so we met up with them and continued around the show. My first purchase was a nice Tommy Bahama shirt. I was already looking for one for the upcoming trips to Las Vegas and Key West.

We continued around the show stopping at a few travel booths and looked at more clubs. But again I was disappointed. I thought the selection of clubs and clothes was horrible. If you found a good shirt it was probably only a size medium. And all of the clubs were overpriced or just not what I was looking for.

Ron found himself a toy when he found one of those snow globe toys where you have to get the golf ball to sit on a tee. We left him to play while we continued to walk around the show. We had a few beers too, to try and add some flavor to the show. Fyffe, of course, had himself another Charlie Brown moment. We stopped at a booth that had some Under Armour clothing. Matt really seemed to like the shorts that UA makes. When he came back and looked for his size he came up empty. But they did have a size that was perfect to a man of my shape. To top it off the shorts were half price. I had to make the purchase just to rub salt in Matt’s wounds. My last purchase of the night was a Callaway Mesh hat for $8.

We discussed hitting some new clubs but all voted against it. We made our way back to find that Ron was still trying to get the golf ball but the booth had now given him a chair because he had been there for so long. After he finally got the ball to stay we moved along but not before I got a logo ball from Ron’s friends. They did give him free passes to play golf at there resort. Too bad it is somewhere in West Virginia. I would bet that we never make it there even though we have the free golf.

This is where Ron spent most of his Friday night.

After that we stopped and talked with an older guy that had some Nike Golf balls on sale. I was tempted to make the purchase but I held off. We tried to talk him down from his prices but he was a tough salesman. We ended up just messing with him about all of his prices and how he was ripping people off. It killed a good chunk of time and we had a few laughs with him.

After that the show was winding down, and we tried to pick a place to grab some food and a few drinks. We decided to stop at Angelo’s pizza in Lakewood. They have some pretty good pies and everybody agreed that was a good choice. Parking was a mess because of all the snow on the roads in Lakewood. Ron dropped me off and I ran in to put our name on the waiting list. We had a couple of beers and messed around with the young girls that were taking orders over the phones.

We ended up getting what Matt called the worst table in the place and I now know he was right. We seemed to be sitting in the middle of the dining room/kitchen and it was freezing because we were close to the front door. I think that all of us kept our coats on the entire time. But the pizza was great as always. Matt and I shared a house special while Ron and Mark each ordered a large for themselves. It was fantastic!

After dinner we made a stop in the Village for some drinks, but we walked into a wall of cigarette smoke. It was God awful. We said hello to Jen who was bartending but we couldn’t take the smoke. It was too disgusting and we did not want to deal with it. Pretty soon they will figure out how they are going to enforce that law and we won’t have to deal with it any longer. Because it was so cold out we decided to stop at the place that is next door to the Village. I have no clue what the name is. We walked in and there was really nobody in there. We ordered up some drinks and grabbed a table. It was a lot of laughing and telling stories. We hung out there for 3 or 4 drinks before deciding to call it a night. Ron and I made the drive back home east and he dropped me off a little after 11:00.

Saturday I had a busy day in store for myself. I had made myself an eye doctor appointment because I had not been in a while. It was time for some new contacts and maybe some new glasses too. I woke up real early on Saturday. I was tossing and turning in bed a little after 7am and I couldn’t fall back asleep. I put in The Departed and hoped that it would put me back to sleep. Of course, I sat in bed and watched the movie from start to finish. Now it was around 9am and I was wide awake. I made myself some eggs and read the paper. After that I figured the heck with it, I took a shower and got ready to go. Since I was in golf mode after last night, I stopped off at Golf Galaxy to see if I could find any good deals there. I talked to a sales guy and hit a few different irons to see if anything would jump off the shelf at me. I ended up with r7 irons and RAC OS2 irons both by Taylor Made. I told the worker guy that I had an appointment that I had to go to but I would stop back and see him later. I’m sure he gets that all the time.

My eye doctor appointment was conveniently located right down the road. I filled out some paper work for my new insurance coverage and did the whole eye exam thing. I got a pair of contacts that my doc wants me to try out for a week before he orders up my new contacts. So I have to go back next week for another appointment next Saturday. After that I browsed the show room looking for some new glasses. I wanted something that looked somewhat fashionable but I don’t really wear my glasses that much. In talking to the guy that works there they had a deal where glasses were buy one and get one free. Of course I ended up ordering two pair of glasses. Maybe I will start wearing them if I have a more fashionable pair. I’m an idiot! I told the guy that it was an impulse buy. I better freaking wear my glasses now!

After my eye appointment I headed back to Golf Galaxy and saw my buddy that helped me earlier. I hit the clubs a couple more time before deciding on the r7 draw irons. The cool thing was they measured my lie on my clubs to make sure they fit my stance and swing. He also watched me hit balls and recommended that I go with a stiff flex steel shaft. I know that I will now go out and shoot 5 or 6 shots better than I did with my old clubs. It has to happen right? For $500 it damn well better! I was due to buy new clubs though. My old ones were over 10 years old so I know that the technology has advanced where today’s clubs are more forgiving. It was time for some new clubs.

That was a long process but after everything was said and done I stopped off at Best Buy to try and look for a b-day present for my dad, sister and niece. I ended up getting dad a box set of James Bond movies. He always liked those movies and he is so hard to buy a present for. I have gotten him a few gift cards before but I don’t know if he ever used them or not. Hopefully he watches the movies. I did see him watching The Godfather box set a couple of times that I had gotten him for Christmas, but who knows?

After that I stopped off at Dick’s to see if they had anything good that I good finish up my shopping spree with. Of course I can always find something to buy so I got a pair of Nike sneakers that will look good for Vegas.

My last stop was to get some b-day cards. I wanted to try and see if Giant Eagle had Visa gift cards that I could get but I ended up stuffing the cards with some cash.

Saturday night I was supposed to go with Ron to a party but it was going to be a group of couples so I decided that I would just hang out and watch the NBA All Star Saturday night festivities. I had to laugh when I turned it on to see that they were stalling because the traffic was so bad that players could not get to the arena. Good times there! How is that possible? I have been there on some busy weekends but that has to just be out of this world crazy. (On a side note I found out this week where I am staying in Vegas in just two weeks. Howie hooked us up with 2 nights at Hard Rock Hotel and 2 nights at The Palms. I can not wait for that!)

The NBA events were about what I expected. Crappy, crappier, more crappy and even more crappy. Those guys can care less about that stuff. They want to get back to the parties and the gambling. Can you blame them? The best line of the night was when Barkley gave the $50K donation and said it was “2 hands of black jack.” Nice work Chuck!

Sunday was the day for the big birthday party. The family came over and we celebrated everybody’s birthday. The house was loaded up with kids and family so I did my usual move of hanging out in my room to watch sports and keep away from the group. I show my face enough to get a couple of b-day gifts, a good meal and some cake.

TV Sports were great today. I watched the Daytona 500 ( I wanted Mark Martin to win), the Nissan Open(big win by CH3), Ohio State hoops, I saw a figure skater get her face cut by a skate and now I am watching the NBA All Star game even though it is horrible television. But I have to watch it to see the celebrities and the shots of all of the Vegas happenings and because I am now officially getting the itch to get back out there to Vegas. I am ready to have some fun with Ron and Howie in the casinos, in the clubs and on the golf course. I can’t wait! But its two weeks away so I need to pull it back a little bit.

That should be enough for now, it’s time to go cut my hair and iron some clothes for tomorrow.

Talk to you later.
Rick

I'm very excited about all the sex -

2007-02-15T16:36:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I sat down at my laptop and took a few minutes banging away on the keys. I had a post about how the weather was crappy and how it took a while to get into work. Nothing earth shattering but I took my precious time and put together a small sampling of writing. What I normally do is put my thoughts in a Word document so I can check myself with grammar and spelling, and so that I can verify that what I write would actually make sense to a person who would happen to stumble across this website.

I did this same process just like any other day. I then log onto the Blogger site to post this masterpiece only to find that Uncle Sherman has blocked the site. WTF??? And the best part was that it lists a reason as to why the site is blocked. “SEX” was listed. Are you kidding me?

So in my wisdom I figure that I will post my stuff when I get home and do not have the Porn Gods blocking me from entering such naughty filthy sites. But alas when I got home I helped Pops do some shoveling, I grabbed a bowl of mom’s delicious chili, and I really didn’t feel like messing around with the PC.

But then today I am getting ready to wind down my day and I pull up this site through my bookmarks on accident. And today it works!!! Apparently all of the “SEX” has gone away from the Blogger site. So maybe I can post things from work again. Who knows? By tomorrow it may change again.

See ya,
Rick

Friday night on the town!

2007-02-10T22:06:00.000-05:00

Friday night in Cleveland. Christine had asked us to go to the Cavs vs. Heat game with some freebie tix that a friend had given to her. I will try and put the details together with the following photos.

We started off at Flannerys for a few drinks as we waited for Mark to drive up from wherever it is that he lives these days. He showed up and we had a few drinks before chosing to change locations to grab a bite to eat. We walked down the road to Lizard but it was jam packed so we went to Alesci's. We ate some pizza and had a few beers before heading to the Q.

Mark @ Alesci's

Fyffe having a sip of his frosty beverage

Bondra with Popeye

Our seats fot the Cavs game

Me with Christine

Not really sure what these goofs are doing

Some bar bowling at the Harbor Inn

A lick of the hand

Sweet form

Mark and Parey

The SW nameplate graveyard

Later kids - RB

Finally it has been found...

2007-02-07T23:06:00.000-05:00

A Photo Journey

2007-02-05T20:25:00.000-05:00

Since there were way too many drinks in my system to really try and remember all of the details I will post these photos and give them all some captions. (click on any of the photos for a larger size)

The phrase that started it all...

Haicster keeping in contact with the ladies

Ron and Gina posing it up

Good thing that Ron wore his bowling shirt

Very nice melons ma'am

Mr & Mrs Fyffe and Murph

D Hinz and Stew in a classic pose

A couple of cannonballers

Nice Balls, sir

I'm sleeping because my balls are so blue and heavy

I'm not really sure what this is about but I think it's funny.

Ronny, Bobby, Ricky and Mike

And we have now moved to the Wine Bar for those keeping score
Time for a Ricky Sandwich

Gina and Steve

The gang relaxing on the couch

It was about this time that our Hero decided to strike a few poses

Working the chair

Lunge Right!

The annoying couple behind us

Posing with a martini

He's still going, folks

Now with the scarf and a flower

And the big flower pot finish!

After wine bar, we hit the floor of the local Gentlemen's club. Unfortunately they do not let you take pictures there.

The morning after, sitting at Bob Evans with the my $15 of remaining Diamond Dollars

The key to the next day is to replentish your fluids.

Thanks again to everybody who made last Friday a blast!
Rick

Back in the Saddle

2007-02-05T14:36:00.000-05:00

How’s it going party people? Anything good going on in your world? I can tell you this. I have been a pretty busy fellow for the past few days. I wish I had got the chance to put some more of these stories on paper (or electronically in my case). But I have been running around drinking, having fun and trying to stay warm.

I started to put a prediction down on the Super Bowl but I got caught up doing too many things and just ran out of time. I can lie to you and tell you that I had the Colts covering the seven points and I think I finish .500 for the year. What a bunch of garbage that is. Who goes .500 for the year? Picking NFL games is not that hard. Well if I am still doing this in 8 months, I can try and make up for this year’s crappy production.

I am currently at work and I don’t have my pictures but I have quite a few to share along with the tales of Friday night’s adventure. I can tell you that I had a fantastic time and I am pretty sure everybody else enjoyed themselves as well. I will try and get that together tonight and get those posted.

I really had mixed feelings about yesterday. I mean it was Super Bowl Sunday, so I should have been fired up about watching the big game. Last NFL game of this season that had any sort of meaning and I really didn’t care one way or the other. I was pulling in the back of my mind for the Colts to win. I like Peyton and Tony Dungy because they seem like good guys to me. But other than that I didn’t care if it was Chicago or Indy. It wasn’t going to upset me in the least bit.

Murph was having his usual SB party at his place so the plan was to make my way over to his house to help get things ready for the card game. We stopped off at the store to pick up some beer and some snacks. I was pushing my cart with a 12 pack of Lite and some Goose Island when a young girl walked by who looked like she had just woken up from a long night of partying. She kind of looked at my cart and shook her head so I asked her if she was in the mood to join us for some beers. She told me that she had her fair share the night before and that she was in no mood the drink any more. Plus she was working there at the grocery store. She also felt the need to show me her ID since she did appear to be very young. After that little adventure with young Katie, Murph and I made our way to the cashier. As we were placing our items on the check out I whacked the credit card reader that you swipe your card in with my shopping cart. Of course it knocked the thing off line and we had the have a whole production of trying to reboot the machine. I was going to pay by debit card but opted to give the girl cash and apologize for breaking their reader.

People started arriving around 2:00pm and the card games had began. It was a good day of eating and drinking way too much. One thing that really was different from the previous parties was that I was getting a great run of cards. Greg and I split one pot on a game of “Recall” that got us each close to $40. After that it was just like we were playing with the house money. Things got even better when I won the first 2 quarters squares for another $50 win. So all in all it was a pretty good day.

Today when I got to work and thawed myself out, I went to my old desk and grabbed my box and moved my stuff up to the 13th floor to my new job. It has been OK so far but it has been a lot of learning to try and hit the ground running. But the people have all been very nice for the first day. Let’s just hope it continues. Well I better get back to work. It would look pretty bad if on my first day all that I am doing is sitting around and posting blogs.

I’ll work tonight to get Friday’s pictures posted.

RB

White and Nerdy

2007-02-01T22:24:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is my “last day” at my current job. But I got some crappy news this week. The big boss asked if it would be possible for me to stick around and help train the new person that will be joining our department. She got the OK through my new boss and they agreed to it as well. What was I to say? I guess I have to deal with it. I voiced my displeasure with their decision and tried to get my point across. I will have to do the good deed and suck it up. But damn it, I was soooo close. I was out the door and not looking back. Or maybe not.

With tomorrow being my “last day” fiesta, I figured that I should try and look good for the party. After dinner I made my way to the mall in hopes of finding a cool shirt and a pair of jeans to wear tomorrow. I figured that I would splurge so I went to the Beachwood Mall for something different. They have Nordstrom's, Dillard's and Saks Fifth Avenue along with all the smaller places like Abercrombie, Gap and the like.

Here’s my problem: I am overweight, I am thirty six years old, and I am as white as the snow that is in my front yard. Do you know how hard it is to find something that I look good in? Everything in stores now is for small people that are 22 years old. Jeans are easier because you can always find a good pair of Levi’s. That wasn’t a problem but the shirt was a challenge.

Saks was a joke (I did find some Tommy Bahama shirts that would look real good in Key West. I am going to look for some of those on e-bay). I did find one shirt in Nordstrom that I liked but the price was $145.00. I did get a raise but I am not buying a shirt for that kind of money. Finally at Dillard's I found some clearance racks and pulled two shirts that I think I can get away with.

Hopefully the ladies of Cleveland will enjoy my choice. Now if you excuse me I am going to take my Metamucil and go trim my ear hair, Old Man River!

-Rick

Another video treat...

2007-01-31T22:48:00.000-05:00

How great is You Tube? Where else can you see Michael McDonald playing Sweet Freedom these days?

Running Scared, Chicago and Key West! Can I go to KW now???

RB

Easy Caulk...

2007-01-30T22:14:00.000-05:00

A lot of catching up to do-

2007-01-29T20:26:00.000-05:00

It’s been a while since I have had the time to sit in front of a computer and peck away at the keys to tell a story or two. Quite a lot has happened between the last time that I made a real posting. So I will do my best to sort through the brain cells that I did not kill over the past week and try to remember some of those accounts. I will start with last Friday as my beginning.

After work I went to Ron’s because he told me that we were going to meet up with Steve for dinner. They made the call that we were going to the Cabin in Willowick. The Cabin is a staple in the city of Willowick over the years. I think it has burned down four or five times that I can recall, but they keep rebuilding it and it keeps on going. As Ron and I waited for Steve we talked about a few of the landmarks of Willowick. There are a few places that have stood the test of time. Steve met up with us and we laughed as he told us tales of his day. The food was fantastic! I had a big piece of steak and garlic mashed potatoes. Ron had some pasta and Steve had a filet. We had some desert and old man Ron had his coffee. Ron picked up the check and we made our way to another Willowick staple, The Rumpus Room, for some drinks.

The Rump had all of its usual vermin hanging around. It really is a site to behold. One huge negative is that even though Ohio has passed a no smoking ban, the Rump is not enforcing it. Michelle told us that the day after the law passed they had about 4 people show up all day. Since they are having a hard time enforcing the law right now, they are going to take their chances and let their customers keep smoking. Ron and I said we would call and report them first thing on Monday morning.

We hung out at the Rump for the remainder of the evening doing our usual activities. We bowled a few games, did shots of Washington Apples, played Michael Stanley and Journey on the jukebox. It was a great time as usual.

Saturday morning I dragged my ass out of bed at 7:30am, hit the showers and made it in to work by about 8:30am. I had a lot of catching up crap to get done. Plus with me moving to a new job I wanted to clean my desk out and file cabinets before I leave. I realized when I made it into work that I really needed more sleep and I would guess that I was still a little drunk. But I muddled my way through about 4 hours of work. I went home grabbed some fast food and laid around watching something on TV. It was really a lot more of me watching the inside of my eyelids.

Later in the evening I got a call from Ron that he and the boys were going out again on Saturday night. I got myself cleaned up and Steve picked me up and we met up at the Fire House. Elvis decided to join us, which is always a good time. He told a few stories of his football days in San Francisco. I could listen to those all night but I’m sure that he gets tired of people asking about that kind of stuff. The Fire House was jam packed with people. It was mostly an older crowd and they had some sort of band playing. Steve, Elvis and I decided to change locations and make the move over to Panini’s and see what was happening there.

It was what I would describe as a normal night there. It was a bunch of dudes and a few hot girls sprinkled in. Unfortunately, they are probably all in the 22-26 year old range. We hung out and talked to a few girls before shutting down the place. Steve dropped me off somewhere around 3am. I plopped my ass into bed and was passed out before my head hit the pillow.

Sunday was a serious day of recovery. I woke up around 8am but rolled back over and woke up again around 11. I didn’t do a thing all day but lie around and watch football. I knew that Liske was supposed to be having people over for the games but I was sitting around and hoping that my phone did not ring from Ron. Fortunate for me, it never did.

The best thing that happened Sunday was that I got my b-day present from my mom. I had told her that I wanted a wool navy blue coat and she came through with one. It was just what I was looking for. So that was cool!

Monday (Jan 22) It’s my birthday! I went to work and got to see that my cube had a few decorations and Linda had made a cake for me. She also gave me a few scratch offs that turned into a quick $22 (that’s an omen!). Work was all right with everybody saying happy birthday and stuff. I usually could care less about my birthday but one person asked me “how old are you?” and then I really thought about turning 36. I thought man, I am getting old. Oh well what can you do? Not much I guess.

After work Ron called and said that he and Steve were going up to Cleats for dinner. So I hopped in the car and met them for dinner and a drink or three. Of course Steve and I had to do a couple of Washington Apple shots in celebration. But we were pretty good and shut it down and I was home before 9:00pm.

Tuesday night we had a downer of a night. Rich Gerber’s dad passed away. Ron, Scott and I went over to the funeral home to pay our respects. We saw some people that we had not seen in a while and caught up on old times for a while. Ron got the best surprise when his ex-wife walk through the door. That was our cue to hit the road. Luckily we were right next door to Panini’s so we stopped off with Whit and had a few drinks. Ron was a little mad that we were out drinking again but after a couple drinks he was back on board, sort of. Steve and Dave met us up at Panini’s as well. Again we did a few shots with them. Good times! It turned out to not be so bad. We shut it down by about 10pm.

The rest of the week was pretty tame. Nothing very exciting happened. I let my liver recover in preparation for the weekend.

Matt and Murph asked if I wanted to go and celebrate my b-day on Friday. Bourbon, fine, we made plans to go out to Lakewood. The plan was to go to Lakewood Lanes and bowl a couple of games and then hit a few of the local joints for some drinks and shenanigans.

We made our way there after work and started with the drinks. The 3 amigos were back in action! We rolled a couple of games and I will tell you what. Matt made the call when we were at the lanes. I think the secret of Lakewood Lanes may be out. They are drawing a nice crowd in there. And the talent level is pretty solid. So besides the fun that comes along with bowling and drinking the scenery doesn’t suck either.

We rolled four games and Mrs. Fyffe had joined us. After the check was paid by the boys, since they wouldn’t let me chip in, we made our way next door to Kenilworth for a sandwich. The food was OK but the service was crummy. Of course, I understand that by eating in a bar you may get that. Matt got a little steamed by the bad service but he got over it.

After dinner we made our way to the Lakewood Village to see if we could possibly run into my girlfriend (even though she doesn’t know it yet), Gina. But we struck out with that one. Jen was working so we bowled a couple of games of bar bowling and did some shots for my b-day. She hooked us up on our bill too. I think we paid $8 for three rounds of drinks. A downer was that the Village is letting people smoke. Jen said again that until they figure out how to enforce it, they are letting people smoke.

Our next stop was The Richland tavern. Murph and Matt played some pool and I sat there and watched. We were starting to die down now after being out for 5 or 6 hours. Murph decided that he had enough and headed home.

Matt and I made one more stop at a hole in the wall bar called Normandy. There were 3 people in the bar beside us. Two of them were employees and I think the other girl was a hooker. The girl got a call and she disappeared for a while. When we were leaving, she was walking back into the bar and a car was pulling out of the lot. I should have pulled the old move to tell her it’s my birthday and I deserved a freebie but I wasn’t thinking that clearly and we were beat. We made the mandatory stop at Rally’s and grabbed some grub before heading back to Matt’s place.

Matt had to come to the East side of town and do some painting with his side job, so he dropped me off at home by 7:30am on Saturday. I walked in the door, changed into some sweats and jumped back in to bed and got a few more hours of sleep. Saturday was a serious day of recovery for me. I lounged around for the better part of the day and watched television.

Saturday’s highlight was that Ron and I booked our trip to Vegas. We had taken a bump on our flight home last year and we had to use our vouchers by March of this year. Howie has to go out there for some show so we are tagging along with him for that. The plan is to do a little golfing, enjoy some of the nightlife, and all of the other luxuries that come with Sin City. The best part abut our tickets was that when we tried to book on line it did not go through, so we called a rep on the phone to clear everything up. Once we were booked Ron asked if we could upgrade to first class over the phone. She said yes and Ron used his miles to do that so we are flying first class there and back, which absolutely freaking rocks!!!
Sunday was a lot of the same boredom. I watched the Suns on national TV spank the Cavs and watched Tiger Woods win his first tournament of the year.

This week at work I am in the home stretch of my “old” job. I am out of customer service on Friday and one week from today I begin the new adventure. To help go out in style we are planning a blow out Happy Hour this Friday night after work. We are getting a hotel room at the Hampton downtown so that we can tie one on and not care about driving home. We are going to a new place called the Corner Alley. It’s a lounge/bowling alley. Murph and I stopped there for lunch one day and I thought it was pretty cool. I think it may be a little pricey on drinks but sometimes you have to deal with that. If it sucks we can always change locations and fall back to Flannery’s or someplace else that is with in walking distance. I have heard a few people say they are looking forward to Friday as well. I’m looking forward to it.

OK...that is way too much writing for one posting. I will try and do a little better to make these things a little more frequently.

Thanks for reading,
Rick

Party Time!

2007-01-22T21:28:00.000-05:00

Drink up baby, because today is January 22nd!

Pick 'em

2007-01-21T11:41:00.000-05:00

After a mediocre year of making NFL picks, what else would else would you expect than for me to be 4-4 in my playoff predictions? So I am not going to even try and break down all of the angles with today’s NFL championship games.

I know this, I am not happy that I have to wait until 3:00 today for the first game to kick off. What a bunch of crap that is. But as we all know, television money pays the bills so they can make those calls.

With that said, my rooting interest today is with the Saints + 2 ½ and the Colts -3 ½. I am hoping that Peyton wins and then everybody can get off his back. The Saints winning would just be a great story for everybody involved. Of course as I am sitting here typing this I have the feeling that I can totally see the exact opposite happening. But that’s why they play the games!

Money

I have a couple of stories to tell to recap the past week but I need to get my thoughts together, probably down another cup of coffee and put them down on paper to get the facts in order. So we will talk again later.

Last week 2-2

Playoffs 4-4

They're coming to America

2007-01-15T23:04:00.000-05:00

What does this mean for soccer in the United States? Who knows? But I will say, I think I am excited about the move. I know that when the LA galaxy plays their first game with Beckham next August, wearing a number 23 jersey, I will want to see it. I am curious to see what he can do for a sport that really gets no love in America. Can he bring soccer to the mainstream of American sports? I doubt it. But he will make an impact. If not on the field, he will make an impact financially for a lot of people. He is an attraction. His lifestyle off the field has drawn almost as much attention as his ability to kick a soccer ball. It makes complete sense for him to move to America and make the kind of money that was being offered. Of course people will be curious to see if he really is worth $250 million. We all know the answer to that question don’t we? Nobody is worth that much money to play a game.

One thing that really stuck me was this seems very similar to Pele coming to the New York Comsos in 1975. He was the guy who was going to bring soccer to the states. And I would have to say that it worked for a little bit. But Pele only played in New York for 3 years. Becks will have to do better than that to win us over. Of course all we really need is to keep seeing photos of his wife like the one below published and we’ll be happy. At least I will…Welcome Posh!

Hey you're lucky we're bowling tonight!

2007-01-15T22:13:00.000-05:00

Last week Matt sent out an invite to the gang about getting together and doing something to celebrate Pam’s birthday. So he suggested that we go and do some bowling. Bowling is insane! It was all set that we’d go out Friday and hit the Lakewood Lanes for some good times.

After work Ron and I stopped at Bath and Body to pick up something for the birthday girl. We had gone in with the plan to get a gift card because we really had no real ideas. But the cute girl working there told us to get some sort of gift basket. She gave us a suggestion and we decided that she was probably right. But after she left we put it back on the shelf and went with our original plan and got the gift card.

We met up with Murph at Flannery’s and had a drink as we waited for Curt to join us. After one drink he showed up and we made the journey to the bowling alley. Ron and I were the first ones there. Slowly but surely the rest of the crew started rolling in. We ended up having a group of about 12 or 13 people there. It was a lot of screwing around and messing with other people as they tried to concentrate on their bowling. We pulled all of the old tricks of running along side each other, dropping bowling balls, and good old fashioned goofing off. After three games and plenty of Pabst Blue Ribbon’s we had had enough (I forgot to mention that Matt and I were keeping it classy but drinking some tasty PBR’s straight from the can!)

We decided to head next door to Kenilworth for a few more drinks. It was pretty cool because Sarah came and joined up with the group for a while. I had not hung out with her for a while so it was good to see her and have some laughs. The evening started to wind down a little bit and a few of the guests started calling it a night. Ron and I hit the road home but not before a stop at Burger King for a late night meal.

The rest of the weekend was pretty lame. I hung out at home and watched way too much television. Doesn’t that suck? I had a great night out with friends on Friday night but the rest of the weekend, nothing happened. I drove my nephew home from his girlfriend’s house on Saturday night. That was my excitement.

It could have been worse though. Before I got my new job, I was supposed to go to Dallas for our National Sales meeting and give a presentation on Sunday. But once I got the new job my trip got nixed and it’s a good thing! The two people that did have to go were stuck in the Cleveland airport for 18 hours because of ice storms in Dallas this weekend. They ended up getting on a plane and flying to Houston but still they couldn’t get into Dallas. So they spent the night and got back on a plane back to Cleveland. They were very happy when they came into work today. I guess it was still a mess today. I traded e-mails with Matt this morning and he had to change his flight a couple of times this morning. I never did get word if or when he got to the big D today.

Here’s some good news: 14 more work days until I start the new job!

Have a good week!
Rick

Playoffs Week 2

2007-01-13T16:13:00.000-05:00

There are some good games on tap in the NFL Playoff this weekend. I’m looking forward to sitting my fat ass in front of the television and seeing some quality football. Please fellas, do not disappoint me.

Colts @ Ravens -4

This one has the potential for greatness based on the potent Indy offense led by Peyton Manning against the awesome Baltimore defense led by Ray Ray Lewis. Like the old saying says, “a good defense beats a good offense.” I have to think that that will stand tall in this one as well. The Colts just seemed to have slipped a little bit in my eyes. And Peyton and Tony Dungy have that tag on them that they just can not get over the hump to win the big one. The off season addition of Steve McNair really helps the Ravens when the game is on the line. A Pro Bowler in the huddle never hurts your chances as long as he can keep his mistakes to a minimum.

Eagles @ Saints -5 ½

Look out New Orleans…there may be an earthquake warning tonight in the Superdome. The emotion in the city tonight will be something cool to see. As for the game, this one makes me wonder a bit. The Eagles have been super lately but I’m not really sure how. Jeff Garcia is just not that good of a quarterback. But he has been good at not losing the game for his team. I am looking forward to watching what kinds of offense wizardry that Coach Peyton will break out to try and confuse that tough Eagles defense. To me this smells like a field goal game. I think the number is a bit too high.

E-A-G-L-E-S!

Seahawks @ Bears -9 ½

WOW. A playoff game and the Bears are laying more than 9 points. How much faith do we have in the Monsters of the Midway? But again you have to like the tough defense in front of a crazy Chicago crown at Soldier Field. I just hope that Sexy Rexy doesn’t throw three picks to kill his team’s chances.

Patriots @ Chargers -4 ½

The marquee game of the weekend. They are saving the best for last. This has the makings of a great one. We get to see a couple of former Cleveland Browns coaches go head to head in the AFC playoffs. We will get to see the great LDT against the defensive scheme of Bill Belichick. We will see if Tom Brady can out smart the tough Charger defense led by Shane Merriman. I still am not sure what to use to try and make a pick in this game. Will Marty ball kill the Chargers? Or can they overcome their coach’s shortcomings? My head is telling me to take the experienced coach and QB in this one.

Last Week 2-2

-Rick

It's official!

2007-01-10T22:37:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posting lately but I just haven’t had a chance to sit down and peck away on the keyboard. Work has really been hectic since the first of the year. The new project that I am involved in has been quite time consuming. It’s taking a bit of getting used to and I just have not had a lot of free time to do much screwing around. But finally I can make my big announcement public.

I have a new job!

I will still be working for Uncle Sherman but I am moving from the ranks of customer service and making the move to I.T. (Information Technology sure does sound geeky). For the next couple of weeks I will be training the guy who is going to take my place. Then I can make the move to a new floor and all of the fun that goes with a new job. I have to say that I am looking forward to the new adventure. I am sure that will wear off when I realize that it is just like any other job. But I am excited about the job.

-RB
I.T.

One more day-

2007-01-07T20:29:00.000-05:00

We are about 24 hours away from the BCS National championship game and I think that it’s time for me to break it down and make my prediction. We’ll take a look at some of the key elements and figure out who in the heck is going to win this thing.

QB – Troy Smith vs Chris Leak – It’s kind of hard to think that you could give any kind of advantage to Leak in this match up. I mean what can you say about Smith that has not already been said? The Cleveland native has been loaded up with awards for his great play this year. The negative thing about that would have to be that the Heisman trophy winners don’t seem to fare so well in the championship games. I would like to think that he might change that this year. EDGE: OSU

RB – The tandem of Antonio Pittman and Beanie Wells has been very effective this year. The duo has over 1700 yards and 20 touchdowns this year. In comparison, DeShawn Wynn has rushed for 630 yards and 5 touchdowns. Second on the team is freshman quaterback Tim Tebow with 430 yards and 7 td’s. Rushing the ball just isn’t high on the priority list for the Gators. An X factor could be the speedy Percy Harvin. EDGE: OSU

WR/TE – Dallas Baker (The Touchdown Maker) is the main target for Chris Leak. He and Andre Caldwell each have over 50 catches this year. But you also can’t forget about the top duo that the Buckeyes throw to as well. Ted Ginn and Anthony Gonzalez are probably just as dangerous. Honestly, both of the teams have a stable of athletes that can catch the ball and run after the catch. So this area is tough to call. But when you have a Heisman trophy winner throwing it all over the field, that helps your cause. EDGE: OSU

Special Teams – Any OSU fan that has watched Jim Tressel coach over the last few years knows what kind of emphasis that he puts on the kicking game. If a guys calls the punt the “most important play of the game” you know that his team will be prepared on Special Teams. One thing that I really find amazing is that Florida’s kicker Chris Hetland is just 4 of 13 in field goal tries this year. How much confidence will Urban Meyer have in him if a field goal is needed late in the game? EDGE: OSU

Coaches: How do you measure a guy as a big game coach? Jim Tressel has had the Buckeyes ready for every big game over the last few years. His record in these types of games has been off the charts. Urban Meyer is a good coach but this is probably the biggest game he will have ever coached in. Except for the time he spent in Bowling Green, of course. EDGE: OSU

After saying all that and giving the edge to Ohio State in all of the categories that I mentioned, I still can’t say this will be OSU in a rout. This game seems to bring up memories of OSU vs Miami back in 2003. Nobody is giving Florida a chance against the mighty Buckeyes. And why should they? OSU has been number one since the preseason. The closest challenge they had came from Michigan on their home turf. Florida has that chip on their shoulder that they are coming out of the toughest conference around. And they have something to prove to the college football world.

My prediction:
OHIO STATE 31
FLORIDA 27

Go Bucks!

Nice Start

2007-01-06T23:59:00.000-05:00

I mean really...0-2? Good God! I am so happy that I do not gamble on these things because I friggin stink!

One thing that popped in my head though was how about the football games in the last week? You had the Boise State/Oklahoma game on Monday which was fantastic. And then tonight, the Cowboys have the ball and all they have to do is put a chip shot field goal on the board and they can cruise to the next round. But Romo drops the ball and Seattle takes the gift wrapped victory. It's crazy the things that happen in sports sometimes.

Seeing the new Jim Mora Coors commercial, I had to go and find the old video on You Tube. But I think this one is even better.

Here's hoping for a comeback tomorrow.
-Rick

NFL Wildcard Weekend

2007-01-06T16:17:00.000-05:00

I figured I may as well keep up my crappy picks throughout the playoffs.

Chiefs @ Colts -7
There is a part of me that thinks the time may have passed for Peyton and Tony Dungy. Their rush defense has been horrendous this year. I am going with the dog on the road in this one with hopes of LJ running all over the field.

Cowboys @ Seahawks -2 ½
The Cowboys are too screwed up to win tonight. They have such a soap opera going on at all times that it’s a wonder that they can even think about a football game. I like the crazy crowd in the Kingdome to lift the Seahawks to victory. What do you mean they tore the Kingdome down? When did this happen? I don’t believe you.

Jets @ Patriots -8 ½
Jets have been a nice turn around story this year, but the Pats are so good in the playoffs. The only decision that I am thinking about is the margin of victory. It’s a big number to lay in this one but I just can’t pull the trigger on it.

Giants @ Eagles -7
Are the Eagles that good? When did this happen? Did it really take Donovan McNabb going down to find out how good they were? Their defense has looked good but I really am not sold on them. But on the other hand the G-men have been awful for the last couple of months. I think they all hate Coughlin. So which team will show up? I really don’t know. I have a feeling that maybe Tiki takes over and they pull off

the upset.

Would you trust this guy to lead your playoff team?

Last week 7-9

YTD 104-105-3

-RB

This and That

2007-01-03T21:15:00.000-05:00

I have been reading some of the different websites about the USC Song girl who bared her bottom on Monday. It’s great to see such time and effort go into things such as figuring out which girl it is. Check out Deadspin, With Leather, and Boi from Troy. The best part is that somebody tricked up the picture with their High Def TV. You can now see that she does have something on under her skirt but it’s a better shot of the young ladies heiney (I'll warn you it's not completely safe for work viewing). All I can say is...God Bless the Internet!

I came across this a while back and I wanted to post it but did you ever wonder how THE Ohio State Football team gets the stickers on their helmets? The following picture will tell you how they are awarded. Click on the picture to see the larger size:

Did you stay up until 1am on Monday night to watch the end of the Fiesta Bowl? I was going to sleep but I got hooked in and stayed up for the duration. But in case you missed it You Tube has the highlights of the last 2 minutes.

Speaking of bowl games, some of the bowl games give out some cool shit to the players. Check out this list.

I flipped over to the Cavs game just in time to see LeBron drop one from about 75 feet. Be sure to watch Sports Center tonight folks.

Got to love my girl Natalie doing some cooking while keeping her golf clubs close by.

Have you ever been to Louisville? If you get a souvenir bat, make sure you check it in your luggage. Or else it will end up here.

Some fine upstanding college men here-

So long Saddam-

And lastly, this cracks me up. I'm not sure why but I think it's funny.

That's all for now. Rock on party people!

Rick

New Years Festivites

2007-01-02T21:06:00.000-05:00

Going into the holiday weekend was a little crazy at work last week. We are finally converting everything over to our new team in our office. So even though it was a semi-quiet holiday Friday we had some stress of trying to learn the new day to day activities. The real bummer was that we had been getting out of work early on all of our previous holidays. But we were told in advance that we would not be getting out early for New Years. I guess it wasn’t technically a holiday but it still would have been nice. Friday night I decided that I would sort of lay low in preparation for the long weekend. So I sat around watched some college football and tossed back a few homebrewed beers that I had chilling in the fridge. It was a nice relaxing evening.

Saturday we had made plans to go and see Ohio University and Cincinnati men’s basketball at the Quicken Loans Arena (I still don’t like that name). The group consisted of Ron, Matt, Curt, Neil and Vicky and her husband. We met up at the Winking Lizard restaurant downtown across from the arena a little after 3:00, which gave us plenty of time to eat dinner and have some drinks before the 6:00 tip off. It was the usual meeting of cracking jokes and having plenty of laughs.

The game was pretty much background noise for the most part. We just had more fun cracking jokes and drinking beer. Ohio U pretty much led the whole time and ended up winning by 13. After the game, I met some fine young ladies who told me that they liked my shirt. I had just gotten a “We are…Marshall” shirt last week. Of course I still haven’t seen the movie but I liked the shirt. The girls told me that they were heading over to The Clevelander so we met up with them there for a few drinks after the game. We thought that they were going to stand us up but they did show. I talked to them for a little while but I really knew it wasn’t going anywhere. The one girl that I did enjoy talking to was in town from Key West, FL so I’m sure that has a lot of potential. I did tell her that we wanted to plan a trip down her way and let her know that we’d look her up when we got down there.

After that had run its course we decided to head to see some naked ladies so we made our way to the DMC. We had our share of fun there since Curt had never been. So of curse we had to make his first experience a good one. Once the action there was over Ron and I stopped off for some late night Burger King before calling it a night.

I pretty much lounged around all day Sunday watching football and trying to kill off the hangover from Saturday night. I watched to gamut of NFL games for the better part of the day in between trying to keep my eyes open. I was glad to see the Browns do their job and lose the last game to ensure a top 4 draft selection.

By about 7pm, I knew I had to get it in gear and get cleaned up and head over to Murph’s for his NYE party. I packed a bag with some clothes and made the drive west for the party. I was the only one that was flying solo for the night. The group was Murph and his wife Luanna, Matt and Pam, Greg and his wife Jen. John Kelly and his wife Nikki showed up a little bit later to join us. It was a low key affair of sitting around and playing some Trivial Pursuit 80’s edition. Man that stuff was hard! The sports things were pretty reasonable but some of the news headlines were just things that I had no clue about. But that was the extent of the evening, sitting around drinking and eating while waiting for the ball to drop.

The Fyffe’s and I stayed over and slept on the couches of the Murphy household. We woke up bright and early on Monday morning. I lounged around watching Sports Center, while the Fyffe’s took off for home. By now though it was time to hit the showers and head over to Murph’s parents house for the annual tradition of watching the bowl games. We were on the road by 10:30am to see the kick off of my beloved Volunteers play Penn State. Nothing says New Years Day like a Bloody Mary and college football. Of course, it would have been nice to see the Vols win a bowl game for a change. We hung out and ate chili, black eyed peas and everything else under the sun. I have to say, it is possibly the worst day of the year for my stomach. I go there and eat all of that junk and pass gas for the next day and a half. And I will tell you folks, it is not pretty. The car ride home is always funny. I am driving down the highway with the windows cracked down to try and escape my own stench. Good times!

On that pleasant note, we are up and running with this year’s first post. I am really hoping for a good year in 2007. I found out a bit of good news today at work but I am going to have to keep it under my hat for a little bit. But I will be sure to pass the news along once all the t’s are dotted and the i’s are crossed.

Rick

p.s. - Did you see the USC song girls yesterday? If you are a red blooded male, I hope you didn't miss this one. Luckily I am here for you. Pic & You Tube

One last shot

2006-12-30T13:56:00.000-05:00

Here we have it sports fans. It is week 17 and I am one game over .500 for the year. I need one more solid week to get a winning record for the year. Looking at this weeks games there are a million different things that have to happen for a lot of teams to make the Big Show. Here's a sort of clear explanation if you care to take a look.

Giants @ Redskins +2
The Giants need to win or else there are a jillion different scenarios that can happen with the NFC playoffs. Hell they can make it if they lose and 3 other teams lose too. As far as the real football analysis on this one I really don’t have a clue. This is a toss up to me.

Bills @ Ravens -9
Ravens are breaking out the all black unis on Sunday. They can use this win to try and get the #1 seed in the AFC (if SD loses).

Steelers @ Bengals -6 ½
I like the chances of the Jailbird Bengals to win and keep their fingers crossed to back into the playoffs. An interesting subplot would be if this is Cowher’s last game as head coach of the Stillers.

Detroit @ Dallas -12 ½
There is a part of me that would love to see the Boys lose their last game and have the heads of TO, Jerry Jones and Parcells simultaneously combust. But they got a nice break by getting the Lions in week 17.

Browns @ Texans -4
Ken Dorsey versus David Carr. If you’re life depended on it, who would you bet on? As a Browns fan, I can say that I hope that this is not Romeo’s last game. I don’t know if he is the right coach or not, but I think he needs a little longer to try and get them headed in the right direction. Maybe I just don’t want to go through the new coach process again. (This is worthy of its own post shortly)

Dolphins @ Colts -8 ½
The Colts are pretty much locked in to their position but they can get a bye with a BAL loss. I just can’t put a lot of faith in a quarterback named Lemon.

Jaguars @ Chiefs -2 ½
Both teams need a win and a combination of 3 other teams losing. So this could be the game of the day. KC is going to look back at their loss in CLE and shake their heads after Sunday. I think they win but don’t get the help they need to make the show.

Rams @ Vikings +2 ½
The STL are another team that needs a win and 3 others to lose. I think they end up with the same fate as the Chiefs. Win the game but don’t get the help they need.

Panthers @ Saints +3
The Saints are locked into the number 2 seed. Look for some the regulars to rest for the majority of this game. Jake Delhomme is making his return to the lineup to try and squeak the Panthers into the playoffs, but of course they need help too.

Raiders @ Jets -11 ½
If the Jets win they are in. Like the Cowboys they got a gift with their schedule for the final week. The points are a lot but I can’t bet with Art Shell.

Falcons @ Eagles – 7 ½
Can you believe that Jeff Garcia has led the Eagles to the top of the NFC East? I guess he is just a system quarterback and the Eagles are a good fit. Look for the falcons to blow everything up after they choke this one away.

Seahawks @ Buccaneers –3 ½
Seattle is locked into the number 4 seed but this line confuses me. I feel like the Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer. “I am confused by your new technology” I’m taking the points.

Patriots @ Titans -3
I said last week that I was riding the Vince Young train until he loses. I really don’t want to this week but I am sticking to my guns. Please don’t let me down VY.

49ers @ Broncos -10 ½
It looks like more football in the snow in Denver this week. San Fran can mail this one in and the Broncos can win their way in.

Cardinals @ Chargers -14
At least the Chargers have something to play for this week. If they win they get the #1 seed. So we can expect to see some of the starters playing. Maybe LDT can throw up 3 or 4 TD’s and put that record on the shelf for a few more years.

Packers @ Bears -3
This is the game that NBC moved to Sunday night for this week. It has been written all week, but the amount of times that John Madden gushes over Brett Favre has the potential to reach triple digits. I also like how Mariotti was bitching about the game being moved to New Years Eve and that will screw up everybody’s plans. The Bears are the #1 seed and this game means nothing to Chicago. Go for the first half and leave and go get ripped at Mother’s.

Last Week 11-6
YTD 97-96-3

-RB

It's a Major Award!

2006-12-28T11:11:00.000-05:00

As the regular season comes winding down this weekend, it is time to start handing out my postseason awards. So that you know I am making these selections based on all stats through 15 weeks. Somebody could have a break out week 16 and get screwed but I am willing to accept that fact. Here are my biased opinions:

Comeback Player of the Year: This was a tough one for me. I think it is due to the fact that I couldn’t think of any really good candidates. But the guy that I came up with was none other than Kellen Winslow, Cleveland Browns. I am basing this off the fact that the guy was out of football for the last two years and has returned to have 78 rec. 782 yards and 3 TDs. He has been listed on the injury report all year and according to him he has no legs left at this point in the season. He has a lot to learn but he has been a bright spot on a dismal Browns team.
Winner: Kellen Winslow

Defensive Rookie: This category has two great candidates in my eyes. Mark Anderson, Chicago Bears and Kamerion Wimbley, Cleveland Browns. Looking at their numbers it is a very tight race. Anderson leads in sacks 12-10. Wimbley leads in tackles 42-27. Anderson has 4 forced fumbles to 1 for Wimbley. Anderson plays on a team that is 12-3 compared to Wimbley’s Browns who are 4-11. I am going to lean towards my hometown guy and say that he has done more on a bad defense to make the impact.

Winner: Kamerion Wimbley

Offensive Rookie: The toughest choice by far is who is the Offensive ROY. My candidates are as follows: Marques Colston, New Orleans – Reggie Bush, New Orleans – Vince Young, Tennessee Titans – Devin Hester, Chicago Bears. I may be pushing it by adding Hester in this category but he can’t play defense and they guy has 6 return TDs this year. He has made a huge impact on several games with those returns. He's a strong candidate but just not enough to win this year. Vince Young has been amazing in the fact that he just flat out wins football games. His statistics are not anything that will blow you away but he can do things to win you football games and that is the bottom line. The second pick in the draft has been about as good as advertised this year. Reggie Bush has some fantastic numbers. His receiving numbers are 86 rec 729 yds and 2 TDs. His rushing numbers are 545 yds and 5 TDs. You throw in a game winning punt return and I would have to say that he is having a solid year. And lastly is Marques Colston, who was selected as the last round of the 2006 draft (252 overall) and has taken that opportunity and produced 70 rec for 1038 yds and 8 TDs. All of that makes for a difficult decision.
Winner: Marques Colston

Coach of the Year: I looked at 2 guys this year as having done the best job turning their teams around from last year. Sean Payton, New Orleans Saints and Eric Mangini, New York Jets. Both are rookie head coaches that have come into teams that were coming off losing seasons and both have made huge strides in making those teams winners very quickly. But with all of the adversity that the Saints have had over the past year I think one guy leaps forward.
Winner: Sean Payton

Offensive POY: When you have a guy that is coming off shoulder surgery, a free agent that sign with a new team and then he comes in and throws for over 4300 yards with 26 touchdowns I think there is no other choice.
Winner: Drew Brees

Defensive POY: I’m torn on this award. Shawne Merriman, San Diego Chargers has 16 sacks and 55 tackles and the guy had to sit out for 4 games for a substance abuse. Jason Taylor, Miami Dolphins has 13 ½ sacks to go along with 58 tackles. Champ Bailey has 9 INTs, 81 tackles and 20 pass defenses. I have a hard time giving an award to a guy that has been convicted of “cheating”
Winner: Champ Bailey

MVP: To me there is no contest in this award. Drew Brees was the only other guy that even remotely popped into my head but he quickly faded away. LaDainian Tomlinson has been an absolute monster this year. 1749 yards rushing - 54 catches for 494 yards – 2 passing touchdowns and a NFL record 31 touchdowns scored. And broke the NFL scoring record formerly held by Paul Hornung and still has one more game to go.
Winner: LaDainian Tomlinson

Congrats to all the winners!

Rick

Happy Birthday #16!

2006-12-27T22:50:00.000-05:00

I wanted to wish Ron a very Happy Birthday! One of the greatest friends that a guy could ask for!

Just remember...only retards wear their collar up!

Happy Birthday RK!

-RB

It's almost time for Santa

2006-12-24T22:08:00.000-05:00

It’s Christmas Eve and TBS is running the Christmas Story marathon. Just about all seems right with the world.

Yesterday I made my way out to the west side and met up with the boys at Stampers for our annual Christmas lunch. The attendees were: Pat Murphy, Tom Murphy, Mr. Murphy, Matt, Greg, Rob, Neil, Jack Walsh and myself. For the most part we sat around and drank beers while scratching lottery tickets. Everybody throws in $20 and we go and buy tickets. We keep scratching those damn tickets all afternoon. I think the most we had at one time may have been about $150, but we just used that to buy more. We hung out most of the afternoon eating wings and appetizers and drinking beer.

Once everything died down we all went our separate ways I made a stop at the mall to pick up mom’s Christmas present and then made my way back home. I was supposed to go and see some family friends for a party but I had no clue where they lived or what time the party started. I called mom but she never answered the call or the voicemail that I left her. So after that I just kicked back and watched the Cavs game and Oceans Eleven (bits and pieces, twice) on TNT.

This morning I woke up rather early and kicked around the house for a little bit before showering and heading downtown to meet Matt for the final Browns home game of the year. Since we were the only two going we decided on The Chop House for their brunch special. Matt got there first so he grabbed a table and I met up with him around 10:30.

The food there is pretty good. They have just about everything that you can imagine. I had and omelet and some roast beef on my first trip through the line. On my second trip, I decided to get some sweets so I stopped at the dessert table and picked up a nice assortment of pastries along with a lovely glass of chocolate mousse. As I was finished a lady noticed the mousse and asked how it was. Matt ended up offering to share our table with her and her friend. She had a few miles on her odometer but she was an attractive lady. It ended up being a fun time talking to them over brunch. They seemed to enjoy listening to Matt and I tell our stupid dumb stories and they got a good laugh out of it.

We made our way over to the game and proceeded to watch the depressing Browns lose another home game. Matt left at halftime because he had to meet the boss for church. I hung around for the third quarter and decided that I had enough and made my way home. I kicked back and took a little nap while watching the late game. I just have to wrap my couple of presents and I will be set for all of the Christmas craziness that begins tomorrow.

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Merry NFL Christmas

2006-12-23T10:58:00.000-05:00

I am so screwed up after being on the road this week. I am lost on the fact that today is Saturday. I know that we are on holiday break from work and I keep thinking that today is a weekday for some reason. I have to go and meet the fellas for our traditional holiday "shopping" lunch. We meet up and have a few drinks and bullshit for a couple of hours. So that is what is on tap for today.

Here are my fantastic picks for the week.

Vikings @ Green Bay -4
I really think that Brett Favre will have a crummy game and throw the ball like 50 times. And he will throw a couple of picks as well. But I think the Vikings will keep it close.

Chiefs @ Raiders +7
Chiefs need the win to keep their playoff hopes alive. Raiders are dead in the water. This should be a laugher for the Chiefs.

Titans @ Bills -4½
Vince Young has won how many in a row and yet they are getting points? I mean they are going on the road but I am riding the #10 train until he proves it wrong. I can dig some of my Titans gear out of the back of my closet.

By the way how can you not love the Cheerleaders that dress up in the christmas outfits?

Saints @ Giants -3
The line kind of surprised me here. I think the Saints laid a little bit of an egg last week but I look for them to bounce back this week.

Panthers @ Falcons -6
With Delhomme listed as doubtful I am going to have to take the home Falcons and their running game.

Redskins @ Rams -1½
I have nothing to add on this game.

Colts @ Texans +9
Nice win on Monday night for the Colts. That should give them a little spring in their step to build momentum for the playoffs.

Ravens @ Steelers -3½
I wonder if McNair will play or not in this game. Something is telling me that the Stillers play well at home this week and knock off the Ravens.

Buccaneers @ Browns -3
I can’t believe that Matt and I are going to the Browns game this week. But we are crazy so we will be there. I am thinking that a lot of people will be there dressed as orange seats.

Bears @ Lions +4½
This line seem low to me. But the Bears have clinched everything so they will have nothing to play for. Maybe they sit the regulars and let Detroit keep it close but I am still taking the Bears.

Patriots @ Jaguars -3
Which Jags team shows up this week? Got me? They can be world beaters ot they lose to the Texans twice. This has potential to be a great game if both defenses show up and play well. I think Tom Brady works some magic and wins for the Pats.

Cardinals @ 49ers -3½
Matt Leinart and Alex Smith are a couple of good young quarterbacks. Leinart has played well over the last 4 or 5 games. This one might be entertaining to watch.

Bengals @ Broncos -3
Both of these teams could really use a win this week. It could be a fun game with the weather that they have had in Denver this week. And that could have a big impact on whether or not either team can throw the ball.

Chargers @ Seahawks +4½
I just have a feeling that the Chargers have a small hiccup this week. Seattle is always a tough place to play.

Eagles @ Cowboys -7
We have TO going against another of his former teams. What is the over under on Madden/Michaels bringing up the Garcia/ Owens saga? Ughhh!
Jets @ Dolphins – 2½
Not a very attractive Monday night game if you ask me. Oh well, it’s going to be Christmas night so I’m not even sure that I will be watching the game.

Last week 8-8
YTD 86-91-3

Happy last minute shopping to all!
Rick

Alive and well in the ATL

2006-12-20T15:02:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to let everybody know that I am alive and kicking in the ATL this week. I can give you all of the details a little later.

It was a last minute work trip but I do have some stories to tell.

Rick

Time for a Turnaround

2006-12-16T11:05:00.000-05:00

Cowboys @ Falcons +3 ½
Last week had to be a little bit of a wake up call for America’s team. Everybody in the media can stop slurping on Tony Romo for a week. This should be interesting if Ron herpes can get out and do some running on the Cowboys defense.

Jets @ Vikings – 3 ½
Are the Jets for real? If they are they better step up and win this week or else any talk of the playoffs are done. I think they flop this week in the Metrodome.

Browns @ Ravens -8
This one could be very ugly. I smell a shut out. I was just thinking about the trip that Coach Ark and I took to B-more back in 2002 to see the Browns play there. Good times! I need to see if I can put that story on paper. I would have to recall the details from the memory banks.

Texans @ Patriots -11
Patriots forgot to show up last week. I don’t think that can happen when you have a genius coaching your team.

Dolphins @ Bills -1
I am happy for Joey Harrington. I always kind of liked that guy. Not that he is all the way back, but I am glad to see him doing well.

Steelers @ Panthers +2 ½
Pittsburgh is making a nice little turn around. The big easy win over Cleveland last week has to help their confidence. They should do well against Chris Wienke.

Redskins @ Saints -9 ½
I read this week on some site that listed Drew Brees as the greatest Saints QB ever. Now to be fair that list wasn’t exactly a murderer’s row of qb’s. But I mean the guy has been there for like 13 games. I will say that he is in the conversation for MVP (I’m not sure you can not go with LDT). But I think it is a little early to claim him as the best ever.

Jaguars @ Titans +3 ½
The Jaguars are coming off a huge win last week. Do they have a let down? The Jags are only 2-4 on the road this year. This one has me perplexed. How much more magic does VY have? I’m going to say not enough for this week. Although I still love the Oiler blue uniforms!

Lions @ Packers -5 ½

Detroit’s defense is bad. Classic Brett Favre returns to Lambeau this week.

Buccaneers @ Bears -13 ½
This looks like too many points but I am going with Devin Hester to return 4 kicks and the Bears covering.

Eagles @ Giants -5 ½
Jeff Garcia has had a nice run over the last couple of weeks but I think they get knocked back to reality this weekend. It’s time for Big Blue to get back on track and make a run towards the playoffs.

Broncos @ Cardinals +2 ½
An epic quarterback battle between two rookies, Jay Cutler and Matt Leinart. I think Denver’s defense may be a little too good for the Cards to overcome.

Chiefs @ Chargers -8 ½
LDT has the touchdown record and now has his eyes set on the single season scoring record. This should be a pretty good game in my eyes. I am thinking that this one could be a close one. I am going to take the points on this one. I’m looking for a Charger win but it will be a tight game. It could come down to Jan Stenerud and Rolf Bernischke kicking figgies.

Rams @ Raiders -3
The Raiders are favored again? I just wanted to make sure that was correct. The Raiders are 2-11 and the Rams are 5-8. Does somebody know something that I don’t? Well that is a loaded question but I ‘m not sure what the deal is with this one. I’ll take the points

Bengals @ Colts -3 ½
This, on paper, looks like it has potential for an entertaining game. The thing that I am not looking forward to is the gushing in the booth from the MNF announcing team. Besides that, I want to see at least 70 points on the board. I want to see Chad Johnson come up with a new and exciting dance that will have everybody talking on Tuesday. And I want to see Peyton Manning throw five td’s in a Colts win.

Last Week 10-6

YTD 78-83-3

The End,
RB

Dear Santa

2006-12-14T22:46:00.000-05:00

I have been sort of OK at times this year so I am putting together a list of totally unattainable items that would make for the most wonderful and outstanding Christmas that a 35 year old man-child could ever want.

First as you know I really love to watch TV. So this would be a nice addition.

If I got a new TV I would have to have TiVo to go with it.

I am also going to need some new DVD's to watch on my new TV.
1
2
3
4
5

To help my blogging, I would really like any of the notebooks here.

I like to add pictures on my blog but if I am going to do that I really could use one of these.

And I would like one of these to keep on top of e-mail and my phone contacts.

My golf game can use an update so I am going to need some of these and these and these.

This won't help my game but I can use one.

I would love to see this hanging on a wall in my house.

For my Browns games I can always use some new gear. One of these and these, please.

To support my favorite college team, I should get one of these.

It's not Ohio State but I like this jersey.

I need some shoes to hoop in. And some running shoes too.

I can use some more electronics in my life (Lifetime subscription included please).

I have found some of my inner Jedi. These should cure that fix:
1
2
3

I think I need to take a trip next year. But do I go here or here?

And to top it all off, I can use a new ride. This one should do me just fine.

Thanks,
Ricky
Willowick, OH

ps: I am aware that I just made a shopping list that is in the neighborhood of $40,000. But a guy can dream, can't he?

Random Thoughts...

2006-12-14T21:19:00.000-05:00

A few tidbits that came to mind…

Another Thursday night game that I can’t watch. But then again maybe I am lucky because I don’t have to listen to Bryant Gumbel butcher another game. The worst part about it for the NFL Networks is that the games have been so shitty that I don’t think anybody is really complaining. As long as other cities are doing the same as Cleveland did last week and broadcast the game on local television.

My pick tonight is Seattle -10

I am ready for the National Championship game. And it is still almost a month away. But I have started reading some smack talk on a few websites and want to watch that game. 55 days is a long time for the Buckeyes to have to wait to play. But I have faith in Tressel to have his troops ready to go.

Buckeyes vs Gators website

Not all OSU fans are geniuses.

Couple more videos to share with you that I found while messing around on You Tube:

Go Bucks!

Seinfeld Lost Episode

Whose Line is it Anyway is one of my favorite shows.
This may one of the funniest clips ever.

Last weekend I watched Rocky 2 and 3 back to back. I forgot how funny the running on the beach scene really is. Luckily I can now re-live that scene over and over.

Since I don't have a date for New Year's yet I may have to give Jenn Sterger a call.

We'll talk more later!
Rick

Getting to know your author

2006-12-12T23:25:00.000-05:00

I saw this on Mikey’s blog and I decided to give it a whirl
I thought it would be a good post since I was lacking inspiration this week.
Enjoy!

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink—I did with 2 other guys in Bowling Green
02. Swam with wild dolphins— No
03. Climbed a mountain – No mountains, just hills
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive— I think the best /most expensive car I drove was a Jaguar
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid – Only in Vegas
06. Held a tarantula – No thanks
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone – Yes
08. Said “I love you” and meant it – Yep
09. Hugged a tree – Not on purpose
10. Bungee jumped – I remember that I was at Geauga Lake and wanted to try it there, but chickened out
11. Visited Paris – Only in Vegas
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea – Lake Erie isn’t a sea, right?
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise – Again Vegas comes to mind
14. Seen the Northern Lights -- No
15. Gone to a huge sports game – I am trying to figure what the biggest game I have been to. Maybe 1997 ALCS? Or the 1991 Florida State League Championship game?
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa – I’ve got to get over there first
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables – We grew tomatoes when I was younger
18. Touched an iceberg – I want to say there was one in a museum somewhere
19. Slept under the stars – Jamboree in the Hills!!!
20. Changed a baby’s diaper – I have way too many nieces and nephews, so yes.
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon – We had them at a fair once, we went up but it was tied down, so we didn’t drift anywhere.
22. Watched a meteor shower – I don’t think so
23. Gotten drunk on champagne – Seriously, who are we talking to here?
24. Given more than you can afford to charity – Yep
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope – At the Natural history museum, I used the big telescope there
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment – My first communion, when the kid next to me ate the bread and said, “Mmmmm”
27. Had a food fight – But of course
28. Bet on a winning horse – Every 19 minutes I pick a winner, along with 3 losers
29. Asked out a stranger – Yep
30. Had a snowball fight – We had some good ones when I was a kid with a guy down the road
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can – Probably at a game, I’ve done my fair share
32. Held a lamb – I’m trying to recall my days at a petting zoo. So it may be possible
33. Seen a total eclipse – Just on TV
34. Ridden a roller coaster – I think my first was the Double Loop
35. Hit a home run – I was a pretty good softball player when I was a kid
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking – Have you ever seen me at Hangge Uppes?
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day – I may have thrown a twang or two in my voice at times
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment – there have been good days
39. Had two hard drives for your computer – Never needed more than one
40. Visited all 50 states – I ran the numbers and I think I count 25, so I am halfway home
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk – Yes, and I’ve been taken care of too
42. Had amazing friends – I HAVE amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country – Does Canada count?
44. Watched wild whales -- No
45. Stolen a sign – we got some street signs in high school
46. Backpacked in Europe -- No
47. Taken a road-trip – Quite a few actually
48. Gone rock climbing – Not really my thing
49. Midnight walk on the beach -- Yep
50. Gone sky diving – Out of a perfectly good plane? No, thanks
51. Visited Ireland – It’s on a to-do list
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love – I don’t think so, but I could be wrong
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them – I just watched the Seinfeld in the Chinese restaurant. I’d like to walk by and steal somebody’s egg roll
54. Visited Japan -- No
55. Milked a cow – I may have helped my grandpa do that when I was real young. I bet my mom has a home movie of it
56. Alphabetized your CDs – Yes I have because I am a nerd
57. Pretended to be a superhero – I always was Batman, I wanted that utility belt
58. Sung karaoke – We sang in Chicago…Sweet Caroline, bah bah bah!
59. Lounged around in bed all day – I do that with the best of them
60. Played touch football – Tackle and touch with the Whittington boys
61. Gone scuba diving -- No
62. Kissed in the rain - Yes
63. Played in the mud – Jamboree in the Hills
64. Played in the rain – See 63
65. Gone to a drive-in theater – Several times, even had a season pass
66. Visited the Great Wall of China -- Nope
67. Started a business -- No
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken – Seeing as how I am single, I might have to say no
69. Toured ancient sites - Boston had cool sites, but I think they are considered ancient
70. Taken a martial arts class - No Daniel san
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight – Never played that at all
72. Gotten married – Not me
73. Been in a movie – I should have been but Krause beat me out for the part
74. Crashed a party – Yes I have
75. Gotten divorced – See 72
76. Gone without food for 5 days – I have not missed many meals, ever
77. Made cookies from scratch – not solo, helped mom though
78. Won first prize in a costume contest – Mom used to make some cool costumes when I was little. But I don’t think we won any prizes
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice - Never
80. Gotten a tattoo – Needs to be done soon damnit, maybe my next prison visit
81. Rafted the Snake River -- Nope
82. Been on television news programs as an “expert” – I have been the local boob asked for my opinion about stuff
83. Got flowers for no reason - No
84. Performed on stage – I was a singing fool in middle school (an inadvertent rhyme)
85. Been to Las Vegas – About ten times
86. Recorded music – No
87. Eaten shark -- No
88. Kissed on the first date – Of course.
89. Gone to Thailand – Not high on my list
90. Bought a house -- No
91. Been in a combat zone – Besides the time I was in Baltimore in my Browns gear…no
92. Buried one/both of your parents -- Thankfully no.
93. Been on a cruise ship – I passed on that a couple of years ago
94. Spoken more than one language fluently. 3 years of HS Spanish and 1 year of HS French. Me habla that stuff real bien.
95. Performed in Rocky Horror -- No
96. Raised children -- No thanks. I have a hard enough time with myself.
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour – Faith Hill and I had an agreement that I would leave her alone
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country. No.
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over – Just the summer I stayed with Ron in Florida
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge – Ain’t made it there yet
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking – I’ve been caught and just had to laugh
103. Had plastic surgery – Penile Implant but it didn’t take
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived – I guess I have been lucky in that sense.
105. Wrote articles for a large publication – Right here is about it, Oh and the Searchlight for dear old North High
106. Lost over 100 pounds – That may be a tad too much, but I could stand to drop a quarter or so right now.
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback – What?
108. Piloted an airplane – Just video games
109. Touched a stingray -- Yes
110. Broken someone’s heart -- Not that I know of
111. Helped an animal give birth – I was there for my grandma’s cat giving kittens
112. Won money on a T.V. game show – Time for my dream of being on the Price is Right is running out
113. Broken a bone – Amazingly no
114. Gone on an African photo safari -- Not my bag
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears – Just an ear in HS. I think the hole is still there.
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol – Strangely enough, no
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild – I do not like fungus.
118. Ridden a horse -- Yes
119. Had major surgery – Nope
120. Had a snake as a pet – I was never into snakes
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon -- No
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours – That’s too much math for me, but I am going to say no
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states – I haven’t traveled internationally.
124. Visited all 7 continents – I’ve only hit one. I may need to start branching out
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days – I canoed once and we tipped over. End of canoeing
126. Eaten kangaroo meat – People eat Roos?
127. Eaten sushi – I like me some sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper – A few times
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about – Drawing a blank right now
130. Gone back to school – A couple of times, if only I would stick with it
131. Parasailed – You’re gonna need a bigger boat
132. Touched a cockroach – Stomped a few
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes – The movie?
134. Read The Iliad – Cliff notes
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read – I’m not huge on reading. So I’m gonna say no
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating – Just fishing.
137. Skipped all your school reunions – I have gone to 2 of them
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language – Just the guy at China Mountain
139. Been elected to public office – I haven’t run for one yet. My checkered past would probably keep me out of office.
140. Written your own computer language – Maybe in my future
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream – Some married people have told me that I am.
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care -- I’ve seen both grandfathers in nursing homes. Not good times.
143. Built your own PC from parts – No I have bought new ones
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you – I’m not that good at drawing
145. Had a booth at a street fair - No
146. Dyed your hair—I used some of that sun in stuff when I was younger
147. Been a DJ – Rick’s Mix has always been a popular item
148. Shaved your head – Once a week
149. Caused a car accident – We almost jumped a guard rail once
150. Saved someone’s life – Thankfully, no

Party on people!