Archives 2005

Warkend wrap up

Whew. It’s official I have NEVER been as into a game as much as I am World of Warcraft. I do not want to make an attempt to add up the hours I spent playing the game this weekend, but let’s just say I spent so much time in that chair that the bottom of my thighs are sore at the point they rest on the chair edge.

Friday night was rough. For whatever reason I decided I wanted to get good and drunk and play as long as I could. After 8 Zimas and 1:30 in the morning, ready to pass out, I stumbled to bed. Of course Nicki had no sympathy and still woke me up at 6:45 am. I did manage to work some normal things into the weekend like working on NIcki’s area, watering the landscaping, pressure washing the shed, house chores and fun stuff like that. But the 2 days were all about playing, getting as much into it as I could. I am now up to level 32, more than halfway to the games ceiling of level 60 (currently at least) It really is hard to describe what makes the game so addictive to those on the outside.

Let me give a scenario. I woke up Saturday morning and I was thinking about how I was going to attack my day in the game. Let’s see, I am running low on tasty omelets, so I will first fly out to the Wetlands and kill a bunch of raptors to get the eggs I need. While I am there I am getting some but not as many as I want. SO I send out a request on general chat asking if anyone had extras and my offer to buy them. Soon I get 3 offers. I foolishly overpay for the first 10, giving the guy 20 silver for them. I then make better deals on my final 2 transactions, getting 30 of them from a guy for 25 silver. I cook up all the eggs and wind up with over 60 omelets that can be eaten to give me a 15 minute “well fed” bonus resulting in a HP, stamina and spirit boost. Makes no sense? Of course not, but get into the game and it will. 🙂

Ali flies home tonight so the marathoning will have to be cut back a bit but at level 40 I can get a horse to ride so that carrot will be driving me hard for the next week or two.

The weather here this weekend was spectacular. Yesterday was sunny, 75 and no humidity. Had the windows wide open.

Gym fun

Sometimes I wonder if I like the gym more for exercising or more for observing human behavior. In the past I have mentioned how rude and annoying it is for people to be talking on cell phones at the gym. Well new chapters were written in the anals of dumb gym cell phone behavior this past week.

As I am working out there is a regular gym cell phone user walking around doing what else but talking on his cell phone. As I am doing a set, he disappears around a pole and I see him doing something out of the corner of my eye. As I got up and went to the pole to grab the cleaner and towel I see what he did. He was running low on juice so he plugged his cell phone into the outlet. So he is standing there, on the phone with it plugged into the wall, gabbing away. Get a clue dude.

Case number 2 was a fat haitain woman. She was on a leg machine with weight loaded on that a 5 year old could do. She is talking on her phone while she did about 100 reps (moving maybe 6 inches per rep) I did 2 or 3 different machines and would periodically check on her, yep, still talking, still doing meaningless rep after rep. She was wearing jeans, a normal top and a dress watch. Go away.

Ali wrote a letter to the editor regarding the traffic horror in our area.

Ali is up in PA this weekend so I have the weekend to myself. I plan to attach the fence to Nicki’s area and play a “little” bit of WoW. 🙂 Level 29

Funless Fair, smell

Despite our sour experience at the county fair last year, we decided to go again anyway. After paying 5 dollars to park and 16 dollars admission, we walked into the event down 21 bucks already. We soon realized the money could have been much better spent. Each year it seems the entertainment at the fair has gotten more and more sparse, replaced with more and more vendor stands selling junk food, worthless trinkets and other shit. The stuff I enjoyed like the wrestling, the high wire stunt show, the english singing acts are all gone. The only thing we enjoy anymore is seeing the animal and plant displays. To see all of that took all of a half hour. I was still feeling sick in my stomach so I had no interest in rides. Plus, attendance for the fair was very light last night so as you walk down the aisles you were like a piece of fresh meat to coyotes(fair people) that haven’t eaten in days. I hate being solicited. So after Ali and I grabbed a snack, we left. I think the entire experience took less than an hour. Next year there is a good chance we will skip it all together.

On SB sunday I had to run to the local convenience store to pick up some stuff. As I get out, a woman comes up to me and says “Excuse me, what cologne are you wearing?” I didn’t know why she would ask me that so my first reaction was to think she smelled something on me. “Nothing” I said, “Maybe you smell the soap I use” She laughed and said no, she was selling discount cologne. Hahahaha. I politely told her, no thanks. Her and another shady looking dude took off in their car shortly there after.

My commute took 90 minutes AGAIN today. Ali and I discussed the idea of buying a townhouse closer in and keeping our house as an investment. Talking about it is easy, financing such plans would be very daunting.

More MIA’s from the Super Bowl

Jevon Kearse – was his name called all day?
Brian Dawkins – no big plays
Dorsey Levens – 1 carry, 1 yard
Freddie Mitchell – 0 catches, 0 yards

I heard some interesting gossip that the flu was running rampant throughout the Eagles and Donovan had a severe case of it that resulted in his inability to run a hurry up offense down the stretch. He looked like he was out of gas, maybe he actually was. It puts an interesting slant on things, if it’s true.

Pics

I have been lazy in taking pics of stuff or maybe there are less things going on that are pic worthy, who knows? Anyway, here are some pics of the progress on Nicki’s play area, a snake and some pet related SB pics.

Sick

I went home sick yesterday. Although I was sick from the Eagles loss, this was more of a stomach ailment. Late in the morning I had one of the episodes in the bathroom where you pray that noone else comes in. Thankfully, noone did. Afterwards I felt weak, had the chills and just overall felt terrible. So I went home and slept for almost 4 hours. After my nap my stomach still felt unsettled but I was able to function. Today I feel pretty much back to normal.

I took all sorts of abuse for the Eagles loss yesterday in my abbreviated stint at work. I have some vocal Patriot supporters here that loved turning the knife. I took it like I should and continued on my miserable way.

The commute to work today took 90 minutes. It is a bit unsettling knowing that my ability to continue to tolerate the ever worsening traffic situation out here is coming to an end. Sooner or later I’ll just snap and say “To hell with it, we are selling and moving” It really affects your quality of life.

Super disappointment

Wow it was tough. It was very ugly at times, yet they still had a shot in the end which they misfired horribly on. I don’t think there was any doubt that the Patriots were a better team. Even when they were behind they looked to be in control. Brady was calm, Donovan looked nervous. Brady threw no picks, Donovan threw 3 ( more except for some lucky penalties against the Pats) So who is there to blame? Well before I get to that lets talk about the good stuff.

TO TO TO, I think it is amazing that he not only started but made plays, big plays all game long. He was the Eagles best receiver even on one and a half legs. If God healed him, he did a hell of a job doing it. It really made me respect TO for his work ethic. I always knew he was a good player but an obnoxious showboat. However this year showed me also he cares about winning, cares about the team and he gave everything he had in the tank. It was nothing short of amazing.

The Eagles D did a good job for the majority of the game. They didn’t allow Dillon to run wild but they didn’t get the sort of pressure on Brady that was necessary to throw him off his game.

The Eagles receivers (minus Freddie Mitchell) made some fantastic grabs. McNabb’s passes were all over the place for most of the game and the diving, stretching catches by the receivers kept the Birds in the game. Lord knows they couldn’t run the ball.

Dirk Johnson hammered a few punts.

Ok now the bad stuff. Westbrook made a few plays but not nearly enough to have the impact that was necessary on the game. The drop he had late in the game was very costly.

The clock management in the 4th quarter was ATROCIUS. The worst I’ve ever seen in a big game. The Eagles are down 10 with 5 minutes to go in the game and they aren’t running hurry up???? I was screaming at the tv “What are you doing???!!!! Hurry the hell up!!!!” It was inexcusable. They were strolling up to the line of scrimmage like it was the 1st quarter. By the time they got the ball back at the end of the game they had less than a minute to go with no timeouts. Instead of throwing sideline routes, the first play is a dump in the middle of the field that gained 1 yard and ran at least 25 of those seconds off the clock. It was a joke.

However I hate to place the ultimate blame in the most obvious spot, but Donovan let us down. It was the most deceptive 3 touchdown, 350 yard passing performance I ever saw. He was extremely erratic. He was throwing very ugly balls that fluttered high, low and behind receivers. The receivers saved him multiple times by making incredible catches on poorly thrown balls. I heard that in the Super Bowl they rotate in brand new balls almost every play, so they are slick. Maybe that had something to do with it. He looked nervous and jumpy. His 3 picks were back breakers and I can not believe he did not scramble for yardage once in the game. His stubborness to not be a “running” QB seems to make him not want to do it at all. We needed him to run the ball to keep the Patriots off balance. I was really disappointed in his play.

Oh well there is always next year. So now to other details. We had a few people over for the bowl. I did one of those grid betting boards where you bet on stuff ranging from the coin toss to the final score. That was a big hit as it kept people interested in the game. We had piles of food and enough beer to fill a bar. I drank at least 8 or 9 so I was feeling jolly at first, a bit drowsy later. To battle the drowsiness I pounded a Red Bull, followed by 2 cups of coffee in the 2nd half. I had the pool heater cranked up, thinking it may see some use but it didn’t. Everyone had a good time. By the time everyone left, we cleaned up and got to bed it was close to midnight. As I lay there in bed, exhausted I can’t fall to sleep. My mind was racing, replaying keys spots in the game, thinking of how miserable it would be crawling into work the next day. I assume the Red Bull and coffee had something to do with it. Even once I fell asleep I was awake off and on throughout the entire night. I woke up today feeling like death. It isn’t a bright and cheery day.

More stuff. The commercials were good. Some were funny as hell. Some of my favorites were the Mustang convertible, frozen guy one, the monkey ass kissing one and I think my most favorite was the one where the guy was making the nice dinner for the girlfriend and winds up holding a tomato sauce covered cat and a knife as the girlfriend walks in. I laughed hard at that one. The halftime show was a complete 180 from last year. Instead of the being over the top edgy, this was under the bottom mundane for me. I like McCartney and thought he did a fine job but it was a bit boring for me by Super Bowl standards. Normally Super Bowls will put various entertainers together that you wouldn’t normally see and that is interesting for me. Nothing but Paul left me a little disappointed.

The portion of the weekend prior to Sunday was a grunt fest for me. On Saturday while Ali was working I dug out holes for the fence posts for Nicki’s area, about 15 of them. It was a dirty, strenuous job but it could have been worse. I took some pics of the progress that I’ll post later. Now the fence has to be installed, sod has to be laid, a small deck has to be built and some trees need to be planted. Yay.

There was more in my mind to blog but I’m too tired to think of them. Sigh…..

2 days till history?

Can the Eagles do it? I think they can. I remember 24 years ago when the Eagles were in the Bowl. I believe they were favorites but they came out and totally laid an egg and were never really in the game. This year they are underdogs and I like that role. Few expect them to win so they have little to lose. I hope this will result in them letting it all hang out. The TO news has been nothing but positive, so if he can actual make a contribution, I like the Birds chances even more.

We are having a few people over to watch the game, one of which is a hardcore Patriots fan so it will be a good rivalry. I am wearing my Eagles jersey today, check it out here. Come Monday, I will either be elated beyond description or depressed beyond consolation. I don’t want to wait another 24 years for another shot.

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EAGLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Health “Nut”

As I left the gym, out in the parking lot I saw a real health “nut”. He was nuts if he thought he was healthy. The gym lot is shared by many things, including a McDonalds. So as I am walking to my car I do a double take when I see an obese man sitting in his car, with a half eaten ice cream cone in one hand and a lit cigarette in the other. WTF? Take a drag, lick of ice cream, another drag…… unreal. America, the home of the lard ass.