March (and a little bit of April) Madness

I won the office March Madness Bracket contest!  No money.  Just cookies.  That's my bracket up there.  I base all my picks on instinct and blind luck.  I rock.


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Olympics recap

I always hate when the olympics are over. I watch every possible minute and catch up online with the things I've missed. Right now, I'm watching hockey and feeling sad that this is the end. I loved it when they started alternating the years for the summer and winter olympics, so I only have to wait two years until the summer olympics start.

Go USA.

Things I Learned About Football This Week

* I don't hate all football announcers...only the loud, obnoxious ones who insist on constantly restating the obvious.

* Female sports announcers are annoying.

* I forgot that I do like to watch football.

* Football is beautiful on my HD television.

* Those "The Wolfman" commercials are freaking me out.

* Football if more fun to watch if a Texas team is playing.

* I'm surprised some television commercials still refer to the Cowboys as "America's Team." Doesn't that piss non-Dallas fans off? Seems like it would.

* While reading Facebook comments, I notice that a lot of people randomly hate this team or that team. How does that happen?

* I like football player pants. Well, maybe it's not JUST the pants.

* I love this guy...



*Keith Brooking video*

Ball Girl - False

Click here for the Snopes site.

Go Astros!

My sister Bonnie, my son Cory, my daughter-in-law Jamie and I went to an Astros game yesterday. I usually get really distracted at live sporting events but this was a really good game even though the Astros lost.

I must say, it would help me a great deal if the ball was a lovely fluorescent orange instead of white. I'm just saying.

I Got a Puck!

Bonnie and I went to a Wildcatter's hockey game tonight. They're in first place in their division of the ECHL and they won tonight and it was a great game and that's all well and good, but the important thing is: I GOT A PUCK!

Of course, after years of attending more concerts than hockey games, when I dropped Bonnie off, I kept shouting, "I GOT A PICK! I GOT A PICK!"

She said, "You didn't get a pick. You got a puck."

"Oh, yeah. That's right." I said. "I GOT A PUCK! I GOT A PUCK!"

I bought Bonnie and I two seats on the glass (front row for you non-hockey people) which makes the game very exciting...IF the action is on your end of the arena. That's a big "if." Most of the action was not on our end of the arena. So, we spent a lot of time talking and watching everything except hockey.

Toward the end of the game, we weren't really paying attention to anything in particular when Bonnie looked to our left and said, "What's that?" It sort of looked like a bird or something skipping along the seats. In a split second, I realized that it was a puck that had been shot all the way across the arena and it was headed straight at us.

Before even thinking about what I was doing, I jumped out of my chair, ran toward where the puck had landed and stared down a guy who was also going for the puck. I had the advantage, however, because I could actually see where the puck had landed while he only had a general idea of where it was. I grabbed the puck with an "in your face, sucka" move that would have impressed all of you.

Below are some more pics and a few videos.

Lamar Kicked Butt

Bonnie and I went to a Lamar Basketball game tonight with Kelly and Clay and their son Gates and two of Gates' friends. I love basketball and I'm ashamed I haven't been to more games. I haven't even been to a hockey game this year. Bad, bad, Laurie.

Happy Birthday to The Man

Back in the day, I was madly in love with Larry Bird. Today is his 50th birthday so I caught bits and pieces of a tribute show on one of the 562 sports channels I evidently have and never watch. The shooting!! The passing!! Amazing!!

Basketball is, by far, my favorite sport to watch in person. I was a huge television fan of the sport when Larry Bird was playing.

As I watched the tribute show tonight, I was surprised at the Celtics players I could still name: Ainge, McHale, Parrish. Damn, those guys were fun to watch.

Brief Programming Note

The Christmas party season has begun. It's also high school football playoff season. The two worlds are colliding. It's 3:00 a.m. and I have to get up in about 5 hours to go to a playoff game in Houston in 40 degree weather. Laugh if you will my northern friends, but to me, that's COLD!

The Christmas party I just got home from was great but I'll be paying for it tomorrow...uh...make that today.

Ho, ho, ho.

Beaumont Bowl

Below are some pictures I took from Katie's second football game as a Westbrook Star. I promise to get better pics of her at some point.

Westbrook beat Central and, after beating Ozen last week, earned the Beaumont Bowl trophy.

Westbrook lost two girl soccer players in a tragic bus accident this spring and Central's band paid an emotional tribute to the girls at halftime. It was a beautiful thing. Thanks, Central.




Westbrook Football team



Central High School band




Westbrook High School Stars




Westbrook Stars - Katie is in there somewhere

Westbrook Band

Give Me An F! Give Me a U!...

Last night our local CBS affiliate chose to pre-empt the regular Monday night television schedule to show a local college basketball game. That meant no King of Queens, no How I Met Your Mother (no big loss there), no Two and a Half Men, no Henry Winkler/Stockard Channing (I like that one).

The last time I counted, there are precisely 268 (give or take a couple hundred) sports networks on which this game could have been shown. Did they really think the majority of the Monday night Beaumont television audience wanted to watch basketball instead of Charlie Sheen?

Before you say I don’t have school spirit, just let me say that I have spirit. Yes, I do. I have spirit. How about you? I just didn't have it last night, the same night that Ray Romano was scheduled to guest star on King of Queens.

Cock Fight

Andrew, honey, I hate to bring this up but I know you check in here from time to time to see how we're doing here in Beaumont without you (our lives go on), but, I'm wondering if you were at the University of South Carolina game when the broo-ha-ha broke out.

After the Indiana and Detroit fiasco, I'm wondering if sombody is spiking the steroid cocktails that absolutely none of these athletes and/or fans are actually really not taking.

Go, Cocks!

I'm home!

I just got back from New Orleans and have lots more material for the blog. Stay tuned.

On the way home, we listened to the Astros game. Announcers for football games get on my nerves generally and John Madden gets on my nerves in particular. Granted, I know the basics of most sports and enjoy watching, but the play-by-play (which I can see), recap (which I just saw) and color announcing (which I don't care about) are lost on me. It may be important to people who know more about the game but I just tune those guys out.

I do, however, depend on the instant replay and miss it terribly when I'm watching a game in person. I tend to get distracted easily at live sporting events and find myself watching everything except the actual game. I'm usually watching some kid stick gum in his brother's hair when the stadium erupts in cheers and I don't have the slightest idea what happened. I think that's why I like basketball and hockey so much. The ball and puck are always moving so I don't have time to look away.

While I don't care for the endless babble of television football game announcers, I do like the baseball guys. It's not just their smooth voices. Perhaps it's because baseball is such a statistic intensive game but their statistics just seem more interesting. During the Astros game one of the announcers said that one of the players was the second baseman with the highest number of homeruns in the league this season. Good for him. I bet there's even a statistic for the shortstop with the most hits in the bottom of the third inning while wearing red underwear during a full moon.

The other interesting fact I heard during the game today was that there are three brothers who are catchers in the major leagues this season. Now that's info a girl can use. I don't know how I'm going to use it, but...hey, wait a minute, I just did.