Friday, July 31, 2009

Great Live TV...

NESN hottie Heidi Watney interviews (former) Red Sox pitcher Justin Masterson just minutes after he was told he had been traded to the Indians. When the interview is over and she thinks the cameras have stopped rolling, she reaches out and touches him. Then she puts her arm up in an apparent attempt to hug him, only to be blown off when Masterson sees Red Sox radio announcer Joe Castiglione come over. Watney tries to recover by taking her raised arm and pretending to brush her hair. Watch her left arm -- it's CLASSIC. Castiglione then gives Masterson an envelope, which he promptly sticks in his pants. Great live TV.




Thursday, July 30, 2009

1...2...3...4 -- Again

1. How anyone can be surprised about Big Papi blowing a positive test for The Juice is beyond us. The sad thing is NOT ONE media member in Boston even sniffed around this story the past few years. (Our Lunch Buddy Bob Ryan came the closest a few months ago.)

2. No one in the media knows more about the Phillies' minor league system or is a bigger champion of holding onto prospects than Bill Conlin of the Philadelphia Daily News. So it was today that we could not wait to read his take on the Cliff Lee trade. And Conlin HEARTS it. He absolutely HEARTS it. Click here to read it.

3. Football is back. How great is that? Seriously. How FRIGGING great is that?!?

4. Ripped off 4.5 miles this morning. Came back and The Scale revealed we had lost 2.5 pounds for the week. That's the good news. The bad news is following the run the knee completely stiffened up and we have been hobbling around in pain all day. Tomorrow we get a much needed day off. Saturday and Sunday will definitely be elliptical mornings.



Wednesday, July 29, 2009

You cannot be serious!

The defending champions are able to acquire the reigning Cy Young pitcher. And in return all they give up are three average prospects and one good one (who is currently out with arm/shoulder trouble in Class A)?!?

Wow.

Double wow.

That sound you just heard was the Dodgers screaming from the west coast.

Because the Phillies just became the team to beat in the National League.

Good bye, Lou Marson, Carlos Carrasco, Jason Donald and the injured Jason Knapp.

Hello, Cliff Lee.


Tuesday, July 28, 2009

1...2...3...4

1. It's officially summer! After glorious weeks of cool, rainy weather -- the hazy, hot & humid stuff is finally here. Ugh. We don't even walk a warm-up lap around the track to get loose for the Pre Dawn Run. Just walking from the parking lot to The Track gets us in a lathered sweat -- at 5 AM, no less. We cut the lawn this morning at 9:30. By 9:32, we were soaked in sweat.

2. The Roy Halladay Watch has become something along the lines of the...wait for it... Brett Favre Watch (which, thankfully, kind of ended about an hour ago)! The Phillies and Blue Jays have talked about it for so long, they are almost backed into a corner where they must come to an agreement. Ultimately, we think the deal will go down on Friday and, yes, we predict the Phillies will end up losing Kyle Drabek (but holding onto J.A. Happ).

3. We spent an hour and a half in the Book Store today with the kids! Three books a piece for each of them and two for us (along with assorted magazines). Summer and reading -- good stuff.

4. The Dog seems to have adapted nicely to The Invisible Fence! Now, however, we have to do something about the two brown spots he has created on the green lawn. We liked it (so much) better when we walked around the block and he made those spots on other people's lawns.


Monday, July 27, 2009

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Friday, July 24, 2009

Q & A with Adam Schefter...

A first for this blog -- an actual interview! And what a big one we landed. We nailed one with Adam Schefter, formerly of NFL Network. Schefter, widely regarded as the top NFL Insider, will be joining ESPN next month. He has authored three books and is the former president of the Pro Football Writers of America. We caught up with him this week and hit him up with five questions.


Pit Master: People seem split on who the favorite is in the NFC. What's your take?

Schefter: I think the Eagles and Giants are the two teams to beat in the NFC. As of today, I don't know which one will emerge. It will be decided this winter.

Pit Master: As long as you brought up the Eagles (wink!-wink!), what are your thoughts on them losing Brian Dawkins to the Broncos? We think they will miss his leadership, but not his play on the field -- especially against the pass.

Schefter: I think the Eagles will miss Brian Dawkins' play and his leadership. They will certainly miss his leadership more than his play, but still, he will not be an easy guy for them to replace on that defense.

Pit Master: We saw Jeremy Maclin play a lot of games in college and he was the most explosive receiver we have seen in the past 10 years. Do you think he can make a big splash right away like DeSean Jackson did last season?

Schefter: It's going to take Maclin a bit longer to make an impact than Jackson, who did it right away last fall. But over time, Maclin has a chance to be great.

Pit Master: What's your opinion of the Patriots?

Schefter: Tom Brady is back and I expect Brady and the Pats to both be great this year. With Brady recovered, it's hard not to view them as the AFC favorites.

Pit Master: Last question. BBQ/Grilling ...what do you like to throw down on the grill?

Schefter: C'mon, what American doesn't like barbecuing? We have family barbecues every Sunday night. I love to cook brats, hamburgers and turkey burgers. Now, I'm getting hungry!

Thursday, July 23, 2009

2 Pretzels and 3 Quickies...

1. Here are the homemade pretzels the kids made Tuesday night. We finally mastered the true soft pretzel coloring by dipping the pretzel dough into a pot of boiling water and baking soda before putting them into the oven.

2. Ran 5 miles at The Track this AM and then walked .75 miles with the dog. Came back and the scale said we lost 3.5 LBs from two weeks ago, when we last weighed in. (No weigh-in last week due to the knee injury sidelining us for 8 days.) Fourteen more LBs to go and we are all set.

3. Be sure to check in tomorrow. We will have a surprise blog entry. Nothing earth shattering -- but still kind of cool. We will try to have it up in the morning.


Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Odds & Ends...

1. Tom Watson -- Great, great story. It's safe to say that 99% of the public wanted him to close the deal on Sunday. But, let's be honest. He choked on 18. That putt was one that you could have made. He completely short-armed it. How does that happen to an almost-60-year old man with his golf resume?!?

2. Extended Warranties -- We live by Jonathan Pond's financial advice. But when it comes to buying extended warranties, we go our separate ways. He says you should never buy them. But with most of our toys, we always pony up a few more bucks for peace of mind. And so it was last Sunday that we took our broken PlayStation3, as well as our struggling Electrolux vacuum, to Best Buy with extended warranties in hand. Net result? We walked out with a new (and free) PS3 (with an upgrade to an 80 gig memory) and a new vacuum will be arriving this week. Extended warranties -- get 'em!

3. Fishing -- Took The Kids fishing early Sunday morning. The worms were skinnier than Manute Bol and next-to-impossible to get on the hooks. The Kids each caught one Trout in an hour.


4. The Knee -- After resting it on Sunday, we pumped in 3 miles yesterday. Ignoring our every-other-day running mandate, we hit The Track again this morning. We cranked it up to 3.5 miles. As we finished, a group of local high school football players were getting ready to run the track. Amazingly, they did not ask us for tips on pass rushing, pass blocking or how to block a punt. It must have been a case of Today's Youth not knowing what they don't know.




Sunday, July 19, 2009

Saturday, July 18, 2009

What you knee-d to know...

After resting our injured knee for eight(8!) days, the plan was to test The Knee this morning. In a nice and easy manner. We drove over to the local high school to use the track, figuring the "sponge soft" track surface would be good for the battered knee. Eliminating having to run hills would be a plus, too.

So there we were this morning at 6:15 on the track. Our goal was to do a mile -- half running and half walking. The idea was to walk a lap, run a lap, walk a lap and then run the final lap. We started out on the walk. The knee was a bit tender, but basically OK. When it came time to run the next lap, we hiked up the knee brace and off we went. After about 30 steps, it started to hurt. Not hurt like the shooting pain we felt nine days ago -- but still we were hoping to be pain free.

But as we finished the lap, we noticed something. The pain had not gotten any worse -- in fact it was barely noticeable.

So we decided to run the third lap. Next, we figured we would run the fourth and final lap -- which would give us an even mile. (One quarter walking, three quarters jogging.) As we finished the fourth, we decided to see if we could last two more laps. And on and on we went. We finally stopped after running for 2.5 miles. (We walked a cool down lap -- giving us a total of 1/2 mile walked and 2.5 miles run.)

Are we back to 100 percent? No, not even close. Right now, we are at about 70 percent. But at least we were able to run and not scream out in pain.

The plan is to continue to run on the soft track surface. We will see if the knee can handle running every other day next week. Hopefully, we can gradually increase the distance and the days -- without, of course, overdoing it.

But for now, we will take it. Most definitely.





Friday, July 17, 2009

Happy Friday...



Thursday, July 16, 2009

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Monday, July 13, 2009

Terrible Twos

It was two years ago today that we started this blog. The original post was nothing more than a few words about getting ready to cook some steaks and chicken wings, while preparing to watch the Red Sox. To go back in time to that day two years ago, click here.

A year ago, we celebrated turning one by, among other things, coming up with some possible domain names for additional web sites. (Click here to see the post.) Among them, adameatonsucks.blogger.com and howtodealwithbeing40.blogger.com. Now, we could go with something like, damnourkneeREALLYhurtslike$#!%.blogger.com. We also came up with some loose goals for the coming year, one of which was a Podcast. While we have yet to do one, The Playmaker has done one on his (password protected) blog. We have also added a high definition camera and posted the videos here via YouTube. And, of course, we have added our Twitter account and Flickr to this page. And we now end each blog with a signature.

A few numbers before we go: We have accumulated 24,564 hits -- which comes out to about 34 hits per day. That's an increase of about four. Nothing major, obviously, but certainly better than losing four hits a day. And we have made a slight improvement in number of posts per day, moving from 1.1 to 1.3. Finally, we have posted 633 consecutive days.

So thanks for reading and we hope you keep coming back.

Oh, and Happy Birthday to Us!




Sunday, July 12, 2009

A Night @ The Fens

Took the family to the Red Sox - Royals game at The Fens last night, courtesy of RCM's suh-weet tix! Great time and fantastic seats -- sat in the Home Plate Pavilion Club section. Sox jumped up 9-zip, only to see the Royals shell Boston's pen and close it to 9-7. Ultimately, Boston won 15-9. We also followed the Phillies amazing comeback against the Pirates on our Blackberry. (They trailed 5-zip and then 7-3 in the 9th before winning, 8-7.) Took tons of videos and pix:


Good start!

Bad Start!

Jason Bay readies to connect!

No explanation needed!










Saturday, July 11, 2009

Good point...

We're not on Facebook. Perhaps we never will be. The reasons why are numerous -- and probably good fodder for a future blog entry. We came across a funny article about someone else who shares our Facebook feelings. Though the person did find one good thing about Facebook:


"Not only does it help us reconnect with friends, but it gives us the ability to stalk our high school crush from the privacy of our own homes, work stations and blackberries (by the way: congratulations, Samantha, on your second child born out of wedlock…way to go)."

To read the whole article, CLICK HERE.


Friday, July 10, 2009

Jailbreaking, 1.0



Yeah, it's cool this kid totally hacked into Apple's iPhone & iTouch. But do you really want your kid having a temper tantrum arguing with mom over whether he used his first computer at the age of 2 or 4?!? Um, this kid needs to be kicked outside and told to go play some sports with the neighborhood kids.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Miss it, Noonan!

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Rotisserie: See Meat. See meat spin.

Last night's dinner -- roast beef on the rotisserie. After a long day at basketball camp, we should have just popped this bad boy in the oven. Instead, we felt like cranking up the rotisserie. Bad move, as this large hunk needed to be done low and slow. Instead, he was done high (450 degrees) and fast (just over an hour). He was too done and too tough for our liking. Oddly, The Wife thought it was great. Oh well...



Monday, July 6, 2009

It slipped...

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Four on the floor...

1. After the fifth set he played today, no one can accuse Andy Roddick of not having stones. But, he came up mighty small in that second set. Up one set to none, he had Roger Federer down 6-2 in the tiebreaker, yet somehow choked it away, losing the set. If he closes that set out, he most likely wins the match rather easily in four sets. While he counts his millions and lives The Life with his Hot Wife, he will be haunted by that second set tiebreaker.

2. Great weekend for the Phillies, sweeping the Mets. Today's W included a dinger by Jimmy Rollins, great pitching by Joe Blanton, pinning the loss on (former) ace Johan Santana and another clean inning for the save by Brad Lidge -- who struck out the side.

3. The Flickr has been up for 24 hours. Our plan is to update/reload it every two days. So far, the feedback has been positive.

4. We still have tons of great grilling photos from the last 10 days to post. With our Basketball Camp starting tomorrow, we will definitely get some pix up this week.


Saturday, July 4, 2009

Four 4 the Fourth!

1. Kind of surprised Serena beat Venus today. We always thought she was the better player, but Venus has always been mentally tougher in these matches. Also, the 11-10 overall advantage held by Serena feeds into conspiracy theories that the two sisters "take turns" beating each other.

2. Four clowns we have never heard of are now playing in the Men's Doubles Championship. We have no interest in watching. And it's downright creepy how, after every point, each pair touches hands. Um...no thanks, we're all set.

3. Even better than slapping the Mets around last night 7-2, was the fact that Phillies' setup man Ryan Madson came in and pitched a clean 8th inning. It has been well over a month since that last happened.

4. Congrats to The Playmaker for finishing 94th out of over 200 kids, ages 6-12, in this morning's July 4th Road Race. His finish was especially impressive when you consider he was stacked in the (way) back, and was one of the last 15-20 kids to cross the starting line. Having signed up three days ago, we did not show up for the race until 5 minutes prior to the start. Bad move, as we had to follow the crowd to the starting line. Not that we are competitive, but we'll be there 45 minutes early next year!

Have fun out there today and don't go crazy.



Friday, July 3, 2009

"Wow, she's pretty..."

Busy day in a good way today:

1. Got up early, embraced the Day Off From Running and cleaned the house to ready for The Cleaning Lady.

2. After breakfast, took the kids to down to the common where the carnival rides were running bright and early at 10 AM. The Playmaker won a kickball by going 1-2 on one of those rip-off b-ball shooting games where the rims are too tight and the balls too inflated. In another game, The Playmaker's Sister won a blow-up monkey. (Insert Michael Jackson/Bubbles joke HERE.) Then they hit the rides.

3. Then The Playmaker's Sister went to her Swim Club camp and we headed to the local track to run a mile to prepare for tomorrow's July 4th Children's One Mile Road Race. He ran a lap and rested for one minute. Did the same on the second lap, before finishing the final two uninterrupted. Following that, he beat us in tennis 6-3 (even more impressive was the fact he had to play for the first time with the other four courts filled with players).

4. We came home and watched Roddick pistol whip Murray. Perhaps we fell asleep on The Couch, only to be awakened when The Playmaker asked, "Want to go play some more tennis?" We got around the issue by answering, "How about a Popsicle while we watch tennis?!?" This led to The Playmaker looking at Roddick's wife and announcing, "Wow, she's pretty!"

As for the picture -- it was Monday night's dinner. First time ever. Wait for it...Buffalo Burger. No lie. A burger made from a Buffalo. Tasted awesome and was/is much healthier than even 90/10 ground beef.

Have a good night and stay safe.



Thursday, July 2, 2009

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Summer Stuff, 1.0


From September through May, we buy things and squirrel them away until Summer Time when we break them out. Here is Summer Stuff, 1.0...

1. BBQ Skewers - These will replace our old-yucky-ones. First up will be some combo of steak tips, potatoes, shrimp and swordfish.

2. Cast Iron Weight - This thing weighs, like, 10 pounds. It can used as a Panini Press. We saw it used on Food Network for a kick-ass recipe that we hope to steal emulate.

3. Weber Smoker Box - Our old one was left out in the rain and is rusted and ready for the Trash Man to take. We will be breaking out this Bad Boy over the weekend. Our wood of choice?!? Mesquite.

4. Weber Steak Knives - We have no idea how well these will work out. But, they look cool.
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5. Summer Knife Shipment - You already know about the F.Dick off-set serrated knife (which we pretty much use for everything these days), but we also picked up an F.Dick 5 inch boning knife. Lastly, we snared a Wusthof 12 inch carving knife. That Bad Boy will be kept in storage until the Christmas Day Roast Beef is ready in 6 months.


An early one...

We will be spending most of the day in the home office, as we continue to sort, purge, recycle and file. A few quick hitters:

1. It's 7 AM and we are guzzling an icy cold beer Diet Pepsi. It's our first one in seven days. During the School Day, we are good for 2-3 on average. Since school got out, however, we have been going with ice water. But as tomorrow's weigh-in looms, the Diet Pepsi was needed.

2. Speaking of the weigh-in, we have done an extra mile Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and today -- and still we are not confident about tomorrow's results.

3. Red Sox up 10-1 and lose 11-10?!? When did they stock their bullpen with a bunch of Ryan Madsons?!?

4. We absolutely love the cool, cloudy, often-drizzly weather we've been having for the past month. Is this what it's like to live in Seattle?!?

5. How great does this sound? NFL teams will be starting training camp this month! This month!