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.

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.

Thursday Links...

Christmas in July at Sears?!?

Would you pay $87 to get 1,000 Twitter followers?!?

Good eats at the Jersey Shore!

Nancy Pelosi finally does something right!

Miss it, Noonan!

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...

It slipped...

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.

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.

"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.

Off 2 the Market...

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!

40 - Love...

No Jimmy Rollins bashing. No F.Dick praising. No Ricky Rubio jokes. No pix from last night's dinner.

We are simply too tired. For we just got off the court and a grueling 90 minute set of tennis with The Playmaker.

The result?

He won, 7-6 (10-8).

Ugh. Our legs are on fire.

(At least we can take solace in the fact that we did win yesterday, 6-2.)

F.Dick and Cheesesteaks...

Went to the butcher yesterday afternoon and picked out some Rib Eyes for Cheesesteaks last night. It allowed us a chance to christen one of our three new Summer Knives that arrived last week -- the aforementioned F.Dick Serrated Knife with the ultra comfy off-set handle.

1st and 4...

1. We watched most of the second half of today's soccer match. We don't know what the tournament was -- only that the US played Brazil in the finals. Having missed the first half (when WE were up, 2-0), we can say this: the Americans looked slow and unskilled compared to the guys on the other team. Also, we still have no clue how the clock works or why it moves forward instead of counting down like in every other sport. And why does the clock not stop when the ball goes out of bounds?!? Not that we really care. We're not sure, but we think that's the first game we've watched on TV since Brandi Chastain whipped off her shirt about 10 years ago.

2. Phillies Update: Great job winning the series against the Blue Jays. Good news as Brad Lidge came back today and was solid (yielding a cheap bunt single and a walk) in getting The Save. But the best news was taking two of three while letting Jimmy Rollins collect splinters in his ass sitting on the bench all weekend.

3. Haven't had red meat in over a week, so tonight we are grilling cheesesteaks. Undoubtedly there will be pictures.

4. We conquered Flickr yesterday (at the expense of over three hours of tinkering-slash-swearing). We are still fine-tuning it, but it will be awesome. And (hopefully) it will be up later next week.

Great Book (Decent Movie)...

Man's Work...

We bought this toolbox about six weeks ago. Today, we used it for the first time. The Wife needed us to drill holes and then install two hooks on the house for hanging plants. We used the cordless drill for about four minutes. We are now resting after that manual labor.

Your 2012-13 Starting PG

Last night's dinner - chicken thighs on the grill...

The only guard the T-Wolves did not draft?!?

Friday Links...

Sports Illustrated's NBA Draft winners & losers!

Chad Ford gives the 76ers an A!

Great news for Best Buy and video game fans!

The top 100 places to eat at the Jersey Shore!

The Washington Post visits Ocean City!

Facebook steals borrows from Twitter!

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1st sandwich of the summer...

Fresh off of this morning's successful weigh-in (dropped 3 Big Ones), we were understandably psyched to eat some real (read: good) food today. For lunch, we sliced up a fresh loaf of Italian bread and made a turkey and low fat American cheese sandwich. For some kick, we added fresh coleslaw and a single teaspoon (3 grams of fat) of dressing, along with some mustard. The end result of this new creation?!? Tasty. Plain and simple. Have a look-see:

You cannot be serious!!!

We said it during March Madness -- UNC shooting guard Wayne Ellington will never even score a point in the NBA.

Ok...three months later we realize we were a tad harsh on Ellington. He will, in fact, score a few points in the NBA. Our updated prediction is this: He will be a Super Stiff in the NBA. He will never even be an average shooting guard. At best, he will be someone's 10th man.

And why are even wasting our time on the un-athletic shooting guard -- a shooting guard who shoots flat footed and barely hit 40 percent of his treys last season?!? Because a columnist from the Philadelphia Daily News is pleading for the 76ers to take Ellington with the 17th pick. Ellington hails from Philly -- which is, undoubtedly, the only reason the columnist is in his corner. If he was from, say, California, would the Philly writer feel the same way?!? Um... of course not.

Yes, the 76ers need a shooting guard. (Three Point King Jason Kapono will be a 20 minute a night sniper off the bench.) But they also need a point guard. So taking Ellington's teammate, floor general Ty Lawson, makes 1,000% more sense. Oh yeah -- Lawson nailed nearly 50 percent of his treys last year.

Memo to clueless Philly Columnist: Sometimes bloggers are so much smarter than columnists.

School's Out...

The 76ers select...

What's stranger: Whore Stern's mustache?!? The porn music in the background of the highlights?!? Someone saying Mark Iavaroni is a "great player"?!? Or the fact that Charles Barkley actually looks skinny?!?

Last day of school...

The Playmaker and The Playmaker's Sister ended their school year today. (Our last day is Wednesday.) We found this poem written by an anonymous poet.

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Remember how I walked away,
On tiny feet, my first school day?
With tiny hands I waved goodbye,
And I saw the tear in the corner of your eye.
But you were brave and so was I.
We both tried hard not to cry.

My little feet carried me to school.
I remember your saying, "Now obey every rule!"
My little hands opened the heavy school door.
Everywhere I looked, there were kids galore.
I went down the hall to the big red "K".
There was Mrs. LaBoon to show me the way.

We made a big family, Mrs. LaBoon, the "Mother".
With a family this large, we had to help each other.
I've tried hard to listen throughout the whole year.
So when I'm in first grade, I'll have nothing to fear.
The muscles in my hands are now much stronger.
And even my feet look a whole lot longer.

On the last day of school, as we all wave goodbye,
Do you s'pose Mrs. LaBoon will have a tear in her eye?
It really has been a happy school year.
And if it weren't for you, Mom and Dad,
I just wouldn't have been here!!

Happy Father's Day, 2.0

Someone just texted us a link to this. Can't think of a nicer Father's Day gift than that. (Well, except for the Adam Perry Lang 400 page/500 pound hardcover cookbook The Playmaker and The Playmaker's Sister gave us!)

Happy Father's Day...

The Bizarre Case of NYC Baller Lance Stephenson!

Sunday Morning with Mike Lupica!

Chase Utley Profile!

"The Worst [NBA] Draft in Decades!"

The Playmaker's Sister 9 Head Ball Coach 5

Yes, we lorded over the Father's Day Fishing Derby today. We hit the pond just past 9 AM. Of course, Captain Ray was already on hand complete with a cooler of beer. We quickly bummed some chum worms from him and cast one rod for The Playmaker's Sister and another one for Our Dad. (The Playmaker was scratched from the comp, as he woke up with a bad cold and ruled ineligible by The Wife.)

Three hours later (staying an extra -and illegal- hour) we were good to go home. Our Dad netted 3 Trout, we bagged 5 and The Playmaker's Sister landed a whopping 9. (Disclaimer: The three of us shared two rods, with The Playmaker's Sister always having one in her hand.) The picture is of the first Trout of the day we nailed.

As for The Playmaker?!? We promised him that if he is feeling better tomorrow morning, he can head down to the pond with us for some father-son-fishing.

Have a good night out there. Be healthy.

TGIF...

Haven't had many written entries this past week. As the school year winds down, there are a zillion things that need to be done in a short time. We are not bitching, of course. (Not when school will soon be closed for 11 weeks.) But we can't help but feel the the Tax Guy who has a ton of returns to get done and he is on the clock.

Anyway, here's what's going on:

Podcast We have a fantastic 10 minute podcast by The Playmaker. He just talks sports from the top of his head. Totally Classic. It will be up on his blog this weekend.

Father's Day Fishing Derby It's actually tomorrow morning, bright and early at 9 AM. We will be there with The Playmaker and The Playmaker's Sister. The Grandfathers will be there, too. Captain Ray has promised an appearance as well.

The Phillies The bullpen is burned out. Madson now pitches like Lidge. And the starters continue to get pounded.

Have a nice weekend. Stay safe. And look for us to hook a Swordfish or two.

All Day...

Ready for some football?!?

Here's why the legs are aching...

1. Did the Pre-Dawn Run.

2. Taught all day. (Round of applause...)

3. Cut the lawn.

4. Played baseball against The Playmaker & Best Friend Raymond. (Lost 6-4.)

5. Was all-time pitcher in neighborhood kickball game.

6. Played lacrosse with The Playmaker's Sister (while The Playmaker played 1-1 flag football with Some Kid).

Great Show...

Phillies 11 Red Sox 6

Picture tells it all...

Ugh...

We love our daughter, The Playmaker's Sister. And we love that she loves to dance. And we love watching her dance.

But...

We H-A-T-E her dance recital (which is tonight). And everything about it. Well, except for the 8 minutes (8!) she gets to actually dance on stage. The other 3 hours and 52 minutes she is backstage as we are stuck watching people we don't know dance.

Why do they need a four hour show?!? Why not split the girls up (by age) into two shows?!? Then parents get to see more of their kids and less of kids they don't give a crap about.

Why is it at the ungowdly time of 6 PM?!? How about something a tad more convenient -- something like 2 PM?!?

And why do they need to have a four hour dress rehearsal the day of the show?!? The Playmaker's Sister has been going once a week for two hours since September. Shouldn't the girls know the routines by now?!?

So today, we get to see the end result of those hours of work. We get to see the finished product -- a product, by the way, that has cost us over $1k this year.

And it's all over in 8 minutes.

That's $125 per minute...

Phillies 6 Mets 3 (Save: Madson)

Raul Ibanez...

Alan a Michigan Man?!? Who knew?!?

Do you want Eggs Benedict with Your Blog?!?

As we approach our two year blogger anniversary, complete with over 1,000 posts -- including a streak of over 365 consecutive days -- we found this article on the death of blogs fascinating. Memo to bloggers and blogger wannabes...you will NOT make any coin off of your blog. As such, you will NEVER be able to quit your real job. To think otherwise is just plain stupid!

Anyway, click here to read the article from the New York Times!

Other randoms:

--Of course now that Raul Ibanez is dominating the National League, there are whispers of steroids. Wow -- there's a shock. Just Loser Met Fans expressing their jealousy.

--We have a ton of fantastic food pictures to upload. A rib eye seared in a cast iron skillet ... The aforementioned pulled pork sandwich (complete with 'slaw) ... The Great Rib Experiment (with shocking results).

--Right up there with The Colonel among our many vices is Eggs Benedict. We got hold of a new recipe for Hollandaise Sauce (one that won't actually harden your arteries upon ingestion), as well as a different method for poaching the eggs (which we have never been very good at doing). As summer approaches, we will be trying out both and, of course, taking pictures along the way.

--Finally, we have some absolute Classic Old (Old!) School Video Clips (almost) ready to post!

Now, go out and do something nice for someone else today!

Who remembers Nick Anderson's missed FTs?!?

Quick NBA Finals Note: That missed alley-oop layup by the Magic's Courtney Lee was not, exactly, an easy shot. He was a bit too far under the backboard, plus he was drifting to his left while trying to score with his right hand. A makeable shot?!? Definitely. But it certainly was no gimmie! And if you're trying to win an NBA Championship on an alley-oop to a rookie named Courtney Lee (Courtney Lee?!?), you lose the right to bitch about him missing it.

Quick NFL Behind the Scenes Note: Granted it's about Our Eagles, but there is a great article in the Philadelphia Daily News today about how coaches work with the front office to make personnel moves. The article focuses on how the Eagles made the Jason Peters trade with the Buffalo Bills. Interestingly enough, the Eagles first contacted Buffalo about Peters a year before the actual trade went down. To read more, click here!

Just don't trade Kyle Drabek...

Since the mulch is calling our name (or is it The Wife calling us?!?), we only have time for a short one this morning:

Taking a look @ the Phillies' top prospects! (As in, what will they be willing to move to get Roy Oswalt or Roy Halladay?!?)

We will be back later...

Sal Pal on B-Westbrook...

Early one today...

Final coaching game today until September, as The Playmaker's Sister closes out her softball campaign. The Playmaker ended his baseball season last Tuesday, with a 21-15 W. He went 2-4 batting in the leadoff spot. Today, before and after the game, we will working on editing some HD video for our other blog.

As for the rumor that Your Philadelphia 76ers will be shipping Super Stiff Sammy Dalembert and Super Star (in waiting) Thaddeus Young to the Hawks for guard Joe Johnson?!? Let's just say we are intrigued. Of course, getting anyone to take Dalembert and his bloated contract is a good thing, right?!?

Go have a great Saturday!

$$$

3 million LARGE for a domain name?!? Wow!

TGIF...

The pulled pork from last night was damn near euphoric. Of course, we have pix from start to finish. Until we upload, however, you can nibble on these links. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Again -- we were so far ahead of the curve on Twitter. Now, it's on the cover of Time Magazine!

Speaking of Twitter, why is Tony LaRussa such a baby?!?

If this happens, we will be PISSED!

NBA Mock Draft!