Best we can do...

Dolphins in The Basement -- in 1080i HD...

The rumors are true...

We are back from The Basement. Yesterday was the first rainy day in Avalon in two weeks. It rained so hard, in fact, our street was flooded for a while. So we decided to come back a day early. The Friday traffic turned a 6 hour ride into an 8.5 one. However, once we were in front of our 50 inch HD TV watching the Patriots, and later when we got into our own bed, we were happy that we decided to leave The Basement 24 hours early.

Jimmy Johnson coached the Dolphins...

When we return from The Basement, we will upload some 1080i HD footage of the dolphins. These three guys were about 75 yards off shore.

Wi-Fi, 12.1 -- A shark fin and two hole in ones...

Went shopping on 96th Street after lunch, where we promptly split up along gender lines. The Wife took The Playmaker's Sister into jewelry, bead and clothing stores. Meanwhile, we took The Playmaker to Pete Smith's Surf Shop so we could get a new watch. (The one we have worn in The Basement for the past five summers finally crapped out on us yesterday.) We decided upon the Freestyle Shark model (for $59.99). It is navy blue with a black shark fin, digital, with an alarm and two separate stop watches. Oh, and it can go under water up to 100 meters. (We are guessing that will be deep enough for us...)

After that, we went over to Club 18 for a round of miniature golf. Trying our hardest, we shot a two under par 39 -- while knocking down two hole in ones. The Playmaker gave a valiant effort and ended up with a 42.

Wi-Fi, 12.0 -- Uncle Bill's...

Took the family to breakfast at Uncle Bill's bright and early this morning. Had a brand-spanking-new waitress who willingly told us we were her first customers ever. Except for being so nervous her hands shook as she brought us drinks, she was fine. And we manned up and left her a 35 percent tip. Pancakes all around, except for us. We went with the Will's Special, which is code at Uncle Bill's for Eggs Benedict. Just for more calories kicks, we also nailed a side of Pork Roll.

Cheesesteak from Tony Luke's @ The Bank...

The only red meat we've had in The Basement. But, man, was it good.

Wi-Fi, 11.0

The third Chicken Cheesesteak has been consumed (for the vacation, not tonight's dinner) and we are now off to take The Family to watch the sun set from the pier. Pictures later.

Chicken Cheesesteak from 29th Street Deli...

We've had it twice thus far. Undoubtedly, we will have it again. Soon.

You betcha...

Who knew?!?

The waves were actually bigger today. And there was no rip current, which was clutch.

Now watching Cliff Lee and later we will take to the miniature golf course.

UPDATE: The Wife defeated the kids in golf. (We simply kept score and shot 1080i HD Video.)

4 @ The Shore...

1. Pedro not looking so hot today.

2. The Waves were great this morning.

3. The Riptide was the strongest we ever remember it being. We dove into a wave and were promptly taken 10 yards down shore. Yikes.

4. Had a fantastic Chicken Cheesesteak last night.

Wow...

Huge waves today. Tomorrow, 14 footers are expected.

Will we be in the ocean?!?

As Dylan once told Brandon, "Are you kidding? Surf's up."

Blogging from BlackBerry

Simply not willing to fight with the Wi-Fi, so we are coming to you from The Basement via The BlackBerry.

Took the family to The Bank last night and watched the Phillies whip Arizona. Dingers from Ruiz, Howard and Werth.

This morning, the surf was the roughest it's been since we've been here. Took the kids out waist deep and the waves threw us around for over an hour. Good stuff, indeed.

Tonight, it's off to Busch's for dinner.

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N

During the first six days in the basement, we have not:

1. Eaten red meat.

2. Logged onto Twitter.

3. Watched TV (other than bits and pieces of Phillies games).

Wi-Fi, 4.0 - Sea of Tranquility

The Wi-Fi connection we are stealing using is a little temperamental this year. So uploading a 1080i HD video takes a while. Instead, we shot this short clip with our Sony CyberShot (9.4 megapix).

Wi-Fi, 3.0

Wi-Fi, 2.0 - The day of the dolphins...

Check back soon!

Wi-Fi, 1.0 - The first (real) day...

1. Got up at 5:30 and ran 4.2 miles. We had not run since last Wednesday, so The Knee had three full days of rest. It felt fine (basically) on the run from 41st to 82nd Street and back. It was a bit tender later in the ocean, but the rest has definitely helped.

2. After showering, we piled The Playmaker into the car and went to get coffee (hot chocolate for The Diesel) and newspapers. We then drove around the island drinking and talking sports.

3. Hit the beach around 10 AM and went straight for the water, as the heat was beginning to build. Ninety minutes of football and boogie-boarding later (with The Playmaker's Sister), we plopped in our beach chair and had a soft pretzel for breakfast.

4. We are now off to read and, most likely, fall asleep for a nap. Zzzz.

Andrew Toney, 2.0

Andrew Toney, 1.0

Off we go...

Into the Basement!

Tony Bruno + Andrew Toney = :-)

Tony Bruno has Into the Night. We, in the words of the immortal Andrew Toney, are heading Into the Basement.

We'll bring you along for the ride, of course. But for the next few days we'll be on Automatic Pilot. Wifi, 1.0 should be up and running on Sunday.

We never get tired of this one...

Pedro Era Begins Wednesday!

Pedro to the mound.

Moyer to the 'pen.

(As it should be...)

Even this guy knows Cole Hamels is terrible this year...

Just floss, baby...

Big night last night.
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Big, baby, big!
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For shortly after 8:30 PM, we went upstairs to tuck in the kids. As is our norm, before going into their respective rooms, we made a detour into our bathroom.
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Exciting, right?!?
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And there we reached for The Dental Floss. Just as we have for the previous 364 nights.
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That's right, kids, last night we flossed for the 365th night in a row.
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Last summer, for the zillionth time, we lied to the dentist hygienist when she asked us how often we floss. "Oh, usually every other day." (If we were lucky, we did it 2x a week.) So after that cleaning, we went home and flossed. And then our self diagnosed OCD kicked in. Afraid to miss a night, we banged out a year of flossing.
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A whole frigging year!

Cliff Lee, 2.0

Four on the floor...

1. Cliff Lee pitched another gem of a game today. He went 7 innings, giving up just 1 run while striking out 9. No one in Philadelphia has even mentioned Roy Halladay's name in two weeks.

2. Jamie Moyer is TERRIBLE. At 46 years of age, he needs to man-up and realize his "junk" has turned into "crap." He should simply go on the D.L. and ride off into the sunset. Failing that, he should get moved to the 'pen. Not because his 82 mile per hour heater will get batters out, but rather -- that's where he can least hurt the Phillies. Up by by 5? Down by 6? Great, put Moyer in. Otherwise, we don't want to see him throw another pitch for the Phillies. Ever.

3. We are under one month until college football starts. We can't wait to see Georgia go pistol whip The Ladies of Mike Gundy. And that night we get to see Mighty OU play BYU in Jerry Jones Stadium. Many trend setters are saying BYU has a great shot at the W. We say OU wins, 52 - 20.

4. Logged in 4.75 miles this morning. The scale told us we had lost 1.5 pounds this week. That's 26.5 pounds gone since March, with 9.5 more to go.

Teaching a boy a lesson...

Just finished a marathon set of tennis. We teamed up with The Playmaker's Sister to defeat The Playmaker, 7-6 (7-5), in a grueling 90 minute affair played in the heat and humidity. The sibling rivalry got a bit intense and culminated with The Playmaker talking some trash to his sister. At that point we added a few miles per hour to our serve and taught the boy a lesson.

The end result?

We are headed for The Shower.

The Playmaker's Sister is, to put it mildly, quite happy.

And The Playmaker is face down in the front yard. And he's been there for 15 minutes.

Very (un)interesting...

The Wife is a huge People Magazine reader. Most weeks we never even set eyes on it. And when we do, it's only to catch the latest on Britney Spears or one of the cheesy TV shows we watch.

Anyway, we thought it would be funny to look through this week's issue and have a running commentary on it. We'll start off with just the front cover.

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1. The cover features a Saved by the Bell Reunion photo. We seem to remember the show was on Saturday mornings about 20 years ago. We also note that Tiffani Amber Thiessen David Silver Brian Austin Green still looks darn good. And Mario Lopez is still trying way too hard to look cool and sexy. The other three people in the photo all seem to grasp that they are no longer young and hip. Perhaps Obviously, Mario missed the memo.

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2. There is the obligatory photo of Michael Jackson. Not sure why this creep is still in the news. He was just another druggie musician who made about six really good songs.

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3. LeAnn Rimes is, according to the cover headline, separated from her husband. We must confess we have no frigging clue who LeAnn Rimes is. (Nor do we know anything about her husband, errrr, soon-to-be ex-husband.)

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4. Rounding out the front cover is an EXCLUSIVE! about "Bachelorette Jillian's Choice". We know that is a TV show, but we are proud to say we have never wasted one second of our life watching it. We can only begin to wonder what she is choosing. (Diet Coke or Coke Zero? Cream or half-and-half?)

Best we can do...

Last weekend's ribs...

Cliff Lee: Well worth $35!

We waited and waited. When the season started, the price of the MLB.com computer package was (we think) about $140. For that, you got to watch every game on your computer -- most in high definition. The Playmaker would ask every few days, "When are you going to order the MLB package?" As the Phillies did their annual April slow start, our answer was, "When the Phillies start playing well, we'll get it."

Yesterday, we finally pulled the trigger. A full three months after the Phillies started playing well.

And what made us do it?

Well, the price had dropped all the way down to $35.

That and the fact the Phillies went out and got Cliff Lee. We did not want to miss his first start. It's as simple as that.

And so it was last night that The Wife woke us up on the couch around 10 to tell us she was going to bed. We, instead, headed for the computer.

Three hours later, we were proud to say we saw Cliff Lee's entire complete game victory (in HD, no less). And we got to listen to the Phillies' announcers call the game.

Here's the final batter of the game.