Random Thoughts: March Edition

Random Thoughts While Trying To Figure Out How Canada Lost To Italy In The World Baseball Classic:

-- Actually, lets start right there. How did that happen?!?!? I can't name THREE Italian ball players!!! Mike Piazza didn't even play!!! I can't stop using exclamation points!!!! I know the WBC is basically glorified spring training, and the Canadian pitching staff is so bad, I'm fairly certain I was the last man left off the roster, but still....sad day for Canada...

-- A great day for Canada was when they announced that Jillian will be the next Bachelorette. I thoroughly enjoyed watching her romp through this past season of "The Bachelor" with her kickin' Canadian accent. Saying things like "I would not be a-GAY-anst sharing the Fantasy Suite with Jason" or when she told him about her encounter with OgoPogo in Alberta. Hilarity...

-- By the way, for you Americans, the top 8 words that sound much more fun when said by us Canadians:

8. Process ("PROH-cess")

7. Against (a-GAY-anst")

6. Go ("goo")

5. Organization ("or-gan--EYE-zay-SHUN")

4. Schedule ("SHED-you-ul")

3. About ("ah-boot")

2. Asphalt ("ASH-falt")

1. Kudos ("coooooooo-dooooooooooze")

-- Speaking of "The Bachelor," my fantasy sports addiction took an ugly turn this winter as I got talked into participating in a "Fantasy Bachelor" pool run by one of Jen's co-workers out of Chicago. I don't know whether I'm proud or terrified to say I finished 5th, beat 7 other WOMEN, and dusted Jen, who finished dead last...

-- And finally, much hand-wringing about how The Bachelor ended this season. The final verdict from my end: they're all d-bags...Jason, Molly and now Melissa for deciding "I should probably go home and recover from being dumped on national TV, but instead I'm going to try and extend my 15 minutes of fame even MORE by appearing on Dancing With The Stars" Sorry, Mel-Mel, you lost my sympathy right there...you're all losers...and apparently millions of us around the country, myself included, are as well for tuning in to this glorified speed-dating on heroin show every week...

-- Sister Jen comes this weekend for 5 days!! We're very excited about that!! Things in the works already are a trip to a Broadway show, a Letterman taping next Monday, and DEFINITELY a trip to Grimaldi's in Brooklyn =)

--Speaking of Broadway, Jen and I have had a run on the Great White Way lately. We saw "You're Welcome America," the Will Ferrell as President Bush show, and it was frickin' hilarious. I IMPLORE you to watch the live performance HBO is broadcasting this Saturday...and if you don't have HBO, call your cable company and get it. I laughed for 90 solid minutes, and you'll never be able to think of the term "Western grip" again.

-- Mr. Ferrell was also nice enough to autograph Jen's Playbill afterwards.

-- We also saw "The 39 Steps" last week, which was also excellent. A Hitchcock film with some comedy thrown in as well...very good times...our friend Laura came with us and enjoyed it as well...Broadway is getting a bit better with more plays coming this spring, and I have a feeling we'll be back sooner rather than later...

-- Our trivia team continues to ride the Mother of all roller-coasters. If we've not explained it before, The Transplants (our old team) disbanded before this season with Dawn having to work late and not being able to participate anymore, and us wanting to get rid of the dead (re: "old) weight on the team. So we merged with James, Laura and Andy's team (which was Laura's grand plan all along apparently) and are joined by our friends Jon and Nick..for a team of 7 known as "Impeach Mayor McCheese."....we bottomed out with 49 points two weeks ago...49 points!!!!! Out of 100!!! That's pathetic...then, last night, we had a good night in the music, and suddenly we placed second with 89 points....so we're all over the map...Lord only knows what our score will be next week....

-- There's comedy, there's high comedy, there's transcendent comedy, and then there's pictures of Katie Collins Neal and Brian Neal in their Snuggie (see their blog). Remind me to buy Jen Sweeney a drink the next time I see her for allowing that comedy...whoo boy...

-- And if you're paying attention, the DiMaggio-like streak of me mentioning the Neal-blog continues....I should get royalties, considering we NEVER get plugged...whatever, she's just mad that Kentucky isn't gonna make the NCAA Tournament

-- Random Celebrity sightings in the past few weeks: Geoffrey Rush (in Barnes and Noble near Jen's work), Bob Ley (randomly on the corner of 56th and 9th today as I walked to work), Katie Couric (another elevator encounter at work last Tuesday), Taylor Momsen (at Columbus Circle...I said "Hi Taylor!" to her...I SHOULD have said "what's up Little J?!")

-- As you can see from above, Jen has really taken over what I watch these days. Between Gossip Girl, The Bachelor, 90210, Gray's Anatomy and Private Practice, I'm 50-percent gay at this point unfortunately.....however, I still manage to balance it out with shows like Survivor, Hell's Kitchen, Leverage (I demand you watch that show when it comes back on) and my personal favorite at the moment, "From G's to Gents" on MTV (thanks James and Laura!!)

-- Jen took her first trip into Hoboken, New Jersey last weekend. We went in last Saturday to hang out with my co-worker Jen and her boyfriend Jon at watch the St. Patrick's Day parade in that city. Its an annual tradition for Hoboken, so we watched from the windows as everyone marched down Washington Street...we also got plastered, which is always fun when you don't have to drive home...though riding with the crush of people on the PATH Train back to Manhattan was less than pleasurable....

-- We got in a little bowling action last Monday night....a bunch of Jen's co-workers met downtown to roll a few, and I ended the night on a real positive note by throwing six strikes in a row to finish our last game and end with a score of 201....I should retire after that, but Lord knows I'll be back out there...

-- As everyone knows, dinner parties are Jen's favorite things to do, and we managed to clean the apartment enough to have James, Laura, Andy and Dawn over last Sunday evening. Jen made brisket, which was fantastic....and I tried a new appetizer, which was a huge hit: deep fried pickles. Yep, deep fried pickles. Pulled the recipe out of a Deen Brothers cookbook (shocker there) and they were a huge hit.

-- We can't wait to come home for a variety of reasons, but a HUGE one know is we get to meet Mom and Dad's new golden....following the passing of the Murph Man, we knew it wouldn't be too long before Barb and Jack rescued another golden retriever from Homeward Bound...well, they've adopted a 3-year-old named Wrangler, and from the pictures, he's adorable....

-- I'm sure I'm forgetting other stuff over the last month, which only means I need to get better at posting more often. We'll hope that happens, and we can't wait to see everyone in less than a month!!

Mike