Rewriting Jackson History

The following is the view of Mike Watts and Mike Watts only. Well probably some other people in this world too. But its my handiwork.


OK, quick rant this time. And I need to preface this with the fact that while I'm annoyed that Michael Jackson's death has led to my wife being gone for a total of 7 days, with 5 more on the horizon, THAT isn't the reason for this rant.

Look, I enjoyed Michael Jackson's music growing up. I remember when Thriller came out. I was 7 years old living in Florida at the time. I remember seeing the video for Thriller, and having it scare the bejesus out of me. I enjoyed Billie Jean, Beat It, The Way You Make Me Feel, and a few others.

And then Michael Jackson went crazy right around 1990, and that was it...I listened to songs like Black or White, Remember the Time and such, but certainly didn't think they were anything great.

And that was that...I didn't think anything extra about Michael Jackson again...he was just some weird guy who showed up in the tabloids every now and then, who molested some kids, and stayed in seclusion.

Frankly, I think most of the world felt the same way I did...we stopped paying attention, and everyone was ok with that....and that includes everyone..white people...black people...all people. He was a joke in the black community. Black people were ashamed of him. They wanted to disassociate themselves from him, and frankly, Michael did everything he could to push away from the African-American community as well. Problem was, us white people didn't want him either at that time. By that point, he was a freak show, and we have plenty of those already, thanks.

My point is, ever since Jackson died, I've watched people of all colors basically give themselves false narratives for their relationship with him. People on camera saying things like "Thriller was the soundtrack of my life" and "I listened to his music all the time." People running down the Apollo Theater to dance around pictures of Michael and celebrate his life. Seriously. SERIOUSLY!

Bullshit. Its all bullshit. Talk about revisionist history. No one in the WORLD cared about Michael Jackson for the last 15 years...possibly more. In fact, we were turned off by him. And why wouldn't we be. The guy molested children. HE MOLESTED CHILDREN. And I know he wasn't found guilty, but when you give the families of the kids millions of dollars as a payout...well, we can all draw our own conclusions. And since he's dead and there's no threat of a libel lawsuit, I'll continue to say it. HE MOLESTED CHILDREN. Go read the Vanity Fair articles from back in 2003-04. Its all there. You can't see all that information and not think it. Remember, OJ wasn't found guilty either.

And what's funny is, everyone in the world seems to have given him a mulligan on the last 15 years. Unbelievable. Of course, ask these same people if they would have allowed their child to go to the Neverland Ranch and you get the ol' "of course not! I'm just saying..." No, what you're saying is you were as turned off by Jacko as the rest of us, but now you think you HAVE to show some sort of pining feeling for the man. Ridiculous.


Watching these people all head to the Apollo the other morning, I couldn't help but shake my head. Especially even more when I found out my friend Andy was one of these people. His actual answer when I asked him what the heck he was doing down there was, "well, I saw it on TV and it looked like everyone was having fun." I remain flabbergasted that there are so many people who are so mentally incompetent, they see something like this on TV, and think, "well, this is a major moment...and I need to be a part of it."


Look, everyone needs to stop with the revisionist history when it comes to Michael Jackson and remember him for what he was...a really good musician...a monumental pop star for his time, and then a sleazy joke for the last 15 years. Period. The faster they get this nut job in the ground, the better.


And take LaToya with him....


Mike Watts

I know, everyoe misses the blog

Hello loyal and complaining readers.

I know, I know... It's been well over 2 months since we've updated the blog. Maybe its my constant updates on facebook or my more infrequent tweets on twitter, but I haven't been much of a blogger these days.

Anyhow, to ward of the complaints I'm updating today to let you know of Mike's big award last night.

Mike got an award for excellence in news coverage.

The award was given to him and 3 of his co workers for a compilation of reports and coverage they did on the resignation of Gov. Spitzer last year.

It was presented to them last night at the NY city press club
banquet.

Anyhow, its really cool! I'm proud of him. He can now put that he's an

award winning journalist on his resume.

Go Mike!!

Subway Pet Peeves

We ride the subway every day, and while it is a good way to get around town, there are some issues with people on the trains that drive me batty. And 2 of those issues happened to me today within about 5 minutes as I was headed home from work.





So consider this kind of a PSA about subway etiquette....I'm sure I'll be adding to it throughout the days and months, but lets start with these two.





1. I don't need to hear your conversation. Do you hear me, LaQualia (common spelling)? Here I am, sitting down, trying to listen to The All-American Rejects on my iPod, but no, I've got LaQualia complaining to her ghetto-ass friends about how Rodney was fronting on someone's sista last night outside The Quail or something...and she's gotta be nice and loud so we can all hear about her struggles with her man and how if Shaqwana (common spelling) keeps working her patience, she's gonna have to slap her "n-word face."





Seriously? SERIOUSLY?!?! Shut up....shut up LaQualia. No one cares, and no one wants to hear it. Also, no one wants to look at your gold tooth, but thats a whole other complaint.






2. Since I get off work between 6 and 63opm every day, the A train is usually crowded with folks heading home and its very hard to get a seat as we make our way up town. I get on at 59th Street..the stops that follow are 125th, 145th, 168th, 175th, 181st, 190th, 200th, and finally 207th, where I get off. So when I get on the train, I usually go stand in the middle and angle myself to where I will be able to get a seat after the first couple of stops.





Now I like to think my mother raised me right, and 99.9 percent of the time if there's someone also waiting for the seat that probably could use it more than I, I'm more than happy to cede it to them. I'll even get up from my chair if someone who needs a seat gets on after I've snagged one.





But here's the deal. Here's who, in my mind, deserves a seat more than me after a hard day's work.



1. an elderly person

2. a pregnant woman

3. a child under the age of 6 who wants to sit next to their parent





That's it. That's the list. And I'll tell you, I've had many a daggering glance thrown at me by young women after I've stepped in front of them or around them to grab a seat instead of them.



Here's the deal ladies, and I mean this in the best way possible. I have all the respect in the world for you. I believe in your right to equal pay. Your right to bear a child, or abort one. You should be treated like a man.






And since I feel you are equal to men, you are genderless in my eyes, therefore, if I get the seat and you don't.....tough shit. Better luck next time. And save me the dirty looks. It's not my fault you weren't quick enough to step around the homeless guy and snag the seat next to the old woman who went crazy with the perfume today and looks as if Protestantism is springing from her womb. You should always get the seat before me. I'm overweight and have a terrible sense of balance sometimes. I'm several small steps away from being about as coordinated as Corky from Life Goes On. So what does that say about your seat-snagging skills that I got the chair?





Back to the drawing board for you, LaQualia (common spelling)





Hugs





Mike

April Showers...

...bring more blog posts.

Its pouring rain here today....one day after it was 75 degrees. Christ I hate the East Coast for spring. Its just a never knowing game of "what's it gonna be like today" Though I shouldn't complain, cause we're only about six weeks away from "f'in' stinkin' hot and humid." So I take it all back.

We've had lots go on since the last posting...i.e. since Wake Forest got dumped in the NCAA Tourney and I gleefully poked fun at Katie Neal (though I think she got the last laugh by posting pictures of my pathetic attempt at an Eiffel Tower during a mean game of Cranium...I thought those pictures had been lost for eternity...darn it all)

Anyways, lets start with Sister Jen's visit several weeks back. Jen came out for a few days, and while we didn't hit it too hard, we managed to pack in more than enough stuff to do.

We started by going to see Exit the King on Broadway with Geoffrey Rush and Susan Sarandon. It was really good, and Sister Jen managed to stay awake for it despite getting minimal sleep on the plane and the night before, considering we dragged her there just 2 hours after she got to our house.

In fact, I was the one who managed to fall asleep on the way home.

Funny thing about that day...as we were walking back to the train, we saw a large gathering of people waiting outside a hotel in Midtown for something. We thought it was the auditions for "America's Got Talent," so we walked over to see what was going on...Jen said she saw smoke coming from somewhere, and then all these people started screaming and running. We thought they must have seen someone famous, so we said "whatever" and walked away. The next day we learned it was the auditions for "America's Next Top Model," someone had seen a smoking car and yelled "bomb!" and then there were hundreds of high-heeled models dashing for cover.

Sister Jen got introduced to our friends James, Laura and Andy, and their friend Rob was in town as well, so a large group of us went out to dinner, and then we ALL got introduced to the movie Andy starred in when he was in college. It was a college project and it is, without a doubt, a mind trip. I plan to show it to everyone who shows up here to visit now. Its that good.

Anyways, Andy was a good sport about it.

Jen also decided to go crazy and get some rice pudding one night. I don't know why...how can my wife like rice pudding? It looks awful, it has the consistency of maggots in pudding...its just wrong. Anyways, she liked it...c'est la vie.

We also took in the Letterman show, got some good pizza at Lombardi's, Sister Jen and I caught "The Daily Show" one day, The Jen's got some Century 21 shopping in, all in all, a great visit from Sister Jen!!

A few days after that, Jen and I went to the Kings-Knicks game at MSG. I can't name more than 4 Kings players these days, and Jen was lucky to name one (Kevin Martin). We decided it would be fun to go to, despite my paying attention to the NBA these days involves my one fantasy basketball league, which I somehow managed to win actually, so while I knew the Kings were God-awful these days, I didn't think they could be much worse than the Knicks, who are really really mediocre.

Somehow the Kings raced out to a 15-zip lead, were up by like 37 points at one point, one won by 27. Unbelievable?! This is the team that had the worst record in the NBA? Really? The Kings looked like world-beaters. Hopefully the team is much better next season.

Anyways, Jen's favorite part of the game was watching Anthony Anderson from Law and Order sitting front row doing Michael Jackson dances during timeouts late in the game. Spinning on his head and everything. Sadly, no shots of that, but here's a couple from The Garden.

We've also managed to keep exploring new neighborhoods. Grabbed some dinner with my co-worker Jen and her boyfriend Jon and other co-worker Jim and his wife Heidi in Jen's neighborhood of Hoboken. Actually found some good Mexican food there.

Also took time to go to Queens to meet up with Jen's co-worker Mario, his wife Michelle, and their newborn daughter Mia.

Finally, loyal blog readers know that Jen and I play trivia at the Piper's Kilt, our local bar in the hood, on Tuesday nights. This season we joined up with James, Laura, Andy, and fellow friends Jon, Liz and Nick to form the team "Impeach Mayor McCheese." We'd been finishing middle of the pack or so, but Mike Bowe (the bar director who runs the trivia night) is a good friend of ours, and he asked me to host the trivia night one night.

To be the host at trivia night, you have to be funny, charming and amusing, all while keeping it fun, but also keeping it moving. You have to be able to think on your feet. Sadly, I am non of these, but I am a ham, so I ended up doing it, and it was a lot of fun. And amazingly, "Impeach Mayor McCheese" actually came in first place that night! I know....unbelievable. You would think we were working out of the Katie Neal authored "It Aint' Cheatin' If You Don't Get Caught" rulebook, but I actually didn't help them cheat...though I did give Jen one answer.. =)

Besides my team made more fun of me hosting then anybody else! They, like me, are a bunch of smart-asses, and apparently Laura had made signs up earlier in the day to heckle me with. Five of them in big bold letters...I wish I had them still, but they read,

"NOT FUNNY"

"GO BACK TO CANADA"

"HURRY THE FUCK UP"

"YOU'RE DRUNK"

and of course...

"WE'VE BEEN MISLED"

(in reference to the famous misled radio incident on 1240 in Sac)

All in good fun, I suppose...I can't wait for them to host something.... ;)

Mike Bowe and the host

Some of my "McCheese" team and their MEAN signs!

Anyways, there's been other stuff that either didn't warrant pictures at the time, or I'm forgetting (which is more likely the case). We had a great time in California and Jen or I will get that blog done soon....but tomorrow begins the unpacking...our stuff arrives from California tomorrow, and we're super excited. Expect a blog posting over the weekend regarding our trip, and then one more when we get everything set up in our apartment and such!!

Toodles

Mike

The Neal's March Goes Mad

I'm not gonna lie...this post is completely for antagonizing purposes...



When Jen and I got to spend part of the holiday season with Brian and Katie Neal, we saw them right after what was, at the time, the biggest college basketball upset of the season...Brian's beloved Syracuse Orangemen had been dumped by little known Cleveland State...CLEVELAND STATE!!!!



There isn't a person in the world not affiliated with that college that even knew Cleveland State EXISTED!!



Of course, myself and Brian's other friends gave him all kinds of grief that night we saw him...wondering how it was possible the Orange could get dumped by a team like the Vikings (and yes, I had to look up their mascot...thanks Google)

NOW, fast forward three months, and as the brackets for the NCAA Tournament came out, I gave them a glance and noticed that Cleveland State had made the tournament as a 13 seed and would be facing....Wake Forest...otherwise known as the collegiate home of one Katie Neal...




Katie's very conflicted when it comes to her college hoops to begin with...she wants to root for the Demon Deacons since she went there, but she also wants to root for Kentucky, since she grew up in the Bluegrass State...it all came to a head several years ago when we had a NCAA hoops/Easter Egg painting party at 590 Ark Way that featured Wake and Kentucky playing on different channels and Katie showed up with a Kentucky T-shirt and a Wake Forest sweatshirt, and kept pulling the sweatshirt off and on depending on which game we were watching...




Anyways, I had the huge urge to text the Neals and ask them if they were prepared to have Cleveland State break their hearts for the 2nd time in 3 months...and since Kentucky couldn't muster the strength to get into the Big Dance this year, you know Katie was gonna be riding Wake all the way....and why not? This was a team that was number one in the country a few weeks back...





I will repeat that...





THIS WAS A TEAM THAT WAS RANKED NUMBER ONE IN THE COUNTRY A FEW WEEKS BACK...



They had stumbled a bit since then, but few people figured they'd have problems with Cleveland State...




well....




CLEVELAND STATE 84 WAKE FOREST 69

We probably should have seen this coming. Cleveland State had a history in the NCAA Tournament of pulling the upset. It was back in 1986 when, as a 14 seed, they beat heavily favored Indiana and followed it up with a win over St. Joseph's to make the Sweet 16...

Still though...needless to say, if any future Neal children express an interest in going to Cleveland State to further their education, they'll be shipped off to Somalia for hard labor instead...

Mike

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

Been A Longtime..

Hi guys!

Sorry it's been awhile. No real excuse, just fell behind.

So we've done some cool things lately. A few weeks ago we had to take Cooper in for a haircut. His groomer is over by Central Park on the Upper Westside of Manhattan so a couple Saturdays ago we took him on the subway and into the Groomer.

Cooper's not a huge fan of the subway, but he doesn't mind as long as he can stick his head out of his travel bag.

We had about a good 4-5 hours to kill while Cooper was being Groomed so we decided to grab brunch and then head to the Central Park Zoo. We went to the Bronx Zoo a few months ago and loved it. The Central Park Zoo is way smaller, but very adorable. We saw sea lions, penguins, monkeys, red pandas and rain forest birds. It was a cool thing to see and fun to explore. Central Park is HUGE. Every time we go there we see something different. I love it.

Here are the sea lions showing off to the crowds..

And here's Mike asleep on a park bench while I watched the sea lions

We got back to the groomer before Cooper was done so we got to watch them finish him up.. We were such dorks we didn't want him to see us watching him so we were hiding our faces from him.

So that's how we spent the weekend before Valentines Day.

For Valentines Day we went to Barbetta. It was awesome. Barbetta is the oldest restaurant in Manhattan and has a lot of history. It's in an adorable Brownstone and just beautiful inside... There were several different dining rooms all very elegant and romantic. There was a man playing a saxophone in between the dining rooms on the 2nd floor and then on the first floor they had a jazz bland playing swing music. After dinner we had a few dances. It was really fun and felt very New York.

Bonjour Montreal!!

Mom, this one is for you....hehehe

C'est l'hiver et que les moyens de son temps pour mon père et moi à jet vers la NHL Match Des Etoiles. Cette année, le jeu a été à Montréal, une ville, je n'avais jamais été à l'avant. J'ai donc été définitivement hâte d'arriver à passer quelque temps au Québec, où le français et l'anglais est roi est le retard de l'étape-enfant ne parle.

Papa a pris un vol en retard au début de l'année et a obtenu vendredi matin. Je suis arrivé un peu plus tard dans la journée, baissé mes bagages à l'hôtel, puis nous nous sommes dirigés vers le Centre Bell pour ramasser nos médias pouvoirs et aller vers le lecteur interviews. Voici un aperçu de certains des gars que nous avons passé du temps avec.

Patrick Marleau

Roberto Luongo

Jonathan Toews

Joe Thornton

Henrik Lundqvist

Alexander Ovechkin

Evgeni Malkin

Après cela, nous avons donné des coups de pied dans la ville pour un peu. Certains architecture soignée, à Montréal. Pas tout à fait étrange que tant que la ville de Québec (comme vu dans les photos de Katie Neal's blog), mais toujours très cool.

Samedi nous sommes allés au Des Etoiles pratique le matin et a obtenu à coup de pied dans le Centre Bell. Incroyable de voir toutes les bannières dans les chevrons montrant remporte la Coupe Stanley pour les Canadiens et les retraités, le nombre de gars comme Maurice Richard, Jean Béliveau, Guy Lafleur et Patrick Roy.

Samedi soir, nous sommes allés à la concurrence des compétences, puis nous sommes allés à la barre de saut de papa ancien colocataire Sylvain hockey. Par vieux, je ne veux pas dire l'âge (il a 28) Je veux dire qu'il avait l'habitude de jouer sur de papa dans l'équipe de hockey avant de Roseville, il retourne à Montréal.

De toute façon, nous sommes allés à quatre différents bars et pu voir le centre-ville de Montréal. Amusant de voir mon père sur un lien, n'avait pas vu ça avant. Aussi amusant pour obtenir de lui expliquer ce que la barre est un couguar et autres.

Une grande partie grâce à Sylvain de nous un bon moment samedi soir!

Dimanche, nous avons eu le brunch avec Sylvain, et ensuite à la partie. Tout grand jeu, compte tenu Des Etoiles des jeux peuvent être éruptions ou snoozers. Il a fini par entrer dans les heures supplémentaires, et ensuite en tant OT Luongo et Tim Thomas a fait énorme sauve et il a fini par entrer dans une fusillade. En ce point, la foule était à ses pieds, même avec nous dans la presse, et il a pris fin lorsque Alex Ovechkin a marqué sur Luongo à l'Est une victoire de 12-11.

En passant, félicitations à Montréal pour leur grande foule à la partie. Ils ont apporté la Ole Ole Ole chant, ils ont applaudi à tout moment le droit, est devenu fou quand le vieux Canadiens légendes ont été annoncés à la foule (cette saison est le 100e anniversaire de la franchise des Canadiens) et sont tout ensemble ... c'est fantastique pourquoi ils ne devraient jamais l'hôte du All-Star Game dans les villes qui n'ont pas de hockey de l'histoire (c'est-à-dire d'Atlanta l'année dernière) ... c'est toujours mieux quand son dans une ville qui est une bonne ville de hockey.

Lundi matin nous avons eu un peu de temps pour prendre des photos autour de la ville. Ils ont gelé les maillots de chaque équipe par l'arène, ce qui nous a saisi il ya quelques photos, et également fait en sorte d'obtenir une photo prise avec nos "à froid" les chapeaux des gens à la LNH avait donné à nos médias sac.

Dans l'ensemble, un autre grand voyage. Bon à voir et passer du bon temps avec papa. Pas de All Star jeu la saison prochaine (à cause de Jeux olympiques d'hiver), mais vous pouvez parier que nous allons être de retour en 2011 à la tête quand il à chaud que le hockey lit de Phoenix (oh non).

Now, if anyone doesn't know French, go to Google Translate, and you can copy and paste this entry in and get the English translation...I just did this knowing my mother, who hates Quebec and French Canadiens, would go crazy...Love you Mom!!! =)

Super Bowl Commercials

So I'm at the bar watching the game with a bunch of football fans and here I am the commercial fan.

So I'm doing this blog from my blackberry while at the bar...

Here's the bar blog...

Loved the Pepsi, Bob Dylan, Will.I.Am commercial comparing the decades then and now.. Good stuff


Also the Doritos. Snow globe commercial... Signs point to yes was a good one.


Budlight had a few strong showings the timely economic cutbacks mtg where a poor sap suggests getting rid of the bud light at department mtgs and gets tossed out the window or the Conan O'Brien in leather chaps and bunny ears was quite fun as well.

As for Budweiser... they brought it!
1)The Clydesdale. Playing fetch. With a stick like the Dalmatian- Adorable!

2) And The There ain't no mountain high enough that will keep the Clydesdale from chasing down Daisy the White Circus Pony-- too cute.

As of the second quarter my favorite commercial so far is the Cheetos commercial, because I have totally had the experience of sitting next to a totally annoying person chatting away on her cell phone and have wished that she would be suddenly attacked pigeons.

As for that Cash into Gold Commercial.. it just made me sad for Ed McMahon, I hate that he's looped in on the same category now as MC hammer. Well hopefully he made enough money to not have his home foreclosed on again.

Anyhow... that's as far as I got w/ the bar blog... what did you all think? What was your favorite?

Having Fun in the Warm California Sun

I had an amazing quick weekend getaway to California this long weekend. First let me tell you the weather was unbelievable for January. Sure it may be global warming, but it was sunny, 70 and beautiful.. When I left NY the high was 10 degrees and the wind chill made it feel 10 below. It was awful. Awfully horribly cold!

So what brought me West? My long time fabulous friend Kelly is pregnant, 8 months pregnant with a baby girl and I just had to see her pregnant! I've known Kel since 6th grade, we met at space camp in Huntsville, AL. 20 yrs ago. Week long trips to space camp were common for Sacramento area sixth graders. That's clearly no longer the case. Now obviously neither of us went on to be astronauts but we did go on to be wonderful friends and I didn't want to miss seeing her at this milestone moment. The beautiful weather was just a perk!

I got to spend 2 full days in Sacramento which allowed me time to see a good amount of friends.
Met college sorority sisters for lunch, the one in green is Christina, my big sis from the sorority drove all the way down from Chico for the lunch, isn't she the sweetest? She is a new mommy too!! She went home with a pink "I love NY onesie!" :)

Afterwards I met up with Ryn and Dan before mtg Kelly for a girly manicure session.
Then we met high school friends Jill and Meghan plus Carolyn for dinner.
Jill's a new Mommy too... Won't lil Parker be adorable in this?
I also got to spend some quality time with my in-laws while I stayed under their Roseville roof... It was an amazing weekend even though my sister-in-law (not pictured) stole my bed that I left there for us to sleep in on visits back since we weren't able to take it to NY.. She was in town too because it was Mike's dad's bday weekend. Happy birthday Jack!

On Monday, I drove back into San Francisco. My wonderfully generous and thoughtful sister let me borrow her car for the weekend. I had flown into SFO on Saturday morning and drove straight from there to the shower in Lincoln. Becca had picked me up, took me to Peets coffee, wrapped Kelly's presents while I changed clothes and put on makeup and then sent me on my way with her car. Isn't she the BEST???
So back to Monday. On Monday I drove back into San Francisco. It was by far the sunniest day in SF ever! It was beautiful and clear and sunny!!
I met up w/ Becca and Mark, Katie, and Michelle for lunch in the Marina area. It was great! I hadn't seen Michelle in 2 years or so and it was so nice to catch up! We had worked together about 8 yrs ago back in my Fox 40 days.
Afterwards, Katie and I shopped around and enjoyed the sun and then later that evening Bec,

Katie and I went to Tea! Complete with petit fours and finger sandwiches. It was adorable!!
Anyhow, I had such an amazing weekend. It was so nice to have some much needed girl time. I miss my girls!!!

And good news, we've already booked our next trip back to Cali and this time both Mike and Cooper will be coming. AND we'll be in both the Sacramento area AND the L.A. Area!The 3 of us all have our tickets! We'll be in Sac 4/3-4/8 and LA 4/8-4/13.
On that note stay tuned for a rant coming on why I feel that dogs should be able to Collect Airline reward "miles.". Cooper's airfare is as high as ours and he doesn't even get a seat he has to fly in a bag at our feet! Ridiculous right? But I guess that's the price of a jet set pet!

XOXO
Jen