Check out this excuse for my forthcoming fantasy sufferings:



I was conflicted all night... trying to split hairs between Bryant Johnson and Justin Gage while constantly being prodded with some sort of Rohrschach Test. Still, two drafts in the books resulting in reluctant optimism.

Draft #1 was moving right along - 7 consecutive rounds where I drafted a top-18 (my rankings) player at his position. Then, I was TINWA'd! Swiping Chris Johnson then the Vikings D two picks later. Of course the legend of this draft starts with our first overall drafting commissioner, who managed to waste the prime draft spot by entering the season with Deuce McAllister as his featured running back.

But my Draft #2 homies were the craziest. LT fell to the 3-spot. Sitting in the 9, I managed a starting backfield of Addai and Lynch. What's weird though, is that despite Carson Palmer being a first round pick, Ryan Grant lasting to 34th overall and Nick Folk going in round 7, I can't say my team looks all that much better on paper than most.

Labels: fantasy football, photos

OBX'07 Thumbs Up: Pine Island Diner's Hawaiian Burger, Bad Bean Taqueiro's peace, the fireworks for being a scene setting on my camera, Chef Kirby's versatile menu, short and sweet Cinderella at The Lost Colony, fish swimming at Mallory's eye-level at the aquarium, Mako Mike's sub one-hour waiting time, TimbukII mini-golf's exaggerated par assessment, MJ picking up the last leg on the way home.

Labels: MJ wants to be on my blog more, photos, props, road-trips

From what I heard, the Revolution won't be televised. So thanks to free passes from Mr. Dietrich, my dad and I headed to Sovereign Stadium last night for a look at the ball park and the team. Turns out, I've got a few bullets:

The Stadium

• Parking at Small's Field cost $3, but was certainly close-by and hassle-free.
• It may not have looked like a construction zone to the extent I was expecting, but they've got plenty of work to do and hardly wowed fans with anything close to a finished product.
• The home team's RP's get the brunt of the sunlight, while the visitor's bullpen is tucked neatly in the shade.
• Obviously then those with seats on the 3rd baseline do not have the sun issues those along the 1st baseline have for the first half of evening games.
• The video board was pretty large actually, something I wasn't expecting.
• The grass was too long... not sure if that is by design since this team is supposed to be built on speed or if it just needs a fresh cut.
• The inundation with advertising wore me out by about the 3rd inning.

The Team

• Danny Bautista (former Brave) and Peter Bergeron are the active Revs to have once played in the Majors. Statistically Bergeron seems to be struggling while Bautista is putting up decent numbers.
• Kaz Tanaka has the inside track on being the fan-favorite. At 5'5", he's scrappy, bunts, steals and plays a reasonable LF.
• RP Jason Olson was my game MVP. The first 3 innings took an eternity to complete due to an abundance of hits, walks and errors. Olson came in to get the Revs out of the 3rd and then pitched 2 more timely, shut-out innings.
• No one drew the ire of the crowd more than 3rd base coach Ryan Minor who held up a base-runner rounding 3rd when it seemed apparent that he would score. His presence makes me feel old as I remember a Slam Magazine article in high school about an Oklahoma Sooner shooting guard titled "Minor Threat."
• York committed a fare share of errors (fielding and on the base-paths), but thankfully theirs were not as embarrassing as Newark 2B Javier Colina's... a slow-rolling grounder sneaked through his legs and he dropped a throw from the catcher that would have nailed a potential (slow-footed) base-stealer by about 5 steps. That Bear was a goat.
• Revolution closer Franklin Nunez made the 9th inning exciting by not making the 9th inning exciting: 3 batters faced, 2 Ks.

Here are some pics. I'd say that the experience is worth a few trips per summer.

Labels: photos, Revolution, tape-delayed blog

Sometimes the SnyPod likes to relax on the dining room table... it reminds him so much of home. By the way, he likes what they've recently done with the place.

Labels: apple, photos

Here's the challenge: What is the longest word you can come up with using only one magnetic alphabet? Can Mallory's eleven-letter word be topped?

How about this twelve-letter puzzle from last night's Wheel of Fortune: whippoorwill? Webster hyphenates it, but Sajak's wordsmithery is king in my book.

Labels: Googlecise, Mallory, photos, tv

Labels: photos