Is it Football Season yet?

It sure says something about the NFL's power over America - okay, mainly it's power over me - when I'm writing a blog in April about football. This past weekend was the NFL Draft and while I don't watch every pick, I keep up with it over the computer and occasionally during TV surfing.

I kept a special eye this year on the Giants picks during the draft as I wanted to see what Giants GM Jerry Reese had for an encore after his absolutely a stellar draft last year when 7 rookies that Reese drafted made an immediate, important impact on the team during the regular season and during the Giants' Super Bowl XLII run.

This year, I was pleased with the players that the team got.

1) Kenny Phillips, S, Miami

2) Terrell Thomas, CB, USC

3) Mario Manningham, WR/Toker, Michigan

4) Bryan Kehl, LB, BYU

5) Jonathan Goff, LB, Vanderbilt

6) Andre' Woodson, QB, Kentucky

7) Robert Henderson, DE, So. Mississippi

While I've never seen any of them play, I've heard good things about them. I'm especially excited to see "Super" Mario Manningham play. Supposedly at the beginning of the year he was charted to be a Top 5 pick. He dropped to the 3rd round this year because he lied about failing 2 marijuana tests and he scored really low on some dumb football intelligence test. A lot of teams dropped him off their draft boards because of those issues. Dumb if you ask me...I mean, who among us hasn't ....scored poorly on a football intelligence test before?

The Giants took a risk, but it could turn out to be huge for the team if Manningham performs well in the NFL. Plus, he's got Burress, Toomer, Smith and Tyree ahead of him, so if he slips up it won't be a huge blow to the team's draft chart.

I already have visions of awesome Manning to Manningham football plays....and word plays....

Thank God!!

If you read one of my blogs about the Madden curse awhile back, you know that I was worried about Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning being on the cover of Madden 09. I was worried because that would be horrible if Manning was subject to the notorious Madden curse. Well, my fears were allayed today when I learned that Brett Favre would be on the cover. Thank God!

What does Favre have to be worried about anyway? He's retired

And even if he comes back from retirement and does get hurt because of the curse, he can always take some painkillers to keep on playing. Oh right, that already happened.

Entertain Me With...Forgetting Sarah Marshall

I'm a fanatical hater of movies. I love watching them, but usually after watching them, I really criticize and pick apart movies to no end. There are very few movies that I actually think are stellar. After seeing Forgetting Sarah Marshall this past weekend, I finally figured it out the method to my madness.

I'm influenced too much by hype. ...

Usually, when I go to a movie and don't know too much about it - as was the case with FSM - I end up liking the movie much more than if I read - which I usually do - a lot of reviews or information in anticipation of a movie.

With FSM, I didn't know a lot about the movie. I knew somewhat it was from the same people as Knocked Up and 40 Year Old Virgin - both of which I liked - but that is basically all I knew about it. Outside of that, I hadn't read anything else about the plot about the movie.

After seeing the movie this past weekend, I must say that I was thoroughly entertained with it. I thought it was funny and sad at the same time and it kept me thoroughly enthralled throughout.

Highly recommended.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to my mother-in-law and father-in-law, whose birthdays fall on today and tomorrow. How interesting is that their birthdays are one day from each other!?

Happy Birthday Donnie Baseball

Happy 47th Birthday Don Mattingly!

If you thought my obsession with New York Giants QB Eli Manning was an unhealthy one - congrats for getting married to past weekend, Eli - you should know that I grew up idolizing New York Yankees first baseman Don Mattingly. That includes creating scrap books with newspaper articles about him when I was a teenager, collecting 800+ of his cards and recognizing Don Mattingly's birthday every year - not with a cake or anything...it's not like I'm psycho.

Happy Birthday Donnie Baseball

American Idol Disaster!

I haven't blogged in such a long time about my American Idol bet with my wife, because my picks have been such a disaster. I suck at picking reality show contestants - just ask Smelmooo about our Survivor contests. The wife and I picked 12 contestants a couple months ago and after last night's show I have ONE contestant left (My No. 1 pick) - and even she isn't doing well.

Here's how things are shaping up. An Eli Manning-like miracle needs to happen to save my sorry ass team.

Paperboy's Wife

1 - Michael Johns - 8th Place
2 – David Archuleta
3 – Syesha Mercado
4 – Asia’h Epperson – Out Week 3
5 – Brooke White
6 – David Cook
7 – Robbie Carrico – Out Week 2
8 – Danny Norriega – Out Week 3
9 – Amanda Overmyer – Out in 11th place
10 – Alaina Whitaker – Out Week 2
11 – Jason Yeager – Out Week 2
12 – Jason Castro

Paperboy

1 – Carly Smithson
2 – Ramiele Malubay - 9th Place
3 – Joanne Borgella – Out Week 1
4 – David Hernandez – Out in 12th place
5 – Alexandrea Lushington – Out Week 2
6 – Kristy Lee Cook - 7th Place
7 – Luke Menard – Out Week 3
8 – Colton David Berry – Out Week 1
9 – Amy Jean Davis – Out Week 1
10 – Chikezie Eze - 10th Place
11 – Kady Malloy – Out Week 3
12 – Garrett Haley – Out Week 1

Nearing Completion...

I can't believe I'm about to say this, but all of the major, major work on the master bathroom is complete! We have a few minor things to do with the bathroom (install new fan, few more baseboards, backsplash and minor adjustment to sink), but it's now in use for all kinds of bathroom related activity!

Booyah!

Master of Disaster

Congrats to BBR for his 4th place finish in my friend's $50 NL Poker Tournament this past Saturday. I, like BBR, got many great hands, played tight, only raised when I had the nuts and finished in 27th place out of 28 people.

What a horrific showing by yours truly. I'll stick to writing sporadic blogs...

The Stages of Life

Ok, here's something totally worth writing about. My good buddy Mike has a two-week old. Congrats buddy! It's so crazy that he's a father now and it really starting to hit me as many of our friends are either pregnant or recently had kids. It's also really starting to hit me that I'm passing onto the next stage of my life after college.

The stages that everyone goes through after college include:

Ages 22-24 - You're still wishing you were in college and you're drinking until you pass out on top of 6 naked strippers
Ages 24-27 - You're Dating girls, still wishing you were in college and still drinking your face off with older strippers.
27-29 - Your friends and maybe you are getting married each summer weekend and you're still drinking your face off at their weddings.
29-now - Your friends and maybe you are starting to have kids and now you're drinking baby's -- not breast - milk to make sure it's not too hot.

At a Loss for Words

I haven't posted in a week or so as I haven't felt the urge to write anything. I was planning on doing something about the opening week for the Yankees and haven't had the time or inclination to do so...So, for now, I'll leave you with an image of me in Sedona hanging dangerously off the Red Rocks. Those are some major stones...

This is Awesome!

Words can't do this ring justice, so I won't say anything at all.

Clarification

For the befuddled, confused and perplexed among us - there were a few that emailed me yesterday to see if I was okay - I wanted to remind you that yesterday was April Fool's Day....and such the story that was posted was complete and utter fabrication.

Unfortunate Bathroom-Related Project News

The Bathroom project (from hell) took a turn for the worst last night.

To make a long story short...We were working on installing the toilet to the floor last night and I put too much of my fat ass weight on the toilet's unstable flange -- the thingie that goes at the base of the toilet and secures it to the floor.

Well, it broke ...

And the next thing I know, I fell through the floor and ended up upside down and scraped up somewhere between the upstairs bathroom and the downstairs dining room...a la Tom Hanks in the Money Pit.

Jesus.