Fun + Stress + Fun + Stress + Fun + Stress + Fun + Stress = Birthday Ski Weekend Review

Click pics in the post to enlarge.
For full pics of the weekend adventure, click here.

I did what stupid people do- went to Tahoe when there were pretty big storms forecast. But it was my birthday and damnit, I was going skiing. So skiing we went.

Fun
Friday rocked. I managed to score free coffee in the morning from Peets then free lunch from the sandwich shop, but the coolest was when I got up to my sister's pad in Sacramento. I chose Chick Fil A for my birthday dinner, as I wouldn't get to eat it on Sunday, it would be easy with the kids, and well, I love it. We get there and I casually strike up a conversation with the manager, who happened to take my order. It came out that it was my bday, and she said she would hook me up with a free brownie or something, which I said was not necessary. We talk some more, and long story short she was so jazzed that we were from GA and CFA addicts that by the end of our ordering she comped my entire meal. And Bonita's too. I told her not to but she insisted. Way cool. The only thing better than your every once in a while CFA, is your every once in a while CFA on the house.

In addition I got to have my favorite dessert of all time, Mud Pie, and play with my neice & nephew before bed. A great finish to a fun bday.

Stress
Left Sac at 6.30 a.m., knowing a storm was coming through Tahoe in the morning. I knew it would be a race to beat the storm and chain control up over the Donner Summit {7200 ft} on I-80, but I was hoping to get to Alpine Meadows by the time it opened at 9, or maybe 9.30 if I had to use the chains- it's about 90 miles and with clear roads takes 2 hours.

It took 4. As we rose out of Auburn, CA it started to snow and I kept checking the radio for the status of chain control- still clear but I had a feeling that we might not beat the storm. Then a little up the road when in the other direction I saw 2 SUVs rolled over onto their roofs with the windshields and back windows smashed out, and then a jackknifed 18 wheeler, I knew that playtime was over. Cue stress of frozen bridges, then mondo snow, and soon thereafter chain control.

I put the chains on in the ever faster falling snow, and 30 minutes later we were rolling. The road was pretty gnarly so max speed was 20-25, and we were still almost 30 miles from Donner Summit outside Truckee. Finally made it over and down to Truckee, and the roads were ok, so I took that chains off. But the the road from hwy 89 up to Alpine Meadows was all snowed over and was really tricky for me without chains, I had to go like 10-15 and it was still sketchy. Got to the parking lot at 10.30, a nice 4 hour 100 mile trip. It was snowing so hard and so windy that it was apparent that it would be a whiteout all day, so I decided to put the chains back on in the parking lot so that I wouldn't have to do it at the end of the day when I was tired, it was getting dark, and there was a foot of snow on the ground. Another 30 minutes and then getting tickets, getting ready, blah blah blah.

Fun
We got our first chairlift at 12:20 p.m., and it was windy and snowy as hell, but we paid our money and we were determined to ski our asses off until the lifts closed at 4. I have skied in worse whiteouts where you couldn't see 5 feet in front of you, and this wasn't quite that bad- you could just barely see what you were doing most of the time. But the winds were crazy- up to 50 mph, which made things tricky, especially at the top of lifts.

Still it was mondo fun. At the top of the Lakeview lift is the only view of Lake Tahoe from Alpine meadows, and it is a fine view at that. For the sake of comparison, check out the view from this spot that I took last March when I skied Alpine with my sister:


Alpine Meadows lake view, March 2007

OK, now here is the same exact view from Saturday:


Alpine Meadows lake view, Saturday

Anyways, we rocked the conditions with a good attitude and enjoyed the great snow which kept accumulating throughout the day, making the snow tip top when you could see what you were doing, which at times was tricky:



Stress
At the end of the ski day it had snowed over a foot, and the stress of driving once again reared it's ugly head. We had to go from Alpine down to Tahoe City and then over to Incline Village, where our hotel room was. It's about a 20 mile drive on 2 lane state roads. We were delayed about an hour as there was a multi-car accident on the access road getting down the mountain from Alpine. Finally we managed to get out of the parking lot, but even with the chains it was apparent that this was going to be a scary drive. The roads were atrocious, and between the blizzard snow coming down and it being pitch dark, I could barely see 10 feet in front of me even with the wipers on hyperspeed.

Although there were times that I was certain we wouldn't make it and I would end up crashed on the side of the road, we finally made it to the hotel in one piece. Driving the 20 miles took an hour and a half, and although I have had to drive in storms with chains several times, these were the worst road conditions I had ever driven in. By the time we got to the hotel I was frazzled and pretty fried, and just thankful to be there in one piece. One thing was for sure- we were in for the night- there was no way I was going back out on those roads in that storm.

Fun
Our hotel ruled. Great room, indoor heated pool, hot tub, and high speed wireless which proved invaluable as we finally found a place that would deliver us a pizza in the storm. All of the aforementioned things contributed to allow me to detox and enjoy the rest of the evening, although we crashed early from the exhaustion of the day.

Stress
We woke up to see that 1.5 to 2 feet of snow had fallen, and the driveway of our Inn was snowed in.


The parking lot, STFI: Snowed The Fuck In.

We thought we could take the shuttle to Diamond Peak, but then found out from the front desk that the shuttle was not running because it has snowed so much. After a while some dude just appeared with a tractor/front end loader/snowplow, and in time he cleared the driveway enough that we could attempt to get out and up the hill back to the main road. Eventually we did. A check of the roads in the morning revealed that I-80 was completely closed from Colfax, CA, over Donner Summit, through Truckee, all the way to the Nevada state line- over 70 miles of closed interstate- wow. I had never heard of it being closed that badly. We hoped that with the improving weather that they could clear the road during the day, and we would play leaving & the Super Bowl by ear.

Fun
It was only about 1 mile up to Diamond Peak from our hotel, and once we made it up through the snow and ice it was time to reap our reward for all the crazy road stress. It had snowed 2 feet of fresh powder, and we made it onto the hill by 10 a.m.


Should have taken this pic the 1st time up instead of the 5th or 6th

Even better, the summit chair was on delay, and so by the time it opened we got about the 30th chair. This means only one thing: fresh tracks. First run was epic, as well as tricky and challenging since I grew up on the icy east coast and although I had a few powder days out here since I moved, I had never skied in powder this deep. It was amazing, and super fun, and 10x more work and tiring for the legs- Quadbuster City, USA.


Battleborn trail, Diamond Peak, 3rd person


Diamondback trail, Diamond Peak, 3rd person


Crystal Ridge Trail, Diamond Peak, 1st person

Diamond Peak is renowned for it's amazing lake views, and although it was mostly cloudy we got a few glimpses of the lake. I'd like to ski there again on a clear, sunny day for the million dollar view.


Even on a 'meh' weather day, the view is pretty amazing

We skied the shit out of it until about 2, then broke for a snack/lunch and realized that our legs were so toast that we should pack up and take off, and try to beat the afternoon storm, especially since we found out that I-80 was once again open going back from Truckee with no chain control. If all went well we could get back to my sister's in Sacramento in time for the 2nd half of the Super Bowl, and we could listen to the 1st half on the radio.

Stress
The mountain road back down from Alpine was totally clear, so I took the chains off since it is a smaller road than the state road through town. Oops. The state road was covered in snow, so I pulled into a shopping center and put them on again. Another 30 minutes, and a return to top speed of 20 mph while trying just to stay on the road.

Past Kings Beach the roads were again clear, and the radio said no more chain control in Truckee or on I-80, so I stopped and took the chains back off. Back up to 50-60 and hoping to beat the roads icing back up as it started to get dark.

Made it to Truckee and I-80 and started out of town through some rain and roads that were wet but appeared to be on the verge of freezing back over. On the lower slopes of the climb, it started to snow like a mother, and soon thereafter the cars in front of started to swerve and lose control a bit. Another mile and I knew from my own comfort level that it was time for the chains yet again.

I pulled over and by now it was snowing like crazy. By the time I got the 1st chain on, CalTrans had setup chain control behind me about 300 yards down the road. By the time I got both chains on, it had snowed an inch in about 20 minutes. Shit- a mondo snow squall that just got worse and worse.

Long story short, it took 4 hours to get from Truckee to my sister's house in Sacramento{again, 90 miles}. It was so hairy and stress mode that listening to the 1st half on the radio was not an option, and by the time we got there the game was over. I was disappointed to have missed it, but much more relieved and thankful that we made it back in one piece, and ditto for my car. Side note- never in my life have I been so happy and relieved to drive into a town named Auburn in my life.

I watched all the highlight shows and felt better that I didn't have to watch that shit live as it unraveled {if that ever happened to Georgia in a National Title game I'm sure that lots of shit would get smashed by yours truly}.

Too exhausted, dirty, and tired to go all the way back home, so we stayed and came back to SF early Monday morning, only to find out that 2 skiers from SF were missing and were last seen at Alpine Meadows on Saturday late morning- thankfully they were found Monday morning. Pretty freaky, as we were there. Also, that there was an avalanche on the access road to Alpine Meadows that we had just been on the evening before and the resort we skied at on Saturday was closed down on Sunday.

Overall the nuttiest storm/road conditions I have ever dealt with, and I had my share of Tahoe chain control war stories going in. It might be enough to turn me into a Ski Princess like my sister, who no longer fucks with the storms and will only go up there if the roads are clear and the sun is out. On the other hand, Sunday was the most epic powder day of my skiing life. Still don't think it was worth risking life, limb, and car over. For now I'm probably somewhere between the stupidity adventuresomeness of last weekend and Ski Princess.

ACN Final Four: Clashes Of The Titans

Today 9 a.m. PST

Ghana-Cameroon

Today 12:30 p.m. PST

Ivory Coast-Egypt

Three of the 4 biggest powerhouses of African football {Nigeria, being the fourth, were eliminated in the quarterfinal} plus the defending champion Egypt, makes for an awesome final 4 in the 2008 African Cup Of Nations.

For a rundown of the quarterfinal results, including Nigeria's underwhelming choke job of coming from a goal up and a man up to lose, click here.

Ghana are the hosts which makes them favorites to get through to the final, but Cameroon are no joke and Samuel Eto'o has already surpassed the ACN all time scoring record {16 goals} in this tournament {note he is only 26 so he should shatter this record by leaps and bounds by the time he retires}.

This should be an epic battle.

The second semifinal features not only two teams who have won every match thusfar in the tournament, but also a rematch of the ACN2006 final, won by Egypt 4-2 on penalties after the teams played to a 0-0 draw. The Pharaohs are no joke and have defended their title well, but Ivory Coast are by far the strongest and best team in the tournament and one of the very best African teams of all time, and there are not many people outside of Egypt who think that the Elephants can be beat {expectation for this one is on the level of the Super Bowl last weekend}. Ivory Coast have destroyed everyone in front of them this year and people are already talking about this being the team that can get Africa it's 1st ever World Cup semifinal in 2010.

I bought the final stage pass from AllSoccerAfrica for $14.99 {all knockout round matches} and I hope to watch much of both matches today.

One last note- my favorite team at this year's African Cup Of Nations is easily and without question Mali, who in beating Togo 2-0 in their final qualification match back in October knocked Togo out of the competition and ensured that Emmanuel Adebayor would stay with Arsenal through January & February, where he has scored 11 goals in his last 8 matches in helping Arsenal to the top of the table. I love you, Mali.

***Update***

Ghana 0-0 Cameroon. Half Time.

Good game. Cameroon just missed a screamer form outside the box, and later Geremi hit the junction of the post & crossbar with an swerving screamer of a free kick from a good 35 yards out. Ghana has a good chance from the edge of the box but dude shot it kind of right at the keeper.

***Update***
GOOOOOLLLLLL!!!!

Ghana 0-1 Cameroon

Totally against the run of play, and a thing of beauty. Ghana were dominating possession and chances, and in minute 68 Cameroon's Geremi cleared a shot off the line with his head. Two minutes later Cameroon caught Ghana on the break, Nkong-Eto'o-Nkong, beautifully slotted goal. Accra Stadium is stunned and silent.

Ghana hit the pause button, go into the game menu, and change their team strategy to "All Out Attack" for the final 20 minutes.

***Update***
Black Stars 0-1 Indomitable Lions. Final.

Cameroon did it. They weathered the storm, and the last 5 minutes with 10 men after a bizarre but merited sending off, to upset the hosts and advance to their 5th ACN final. Amazingly, the Indomitable Lions have won the ACN 4 times previously, and each time they defeated the host nation in the knockout round along the way, which is damn impressive, and now they have done it again.

They await the winner of Ivory Coast-Egypt in the final, which 99% of people think will be Ivory Coast.

***Update***
Shock.

Ivory Coast 0-1 Egypt. 12'

Ivory Coast are dominant early, but after an Egypt corner a shot from the edge of the box deflects off of not one but 2 defenders and into the corner. A bit of a lucky, fluky, pinball goal, but they all look the same on the scoreboard. This makes things interesting to say the least...

***Update***
Elephants 0-1 Pharaohs. Half Time.

Once more Ivory Coast have had the better of it, but unable to put the ball in the back of the net. Drogba managed to shoot right at the keeper from 4 yards out, when scoring would have been easier than not scoring. Later he had a bullet header from a corner kick well saved by the Egyptian keeper, but again it was right at him. It was so hard that had it been anywhere else on goal it would have been in.

Worse for the Ivory Coast is that their keeper, Barry, was injured and had to be substituted. A double whammy, because 1) he is generally regarded as the best keeper in the whole tournament and has conceded only 1 goal through 4 matches {well, 2 now, but it was not his fault}, and 2) now Ivory Coast only have 2 tactical substitutions left rather than the standard three.

So it is very much on for the second half. This isn't quite Georgetown-Princeton, hell Egypt are the defending champions, but if they were to hold out it would easily be the biggest shock & upset of the whole tournament. They apparently are the masters of "closing up shop", but still have another 45+ minutes against Drogba, Kalou, Keita, Zokora, Y Toure, Eboue, K Toure, and the rest- a formidable task. That being said, they are not scared, and are playing with the confidence of a team that knows it can win because they beat Ivory Coast in the 2006 final by holding them scoreless for 120 minutes and then winning on penalties. Ivory Coast on the other hand are growing visibly frustrated as the game creeps on and they still find themselves behind even tough they are by far a better team and have made more chances.

It all sets up for a super interesting final 45 minutes...

***Update***
Holy Shit.

Ivory Coast 0-2 Egypt. 62nd minute.

After total and complete domination by Ivory Coast, and 2 more great chances shot right at the Egyptian keeper, Egypt scores against the run of play on a header from a corner kick off the underside of the crossbar.

Ivory Coast are really up against it now...

***Update***
Game On!

Ivory Coast 1-2 Egypt. 63rd minute.

Less than 1 minute later, Keita scores on an absolute missile/rocket shot from outside the box that is unsaveable and rips into the side netting. This is turning into a great, great match.

***Update***
Ivory Coast 1-3 Egypt. 67th minute.

With Ivory Coast going forward in waves of almost desperation, Egypt score against the run of play yet again. A long ball from the goalkeeper, a flick on, a great ball fake, and then a shot from the edge of the box into the far low corner.

Ivory Coast are really up against it now. 23 minutes to save themselves...

***Update***
More chances from Ivory Coast, 3 really good chances, but again all right at the keeper.

Ivory Coast 1-4 Egypt. 92nd minute.

Ivory Coast wide open at the back as they came forward in waves of desperation, and Egypt finishes it off with a nice 2 on 1 and damn near tap in. Game, Set, Match.

A stunning result.

***Update***
Elephants 1-4 Pharaohs. Full Time.

A pretty stunning result, an not at all an indication of how close the match was. Bottom line: Egypt took almost all of their chances, and Ivory Coast squandered theirs. Biggest culprit was Didier Drogba, who had no less than 2 free headers as well as a free shot inside the 6 yard box, as well as a bullet free header from a corner from about 9 yards out, and all 4 were right at the keeper. A striker of his quality, arguably the best player in the tournament {Eto'o, Essien, Kanoute, etc.} should have done better.

Egypt are extremely reminiscent of Greece from Euro 2004: extremely well organized, difficult to break down, and when they get their chances, they take them. And in Mohammed Zidan they have an exciting player- like many before him, including C Ronaldo and Ronaldinho, he has matured from being all tricks and flicks all the time and is a more complete player and much more dangerous. He is an exciting flair player who excites every time he touches the ball, and I guess it doesn't hurt him that his name is so close to a legend {Zizou} and that he looks damn near another legend {Ronaldo}.

Everyone was expecting a Ghana-Ivory Coast final, or perhaps a Cameroon-Ivory Coast final, but instead it is Cameroon-Egypt who will play for the title in Accra on Sunday. Four time champions Cameroon in their sixth final and trying to win for the 5th time, against 5 time champion {most ever} Egypt trying to defend their 2006 title.

Not the glamor match that everyone wanted, but still should be quite good. It will be a replay of their opening group stage match, where Egypt beat down Cameroon 4-2 behind 2 really great goals from the aforementioned Mohammed Zidan, who kind of announced himself to the world stage for those who hadn't already seen his tricks & flicks compilation vids on youtube. BTW, that match also reminds me of Euro 2004, where Greece upset Portugal in the opening match of the tournament, and then replicated their upset in the final.

Me, I'm rocking my FCB Eto'o jersey tomorrow on casual Friday and pulling hard for the Indomitable Lions.

Final, Sunday at I believe 9 a.m. PST

Cameroon-Egypt

You can watch it streaming live on your computer at AllSoccerAfrica for $5.99 with either English or French commentary, and I have to say that the streams are very good. I purchased the final round knockout stage pass, and with that I can also view highlights from every game in the tournament, as well as any of the games in its entirety 'on demand'- I would hope that even if you do the $5.99 pass that you could see all of the highlights at least, as there were some absolutely fantastic goals in this exciting tournament.

Fuck Yeah! Best Video In The History Of YouTube Is Back!

This video was up for a while a couple of years ago but then got taken down.

It has once again risen from the dead, and is so epic that it deserves its own post. Again.

Enjoy it while it lasts.


Best. Video. Ever.

Coach Knight: Thanks For The Fucking Memories

Like a lot of people, part of me loves Bobby Knight and part of me hates him. But as he retires as the winningest college basketball coach of all time, I have to say thanks for all the epic shit he brought to the game.

And I also love that he shared with me the love, respect, and admiration for the greatest word in the English language.



Best of luck, coach. Try not to kill anyone like the kid at Wendy's who fucks up your order or the lady working the customer service counter at Target.

From The Dept. of: Are You Shitting Me? Did You Have A "Deep Meditative, Transpersonal and Transcendent Experience" At The Voting Booth Today?

I haven't seen the Berkeley propositions for today, but I am pretty damn certain that SF wins this year's contest to see which city can come up with the most looney thing that the rest of the world can look to and make fun of.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you The City of San Francisco Proposition C: Demolishing the prison on Alcatraz and converting the island into a global peace center.

Here are the money quotes that just made Bill O'Reilly cum in his pants:

According to their Web site, www.globalpeacefoundation.org, the proponents' plans for the center will be based on the geometry of the hexagram. Elements include a harmonium, employing sound techniques to impart a "deep meditative, transpersonal and transcendent experience," a medicine wheel and a labyrinth.

Da Vid, director of the Global Peace Foundation, described Alcatraz as a "major power point" where "energy moves through the planet." The vision to turn it into a peace center came to him in 1978. "It was a flash," he explained, "and I wasn't on any drugs either." We asked him where the money would come from to raze the old prison and build a new center. He assured us, "Money will come." He suggested the Bechtel Corp. might want to "create some good karma for itself" by doing the prison demolition for free.

No, that didn't come from The Onion. It is all too real.

One more, from this article:

"The prison is negative energy, and it is negatively affecting the psychology of the entire Bay Area," he said. "Do we want that prison to be our signature landmark?"

Yikes, I had no idea that my psychology was being negatively affected.


Thanks alot, Alcatraz.

How these dudes got 10,000 signatures to get onto the ballot escapes me, but they did.
Where to start? Um, how about that the city of SF does not even own the land on Alcatraz, but that it is owned and operated by the Federal Government's National Park Service, and would have to be purchased from the Feds by the City? Or that SF's #1 source of income is now tourism and this is the #1 attraction and is a cash cow for the city, which is in serious financial difficulty? Or the fact that in the Bechtel Corporation's charter there doesn't appear to be any mention of undertaking massive progressive construction projects pro bono to cleanse the karma of their corporate soul?

You have to delve into the comments of that SFGate article to see that there are actually some sane people here after all.

I'm off to have my deep meditative, transpersonal and transcendent experience at the polls.

***Update***

28 percent of people in SF voted in favor of this proposition. Wow.

Everybody Everybody Get Your Roll Vote On

Vote vote vote lil' whoaties!

Even better, vote for BO- the sweet smell of something new:



No matter who you vote for, just vote. This year more than any in my lifetime, your vote matters.

Happy Weekend

The good thing about all the rain down here is that it has been snowing for 2 weeks up in the Sierras. I'm off to the playground of Tahoe for a weekend of skiing, although with 2 more storms slated for this weekend, it could get tricky.



Have a great weekend, whatever you get into.

(Go Pats! Perfection awaits...)

Feel Good Friday Part Two: Funniest Thing I've Seen In a While

My fave Sarah Silverman bit up until now was her desire to fuck the cheese that my niece and nephew have been eating since the years of their birth, but I think this is now the funniest thing she has ever done. Might be the funniest thing Matt Damon has ever done as well.

Enjoy:

African Cup Of Nations Goes From Good To Great

So we're in the middle of the African Cup Of Nations (think World Cup but only for the 51 nations of the continent of Africa) which means great football and other outstanding things like witch doctors and juju (take your pick).

It's a shame that this tournament isn't on TV because the quality of play is really damn good these days.

Anyhow, the group rounds are over and the field has been whittled from 16 teams to 8 for the knockout stage. And there are some absolutely awesome matchups this weekend.

ACN Quarterfinals:

Sunday, Feb 3

Ghana-Nigeria (could be epic)
Ivory Coast-Guinea

Monday Feb 4

Egypt-Angola
Tunisia-Cameroon

I don't have time to get into all of these, but Bobbeh did a great preview/analysis today.

At the start of the tournament I really wanted to pick hosts Ghana, who as you remember I was quite high on at World Cup 2006, but I couldn't pull the trigger as they are without their inspirational talisman and captain Steven Appiah. So like many people, I liked Ivory Coast to win it all, and I thought they would beat hosts Ghana in the final, with Cameroon and Nigeria being defeated semifinalists. Not much of a limb there, but it's still on the cards so I'll stick with that.

The highlights and goals thusfar have been great each night on Fox Sports World Report, and they're averaging over 3 goals a match, so again it sucks that these aren't on TV. You can, however, watch games online on a PPV basis at AllSoccerAfrica. I'll probably end up buying the semifinal and final later next week.

Feel Good Friday: Noah's Ark Edition

So it's been raining damn near every day for 2 weeks here. Some days it's not so bad, and my insanely huge umbrella that could easily cover a family of 5 and the mudders make the walk to work no problem, as long as there's no chinook winds to turn my brolly inside out every other block. Other days it sucks ass, like on Friday when I got home to find a small flood in my apartment, which then turned into pretty massive water damage which has necessitated me evacuating my place for 3 days while a contractor drills dozens of holes in my walls and tries to dry out the inside walls and repair all the damage. Hopefully they can at least make my pad smell a little less like the inside of an old, wet shoe.

So in honor of SF turning into Seattle, today we celebrate the rain. In song, of course.

"Blame It On The Rain", Milli Vanilli, 1989

Go big or go home

"Singing In The Rain", Gene Kelly 1952

An American classic

"I Can't Stand The Rain", Ann Peebles, 1973

The original: 50x better than Tina Turner's version...

... although this remake is good, and the video is beyond fucking awesome, even if you aren't on acid:

"I Can't Stand The Rain", Eruption, 1978



"The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)", Missy Elliott, 1997

Missy's remake: good song, bad video,
unless you're into big girls wearing Hefty bags

"It's Raining Men", Weather Girls, 1982

I'm more into big girls parachuting out of windows

I must add that I much prefer the original name of the band Weather Girls, which was "Two Tons O' Fun", and also that you have to tip your cap to them for successfully getting that level of sexual innuendo past the censors way back in 1982.

I hope the sun is out wherever you may be.

Goodbye Larry Bird......Hello Herschel Walker.

It's official: I'm Herschel (although I'm pretty sure there's only one of me).


Makes me feel better about getting old.

Weekend Review, Part 4: Calistoga

It was so nice for a change to not have to get up at the buttcrack of dawn. We slept in until well past 9, then geared up and took up the breakfast recommendation of our wine sherpa from the day prior and tried Center Street Cafe right on the square in Healdsburg. It was outstanding- if you ever find yourself in Healdsburg, CA then I cannot recommend it enough.

We were planning on doing a mountain bike ride either in Annadel State Park in Santa Rosa or maybe Robert Louis Stevenson State Park near Calistoga, but the weather was dodgy, and we were undecided, so we decided to go for a nice drive through Alexander Valley and over the mountains to Calistoga, which is at the northern end of the Napa Valley. We figured we would go check it out and then decide what to do from there.

{click pics to enlarge}


Old Faithful Geyser of California

Beautiful drive through intermittent rain showers and sunshine, but by the time we arrived it was clear that this would be a cloudy, chilly, and rainy day. So we decided to check out the Old Faithful Geyser of California. One of only 3 geysers in the world which can be called 'Old Faithful', it normally erupts every 45 minutes to an hour, but when we went in it was erupting every 10 minutes. This was cool, as we got to see it 4 or 5 times while we ambled around and saw all that there was to see on the grounds, including llamas, fainting goats, sheep, etc.


Llama's eye view


Finally found the best framing, but didn't feel like standing
in the cold rain for another 10 minutes to get the money shot

Back in the car and the weather was still crap, so we succumbed to the cross marketing at Old Faithful Geyser and drove about 8 miles to another place called The Petrified Forest, and toured through there. It was pretty neat, with lots of petrified redwoods, although in all honesty not as cool as the trees on offer at Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona.


Cool mist on the mountain

But still worth the $5, if for anything else than to see Guido The Killer Pimp Squirrel in the gift shop.


Guido the Killer Pimp Squirrel

After that it was getting late so we decided to drive back along the Silverado Trail, a road that bypasses Napa Valley to the east of the main drag.


Roadside orchard near Calistoga

Calistoga and this area in general are famous for having natural hot springs, and it was really cool that we could see steam rising in many places from the various springs in the area. They complimented the clouds and made for pretty scenery on a cold and rainy day.



Steam from hot springs & clouds near Calistoga

On a whim I decided to stop of at Franks Family Vineyards, mainly because my dad loves this place in a freakishly cult way, and he told me recently that there is a picture of him, my mom, and their friends on the wall there. I had the idea to take my picture in front of his picture and send it to him, but when we went in the dudes there were beyond cool, and they poured us champagne while we searched for the photo. We are not ones to turn down free, high quality champagne, so we assented. This turned into a free pouring of all their champagnes, and then a few more people showed up and dude took us all in the back for a full on wine tasting.


Me at Franks pointing at the picture of my parents
the picture below the picture of my parents. D'oh!

All I can say is that my dad is right: this is some excellent shit, and if you are ever in Napa this is the first place I would recommend to you. Very cool people and great wine. I think we tried 12 wines in about 30 minutes, so after purchasing myself a birthday present of the best champagne I have ever tasted, we got some food to sober up for the drive home.

Suffice to say, we were beyond exhausted and it has taken a good chunk of this week just to get back to normal, whatever that is.

Here's the full set of pictures from our day in Calistoga.

Weekend Review, Part 3: Winter Wineland

Woke up early on Sunday, helped The Hit off to the airport, then returned the mountain bike that we rented for him and finally drove up 101 north to meet some friends for a day of wine drinking, specifically the Winter Wineland event along the Russian River Wine Road.

In English, what that means is this: for $30, you get a ticket, a bracelet, a commemorative glass of wine, and entrance to and free tastings at any of the 119 participating wineries. Oh, and each one has food as well. Considering the price of a wine tasting is often $10-15 with no food, this is beyond a great deal.


Kendall-Jackson Wine Center: A Gooner lies within

We started at Kendall-Jackson Wine Center in Fulton, where we met up with a group of friends including among others my homies Joe Gizzle and John John. Initially I was kind of hoping that there would be someone at KJ to talk about Curlin with, since the horse is owned by Jess Jackson, founder of Kendall-Jackson Wineries, but it never worked out. Even better was the woman who served our Pinot tasting who had a Brit accent. I asked her where she was from, and she responded that she was from Somewhere-Upon-Something I had never heard of. So of course I followed up with "what is your favorite football side"? to which she most epically responded "Well, although I was only a few miles from Manchester, I could never root for Manchester United, so I have always supported Arsenal." Yeah, this day is off to an excellent start.


Joe Gizzle: Wine Sherpa Supreme

As a sort of local, Joe Gizzle served as our Wine Sherpa for the day, and he and his wife picked out 7 other wineries for us to try. And what a sherpa he was. Without his guidance, all of the rest of us surely would have gotten lost on the extremely over the river and through the woods trip from Kendall-Jackson over the the Alexander Valley. The second winery we hit was called Field Stone. Of all the wineries we went to I have to give this one extra props because they are obviously down with college football. Observez:

{click to enlarge}

Which one of these is not like the other?

Initially I was disappointed that there was no Georgia bottle, whilst there was a Florida Gators 2007 National Champions bottle, but fair play to them- they did win a national title. At least there wasn't a Georgia Tech one, or an Auburn or Tennessee. I get most of the rest- PAC 10 schools & national powerhouses- but Iowa? Seriously dude- Iowa?

Then I realized that it wasn't so bad that there wasn't a UGA bottle, because I would have paid whatever they were asking for it {i didn't look}. Orson Swindle, Peter Bean, nor DCTrojan wouldn't have gotten out of there without the compulsory souvenir purchase.


White Oak Vineyards


White Oak Vineyards

I won't bore you with all the details of each place, but we moseyed down the road and hit several more wineries along the way, each of which was cool in it's own way. I will say that Russian River/Alexander Valley/Sonoma in general is more my speed when it comes to wine country: much more down to earth, laid back, and less glamor/glitz/ostentatious than some places in the Napa Valley. I'm no expert- hell I'm the other dude in "Sideways" when it comes to wine, but there is definitely a more laid back, chill feel in this area, and I dig it.


Alexander Valley, Sonoma County

Places we went in Alexander Valley:

1. Kendall-Jackson Wine Center
2. Field Stone Winery
3. Hanna Winery
4. Alexander Valley Vineyards
5. White Oak Vineyards & Winery
6. Stryker Sonoma Winery
7. Robert Young Estate Winery
8. Mosaic Winery


Caves at Robert Young Estate Winery


Afternoon sun, Alexander Valley, Sonoma County

I will mention the story behind the epic picture below. John John had a DD wristband and couldn't get served at the wineries, which was fine by him because he is a beer man. Feeling his pain after we had hit about 5 wineries, I mentioned that I had a gift for him in the car: a giant bottle of hefeweizen in my car that had been sitting on ice for more than a day, as it was to be for the post bike & hike sunset the day prior that never quite happened. I told him he could sip on it throughout the afternoon. He was super appreciative, and off we all went in our cars to the next place, which was a nice 5 min drive down the road. I parked a the next winery and turned around a John John was chugging the beer out of a brown bag in the winery parking lot. My favorite part is that I gave him just the beer bottle, but he just happened to have a brown bag in his car that would serve his purpose beautifully. Sober it would have been funny; six wineries in it was beyond hilarious.


You stay classy, John John.

Afterwards we went over to Healdsburg, where I had reserved a hotel room for the night because 1) I didn't want to drive back to SF after the wine-a-thon and 2) we had Monday off so we brought the bikes and were planning on doing some adventurin' the next day. I even managed to slip in a call to my friends Peter & Orson en route. After a nice long dinner everyone else rolled home and we made it to the hotel in time to see the Hippies complete their return from the brink to win The Amazing Race, which pleased us to no end.

Here's the full set of pictures from our Wine-A-Palooza.

Weekend Review, Part 2: Big Basin Redwoods State Park

Fortunately there was an Arsenal match on at 7 a.m. so I was up and about: barring that I would have struggled a bit. The Hit slept in until the match was over, then we all had a mondo breakfast, geared up, rented him a mountain bike, threw all 3 bikes on my car, and rolled down the coast towards Santa Cruz. It was a deliciously beautiful day so the drive down was perfect.

{click pics to enlarge}


Pidgeon Point Lighthouse, California coast

Our destination was a sweet bike & hike from the ocean up into Big Basin Redwoods State Park, where there are 3 waterfalls that you can hike to from the end of the bike trail. The idea was to start by 2 p.m. which would have us finish back at the car, right on the ocean, in time to chill out on the beach, have a drink and some snacks, and watch the sunset.


The view from the trailhead was decidedly average.

As it turned out we didn't leave the city until almost 1.30 p.m. and we didn't set out until 3.30. In other words, we were up against it, as sunset was at 5.20.


Let's roll


The Hit, pre-bonk

As we rode up into the hills, it became apparent that we were going to be chasing the daylight, and also that the Scorpion Bowls and jetlag had teamed up on the Hit and caused him to begin to bonk. Waterfalls 2 & 3 were soon ruled out, and as it was it was going to be tricky just to reach the first one and descend back out of the forest in time.


This might be my fave mountain bike trail evah

We finally made it up to where the mountain bike trail ends, locked our bikes, crossed a stream, and hiked about a mile up to the first waterfall.


Damn treehugger

It is a really beautiful spot, down in a valley between towering walls filled with redwoods, and we stopped to rest a bit and take in the scene.


Berry Creek Falls


Made it


It's hard to look happy when you are an hour into your bonk

Time check: 5.20, meaning the sun had just set and we were staring at a hike back to the bikes and then several miles back down through the forest in ever darkening skies.


How much would Olin Mills give me for this photo?

By the time we got back to the bikes it was damn near dark. I did have a little headlight on my bike, so I took the lead and called out obstacles, sticks, mud, etc to The Hit & Bonita who were close behind me. This "worked", although we had to go really really slow just to be able to see what we were doing. By the time we were halfway down, it was full-on dark. Thankfully we had a new best friend: the three-quarter moon which helped illuminate our path in patches.

It was at the same time miserable and exhilirating; frustrating and one of the most fun things I have done- mountian biking in the dark in the middle of nowhere with help from a bright moonlight, through forests and next to a mountian stream with various unknown animal noises from time to time.


La luna: our new best friend

It felt great to finally put the forest behind us, and the last mile or so back to the car was out in the open, where the unobstructed moonlight really took over and lit our way. I sorted out the bike rack in the dark and we headed back.

It was a very fun time, and I have to credit the Hit, who valiantly fought his way through the biggest and longest bonk I have ever witnessed. Dude is a soldier.

Here's the full set of pics from our coastal bike & hike adventure.

Got home, ate and crashed, but there would be no sleeping in on Sunday.

Weekend Review, Part 1: Scorpion Bowl Odyssey

The last time The Hit visited me back in August was a pretty epic weekend, and one day I'll get around to recapping it, but this past weekend was very fun as well, with way too many activities that I am still recovering from.

So after we met near my work and walk home, it's up to the rooftop for beers and sunset chill time. Then we scooped up Bonita and went out to a great seafood dinner at Pacific Cafe, where they serve you free wine if there is a wait for a table {genius, why don't more family owned restaurants do this?}, and continue to top you off until you are seated. After dinner I tried to explain Trad'r Sam to my companions, as neither had been, but it is something that can't really be explained, it must be lived, so we all decided that it was something that we needed to do right then, so over we went.


Spelling: bad. Drinks: good.

Plain and simple, Trad'r Sam is one of the best dive bars there is. The highlight of the Polynesian theme is not the decor but these things called Scorpion Bowls, which come literally in a salad bowl and are filled with more alcohol that should be legally allowed, yet they taste yummy enough that you don't notice the damage that they are doing to your body. Oh, and in a city where a beer runs you $5-7 each, the Scorpion Bowl can be yours for one easy payment of only $14. A good deal in any town, a great deal in SF.


Scorpion Bowl I, frozen

Even after a few glasses of wine at dinner, Scorpion Bowl I was a lighthearted affair: all fun and games. I showed my co-drinkers how to take two straws and join them together to create a super long straw so that you don't have to bend down so far to reach the fruity goodness. It was all smiles and fun.


Scorpion Bowl I in the 1st person


Scorpion Bowl I in the 3rd person

Midway through Scorpion Bowl I, a local tipped us off to the fact that you can order Scorpion Bowls on the rocks, something that I was not aware of. He also said that they were even better, so shortly after pimping SB I we went for SB II on the rocks.

When SB II arrived, we all took a hearty sip. Immediately thereafter, The Hit, a linebacker who goes at least 250, turns to me with wide eyes and says slowly and loudly, "Dude... HO-LEE SHIT!!!".


Scorpion Bowl II: the really happy zone.

From there it just got a bit silly, and by the end of SB II we were all well into the happy zone. I did a little dance, grabbed the plastic guns from the shoot-em-up video game in the corner, did an ode to Texas Tech's "guns up", did a crazy improvisational latin dance to some cuban music, and even flashed my titties to some people.

It took us considerably longer to pimp SB II than it did SB I, but we managed. At that point we had a choice to make: SB III or bust. We were all in the state where SB III sounded like the best thing in the world, but we also knew that SB III would probably destroy our plans of driving down the coast on Saturday and doing a bike & hike up into the redwoods. After some deliberation, we wriggled free from the grip of Trad'r Sam, and went home to crash out. There were doubts all around about getting up early the next morning.

Here's the full set of pics from our fruity alcohol adventure.

"When A Man Insults My Country I Insult Him, By Taking His Woman"

Taunt Zimbabwe Ghana at your own risk.

That is all.

{HT: Kickette}

Happy Weekend

The Hit is in town- should be epic as always.

Just back from sunset chillin' on the rooftop.


Happy Hour indeed

Many fun adventures planned for this weekend.

Happy weekend to all.

Peace.

Feel Good Friday: Vagina Couch Edition

'Pardon me, Kanu: did you just say "vagina couch"?'

Why, yes, I did. And if you act fast, it can be the new centerpiece of your living room.

I don't even know what else to say.


The mother of all caption contest photos.

Have a great weekend.

Some Pics From My Heavenly Weekend

So this year I am hoping to get back to doing a better job of chronicling some of my adventures, which was one of the original purposes of this place, as well as catching up on adventures from the last couple of years as well.

The weekend was great. Went up to South Lake Tahoe and skied two days at Heavenly, which you always remember is aptly named when you see the views from the upper half of the mountain.


California Trail, which straddles the state line

Skiing was great, although as usual the first outing of the season is a stark reminder of just how out of shape the legs are.


California Trail

A great weekend overall- good weather, a little fresh snow overnight, hot tub, clear roads, no chains, and occasional glimpses of Mr. Sun. Oh, and in addition to In-N-Out, I got to eat Chick-Fil-A. Twice. It doesn't get much better than that.

Here's a few pics- the full set can be found here. I hope you had a great weekend as well, whatever you got into.


Canyon trail, California side


Canyon trail


Top of Stagecoach lift, Nevada side

Dodgy At Best Exclusive:BCS Unveils New "Minus One" Format

Immediately after Tonight's Allstate BCS Championship Game, outgoing BCS commissioner Mike Slive, Fox Sports, and Axe Body Spray announced that going forward, there will not be a playoff nor a "Plus One" model, but rather a "Minus One" model to end the college football season.

The final game will be called the Axe Body Spray Notre Dame Memorial BCS Disappointment Championship and will feature Oklahoma and Ohio State as long as they have gone to and lost their respective BCS games. If either team is not eligible, then Notre Dame will be the first alternate if they are BCS eligible. That should not be too tough for the Golden Domers, who simply have to win 9 games against a majority crap schedule to earn their BCS asskicking, although this year they did fall just 7 wins shy of that 9 win BCS guarantee threshold. If one of the 2 slots in the game cannot be filled by Oklahoma, Ohio State, or Notre Dame, then a five man selection panel consisting of Ron Powlus, Ray Goff, Reggie Ball, Ron Zook, and Todd Marinovich will determine which of the BCS teams was the biggest disappointment in their BCS appearance.

Fox Sports president Ed Goren said "We are excited to be involved in this project and add the Axe Body Spray Notre Dame Memorial BCS Disappointment Championship to our Fox Bowl Bash lineup. Our production staff is already working on creating new audio and graphical special effects and nonsensical halftime promotions to celebrate and grow the ABSNDMBCSDC brand and maintain the Foxtastic quality of our college football broadcasts featuring the JumperScope PCS vision replay camera - in theatres on 2.14.08!" Rumors are already flying about Fox signing Ryan Seacrest to a multiyear contract to host the pre and postgame shows.

Axe Body Spray Vice President of Marketing Lance McTool was estatic about his company's involvement. "Everyone at Axe Body Spray is incredibly pleased to be involved in this exciting and unique event. We feel that it is a perfect match for growing our brand, since most of our customers feel great disappointment that after using our product they are not actually attacked in public by packs of beautiful and extremely horny women. We couldn't be happier about the ABSNDMBCSDC."


Growing the brand

Of course, this will not end the annual controversy surrounding the college football postseason. Savyy analysts have already pointed out that if the ABSNDMBCSDC had existed this season, then it would feature Oklahoma and Ohio State by rule, and Hawaii would be unjustly left out. WAC officials were quick to point out that the system is inherently biased against the smaller non-BCS conferences. "Hawaii more than any other team in the country would have deserved to play in the ABSNDMBCSDC this year, but the big money BCS conferences want to keep the little guys out, which is a shame because a school like Hawaii would be robbed of showing the entire country what they are capable of."

Next year's inaugural ABSNDMBCSDC game will take place in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Memo To Overhyped WAC Teams On Long Winning Streaks:

Date: January 2, 2008

To: Overhyped WAC Teams On Long Winning Streaks

From: University Of Georgia Bulldog Football

Subject: Playing Us

----------------------------

Stop playing us.

Although it sounds appealing and we appreciate your ambition, trust us, it is not in your best interest and you will be worse off for it.


Colt Brennan = Jared Zabransky 2.0

As an alternative may I recommend a little school just down the road. They would be much more amenable to such pursuits by schools such as yours, and getting tickets for games in which they are involved is quite easy as well.

Sincerely,

UGA Football

cc: The World

Thom Brenneman... You're A Douche.

Look dude, I understand and appreciate that you had to break out the filler material before halftime, and by the 4th quarter you had run out of the 28 pages of written filler material that your producers and research staff had prepared and were winging it. I also understand that you are on Fox, so I know ahead of time what I am going to get with your broadcast: a steady 4 hour helping of shit. We really should all be thankful that Fox only has the rights to a handful of games at the end of the year. If we had to endure this worse than horrid duo calling other things regularly it would be truly unbearable.

Still, your extended self-righteous rant against Mark Richt for going for it on 4th and 4 from the Hawaii 5 yard line when up 41-10 with 10 minutes left in the 4th quarter was completely ignorant and uncalled for. Your lazy, I don't cover college football all year but my network is all about the NFL and the big NFL story this year is big, bad, Bill Bellichick going for it on 4th down to run up the score ass, who knows little about the circumstances/ins and outs of a major college football team that would come from covering the sport all year, saw a lazy and easy comparison and you went for it. The trick is, that unlike the Pats that your network usually covers, our starters were not in the game. Among other non starters was QB Joe Cox, who basically got demoted when Stafford came on the scene and hadn't played in a year and a half. At RB was Kregg Lumpkin, the Job of Georgia football the last 4 years with his injuries and adversity, who was playing in his last game as a third string tailback, and the coaching staff really wanted to reward his incredible journey with a parting gift of a touchdown. The 4th down play was a pass to WR Sean Bailey, also a Senior who was playing in his last game after also overcoming the adversity of a blown out knee and 12 month rehabilitation.

If all the starters were still in then your rant may have had some merit, but they weren't, and it didn't. Presumably you wanted Georgia to do the honorable thing and kick a field goal to make it 44-10, because 44-10 makes us totally classy, sporting and honorable winners somehow but 48-10 makes us evil and classless out of control bullies.

I wouldn't be irritated enough to waste time and energy to write about this if:

1. Brenneman had made any such similar commentary whatsoever earlier in the game when the Hawaii dude thought it would be cool and fun to run full speed and blast a stationary Mikey Henderson, who is like 5'6" and weighs a buck fifty, right in the face of his helmet with an early, illegal, unsportsmanlike, and highly dangerous hit, and then follow that up by running around and jumping up and down and celebrating {Henderson missed the rest of the game, the final game of his football career, with a concussion}. Where was your ethical soapbox in the first half, fuckwad? Nowhere to be found, but later Richt is described as a classless asshole for letting his backups/seniors try to score a TD in a game that had ended about 2 hours before.


"Very, very close to helmet to helmet contact"?!??
Davis tried desperately all night to out-moron Brenneman

2. When Georgia got the ball back with 2:01 and Hawaii had no timeouts, and Richt called for victory formation and took 4 knees to run out the clock, why was there no mention about how that was a sporting and classy thing to do by coach Richt? More than half of coaches out there call for handoffs in that situation which 99% of the time amount to nothing, but occasionally the RB busts it for a big gain or a TD. Here you were given an opportunity to counteract your ignorant self but you said nothing.

3. Dude, you work for fucking Fox. Not exactly the best position for giving diatribes about being classy.

Writing about douchebags on Fox, be it sports or "news", is the ultimate form of shooting fish in a barrel, but for some reason you struck a nerve which merited me wasting 20 minutes on your ass.

Fortunately, pretty much no one was watching at that point.

In conclusion:

Thom Brenneman: you're a douche.


Here's lookin' at you, Thom.

Oh, and one more thing, fuckface: Don't ever call us the Gators again.

Solon's Thumbs Were On Fire Today

Today {well technically yesterday now, as it's past midnight} I received 3 non standard "Happy New Year!!!" texts, all from Solon, each of which were not only incredibly on point, but also mirrored exactly what I was thinking at the moments that I received them.

Tue, Jan 1, 1.58 p.m.
Once again, I am blown away by Tebow's will to win. He only lets his team lose 4 times a season. Thank you media, for your endless promotion of this storyline.

Tue, Jan 1, 8.10 p.m.
Kudos to the BCS for giving us such compelling Rose and Sugar Bowl matchups this season.

Fuckers.

Tue, Jan 1, 9.46 p.m.
Thom Brennaman can go eat a dick. Fucking self-righteous piece of shit. You work for Fox, take the ethics lesson and stick it up your ass.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all you boys & girls.


Mimosas on my rooftop, file photo.

The Dawgs are back today after a long layoff, and I think perhaps I might be as well- the blog juices are flowing freely once again. Enjoy the games and Happy 2008.

Feel Good Friday: I Had More Yards Rushing Than Tim Tebow Did Saturday Edition

Happy Fleet Week Friday

Work has been beyond insane lately, y tengo un clase de Espanol en universidad CCSF esta otono {and I'm taking a Spanish class at City College SF this fall}. That, and a few other things have brought about the radio silence recently.

It's Fleet Week, the centerpiece of which is the airshow over the city & the bay featuring the Blue Angels both tomorrow and Sunday. As we speak they Blue Angels are practicing, as they did yesterday, and I'm looking out a 4th floor window watching them do their thing {yesterday was better - 12th story sky terrace in another building}. It is a trippy and surreal experience to witness this from downtown, both the sights- looking up in the sky and seeing them fly over the city at ridiculously low altitudes {not more than a couple hundred feet over the rooftops at some points}- and the sounds- sonic booms galore. I wonder if they have any other shows that are over cities- it seems most all airshows are at Air Force bases out in the middle of nowhere. It's a little freakier to watch this year knowing that this spring Blue Angel #6 crashed in South Carolina at an airshow and the pilot was killed. If that ever happened here over the city I think they might shut down the whole Blue Angel airshow thing for good. It also gives you a bit of an idea of what it would be like sensually to be in a city that was under attack from fighter jets. Namely, scary as fuck.


Tomorrow will be a brief run up to the roof to check it out during a lull in the college football slate, and then Sunday my sister and her family are coming down to check it out, so we'll take in the whole show. One of the coolest things I've seen out here for sure.

Speaking of college football, last week the slate of games looked like shit, but then it turned in to an amazing day of upsets and exciting games. This week the slate looks incredible on paper- hopefully it will be half as good as last week. More likely that it will be a bit of an anticlimatic disappointment, as the super hyped weekend of amazing games on paper often are.

Arsenal: unbeaten in 11 matches this season, including 9 wins in a row/on the trot/on the spin, which put them firmly at the top of the table. Twice.

Gotta run. Hope to get to write a little more next week; I have some thoughts on the Arse and a long standing rant on CFB that I am bit amazed none of the several way-better-CFB bloggers-than-me have ranted on in the last year.

Let's hobnail boot those fuckers tomorrow.

Happy Weekend, whatever you get into.

"One And Done, Baby!"

With all the hype and attention {and deservedly so} given to the fact that Larry Munson missed calling his 2nd Georgia game in 42 years on Saturday because he will no longer do road games, I just wanted to point out that Scott Howard, in his very first game moving over from the co-pilot seat to drive the Bulldog Radio Network jumbo jet all by himself, came up with a great call on Georgia's amazing game winning play.


As first days on the job go, this was pretty impressive.

Not a bad way to start your play by play career in the shadow of one of the most legendary announcers in the history of football. It must have been difficult and intimidating as hell for him to do this first game, and not just any game but a high profile night road game against a good ranked team and historic program. Probably akin to taking over the CBS news anchor the day after Walter Cronkite's last broadcast and having some major news happen that day, and not only holding up well but even nailing the news Veronica Corningstone style.

Well done, Good Sir, well done.

Georgia's Not Man Enough To Beat Alabama

Reverse jinx in the house.

Hell, it worked last time.

Fucking Embarrassing

The game? No. The game was shit on so many levels, but we'll get to that in due time.

The embarrassment was the fans that booed the team off the field at halftime, and at other times as well. It was loud and clear on my television from 2,500 miles away, so I am certain that it was several orders of magnitude louder inside the stadium. I know not all of you did, but to the ones that did, you are a fucking embarrassment to the University of Georgia, and if you are going to boo 18-22 year old kids, then please stay home. And don't come with that weak shit "I was just booing the coaching staff, or the playcalling. Not the kids." Fuck you for thinking that anyone could selectively distinguish the narrow and specific philosophical nature of your booing. If this was the first time this has happened then I wouldn't be so pissed about it. But it's not. I remember writing about it at least 2 times last year, and can remember other instances of it beyond that. Shit Terrance Edwards was what, six, seven years ago? To repeatedly do this is a totally embarrassing representation of our fanbase and school.

If I was a recruit at one of the games when this happened, then I would have serious, serious reservations about committing my future to UGA. When things are down the team need you to be as encouraging as ever, and we have all seen that crowds can be a motivational 12th man. When things are shit, in sports or in life, it's positive encouragement and belief in you from others that spur you out of it and onto better things, not turncoat negativity and abandonment. What the team needed was an encouraging and rousing standing ovation from all 83,000 UGA fans that said "Come on! We're behind you and we believe in you! We both know that you have fucked up and can do much better, so let's do just that- you can do this! "

Moan. Groan. Throw shit. Break something. Curse like a motherfucking sailor at that God damn shitty playcall on 4th and 2 or the missed tackles or the poor throws or the drops and on and on. Whatever. But do not give up and turn on your team when things are not going well. It is a horrible and insulting message to send to the young men who represent our school, and it speaks volumes to your level of so-called fandom. You are a fairweather bandwagoner who only cheers for a winner, and I do not appreciate you. You are chickenshits.

If you are a true fan of UGA, or any other team for that matter, then root for, cheer, and encourage that team when things are going great and when things are going shitty. In fact, the more you stand by your team when they perform poorly, the more you show yourself to be a real fan of the team.

The next time something shitty happens in your life, or you completely fuck up, be it relationship, job, or otherwise related, and you are down and out, and a friend or family member gives you positive words of encouragement that makes you feel better, believe in yourself, and helps you get out of the bad situation and out of the rain and back in to the sunshine, and you think about how much you appreciate that person and their words which were so helpful, think about how you would have felt if instead of offering words of encouragement and support, those same people booed you and told you that you were shit when you needed a boost. Then think about the fact that, as an alleged diehard loyal Bulldog, you booed the shit out of 20 year old kids when things weren't going well but there was still all to play for, and what a shitbird wanker that makes you look like.

And triple everything I just said for anyone who is an alumnus of the University Of Georgia and not just a "fan" in general.


If you want to see how it should be done, then check out Portsmouth of the EPL sometime. Down 0-4 after 35 minutes at home to an absolutely rampant Arsenal in an FA Cup match back in 2003, they sang in support of their team, 28,000 strong at the top of their lungs, for the entire 90 minutes en route to an absolute 5-1 assbeating. It was completely astounding and beyond impressive to anyone who witnessed it, and was commented on far and wide, even by the Arsenal players and manager. Their fans are widely regarded as the best in the land for just this reason, and are respected far and wide even though they are not a great team.