Turd Sandwich on the Menu?

Man, I had a really nice long weekend ... then the week happened! My special lady and I started the weekend by having a little bite @ the LakeView House and then saw a movie Terminator: Salvation. The sweet potato fries were not good. The rest of the menu looked interesting but pretty full on, there was not alot to offer for quick easy finger food. They could use a more accessible bar menu. The service was friendly if not prompt. Too brief to tell so we will have to go back. As for the movie, I went in w/ low expectations as the last Terminator movie sucked really bad. This one was actually pretty ok. There was a ton of action, and the special effects were cool. I mean, it is what it is. My lady was not a fan. 1 thumb up if you like this type of movie in general. It is worth seeing at the movies. Saturday I went to my folks place and ripped some lumber w/ my new husqvarna. Yup, that's right... I am pretty badass!!! To make it worth my while my mom worked up some potato salad and dad cooked some pork and burgers. Everything was good but the potato salad gets 2 huge thumbs up as usual... I am a big fan. So if you find yourself in White River Jct. and know where my parents live... tell them I sent you! Sunday, we did a little work around the house then played 9 very pleasant holes at Kwiniaska, then hit up a BBQ. It was chill and quite pleasant. I was in bed by 10:30.

Monday? Well, we went for a hike up Mt. Hunger and it went ok for the first hike of the year. My calves are still burning though. I am fat and out of shape right now. Every see a skinny fat guy? My wife has! HAHAHAHA... joke's on her!!! Then friends came over for dinner. It was nice but what a hectic 3 days!

Tuesday? yeah that was going fine until S&P dropped a turd sandwich into the market. F*ck those guys... seriously. Can you imagine a weather guy calling for 70degree temps for the next day, then a little later calling for 90 degrees... and the whole time it is 40 and snowing!!!!!! So here we are today... it is cold and raining in VT, who wants a margarita?! 2 thumbs up for mental projection of a warm tropical island and a cold rum punch!!!!!

P.S. congrats R&J R on the new baby!

A Little Sports Talk

My wife hates these little blurbs... so LadyBird, feel free to skip ahead. 1 quick thing, F*ck John Heyman from CnnSI.com. I am an unapologetic Red Sox fan... I am also not a journalist. Heyman is a Yankees lover who pretends to be a neutral journalist. Well, your column rips off stuff better guys like Gammons, Verducci, and Stark write... except yours has no insight. Even Buster Olney who is no doubt a Yankees guy tries to hide it. Plus, your columns come off like a bitter old man who is mad he always got picked last as a kid. So there you go.

I really enjoy sports fans, baseball fans in particular, and if you want to get even more granular... Yankees fans. They beat their chests and yell and scream denouncing the use of steroids and the cheating that has ruined the sport. Admitted cheater Jason Giambi is a villain! Until he starts hitting a few homers and then they love the guy. Just a regular Joe who made a simple mistake. Andy Pettite? Sure he is a cheater but he admitted it and is one of "our guys" so all is forgiven. A-Fraud? Those YaYos couldn't beat that guy down enough for his many transgressions. He comes back to the lineup, hits a few homers, they win a few games and all of a sudden he is the belle of the ball and just a guy "having fun, not a care in the world". Frankly, if Roger Clemens could pitch a few shutout innings do you really think the Yankees would not sign him and the fans would not cheer him? $250MM worth of cheaters... that is just the way it is.

When Manny comes back will the Dodgers fans be any different? Hell no! They will cheer wildly when he starts raking again. And Sox fans? Well, Nomar was probably juicing. Maybe Manny, heck, maybe David Ortiz. If it comes out that this is the case will I stop cheering for them? Nope. It's a game of cheaters and I still like the game anyway. What's my point? I don't like how John Heyman sucks up to the Yankees I guess.

24 Final Thoughts

So I will admit first and foremost that this was not my favorite season of 24 (7 this year?). I missed a few, slept through one or two, it was just not terribly gripping. I will not give any details away in the event one of the 4 of you that reads this Tivo'd the show for a later viewing but I will say this... I wish I had those 2 hours of my life back, tick tock, tick tock, tick tock. I mean, the show is moving into soap opera/bad Alias final season/every other good dramatic series that has run its course. Eventually the story is just over. A movie is 2 hours, even a trilogy is maybe 9 all in? A 7 season TV show like this is what, 24 1 hour episodes? Even w/ commercials, that is 18 hours *7=126 hours of story. Hey, I give the writers and producers credit for coming up w/ even a half way entertaining show at this point. How many terrorists can you you defeat? They have set next season to somehow feature at least 1 resurrection, and the possibility of an alien and/or Vatican conspiracy. Boo-Yeah! Will I watch season 8? Yeah, probably. At some point next season will I lose interest and watch reruns of Seinfeld that I have already seen 12 times? 60/40 my money says yes!!! Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock...

It's Peanut Butter Graduation Time!!!

Congratulations to my Very Special Lady who busted her ass and received her MBA from the University of VT this weekend. It was a difficult area of study that took her out of her comfort zone and exposed her to new vernacular, themes, and ways of thinking about our cultural fabric (the cash money side!). LadyBird, not only tackled the new and unfamiliar but she went after it w/ gusto spending alot of time and alot of effort to not just pass but graduate w/ more A's than I have seen in a long time. I am very proud!!!

In other VT news... a gas leak prompted an evacuation at the local mall. Another one cleared out a portion of the building I work in, what are the odds?!
http://www.wcax.com/global/story.asp?s=10381225

Them Jarvis Boys are at it again!
http://www.wcax.com/global/story.asp?s=10380753

Had a pretty good meal at the Starry Night last night. Pretty solid martini, very good lobster wrapped in phylo, good pork loin in Cuban spices w/ tasty red beans and rice, and very solid coffee ice cream sandwich w/ chocolate cookies. Had a little stomach distress today though. The correlation is somewhat unclear.

OK... I am off to get some chow and watch the "24" season finale!

Hey, This Site is Moving Really Slow Today!

Might take me 2 hours for a 3 line post at this rate. Pretty quiet weekend for this guy. After a recovery day on Friday I was in work mode on Saturday. Mowed the lawn, weeded, laid down mulch. Not sure what the deal is w/ mulch but like cash it never quiet goes as far as you think or hope it will. I kept loading the wheelbarrow and laying it down. After 50 loads (hehe) I thought I might be done? Nope! I kept telling myself, one more load... one more load... but the gardens were never filled! They were insatiable! See what I did there? Made it sound like a dirty move. Maybe that will be the porno I write and direct some day Mulchin'!

Want to clean out your system but are a little afraid of fiber products? Try Chef Leu's pork fried rice!!!

Hey, when credit card charge offs get to record levels know what we should do? Reduce the rates! That way, the deadbeats who will default anyway can pay less interest. If we blow up credit card companies we can really make those Wall Street Fat Cats pay! In your face Fat Cats!!

Saw this picture on Yahoo's most popular today. They people who live in this house actually shot at "trespassers". Well, I mean seriously, there is a sign!

A Little Tired...

Hard to stay up until 2AM and then get up 5 hours later for work. I have been tearing so much ass today I really feel sorry for the people that sit around me. Here is a quick review, late night Mr. Mike's... at the time of delivery? 2 huge thumbs up. 1 hour later? 1 large case of heartburn and those 2 thumbs are now turning down!!!

So Manny Ramirez was busted for using a female fertility drug, most likely to mask the steroids he has been taking. Am I upset or even slightly bothered by this? Nope, don't care. The last few years a bunch of juiced hitters have been try to hit off juiced up pitchers. There are always going to be cheaters trying to get an edge. Greenies, pine tar, scuffing the ball, tipping pitches... athletes are not saints. Does Barry Bonds huge head make me enjoy a game less? Nope. In fact I very much enjoy how baseball is being played right now. So there... roid it up fellas!

My lady is out of town this weekend... want to guess how big a mess I will make? How about the total amount of hours I will actually be wearing pants? Total numbers of hours I will spend watching baseball/basketball/hockey? It's all in play baby!

In honor of the G.I. Joe movie coming up... Pork Chop Sandwiches!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4OPr_QxoFg

Rainy Wednesday

Yup, kind of a gross day up in VT today. Cinco de Mayo was yesterday and it was dead on Church Street. I hope it was because the college kids were studying. I mean, if this recession is going to put the clamps on partying then we have a real problem people! Went out w/ a couple friends and had a pretty solid margarita over at the Red Square. They used real lime juice as opposed to a sour mix. That is always the key. The Red Square runs really hot and cold, sometimes it is the best bar in Burlington, other times the people who work there are super douchey and you want to take a crap on the radiator just to show them what's up (at least that is what some people have told me they would like to do).

Sad week w/ the passing of Dom Deluise and Bea Arthur. I always enjoyed the Cannonball Run movie and the other vehicles for Dom and Burt Reynolds to play off each other. I am also going to admit that I was a fan of the Golden Girls. That's right, the Golden Girls. I watched the original and then watched the reruns. Oh those bawdy ladies, their sexual innuendo did not get weird and gross for me until I was a bit older... So there you have it.

Take my Taxes... Please

Am I stoked about Obama demonizing hard work and the very tenants of capitalism and democracy that we have built our country on? You know I am!!! He is becoming our Robin Hood... you know, if Robin Hood stole from lots of people and then gave to lazy people who prefer not to earn a living, even though they are capable of doing so. The nice thing about capitalism is that it is based on choice. You can work as much or as little as you like. You may or may not get rich but if you plug along you can support yourself. What we are doing lately is creating a society of beggars and pan handlers, folks are looking for a government handout. Not cool. I enjoyed the Bruce Springsteen and Obama remarks in regards to Pete Seeger and what he has done for the "labor movement". Have you noticed that this "labor movement" essentially revolves around unions who make it possible for people to NOT WORK and get paid for it?! How about turning our auto industry over to the unions? What could go wrong there? OK, enough of that.

You know when you have an offsite and people start boozing and then crazy stuff happens? What do you think goes down when billionaires get together for a weekend retreat? Does Warren Buffett get loaded and drunk dial Tim Geitner? Does Bill Gates find himself blacked out clutching an I-phone, and trying to buy Wisconsin? Do they play poker w/ people instead of poker chips?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124140904055482603.html#mod=testMod

One of these restaurants will work... one will not, care to guess?
http://burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20090504/NEWS02/90503013/New+restaurants+add+to+city+s+palate&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL

We rented the movie W. this weekend. Lady Bird was not a big fan, I enjoyed it. I am a GW basher, full disclosure. I thought this movie turned him into a sympathetic character. It sort of broadly generalized other characters in his life in a comical way. Pretty typical Oliver Stone type fare. 1 thumb up, I think Stone does a nice job shooting a film, makes it compelling, and the story was interesting.

Played a round over @ Vermont National and then ate lunch up in the clubhouse. Nice course, pretty hard for a guy like myself. Lunch was good, not great. Pretty decent service from the bartender. Very solid nachos, plenty of cheese and the chicken was actually a little spicy and quite good. Burger was solid, nice roll, cooked alright, very solid fries. Another 1 thumb up.

Excellent meal and company @ supper club Sunday night. 2 thumbs up, always solid.

Know What Sucks? Week Days!!!

Here is a fun follow up to my old Cleveland rant!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fsportsillustrated%2Ecnn%2Ecom%2F2009%2Fextramustard%2Fhotclicks%2F05%2F01%2Fjulianne%2Dhough%2Dchris%2Dcooley%2Dunpluggeed%2Findex%2Ehtml&feature=player_embedded

BTW, New World Tortilla on Pine Street? New world, same stomach cramps and diarrhea!