Blogging the dolphin

I feel really tired today, and I wish I could just crawl into bed and take a long nap.  I wasn’t that tired yesterday after our biking excursion, but I guess I’m feeling it today.  Conrad, Rich and I had a spontaneous bike ride thru Schaumburg, Arlington Heights, Elk Grove Village, and back to Schaumburg.  I didn’t really plan on us biking that far, but I got us lost on the bicycle trail.  It was a good warm-up since LATE ride is next weekend.  Afterwards we ate at Hooters, and I think Con and Rich were smitten over our Hooters girl...I didn’t see a ring fellas!  Anyways, back to the story.  I woke up feeling  OK today, but when I was working out during lunch I could feel just how tired my body felt.  I will just drink a cup of coffee to give myself a little jolt, then go to sleep early tonight.  The last day of the work week is already tomorrow since the 4^th of July lands on a Friday, so I am looking forward to the three day weekend!  I don’t think I will be blogging until next week, I plan on keeping busy this weekend...with ice cold beer and ribs...YESSS!!!

It’s a good day to be a Chicagoan, and yes I count myself as one even though we reside in the burbs. After all I did grow up in the City.  The Crosstown classic resumes this weekend, this time at the Cell.  The Taste of Chicago starts today, and of course the crème de la crème; The Chicago Bulls select Derrick Rose with the number one pick in the NBA Draft.  The Chicago kid who won 2 state titles at Simeon Career Academy on the Southwest side of the city.  The Chicago kid, who decided to go to Memphis and leads them to the National title game as a Freshman point guard.  The Chicago kid who is being compared to former Fighting Illini and NBA star Deron Williams. I just hope they surround the kid with the talent he needs so he can flourish here in the Windy City.  I don’t think D. Rose will feel the pressure, I think he thrives on it. He is actually going to throw out the first pitch at todays Cubs vs. Sox game.  Unfortunately, he is a White Sox fan; Fortunately, he is a Chicago Bull. Yes, it feels good to be a Chicagoan right about now...but then again, it always did!

I keep thinking about Hawaii.  I know its still over a month away, but I already know what were doing as soon as we land.  I am going to speed thru H1 and head to Waikiki, and straight to Zippy’s.  After filling up on some spam & eggs, we will head down to Leonard’s Bakery for some Malasadas and Pao Doce pups.  This time around we will try more restaurants, instead of the usual island fare.  It’s too bad I’m not a seafood guy, I bet the seafood tastes amazing!  We also plan on spending a lot more time in the North Shore; its just so beautiful there, plus Matsumoto’s shaved ice is calling our names.  I’m interested to see what our Hotel and room looks like, as for me I just want a balcony with a view.  The first time we were in Hawaii, we landed late at night and actually checked in past midnight.  We had a balcony, but it was pitch black and I couldn’t see too much.  We woke up in the morning to one of the best surprises ever!  Our room had a Diamond Head view, and Waikiki beach was only three blocks away.  I am just hoping for a good view, preferably facing the Ala Wai canal or the ocean.  I better snap out of this daydream, because I am still here in Chicago and Hawaii is still 4250 miles away.

The title says it all!!! The Chicago Cubs sweep of the White Sox was made even sweeter because of the disparity in class.  I am not saying all the White Sox are classless jerks like their manager; Ozzie “El Chupacabra” Guillen.  I am also not saying all the Cubs are polite gentlemen who prefer to do their talking on the baseball diamond instead of thru the media.  I know the White Sox and their fans feel like the red headed step-child of Chicago, and can’t fathom why Chicago is still a Cubs town despite their team winning the World Series in 2005.  I really can’t come up with a reason for that either, but you know what...”it is what it is.”  The series will shift to U.S. Cellular Field this Friday, and I’m sure the White Sox will be looking for some revenge, which should make for another interesting series.  I just hope Ozzie keeps being himself, and A.J. continues to call Cub Fans idiots, and John “The Urinator” Danks keeps that nose plug on his face.  That way the Cubs can go to the South Side, keep quiet and let their play do the talking.  I hope we can sweep them again, and If we do I will go to Wrigleyville and buy a shirt that simply states my feelings; “Suck The White Fox.” GO CUBS GO!!!

Yes its me! I know its only been a couple of days, but DAMN!!!  I would first like to say that Microsoft knows where they can stick their XBOX 360!!!  Anyways…so yeah, Tuesday I woke up from a nap while the Celtics were giving the Lakers a beat down similar to that of Rodney King.  I woke up to check the score and it wasn’t even close, looks like KG, Pierce, and Ray Ray were gonna get their first NBA Championship.  I got up and I felt a dull pain on my left achilles tendon, but I didn’t think too much of it.  Fast forward to about 4am when I suddenly woke up because of the excruciating pain! I felt like my tendon was ripping, and Lei got me an ice pack and suggested we go to the ER if I was in that much pain.  I shrugged it off and tried to go back to sleep.  Fast forward again! This time its about 6am and I just couldn’t take the pain anymore.  We head out to the ER at St. Alexius and I go in to get checked out.  The doctor asked me a series of questions and gave me a range of motion test, and she felt my foot and tendon area.  She said she didn’t think it was a tear, and it definitely was not ruptured.  She said I could have tendinitis/tendinosis on my achilles tendon.  She drugged me up with some vicodin, gave me crutches,  and told me to take Ibuprofen in a couple of hours and sent me along.  Man, that vicodin was not playing around! That sucker knocked me out, and I took a peaceful nap.  My achilles tendon feels a lot better, but its still really tender.  OK, back to Microsoft.  I filed a complaint with the BBB and they got back to me with the quicks.  I love those guys, they handle their business!  I got a call today from Microsoft, and they left a voicemail because they want to discuss my complaint.  I don’t know what is going to happen, but I hope a get a XBOX 360 that is FIXED!  Looking at my calendar it says that today,  June 20, 2008 is officially the first day of summer.  The Crosstown Classic is this weekend, the Taste is next week, and Ribfest is 2 weeks away.  I guess “Summer” is officially here.

Where do I even begin to start?  I felt like all we did this past weekend was eat, which is pretty much accurate.  We went to a graduation bbq in East Dundee on Saturday.  I know it sounds far, but it was only 15 minutes from our place.  The spread was awesome, and to top it off they had a chocolate fondue fountain!  We ended up playing “horse” on the driveway, which was fun considering none of us had played basketball in awhile.  Lets just say there was a lot of air balls and creative shot attempts.  That was fun, especially for Lorelei because she doesn’t see her High School friends as often as she wants to.  The next day was Fathers Day and it was filled with more eating.  We stopped off at her parents house first, then we met up with my family at a Filipino buffet.  This also doubled as a graduation lunch for my niece.  The food was not as good as I would have liked, but its always good to be with family.  I wasn’t really satisfied with our lunch, so Lorelei ended up cooking a nice little dinner.  I was stuffed after that, and we ended up watching the rest of the U.S. Open which was awesome!  After all that golf drama I tried watching the NBA Finals, but I ended up falling asleep before halftime.  I went to work yesterday feeling well rested since I went to sleep so early the previous day.  I got a Lettuce Entertain You Dinner certificate from work for helping out at the Trade Show last week, so I decided we would have dinner at Maggiano’s.  Jay was going to be in the area so he decided to join us for dinner, and once again I was stuffed!  I think I will stay a little longer on the treadmill today, and maybe even ride my bike when I get home from work.  I think for dinner I will have a salad, but we’ll see what happens.

I can’t believe its already Friday!  My job had their 15^th annual Trade Show yesterday at White Eagle Banquets, and it was packed! It was a good time, and I even won a Home Depot gift card and snagged a bunch of swag.  The grand prize was a 50” HDTV Plasma…I kept my fingers crossed that I would be taking that baby home, but alas my name was not the one called…haha.  Actually I wouldn’t have minded the second or third places prizes.  Second place was a 32” LCD-TV with a Nintendo Wii and 15 games.  Third place was a Apple Mac Book.  This was my first time at the Trade Show, and I can see why it’s the favorite event in our company.  On a different note, we finally booked our vacation!  Lorelei and I are looking forward to some much needed R&R.  We are going back to beautiful Hawaii, and we already have our itinerary planned.  I need to see a dermatologist so they can give me a damn sun block lotion that I’m not allergic to.  I don’t want to come back looking like a overcooked lobster, like the last time.  This weekend should be busy, as we have a couple of Graduation parties to attend, and its also Father’s Day on Sunday.  I can’t believe my niece already graduated 8^th grade and will be going to Whitney Young H.S. this fall.  I can still remember when she was a baby, and I was still in High School, and now she’s going to be a Freshman!  I plan on riding my bike this weekend, but we will see what happens.  Have a good weekend peeps!

This is going to be the stretch that will show, if the Chicago Cubs are true “contenders” or just pretending.  The upcoming schedule looks very tough, and it wont be any easier with the loss of Alfonso Soriano.  This guys has had some tough luck with injuries since coming here, but you can never question how talented he is when he is fully healthy. The Cubbies are on a stretch where they will play 13 straight games without a day off, and this is during interleague play.  They will play the Blue Jays, Rays, White Sox, Orioles, and the White Sux…err I mean Sox, again!  This will surely test their starting pitching and bullpen, and whether we have enough strong arms to propel us through the lazy days of summer.  I hope whomever they call up from Triple A will be able to step in and be productive.  I think we have enough players to overcome the loss of Soriano, and we might even be better defensively.  They can shift Reed Johnson to play left and have a platoon at center with Edmonds, and even De Rosa can play some left field.  My biggest concern is pitching.  I thing we need another solid starting pitcher, and I’m pretty sure there will be some teams looking to trade once they are out of contention.  I am pleased that we are in first place and playing great baseball, but I’m also a Cubs fan, and its only June 12.  Check back with me in October, then I’ll let you know how I really feel.

Vinny Del Negro…seriously?  I really hope Ashton Kutcher shows up at the news conference, disguised as Vinny Del Negro and tells all the Bulls fans they just got Punk’d!  We somehow fuck up hiring the best coach available, which was Mike D’Antoni.  Then we hear that Doug Collins was coming back, which I wouldn’t have minded, but then we were taking too damn long so he changes his mind.  Now the Bulls have the audacity to hire Vinny Del Negro, who probably couldn’t coach a NBA D league team, and will not command the respect he needs to pull this team together.  I thought they would at least give Flip Saunders an interview, hell they gave everyone else a damn interview.  I think they interviewed Luc Longley and Dickey Simpkins while we weren’t looking!  I remember good ole Vinny D. I think MJ wanted to punch him once, because he was so annoying…and now this neophyte is our head coach!?!?!  I have come to the conclusion that Jerry Reinsdorf is a m*therf*cking idiot, and he really doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the Chicago Bulls.  This is the same idiot that said, winning a World Series with the White Sux was better than 6 World Championships with the Bulls.  THEN SELL THE TEAM YOU FUCKING MORON!!! I don’t even want to continue with this damn blog…I will just pop in my Michael Jordan to the Max DVD and remember the Bulls as I used to know them…a great team!!!

Who is the number 1 pick?  What will the Bulls do with that pick?  These are the questions that are begging to be answered here in Chicago, at least by the Bulls fans.  The obvious top two choices are Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley.  I don’t know how the Bulls managed to land the #1 pick in the draft when they had a 1.7% chance, maybe David Stern rigged the ping pong balls.  I don’t really care what outside forces caused this miracle, just as long as the Bulls do the right thing with this pick.  The Bulls have made many dim-witted decision over the past 10 years, who has time to go over all of them?  I will just highlight the obvious ones;  The Bulls managed to somehow alienate the greatest player of all time, and prematurely end one the greatest dynasties in sports. This was an obvious one. How can you let a dynasty break apart without giving them a chance to defend their title?  I always believed that you are the champion until someone takes away the crown, but MJ, Scottie, Rodman and Phil never got the chance.  Hiring Tim Floyd from national powerhouse “Iowa State” to replace Phil Jackson was a stroke of genius, not!  Trading Elton Brand to the Clippers for Tyson Chandler.  Signing Tyson Chandler to a $60 mil deal, and then trading him to the Hornets for a dinosaur.  Signing a past his prime defender, Ben “Big Baby” Wallace to the same amount of money as they gave Chandler. This deal only worked in the Bulls favor for one season, and then Wallace showed his age, and lack of basic offensive skills, while Chandler blossomed in New Orleans and became the 20-10 guy the Bulls envisioned he would be.  The lack of intelligence the Bulls showed by not pulling the trigger on any deal that would have brought Pau Gasol, Kevin Garnett, or Kobe Bryant to Chicago, because Paxson couldn’t  part with Loul Deng. Take a guess what Bryant, Gasol, and Garnett are doing tomorrow…yes, you guessed it, playing in the NBA Finals.  Despite all those idiotic decisions,  the Bulls have been given a shot at redemption, a chance they better not blow.  The Bulls have a lot of holes that need to be plugged, and hiring a Head Coach is one of them.  If you believed the reports coming in last week, it seemed like Doug Collins was all set to coach the Bulls again.  All he needs to do is sign the contract…WAIT!!! Mr. Paxson, we have Flip Saunders on line one.  Hold that thought Doug, I hope you didn’t sign the lease on that house in Northbrook just yet.  A remote possibility is to trade the pick , if the right deal comes along.  What is this I’m hearing?  This is pure speculation at this point, but word is the Miami Heat are open to trade talks that would involve NBA Superstar, Dwyane Wade to Chicago for the #1 pick. It would be interesting to see what deal the Bulls can put together to pry Wade away from Miami.  Perhaps the #1 pick, Ben Gordon, Kirk Hinrich and The Sears Tower for Wade and the #2 pick???  The bottom line is,  there are two great players the Bulls have to choose from.  Derrick Rose; Pure point guard, underrated defender, floor general.  He led the Memphis Tigers to the NCAA championship game, but lost a heartbreaker to Kansas.  He is described as a combination of Chris Paul & Deron Williams. Then there is Michael Beasley; Pure scorer, inside/outside threat, excellent rebounder for his size. He led the NCAA in scoring as a true freshman.  He is described as a beefed up Kevin Durant. There will be a lot of talent evaluating, scouting, interviews, and possible trade offers from now until the day of the draft on June 26.  I just hope the Chicago Bulls come out smelling like a Rose.