Monday, March 31, 2014

Dave's Thoughts of the Day: April 1st

You don't want to miss our "Dave in the City" podcast tonight at 10pm Eastern!!  Trust me on this one, and I promise this is not an April Fool's joke... we DO have a podcast tonight!  We'll have some guests...  can't say who exactly but some familiar names will be in effect.   Be there!  We might even do a twist on Random Questions called "Random Answers" where we ask the chat room the questions instead, then read their answers.

People might think this is an April Fool's prank too, but we do, earnestly, have a Wrestlemania podcast coming up on Wednesday night.   I did this with all good intentions and I look forward from hearing from my friends about Wrestlemania's greatest moments.  I gotta tell ya, I don't think any of them will involve this year's show, I mean some joker named "Randy Orton" and another one named "Daniel Bryan?"   Do these names scare anybody?  Those guys sound like insurance agents.   Ooooooooh run for the hills RANDY ORTON is coming to town!!  Oooooooooooooohhhh!

When I was a kid, wrestlers had colorful names like HOLLYWOOD Hulk Hogan, Hot Roddy Piper, Macho Man Randy Savage, Andre the Giant, and a whole bunch of other memorably named wrestling icons.  Now we just give the wrestlers regular names?  Even the one with a fancy name: "Fandango" well-- I mean fandango is a movie ticket service with talking paper bags... I usually wouldn't try to fight with a fandango.

I think if you want a guy who could put a scare into people, one with a name that'd put legitimate fear into other guys, I'd go out and make a character called "THE OCCUPANT", well ok I need to make a correction.  The character was already made by John in Brooklyn aka "Bread."   I owe it to Bread for creating an entire dark comedy genre a year ago... and I tell you the OCCUPANT would be a great WWE wrestler.  People would not mess with him.

My next WWE character would be "Peaches", and the beauty of a name like Peaches is that it could be the name of a guy or a woman... As I remember it, there's a female recording artist that was known as "Peaches" in the 1980's.  Peaches would be a colorful character, perhaps sweet too.  Peaches would bring a lot of juice.

Next up, although this is a borrowed moniker, I'd make a character called "THE CAPTAIN."  And you'd go "the Captain of what?"   Oh he goes HAM my friends... wherever he goes he takes command of the room and owns it.  That's why he's "THE CAPTAIN."   Forks and remotes cower in his presence.  Don't you dare bring up Eduardo Nunez to him!

Lastly as a nod to my boy Beebs, I'd set up a character known as "The Agency" and he'd have anyone's back in a Tag Team match.  One part cool, two parts lean, he makes it happen for your team.

Well ok one more... "THE JUNK MAN."  Throw any question, comment, or other thing at him and he'll whip up brilliance.

ok... ONE more... we'll bring into the ring THE OAT MAN... he has a way with words, and he can sing along to any lyric anywhere any time.  If you come at him, you best not miss!

.....can I do one more?

We have to have a heel in this whole thing, so we'll call him "Caruso", and after every match he'll go to the microphone and yell "I CALLED IT."

I had more, but I think I'll save it for later.  Have a great Tuesday!

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Dave's Thoughts of the Day: March 31st

Never underestimate the power of barbecue!

You wouldn't believe it... my sister and I wanted to meet for dinner last night, given that my other sister posted on facebook about how she and the rest of our family (my parents, my niece, and my other sister) went out to lunch.  So I told my sister "oh yeah?  Why don't we meet for dinner?"

She was down with it, so we determined a time and meeting location on a Saturday night.  The funny thing was, I had a swim meet the next day.  A dubious decision, surely, to have a big dinner the night before a home swim meet with Masters.   Even so, I met my sister at our restaurant of choice, the Northridge Wood Ranch Barbecue restaurant in the Northridge Fashion Center Mall.  She met me there with her boyfriend.  What a meal it was!   We shared a 4 item combo plate:  two half chickens (you can use "chicken" as two of the meats), tri tip and beef ribs.  Fantastic!

I told my sister about the meet the next day and I laughed about how this might slow me down, but cotdamn, the next morning I just destroyed it at the swim meet, with very low expectations.  I did a 50 backstroke, broke my personal record for that, which I set in Early March at Caltech, setting a new personal best of 45.12 seconds.  Then I did the 50 fly, and did *not* break my March personal best of 42.71, but I still swam a very good 44.37 seconds.

The last two were incredible.  I felt like I was too tired out from warmup for the 50 fly, so for 50 free, I decided not to warm up at *all*.   If you can believe this, it worked brilliantly!   For the 50 free, I swam an all time best 36.09 seconds... I was this close to breaking 36 seconds.  My goodness!!  Lastly for the 100 freestyle, an event I *did* warm up for, I went 1:26.33.  Whoah baby...  Incredible swimming.  There was really no precedent set for the 100 freestyle other than a 100 freestyle in meters I did in the fall, and based on what I'd done up to today I really just wanted to do better than 1:45... breaking 90 seconds was phenomenal.  Could not believe I could swim that fast!  The bottom line is, eat barbecue the night before a swim meet.  Ah??   Am I right?

So, in all, life is good.   I got to enjoy a day in Santa Monica on Friday, where instead of trudging through traffic trying to find another tourist spot, I went to one right next to me.  The weather was perfect, I got to just stand there and watch the waves of the ocean and the sand of the beach for nearly a half hour, followed by walking around town.  It was sublime.

Yesterday, after the meet, I tried to make my own porterhouse steak but with mixed results.  The inner part of the steak was done just right... medium rare, pretty much to the letter.  The problem was the crust or lack thereof.  I don't know what i did wrong but I must have not committed the meat to the skillet long enough to sear in the crust.  It just seemed like a piece of carne asada on the outside.   In one respect, that was very disappointing.  A great steak has a great outer crust to it, nicely charred and even a little crispy.  I'll have to try it again another time.

I always get the feeling that people in NY and on the East Coast care more about the Dodgers than Dodger fans do.   I was reading the message boards last night and people were obsessing about this move and that move that the Dodgers made, even writing them off.   The summary to the above -- it's early and it's just one game.

Tuna melts!  On that Friday when I was out in Santa Monica, I went to Swinger's and got a tuna melt.   I like tuna melts and that one really hit the spot.   Big fan.

I have more, but I shall save it for next time... my brain is losing steam.   Have a good Monday!


Monday, March 24, 2014

Dave's Thoughts of the Day: March 25th

I had an amazing blog entry today.

It was incredible... I had a wonderful series of segues and tie ins...

Then I tweeted about how wild it was going to be.

...and then I tried to make an edit of one word out of 5000... I did "Select All" and typed "z" by mistake.  Then I clicked "Save As Draft" instead of "close."

and now it's gone... all gone.

It was about nightmares, but it's fitting that this day of nightmares ended with THIS editing nightmare.  I can't #$!%!$ manage this day anymore.  I'm out!!!


(onward)

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Dave's Thoughts of the Day: March 19th

I went to a Jeopardy Viewing party for my friend Nick last night at Q's in West LA.   Coach was there as were many of Nicks' Childhood and college friends.  That was a lot of fun.  Nick was great!  I saw the taping when it happened some months earlier, but it was equally as fun to watch us all see him on TV.   That was a lot of fun, and our thanks to Q's for giving us a section of the large sports bar to use for the viewing party.  Loads of fun!


I have a story about Coach too but I shall save that for another day or another venue.

Onward... Virginia getting no respect at all by the basketball media.   I think Virginia makes the Final Four!   Virginia in the Four, that's what I think happens.   Impossible that you even had one guy on "Around the Horn" make an attention grab and peg Coastal Carolina to beat them. That's just a joke.   If that happens I'll go to Myrtle Beach MYSELF and party w/ the CC alums and coeds.  Give me a break.

Then you had Fox Sports Radio's Jason Smith (yes!  He moved to FOX SPORTS RADIO after doing some fill in shows, while maintaining his NFL Network jobs).  This joker decided BOTH Arizona and Wichita State were going to be eliminated by Sunday.  I can certainly see one of them losing this weekend but no both.  For goodness sake, some sanity please?     To have both guys lose out, either Kentucky is going to have to finally apply themselves, Cal Poly will have to exercise the upset of the century (if the even beat Texas Southern which is a tossup), AND, and!, Oklahoma State will have to be so hot that they just blow Arizona away and coaching becomes a non factore.   You can certainly account for one of these but not all of them at once.  It's just too much.  Jason's prediction seems like an attention grab, but speaking as one who is prone to staging similar attention grabs, I will just wait and see, and then go laugh at Mr. Smith for such a silly "bold prediction."

And on the topic of Attention Grabs and predictions, I have maintained that one of the "Tournament Ten" teams (see previous entry) will win the National Championship this year.   That still would be pretty wide open, to think that up to ten teams are title contenders.  The only teams that could really burn me are Syracuse and Villanova, but neither have shown evidence that they can sustain a long title run.  Both teams are too inconsistent, Syracuse with scoring, Nova with a number of things.  I doubt we worry about them coming out of the East region.

That's as bold as I'm going to get with predictions.  All I want to do this year is enjoy the games and soak in the drama.  I'm not that worried about winning a bracket pool, although I entered two pools anyway, one for a radio station, and the other one being Tommy's league for money.   Let's see the games!

One of my friends, Lubsies, had a birthday last night and went after it with a porterhouse steak.  Man that sounds good!  I may consider a porterhouse myself.  A true blue no-doubter porterhouse.  I'll see if I get the chutzpah to go through w/ it.  Maybe I'll play it half way and get a big prime rib somewhere.


I can sense peaches are starting to make a comeback.  Do the dance!


An earthquake is the ultimate alarm clock.

The kale/carrot/grape salad I eat is one of my favorite new snacks.  AND it's healthy and good for the digestive system.   It's hard to eat that dosage of dietary fiber and not get the urge to push it out of the bottom.   but you know?  I'd say it's a healthy push... feels so clean going down through the tubes.   Any time I eat that kale basket I feel much smarter and better.  I love it.

I tried to make my own corned beef on St. Patrick's day.  Overall I enjoyed the experience, but the meat had some mixed results.  The *taste* was terrific, but it was too dry for me.  I wanted it to be more tender... I wonder if I needed to simmer it more.  It was a 4.5 lb piece of meat and I simmered it for 3 hours and 45 minutes.  Did I need to simmer it longer?  Or was my error the fact that I only used some of the meat juice that came w/ the pouch and not all of it?  I didn't think that one through.  Ah well, I should be set for some future meat sandwiches either tomorrow or Thursday.

I'm doing whatever I can to eat healthier.  Corned Beef is not a step in that direction, but I feel like I've been more careful about what I eat.   Even last night at Q's, I didn't go pig out on nachos or fried chicken fingers.  I dismissed their menu entirely and just drank some cokes.   The cokes are not good for you but I had a pretty light eating day up to that point.  My dinner was had a few minutes beforehand at the Jersey Mike's.  I saw a babe there, and she was about to order and I got a little confused about where the line started and so I realized I should have gone stage left to get in line since the line started on the right and filed in towards the left of the counter.  So I go around the lady and she said, "ooh! Excuse me haha."   I said "oh it's all right, no problem!"  That put a smile on my face... very nice of her to be courteous, easy on the eyes to boot, and honestly I think I was the one that got in the way in the first place.  It was no big deal.

At Jersey Mike's, I ordered the #13, an Italian sub sandwich with all the fixings, which they call "Mike's Way."  I couldn't help but think of Franceser.  Does Mike Francesa goes to Jersey Mike's and see the "Mike's Way" denotation on the menu, only to say "Hey, that's not my way ok?  I have my way but it's not that way, I have a different way, I'll go tell you what the way is but it's not this 'Mike's Way' nonsense."

The server last night, later at Q's, the sports bar,  looked a lot like Jennifer Garner... and I mean "a lot."  If she was still doing the ALIAS TV show she might have used "Sports Bar Waitress" as an alibi.   I'd go so far to think that it might have actually *been* Jennifer Garner.  Have you even seen her in a movie lately?  She's as good as MIA no?

I felt bad snapping at the Oat Man yesterday.   He was just trying to make a funny and I lashed out unnecessarily.   He's a funny dude... I hope I haven't made him upset or anything.  

That's all from here!  Hope you all get to fill in your brackets for the NCAA Tournament.  See you soon...

Monday, March 17, 2014

The "Tourney Ten": Favorites to win the NCAA Title in Basketball

You really could have 10 teams that are legitimate favorites to win the title this year… any one of these teams could win the NCAA Tournament and no one would be that surprised.

I will put Michigan State on this list even though I personally dont see it.  Here are the others...
Wichita State
Kansas
Virginia
L'ville
Arizona
Florida 
Iowa State
Michigan
Wisconsin

Tell you what… if a team NOT on this list wins the NCAA Tournament this year, I will go to Dallas to see a Cowboys MNF game (or even Thursday night).  ties in w/ the Dallas tournament location.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Dave's Thoughts of the Day: March 17th

I feared this would happen and it did... my daily blog became a weekly blog.   Hard to find things to write about lately... or maybe laziness, or some combination of those.  Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Now go drink out there!

Assorted thoughts...

Cal Poly -- amazing cinderella story.  These guys were way under .500 entering the Big West Tournament... then they dominated #2 UCSB and beat #1 UC Irvine... THEN they beat CSUN to win the Big West and enter the NCAA tournament for who the hell knows how long since their last berth.   What a story!  Could not have expected it.  Nobody could have!

So they get a play in game, probably in Dayton somewhere, and if they win that, they'll play #1 Wichita State in the second round.  I think there's a chance they win that play in game, but Wichita State?!?!?!?!  Hahahahahahahahahaha not even the cow can mush that one!  Wichita plays great defense and that team has bigger goals in mind.  Tough bracket for them, but they gotta at least make the Sweet 16.  We'll see what happens from there.

You know a good meal is one that sticks to the ribs, or as I put it, "puts a dent in my bones."   Romano's Macaroni Grill never disappoints in that spot.  I went to visit family over the weekend and we went there for dinner.   Tremendous!

Anyone a member of the dollar shave club?  What's the secret password?

My sister brought it to my attention that Romano's so called "Macaroni" Grill is sorely lacking in Macaroni selection.  Who calls their restaurant Macaroni Grill and then minimizes the Macaroni on the menu?   Unusual.

I was talking with my buddies at work and I brought up the idea of a road trip to Chicago.  So, during the week I'd drive through Las Vegas, Denver, Kansas City, St. Louis, and then ride up to Chicago to watch a Cubs game and see Chicago's sights.  Then I'd board a 1 way flight back home.   To execute the drive, I could rent a car with Sirius/XM on it.  My friends got really excited about the idea, but not excited enough to join me.   It's probably too late to plan this trip for early April (original idea), but some time down the road would be nice.

I'd rather not force other thoughts, so I shall leave you for the moment.  Enjoy your Monday!

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Dave's Thoughts of the Day: March 10th

I saw a friend I hadn't seen in a while yesterday at Fuddruckers over in Burbank.  Burbank was the half way point between me in Santa Monica and him in Rancho Cucamonga... about a 40 min drive either way.

I drove to meet him around 3pm as the L.A. Marathon was winding down, and with ALL THE TRAFFIC in Santa Monica and my main artery streets closed, meaning San Vicente Blvd and surrounding streets, I had to get pretty creative.   The 101 and the 10 were completely stopped so I trudged up the 405 and took Magnolia Blvd, which ran parallel to the 101.   It was creative, but Magnolia Blvd came through in a big spot!

I actually did all right getting to Burbank... then I saw my buddy, and it was like we picked up where we left off.  The best friends are ones who you have a lifelong conversation with, and it was like we just continued from where we were a few months ago, when we met in Pasadena.  I get that same feeling with the Junk Man, or Kevin on the Cape, my co-host for "Random Questions" on the podcast.   Talking to him feels like a life long conversation, and each podcast we do is continuing our long interaction.  When the hour's up, it's not an ending, but just a break until our next session.

So with my friend, driving from Rancho, we got together at Fuddrucker's to chat about all sorts of topics.  He's a Dean at Claremont these days.  He's come a long way, my friends.   More than anything else, he is really up to date on University Administration.  He has an extremely good idea of the academic standards of America's top schools.  I really enjoy talking to my buddy, truly good times were had at the Fuddrucker's.

It's kind of funny... he said to me the last time he was at a Fuddrucker's was when he got his Honda Pilot in Chicago, and I said "Oh no way!  They have Fuddruckers in Chicago too?!"

Then it *snapped* just like that, of course they do, they're all over the country, and I told my friend, "Oh that's right they're all over America.  I remember one time I talked to my East Coast friends and was explaining all about Fuddruckers when they said they had a bunch of them nearby.  Hahahahahahahahah I always thought it was just a California chain!"  I got a good laugh out of that.

A most memorable Sunday, and a sorta memorable Friday preceded that too...

Friday... I drove the car into work at UCLA, and after work, I took the car to the Beverly Wilshire hotel in Beverly Hills.   A scene it was folks!   I went to a place called "Sidebar" to try the steak tartare... it was pretty good, but just as good were these little bowls of potato chips they served.

I went up to the bar, next to "CUT" the big steakhouse there, and talked to the bartender for a while.   He served me the little bowl of potato chips and I munched away.   I asked for a beer and he showed me a few brews on special for happy hour.  One of them was Lagunitas, and the name sounded familiar, so I tried it.  It's an IPA and what a journey it was.  Great beer, but I could not shake those little potato chips.  They were great, and after finishing one tiny bowl they went and gave me another one.  I must have had 3-5 of those little bowls of potato chips.   Then came the steak tartare, not a very large portion size, I must say, but a large price came with it.   It was pretty good!  You know what steak tartare is?  It's what happens when you try to make tuna salad and sub in a piece of steak for the tuna.  Quite a twist, ah?

After this journey, I made a stop at Il Fornaio, an Italian Restaurant, and asked for a coffee to go.  I *loved* their coffee the last time I was there and they served it to me no problem.  Good times.  Then I drove from there to Eagle Rock, making a 75 minute stop at Amoeba, which had a 15 minute stop at Arclight to take a leak and order a regular popcorn.

Then, the drive from Hollywood to Eagle Rock... I got genuinely lost somewhere around Glendale, driving WEST on Colorado Street not realizing Eagle Rock was further East from Glendale, so I whipped that around and went to Eagle Rock to try these fish tacos.  They were all right, but not worth the drive...   ultimately that was a wasted trip.  I don't know why I wasted a Friday night like that, I could have even stayed in Beverly Hills and hobnobbed it with the guys at the other bar, "the Blvd."   Terrible job by yours truly.

But that's the 'cow for ya!   I like to explore, and you get your hits, and you get your misses too.   The truth was, I didn't think it was going to take *that long* to get to Eagle Rock, traffic was just brutal on Friday.  I was supposed to do that whole Eagle Rock thing in a 40 minute window and then drive back to Santa Monica to make the bar run.  It didn't happen, so what can you do?


Saturday was a productive day.   You can only imagine the wonders a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser can do.  It really rubbed out some pretty serious stains on my car.  Would you believe, the lady at Supercuts gave me the suggestion?!

I did my taxes in the morning, watched some golf, then I sat on the balcony at home, looking into the clear SM sky, listening to jazz on my phone, and I thought "I better put the vehicle registration sticker on my car, but I better get that stain off my bumper too, and if I'm going to do that, I may as well get a haircut, it's been over 3 weeks!"   So off I went... and at the Supercuts I mentioned how I was trying to clean the stain off my car and she brought up the Magic Eraser.   I was so inspired, it was all I could think about the whole haircut.  I gave her an extra large tip to thank her for the suggestion.   Then I went to the supermarket to pick it up.   I spent the next 30 minutes rubbing out the stains w/ the Magic Eraser in the parking lot.    These are things you do when your room mate is out of town, and your lady friend is out of town, and anyone else you felt like hanging out with has other things going.  It was worth it though, and that haircut was really overdue.

I think... that's really all I have.   Hope you all have a good Monday!

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Gloryland and the HALL* of Fame

*Hall and Oates, that is.

20 years ago, the United States hosted the World Cup, and Los Angeles was a HUGE part of it.  Opening Ceremonies occurred in the area, at Pasadena's Rose Bowl.  The Championship Round was played there.  The seminal game with the United States occurred there.   It was a big deal at the time…

Two things I remember most from the 1994 World Cup:  Soccerfest, which was the Fan Festival for the Cup that took place at the Convention Center.  The other was this song they BLASTED all over the stadium for every game.  My Dad and I and some relatives went to a couple games at the Rose Bowl.   I was fully unfamiliar with Soccer at the time, so I had no idea who the teams were or who won… I think Argentina was one of the teams.

But this SONG… "Gloryland" was just BOOMING all over the Rose Bowl when we were there.  They played the music so loud!   Over and over "glooooooryland, lend a helping hand… this is glooorrrrrrylaannnnnnnd."

In the next 20 years that song would pop up in my mind once in a while.   I wondered who did it all that time, but never wondered enough to look it up.   It wasn't until this week, two decades later, when I was doing research on Hall and Oates that I learned of the man who wrote and performed the song:  Daryl Hall.

I thought that was pretty cool!   When I heard it the first time I thought "this guy can really sing!  He is really wailing those lyrics."  Well no wonder!  It's the blue-eyed soul wonder Daryl Hall… truly a legend along with his songwriting/performing partner John Oates.

Everything came together this week.   2014 presents a wonderful coincidence: a new World Cup Tournament *and*, Daryl Hall and John Oates' induction into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of fame.  I couldn't be happier for the two.  They still perform as well, most of the time individually but sometimes they get together and jam.  Both guys are still really really good.

As for the Cup… it's the 20th anniversary of the year when USA Soccer finally mattered.  Tangible results in a World Cup tournament.  This year's Team USA should have a good run in them.  Perhaps they can call on their prior "Gloryland."

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Dave's Thoughts of the Day: March 3rd

I did it!!!

When 2013 started, I made a vow to break 38 seconds in the 50 yard short course freestyle swim.   Yesterday, I did it!!  You know what?  I didn't put too much thought into it... I swam my swim.  Two races before this one, the 50y fly and the 50y backstroke were 2-3 seconds than my previous best in each.  Right out of the box, I knew I had a good shot at it. 

So at the Caltech Pentathalon Meet yesterday, a meet I didn't even commit to until the night before... I literally decided to do the meet only hours before it started.. it was a slow weekend and the rain was about to clear up here in Los Angeles.   Even though I thought I was out of shape and potentially rusty, I decided to do it.

At this meet, I summoned the improvements I've made in my stroke over the last two years.. it has improved a good deal.  I knew my butterfly was better than ever, because I made some stroke changes that were a big difference.   More than any meet before it, my stroke with each of yesterday's races felt *natural.*  I wasn't trying too hard.

I felt good out there!  Didn't know I had it in me!!   Some of my colleagues from swim, not many, were also at Caltech, and they did great too!   Amazing swims by the others.  There's actually a meet coming around March 20th, the UCLA meet and I look forward to repeating the speed of yesterday's "show."  Do the dance!

Officially, the 50 fly was timed at 42.71 seconds, a personal best.   To put it in perspective, 3 years ago, when I did my first swim meet at CalTech, the 50 fly was done at 58 seconds, and back *then* thought I went way faster than I expected.   The butterfly has come a very long way.

The 50 free was timed at 36.61 seconds... it was everything I hoped it would be, and more.  I had a good feeling I'd get 37 seconds... but sub 37 is a pleasant surprise!   Freestyle is always going to be the fastest swim for most people so improving upon it can only be incremental... this might be the best two year improvement on my freestyle time I've ever seen.   My first ever freestyle race was completed in about 39.01 seconds... getting to nearly 35 seconds on a 50 in 3 years makes me feel quite good.

Now to the other things...

I know EVERYBODY watches the Oscars, but year after year I choose not to watch them, except to turn it on at the end to see who won best picture.  Every time I do this, I feel like I take a temporary trip to another planet.    It's like reality doesn't exist for the next 4 to 7 hours.   Well this year, it might have felt even more so.

I don't think he cares that I didn't go but Coach said I was invited to Nick's Oscars party.. (probably as "add on guy" since our friend Nick didn't send me an invitation individually).  I said I couldn't make it as I'm not a big Oscars guy.   I was tired anyway from the swim meet, and how.   As we approached 3:30 pm yesterday I went to lie down for a while... suddenly I'm in a deep slumber, get up momentarily to take a leak, and wake up for good at 7:57pm.  A four and a half hour nap!!!!

Can you believe this??   Then I ranted about the Oscars on twitter, only to delete the tweets a little later.   The common meme about the Oscars show is that its self indulgent, and unfortunately it was exactly as I perceived it once I turned it on... some song and dance, Ellen slurping other actors and actresses, people patting themselves on the back as if they cured cancer.  I had enough so I turned the TV back off... I did, as mentioned, put it back on to see who won.   "12 Years a Slave" was the winner.

Coach loves movies and is a huge fan of the Oscars, so it's just one thing the two of us have never seen eye to eye on.  I am not a big movie guy so I let it go.  Speaking of "Let it Go..."  did that song win best song last night?   "Frozen" killed it at the box office.

So... between that, all the twitter buzz and the next 15 hours that follow, I'm going to feel like I've been banned from the USA.   Oscars this Oscars that... this must be what a non-sports fan feels like during Super Bowl weekend.   


I suppose the last few paragraphs show a little irony in me celebrating my personal achievement while putting down those who celebrate their achievements in film... I had not considered that.   BUT... I stand by my sentiments on the Oscars...

Going back to the swim, I'm really glad I did that swim... I still think I'm a little out of shape.   I'm not sure if some of the weight I have is muscle mass, because if I was as heavy as the scale at the locker room said, I feel like I'd have a HUGE boiler right now.   I don't really have that sagging boiler as one might expect.  In fact, on Sunday, I took a good look and I thought I looked pretty good!   After all my swims, I went to another medical style manual scale in the CalTech locker room and weighed myself.  I think I lost three pounds from where I was 4 days ago.  Do the dance again!


My Dad asked me to watch a documentary entitled "Hungry for Change" which as a feature that revealed a lot of things about the food industry.  One thing I felt it didn't do enough of was emphasize the need for exercise.  You'd be surprised how much of an improvement you can have by exercising more each day, or at least on 3 or 4 days out of the week.   When I started Masters Swimming, I swam at least 3 times a week without fail (this doesnt happen anymore HAHA, but I still can get 2-3 times a week).  Anyway, in those days, just those 3 swims produced some dramatic weight loss and muscle gain.  It was a great time to be alive!   Good nutrition is a big factor in good health too, and I think the tips from the documentary were really really helpful.

It was as simple as this:  less processed foods, try to avoid manufactured sugars (glucose and corn syrup), and definitely stay out of diet sodas.  Lastly, eat way more vegetables and fruit.  I do all right with the fruit, but the veggies are an area I've long been lacking in.  They likewise emphasized green vegetable.  Something about the "green" in them makes them extra good... more nutrients, vitamins, and fiber to cleanse the body.   They were big on juicing too... I don't know if I will go so far as to start juicing, but it's an interesting idea.

This might be the greatest putt I've ever seen: http://www.golfchannel.com/media/creamer-wins-10th-lpga-title-dramatic-fashion/

On a different subject, Coach is meeting up w/ Nick and going to Spring Training this week.... now THAT is something we both find very interesting and exciting!

I unfortunately didn't think ahead and plan to get time off for that week.   Terrible job by me.  It would have been a fun, and cheap, adventure.  I'll have to come up with some other ideas for the remainder of the week.

You know I mentioned this a year ago, but the buffet at Talking Stick Casino in Arizona is just amazing.   That alone gives me reason to go out there.  Maybe I could go and find something *like* that here in LA.    It's fun to think about.

Ah you know what, this may do the trick:  Fogo de Chao.   The meat quality there beats anything at any Vegas style buffet doncha think?  

Ah que sera sera... more reason to save up the pennies to return to vegas, because it has it all... and I tell you the Wicked Spoon buffet at the Cosmopolitan had *it* all...  even their beef culotte slices were so good, almost as good as prime rib.

I wonder if their dinner buffet DOES prime rib....   I salivate to even think about it.   I'll sit on that for a moment... have a great Monday!