It's Time For College Football!

pic courtesy Three Idiots on Sports
And that can only mean another craptacular campaign for theSyracuse Orange. Entering year 4 of the Greg Robinson reign of ineptitude I have no expectations. The o-line stinks, there is no one to catch the ball, and the defensive backfield looks dangerously overmatched. The only brightspot is the trio of running backs (Curtis Brinkley, Delone Carter, and Doug Hogue) and defensive lineman Arthur Jones. Last year I set the bar high and predicted a 5-7 record, which was naively optimistic. This year, I honestly don't see us going beyond 2-9, with potential wins over Akron and 1-AA Northeastern. Sadly, these aren't gimmies. And as of now, 'Cuse is an 11 point underdog to Northwestern. Gah. This year I'm hoping for the best, and prepping for the worst. And if things go bad, this has to be the last year for Stinko Robinson, right? Regardless, Go Orange!

Aug. 30, 2008 at Northwestern (L)
Sept. 6, 2008 Akron (W)
Sept. 13, 2008 Penn State (L)
Sept. 20, 2008 Northeastern (W)
Sept. 27, 2008 Pittsburgh (L)
Oct. 11, 2008 at West Virginia (L)
Oct. 18, 2008 at South Florida (L)
Nov. 1, 2008 Louisville (L)
Nov. 8, 2008 at Rutgers (L)
Nov. 15, 2008 Connecticut (L)
Nov. 22, 2008 at Notre Dame (L)
Nov. 29, 2008 at Cincinnati (L)

New York State Fair Concert Roundup

Basically, it sucked. Well, actually, Heart were pretty good. Journey was a wankfest, they could have been a cover band. I still enjoyed "Separate Ways" though. About 1/3 of the way through I realized that Journey are "motivational speaker" rock. "Don't Stop Believing", "Change for the Better", "Be Good to Yourself", the list goes on and on. Cheap Trick - well, we missed Cheap Trick while dealing with the hordes of '80's humanity attempting to find their seats in the Mohegan Sun Grandstand. Let there be no doubt, the grandstand is an awful place to see the show. To sum up:

:Too crowded
:No ushers/security
:no signs for seats
:awful sound

And the fair itself was just a let down. Too many (fair) people combined with the fact I never had a chance to get a fried dough left me disappointed. On the plus side, the wine slushies were awesome. Too bad they're not 32oz. anymore (10 oz, for crissakes). Anyhow, I'm fully loaded on the fair and will be fine for another decade.

And for Boski - it indeed was Camaro/Mullet heaven.

Fuck You, TruGreen

Really, your dececptive billing and sales practices are well known. Shame on me for not realizing this earlier. Last year, when your slimey sales guy sold me an aeration and overseed it was on the premise it was a one-off work. Lo and behold, I come back from Philly and I have a $455 bill from the asswipes at TruGreen Syracuse for a service I never agreed to. Well, apparently I did agree to it when I didn't forcibly cancel my service. What the fuck? They stated I authorized this work, and yes I did, one time, in August 2007. Wait, this is normal? I believe I will be investigating whether or not I can submit this to the NYS Attorney General's office.

I'm probably stuck and out some cash, but I wanted to warn anyone to think long and hard before they engage TruGreen:

1.) Anything they sell you they will continue to do in perpetuity
2.) Everything rolls over. You must explicitely request termination of service, and even then that doesn't guarantee they'll stop coming.
3.) Don't be surprised when they stick it in your ass somehow.

The list is long:
TruGreen Government legal actions
Consumer Complaints

Oh, fuck it - just Google TruGreen Complaints for the full list. Caveat Emptor!

A Friday in August

At work, things seem to be settling down for the weekend. I'm officially cutting over to cruise control for the rest of the afternoon, as next week promises to be busy (travel for work, my folks visiting, vacation days). This weekend promises to be interesting, in that I make my triumphant return to the New York State Fair for the first time since 1998. My plan is to eat everything in site (Operation Get Healthy or Die Trying can take a breather this weekend) and suffer my way through the Journey, Heart, and Cheap Trick concert (yes, really. don't ask). If I survive my interaction with fair people I plan on taking it easy on Sunday.

Yep, gonna take it easy I think

Veepstakes

I'm trying, so help me I am, not to get as emotionally involved in this years election as I did in 2004. I'm an Obama guy, no doubt about that, but I'm setting myself the expectation that we will be forced to endure at least another 4 years of Republican rule.

Whatever

Sometime before tomorrow is over we will know Barack's running mate, and no one inspires great confidence in me in terms of their ability to overcome the McCain low blow machine. In no particular order:

Tim Kaine - seems like a nice guy, but relative lack of experience will be chum for the Repubs
Evan Bayh - a safe and sane choice
Joe Biden - I like Biden, he brings what is needed, but I'm not sure he is the best fit
Bill Richardson - I don't think America is ready for a black and a hispanic on the same ticket
Kathleen Sebelius - Replace "hispanic" in the above line with "woman"
Chris Dodd - honestly, just too weird looking
Hillary Clinton - what, are you out of your fucking mind?

If I'm placing money on this, I'm putting $2 on Biden. And I'm covering myself by placing another $2 on Bayh.

As for the Republicans, Leiberman would be the most interesting because it would cause Ann Coulter's head to explode, which would be a very good thing indeed. My money is on Mitt Romney, as it appears that Satan himself has taken his name out of the running.

Home Sweet Home

After spending a couple of days in the big city and surrounding environments, I'm glad to be home to simple, humble Syracuse. Notes from the road:

• The drive from Syracuse to beautiful Farmingdale (Long Island) was uneventful, which is just about the best thing that could happen on a 6 hour drive
• Plans for visiting Jones Beach were scrapped Thursday afternoon due to some nasty thunderstorms. The evening was spent inside at the Towneplace Suites (a nice place, btw). Good times!
• Friday saw piling into the family roadster for what was arguably the worst 3 hour drive ever, through Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and the godawful state of New Jersey. Those people are fuckin' animals, down there. Animals!
• Once in Philly, things got much better. A couple of delicious meals from Illiano's (cheesesteak stromboli!), and T'dori, kids playing nicely, and of course, alcohol
• Saturday we visited Dutch Wonderland in Lancaster. A great amusement park geared for kids. Sadly, I was unable to partake in one of the best things in the world: Amish pretzels. Big, soft, and delicious (kind of like yours truly)
• Sunday, the Philadelphia Zoo. While the zoo was good and the kids had fun, Sunday was not a good day for me. Heat + crowds + traffic jams + kids = one big fucking meltdown. Well, not just one, but several that built on top of one another. Honestly, I think I was still worn down from the travel and the day before. All that, capped with a 4 hour drive home. What a day.

Other notes

• Discovered the awesomeness of touch screen ordering at Wawa. Extra meat, and the option to put bacon on everything makes life grand
• The EZ-Pass may just be the greatest invention ever, outside of toll free roads. Between the NYS Thurway, Penn Turnpike, and Jersey Turnpikes nickel diming me every 50 miles and the "are you kidding me?!??" tolls for the Tappan Zee, Throgs Neck, and Verrazano bridges I would have had to carry $50 bucks around for tolls.
• Pennsylvania is under permanent highway reconstruction. How can they continually work on I81 constantly? Oh wait

All in all, a fun, but tiring weekend. It's good to be home.

Trading In/Up

Why this post is coming out in August is beyond me. Perhaps it was the let down of another baseball season, or the impending football seasons, or simply hitting rock bottom. Basically, I'm seriously contemplating trading up in all of my sports allegiances. I've been a fan of all these teams fro close to 25 years, and frankly all it's brought me has been a lot of misery. First and foremost:

NFL - I hate to say goodbye to my beloved Buffalo Bills, but I simply can't stomach it anymore. We had nice, albeit heartbreaking, run in the early 90's, a small resurgence in the late 90's, but nothing but dreck since. Cheap ownership, questionable management, poor coaching, and marginal talent have lead to 8 straight non playoff years. After watching this past weekend's pre-season game it's hard to believe anything will change this season. I can't do it anymore.

But I need something to fill the void. I refuse to root for another AFC East team, and the NFC is nothing but a bunch of girls. Therefore, I'm aligning myself with the Pittsburgh Steelers - hard-nosed, proven winners, blue collar. My kind of team. I originally had considered the Cleveland Browns, but that's just more of the same.

MLB - Peter Angelos has finally broken me. The Baltimore Orioles were once a proud team, but after 15 years of Angelos the team is a shell, with no end in sight. It's tough to stay engaged in a 162 game season, tougher still when the team is mathematically eliminated before May. So it's time to move on.

With a burning hatred for both the Red Sox and the Yankees (and once again, the NL is for sissies), I'm going with a left field choice - The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Second choice, Cleveland Indians. I went with the Angels due to spending three years following them in the mid-80's. Plus, they turned out to be pretty consistent winners. Cleveland is purely based on geographic proximity, and my love for Major League

NHL - Two seasons ago the Buffalo Sabres looked poised to win it all, then the let their two best players walk. My pessimistic side says it will be a long time before we get close to the Cup again. Out of all my favorite teams, the Sabres are in the best position to pull a surprise. But fuck it, I'm punting on the NHL all together.

College Football - it's a goddamn shame what has happened with the Syracuse University Orange. Poor recruiting, incompetent coaching, and bad hiring decisions have left SU in a position where they are the underdog against MAC teams. I'm at the point where I don't think this program can be salvaged at all, even with the long overdue firing of Greg Robinson. At this point I'm considering spending my Saturdays watching Colgate. Go Raiders.

But, I'm looking for wins and victories. So I'm dropping SU in favor of..... Oklahoma. Why? Because they win, and I like their helmets. I never said I wasn't simple.

NBA - fuck the NBA

So there it is, all my sport paraphenalia related to the Bills, Orange, O's and Sabres is going into the garbage. Starting today, I'm a fan of teams that win, and win often. I think this will result in major positives in my life. My teams will be winners, and therefore I will be a winner. Amen

Too Much Fun For Just One Person

Hectic week, with more of the same in the future. To recap:

• Work last Saturday night, a great way to interrupt a weekend
• Up at 4:00 AM Monday for a trip to Melville, NY
• Two long days of OMS/DMS meetings - pure excitement!
• a nice Italian dinner on LI, and a delicious Monte Cristo at some diner on NY 17 were the highlights of the trip.
• The lowlight was the George Washington Bridge/Cross Brox nightmare. I'm definitely not a big-city person.
• Fever and chills, for two days, possibly related to the nagging tooth ache on my lower left side
• Despite eating out and doing no exercise, the scale registered 281.2 lbs this morning. That can't be right, can it?

And now, more of the same. This weekend has me working overnight Saturday, going to Long Island next week (with the whole family in tow), and then heading from LI to Philly for a long weekend with our friends in Plymouth Meeting. What could possibly go wrong?

GHoDT update

We'll see how long I will keep this up, but as I planned, Friday will be the day I keep myself honest with world (or the 3 people that check in, hoping to find out what to do with old currency or if Greg Jeffries is a homo. Hey, that's what my site stats are telling me, but I digress). This AM the scale registered 283.1 - I lost another pound. While I'm happy, I'd like to be losing more. We'll see how the next week goes, I expect it to be difficult as I'm traveling the first part of the week. As for now, I'm going to enjoy the remainder of this vacation day before working again tomorrow.