I Heart the 3 Day Weekend

Hello everyone, we're back after the long weekend. I have to say that I'm a big advocate of the 3 day weekend and the 4 day work week. In fact, I think we need to get ahold of someone to begin a campaign to put this idea into effect all year round. Who's with me?

So now here's the weekend wrap-up....Friday night, I headed into the city. The city is always a good place to be during the holiday weekends because there's a fair number of people who go away, and so it's not as crazy as it normally is. The Jessica and I checked out a Mexican restaurant, Cilantro, on the Upper East Side that we had never been to. Coincidentally, we ran into her brother and his wife, and ended up eating with them. I mean honestly, there are millions of people in New York City, so I'm always surprised when you run into people you know. Afterwards, checked out the B Bar in the East Village, which was a zoo.

Saturday = Football Day. First, we actually got our act together to go for a run in Central Park, which is always enjoyable, especially when you know you're going to be eating fatty foods and high calorie beverages for the rest of the day. Met up with the PSU crowd at the Joshua Tree (34th St. and 3rd Ave.) for the game and luckily ended up with a nice, big booth in the back corner, with a great view of all the big screen TV's.

Now, a few comments on Penn State's performance. Let me make it known that they could have very well beaten South Florida by a lot more than 10 points. That's a pretty obvious statement, but it's disappointing that this team can't run up the score on their non-conference opponents like they used to years ago. As expected, the defense was rather solid, but looked a little tired toward the end of the the halves when S. Florida scored their points. Gotta give credit to them for scoring a touchdown on the Alan Zemaitis fumble return, and setting up another touchdown on the Chris Harrell interception. On the offensive side, I like the potential of these young guys, Derrick Williams and Justin King. They should prove to be real good this year, and when you pair them with Tony Hunt (who ended up having a decent performance, helped by that 70 yard run), you'd think the offense would be potent. I'm not so sure though - Michael Robinson looked very shaky with his passes. We all know he has a cannon of an arm, but he has to improve his passing accuracy very quickly. Also, I question some of these play calls which have Robinson constantly running this dinky draw plays which go nowhere. If they keep this up next week, I'll be pretty concerned once the Big Ten schedule begins later in September.

Saturday night we did some BBQ'ing on the roof of Jessica's apartment. Gotta love BBQ's - cooking up some burgers and hot dogs, drinking some beers. Good time all around. Sunday, took a little trip down to Brooklyn's Greenpoint neighborhood to have brunch with Aaron (old friend from home) who just returned to the US after spending the last year in Italy. Good to catch up with him and check out a new neighborhood. Afterwards, it was time to head back to Connecticut. Enjoyed the nice weather by going to the driving range for a little bit. I invested in a golf glove, so I can happily say that I came away without any blisters this time around.

Sunday night, the Jessica and I took a drive up to Westport, CT, to see Kelly. She's been up there for most of the summer, working at a theater with Paul Newman's wife, Joanne Woodward. I'd say that's impressive. Kelly showed us her culinary skills by cooking us a very fine dinner indeed, and it was great to catch up with her as well. It's a shame we couldn't get up there to visit her sooner, because that house they put her up in was extremely nice. Of course, as of today she was leaving to go back to West Chester, PA, for a little while before she gets involved with her next theater venture.

Lazy Labor Day for me. Slept in, sat outside for a little bit, went to the supermarket. Not too much to report on in that respect. Even though I didn't do much, can't complain about the day off - remember, it was given to us because we are the working citizens of this nation. I am deserving of this day off, and so I did nothing in celebration of it. Thank you very much.

A few more comments:

- The local rock radio station in New York, 92.3 KRock (WXRK-FM) had a 90's Weekend, and let me tell you, it was great. I sometimes miss all the great rock music that came out of the last decade, and not to sound like an old man, but the rock music today just isn't the same; doesn't have the staying power that some of the 90's music had. Speaking of, Eric and I had a discussion on the Best/Most Influential Rock Albums of the 90's, so I may write about that tomorrow night.

- Eric also requested that I post this great exchange we had on Saturday afternoon during the Penn State game, regarding starting WR Ethan Kilmer.

Eric: Hey that #43 made a nice play. Who is that? Kimmel?
Me: No, Kilmer.
Eric: Kimler?
Me: No, Kilmer.
Eric: Ahhh.... Edwin, right?
Me: Ethan.
Eric: Ethan.
Me: You're going to call him Edwin Kimmel all year, right?
Eric: Yeah, probably.

It should also be noted that Eric will continue to get Derrick Williams and Justin King mixed up all season as well. Let's go over this once more: Williams is #2 and King is #7. There, I put it in plain black and white for you.

I'll be back later tonight with a Laguna Update.