If You Can't Handle the Randomness, Stay Out of the Kitchen

Here we are, Tuesday night, and let's run through the short laundry list:

- I have an old saying that I like to use: "Just when I think I've seen everything, I see something else that absolutely amazes me." Believe it or not, this applies to something a Philadelphia Eagles fan did. Don't know if you guys saw this on CNN.com, but some guy ran onto the Lincoln Financial Field during Sunday's Eagles/Packers game, and spread the ashes of his recently deceased mother on the field. Read about it here.

- Why is it that even if you floss your teeth every night, it's one of life's inevitable facts that the dentist will tell you that you should floss more?

- Would it be considered an OCD symptom if I always put on my socks and shoes in this order: left sock, right sock, left shoe, right shoe, tie left shoe, tie right shoe? I'm so used to doing it this way that it's subconscious...

- I'm still amazed at the number of people in the eastern portion of this country who drive on the highways and yet still do not have an EZ Pass. Honestly, it doesn't cost anything to have it, so you won't be charged unless you're actually taking these toll roads. Of course, it makes a lot of sense to lose precious minutes by waiting in the "Cash Only" lanes, instead of zipping right through the EZ Pass lane.

- Welcome to the latest round of people who Ross dislikes (this bit isn't intended to make me seem like a disgruntled ogre. It's simply a list of pet peeves):

a) When I ask someone "How are you?" or "How's it going?" and they answer with "Good", and don't bother to ask me how I'm doing. Annoys the crap out of me.

b) People who are obsessive text messagers bother me. Learn how to just call the person because your conversation will end up being way more efficient. [Before you respond with "sometimes it's just easier to text message when you're in crowded/loud/really quiet place", then I'd say to just wait until you can have the conversation. Patience is a virtue. And so is being unreachable.]

c) People who don't give the "thank you wave" when you let them in front of you while driving.

d) In general, people who forget what common courtesy is.

e) Guys who have that "chin strap" beard. FYI - you look like a moron. Either grow a full beard or don't bother at all.

f) People at work who feel the need to bombard you with questions and/or requests the very first thing in the morning, or about 2 minutes before you're about to shut it down for the day.

g) The homeless guy, who, if he spent half as much time panhandling and more time looking for a minimum wage job, wouldn't have to bother asking me if I had any spare change.

That's all for tonight. I may get to the Bob & Kelly wedding retrospective tomorrow evening, so look forward to that. In the meantime, enjoy your day.

Monday Night Rambling

It's Monday night, and we'll do some quick rambling since I need to get up early for a meeting...

- Great comment that I found on the Bill Simmons' website today:
"By the time we got [to Detroit], it was almost two in the morning, because
ain't nothing open but hospitals, jails, and legs." -- Jalen Rose

- File this under things I'll never understand: the guy with the earpiece for the cell phone, who walks around the supermarket and you're convinced he's talking to himself. In this case, the guy was trying to explain to his wife how to find some piece of data in an email. "Honey, look for the text near the bottom of the email. No, not the attachment. The text! Come on, I know he put it in there, you have to find it!" I seriously thought this guy was talking to himself. Then, as I walked past him, saw the earpiece. Buddy, save your conversations for after the market. I need to concentrate when I pick out my produce and order my deli.

- After the Monday night game this evening, ABC's sideline reporter Sam Ryan spoke with Edgerrin James. If anybody saw this, they noticed the gold teeth that he has on his front teeth on the top and the bottom. Not to stereotype, but since Edgerrin James is a black man, I'd say the gold teeth, along with his dredlocks, looks pretty bad ass. This is something only a black man could pull off. Add gold teeth to the list that also consists of do-rags, oversized replica basketball jerseys, low-rider cars with hydraulics, and wearing a pimp outfit on Halloween. A white guy being associated with any of these items just looks ridiculous. Glad we all agree.

- Speaking of, you have to give the Indianapolis Colts some credit. The NFL is all over the place this year, and they're the only team that's really tearing it up. I mean, come on...11-0 and they are beating opponents by an average of something like 15 points. That's sick. I'm routing for them to go undefeated because I'm an advocate of history and would love to see it in the making. (And they've been a surefire bet to cover the spread almost every week in the process!)

- On the music front: Check out My Morning Jacket's latest release, Z. It's absolutely fantastic. A little "trippier and spacier" than the prior record, but it may even be better. These guys are from Kentucky, so they have the quasi-Southern rock thing going, and have really put together a solid collection of tracks here. My suggestions are to check out: "Off the Record", "Gideon", and "What a Wonderful Man". (You can even download some of the songs...or even the entire album. I heart the internet. Courtesy of Against the Grain. Of course, I would never advocate any unauthorized downloading, so please support the music industry.)

- And since I have nothing else to add, I'm gonna call it a night and come back tomorrow with more. Enjoy Tuesday as best you can.

Post Thanksgiving Blogging

So I'm back after the Thanksgiving holiday and the trip home. It was good being home, seeing the friends and family, and now back to reality, which means back to work tomorrow.

Comments on the 5 Year High School Reunion: We all agree that it was a good idea to hold the reunion, because let's face it, there were plenty of people there who none of us had seen in 5 years. Hell, some people probably thought I had fallen off the face of the earth as well. The only problem is that at this point, you really don't have any idea what people are doing with themselves. Everyone has the same story: either still in school (the "extended" undergrad or actually making it to the graduate level), working somewhere in the area, and many are still living at home. I guess we'll have to wait until the 10 year reunion to better gauge who's making something of themselves and who isn't. Otherwise, the reunion ended up being quite interesting as many people took advantage of the $1 kamikaze shots that were on special. Let's just say that most people were pretty loaded by the end of the night. We almost saw a fight break out (not a surprise). Best comment of the night: When asked how he was getting home, one guy (we'll leave his name unmentioned) who was visibly intoxicated says, "I'm driving...but don't worry....I'm the best drunk driver ever!" Upon hearing this, I just shook my head in utter disbelief. Ladies and gentlemen, these are the future leaders of America from the Plymouth-Whitemarsh High School Class of 2000.

When hanging out with Brandon along with Bob & Kelly Hipp (I'm still trying to get used to them as a married entity), my blog came up in conversation. First off, Brandon and Bob had some requests. They demanded some respect on the blog. One of the primary "Ross Rules of Life" is to give credit and respect when it's due. And I'd love to give Brandon and Bob some respect on the blog, but they need to earn that respect by adding more input in the way of comments. That's how you earn respect on the blog here...by the feedback you provide. Both of those characters are good friends of mine who always have a comment for everything else in life, and I simply ask that they help to make the RPR more interesting with their commentary to my postings, which would help advance the interactivity that we've all established. Brandon claims he's too busy with schoolwork and I believe that. Bob's also a very busy guy with school, but claims to read the RPR when he can. So I kindly ask these guys to minimize the criticism unless you've given your fair share of support. Thank you. (I should have prefaced this whole rant by the fact that they sat there on Saturday night arguing about the blog for a good 30 minutes, and I'm still not sure what kind of constructive criticism came out of the arguing/conversation.)

One suggestion was to do a retrospective on Bob & Kelly's wedding, which took place back in early June of this year. It turns out that the wedding was about 3 weeks before I created the blog, but I can definitely put together a write-up and hopefully add some pictures to go along with it. Look for that some time this week.

While we're on the topic of the RPR, I feel it's important to understand what I'm trying to accomplish with all of this, and the answer is: I'm not really trying to accomplish anything. It's similar to the Seinfeld mentality. That was the show about nothing, and this is the blog about nothing. Why do you think they invented the World Wide Web? So clowns like me could put nonsense out there for anyone to read. But in all seriousness, it's tough to please everyone. I write about what I like to write about, and not everyone is going to enjoy each and every detail. I remember asking my sister awhile back if she liked the blog, and she said she didn't really read it because a lot of the sports and music stuff was of no interest to her, and in many cases she doesn't watch a lot of the same TV shows that I watch (with the exception of Laguna). I know the girls out there may care less when I rant about TO and the Eagles. I know that non-Penn Staters could give two craps when I gloat on how great the Nittany Lions football season was. And many people who don't like my musical taste may not care when I talk about new bands or records that I enjoy. But really, I didn't want to turn this whole thing into a diary, and I think I'm doing a good job of that. Really, my life isn't all that exciting. I tend to think it's worthwhile to recap my weekends in New York City, because I feel it's a pretty cool place to be when you're 23 years old and your girlfriend plus other good friends are there. Then again, maybe you guys don't care when I do every Friday and Saturday night. I never talk about work, because for one thing, I don't want to, and secondly, I don't want to say anything that may get me in trouble some day. When it all comes down to it, I'm just writing down what's on my mind and what I think all the readers might find to be humorous/mildly entertaining. And if I can do that, then really this is just a fun task for me to keep myself busy and to keep me from getting to bed early each night. You could say it replaces studying and homework in that respect.

Didn't mean to go on and on with the RPR introspective, but just wanted to throw that all out on the table. With all of that said, that's it for tonight. I'll be back tomorrow with more.

Checking In from the Homestead

Not sure if anyone will see this post any time soon, but since I was sitting at the computer, I thought I'd stop by and say hello.

Also, would you believe that my Dad and I waited in line for a solid hour today for a cheesesteak? Well, you should believe it. Went down to Jim's Steaks on 4th & South (one of my favorites) and the line was out the door and around the corner. Well worth it though. I hadn't had a cheesesteak in what seems like a couple of months, and so it was a necessity for the trip home. Then, we ran around for some other errands and not much else excitement to report on for today.

Also, I think I may be obsessed with the "Kenya AA" flavor of coffee at Wawa. It is unbelievable. 16 oz takes 2.5 Splendas and just enough skim milk to turn it light. Take my word for it. Amazing.

Tonight is the Plymouth-Whitemarsh High School Class of 2000's 5 year reunion. Should be a spectacle. See what all these clowns are doing with their lives. I may have some kind of report on this in the next post. Depends on how many stories I hear about former classmates who've been arrested, were in jail and/or currently in jail, on probation, married, divorced, have multiple kids out of wedlock, and so on. My story really depends on what I hear, so we'll see what happens...

Thanksgiving dinner was a good time, and it should be noted that there wasn't as much yelling as I had indicated in my prior posting. In fact, Mom & Dad read the article, got a kick of out it, and then yelled at me for portraying them as constant yellers. Well, I should note, after the fact, that the article was somewhat embellished, and I honestly didn't really expect things to go exactly as I had drawn it out. Yesterday was rather low-key, Mom let me watch the football games downstairs, and I didn't get yelled at too many times. Overall, I'd say everyone did a nice job of keeping their composure.

That's all I have for now. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Turkey Day!

A couple of quick items before I get into my Thanksgiving article.

- First off, I'm pleased to announce that Camden, NJ, has won the award for "America's Most Dangerous City" for the second year in a row. Camden is a city that is near and dear to all Philadelphian's hearts as it sits right across the Delaware River from the City of Brotherly Love. I've visited Camden on many occasions for concerts (The Tweeter Center, or E-Center as we still call it, is in Camden since they didn't want all the hoodlums who attend concerts all summer destroying any part of Philadelphia). Amazingly, Camden is the home to Campbell's Soup Company, and I mention this because I'm shocked that any major company would be headquartered there.

Read about Camden in this CNN.com article, and focus on some of the statistics and comments in the "Developing Projects" section.

- Secondly, as many of the sports fans out there may have heard, Donovan McNabb decided today to have his sports hernia surgery that will sideline him for the rest of this season. I think I'm ok with this because he was banged up pretty well, and the Birds are seemingly out of the race this year. I agree with the decision to hang it up for the year, get healthy and focus on getting back to the top in 2006. For now, I hope the Eagles can just win some games, maybe play a little spoiler role for potential playoff teams. If that doesn't work, let's just throw the season and get in position for a better draft pick. On a related note, the "Madden Curse" continues. Gotta wonder when football players will refuse the offer to be on the cover of this video game...

- As mentioned the other day, I'm a big fan of Thanksgiving, and I'm looking forward to heading about home to the Philadelphia area on Tuesday evening. (I'm using Wednesday as a vacation day from work, to maximize the holiday weekend, and try to miss out on some of the traffic.) I'm thinking that the holiday weekend will be rather eventful as I plan on hanging out with my good friends from home, eating tons of food with the family, and there's even a 5 year high school reunion on Friday night (!)

The idea I came up with for my Thanksgiving article is a running account of what my day on Thursday will look like. Here's how I envision it...

9:00am - I wake up out of a deep sleep and wonder where I am and if I'm late for work. I then realize I'm in my bed at home, and it's Thanksgiving, so my head hits the pillow again.

12:00pm - Wake up again, realize that I've missed the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in its entirety for the 10th year in a row. Get pissed off at myself.

12:01pm - I get over the fact that I missed the parade. Realized that it's the same crap year in and year out. Think about all the people that stood out there since the crack of dawn, freezing their asses off. I laugh at them when I realize how warm I am sitting inside the house.

12:05pm - Head downstairs to see what's going on in the kitchen. I smell the food as I'm walking down the stairs. My mom is slaving away. I get yelled out for not helping.

12:35pm - Football begins. First game of the day is Atlanta vs. Detroit. Sit down in the living room to watch. Mom hears the football game on the television from all the way in the kitchen, asks why I'm always watching football, tells me to go upstairs to watch, and then yells at me a second time for not helping.

1:02pm - I hear my sister roll on downstairs. I'm amazed that she's slept later than I did, and then I remember that she's the college student now, so that's expected. She asks when we're eating lunch. Mom responds with, "Are you kidding me? You're on your own. I'm not serving lunch today." Jamie then tries to weave around Mom in the kitchen to salvage some lunch, and gets yelled at for being in the way. Then she gets yelled at for not helping in the cooking effort. It's the double whammy.

1:36pm - I can hear my Dad downstairs sifting through the newspaper ads and reading off all the crazy times that the stores are opening on Black Friday. "Target's open at 6! K-Mart's open at 5:30! Wal-Mart is open at 5!" Each year it's the same routine, and each year we're amazed that people would wake up that early to go shopping.

1:38pm - Dad gets yelled at for not helping.

2:10pm - Football game is at halftime, and I roll downstairs. This time, I'm smart and I ask Mom if I can do anything to help. She tells me I'm too late, I'm worthless, her back hurts from standing up all morning, and that my Dad and my sister are worthless too. I give up at this point.

3:05pm - Dozed off for a little while. Didn't matter because the game is boring and there's only so many times you can watch Joey Harrington get sacked. Michael Vick has 600 combined rushing and passing yards as Atlanta is up 56-3. By the way, FOX shows some Lions fans at Ford Field who are fat enough to be basted and stuck in a 450 degree oven for 8 hours themselves. There's enough meat there to feed a small to medium sized Asian family.

3:45pm - Game's over. I reminisce about the time that John Madden and Pat Summerall used to do the Detroit Thanksgiving game and Madden would show pictures of the 8 legged turkey. In fact, he circled all of the legs with the telestrater. I also remember the hands-on demo that Madden once gave with the "turducken". It's the chicken inside the duck inside the turkey. A turducken truly is a work of art.

3:55pm - My Dad comes into my bedroom and sits down. He looks at me and says, "Your mother yelled at me because I wasn't doing anything, so she told me to go upstairs". I just nod my head.

4:20pm - Second football game between Denver and Dallas begins. Looking forward to a better matchup. As CBS zooms in on some Cowboys fan, this older lady has one of those hangy pieces of skin on her neck that looks like a turkey. The guy sitting next to her in the pilgrim hat looks like he hasn't stopped eating stuffing since last Thanksgiving. Wow, the people in these cities really take the holiday seriously.

5:07pm - Mom comes upstairs and realizes that we're all still wearing our pajamas. The rest of the family will be arriving in 20 minutes. None of us are ready. Again, this happens every year. This time, I decide to just yell at myself for being worthless and not being of any help.

5:32pm - Family and friends begin to arrive. [Side note: my family doesn't do the middle of the afternoon Thanksgiving meal. We stick to the normal dinner hours.] My grandmother tells me I look like I've lost weight. In the back of my mind, I think she means that I've put on a few pounds. My grandfather roams into the living room and turns on the football game. Suddenly, we hear Mom yelling from upstairs to turn off the game. I seriously think she has some sort of radar.

5:51pm - Broncos are leading the Cowboys by a field goal at halftime in what's been an eventful first half. On the way to the locker room, Bill Parcells is so angry that he almost takes a bite off of the female sideline reporter's arm, mistaking it for the turkey leg. They send it back to the studio as Greg Gumbel looks stunned. He too wonders if it tasted good.

6:03pm - More yelling from the kitchen. This time, I'm asked to help set the table, and I oblige. For the first time all day, Mom thanks me for helping. Then she badmouthes my sister and complains how she doesn't help at all.

6:26pm - Game is getting good, but I'm pulled away because we're starting dinner. I sit down and tell everyone how many hours I've spent in the kitchen preparing the food. Mom gives me the evil eye and I plead with her that I was joking.

6:28pm - Dad makes the same joke.

6:35pm - My Dad starts telling some story that I've heard 300 times. Make it 301.

6:42pm - I'm shoveling food in my face and I'm on the verge on un-doing my belt buckle. Mmm....turkey, cranberries, stuffing....obesity....

6:52pm - Belt buckle is undone. I look over and my grandfather has already beaten me to the undoing of the belt. He's almost to the pants button.

7:00pm - Mom makes the comment how the food takes all day to prepare and 30 minutes to eat. It's an amazing phenomenon, but I think I'd be more concerned if food took 30 minutes to prepare and all day to eat. I think it's better as it stands.

7:05pm - I wander into the living room to check the score. Quietly, turn the TV on, put it on mute..... "Turn off the TV!" comes from the dining room. I've given up trying.

7:37pm - Dinner's over and we're waiting for the table to be cleared so we can have dessert. Sure enough, I get yelled at again for not helping in the clean up effort.

8:09pm - Flipping through channels to see what's on TV. Got a bunch of movies on, but overall nothing great. We end up on some black and white movie on AMC because my grandmother was piloting the remote.

8:15pm - My grandmother, grandfather, and Dad are all asleep on the sofa. Someone needs to think about marketing Tryptophan to the prescription drug makers of sleep medication.

8:26pm - Jamie tells Mom she's going out with her friends. Guess what? Yes, she gets yelled at. My family loves to yell. If yelling was a sport, we'd win the national title every year. Jamie doesn't end up going out right away because we're not done dinner. She complains that all of her friends have been done dinner for hours. "That's because we don't eat Thanksgiving dinner at 3pm like they do, now sit down and shut up!"

8:30pm - Desserts on the table, everyone's ready for pie, chocolate cake, and so on. I get ready to eat some more.

8:38pm - Everyone is in awe of how much I've eaten. They wonder if I have 4 stomaches like a cow. Mom tells me I'm gonna get fat. Again, same commentary every year.

9:56pm - Dinner is over and the cleanup effort reconvenes. I offer my services and this time they are accepted. I spend the next 30 minutes washing plate, pots, plans, glasses, silverware and everything else. When I have no idea where anything goes in the cabinets, Mom says, "Don't you know where anything goes? Don't you live here?" And then I remind her that I moved out in summer of 2004 and I actually don't live there. I get the evil eye for the second time.

10:41pm - Everything's pretty much put away. Most of the family is asleep in the other room with more black & white movies on the TV. I feel fatter than ever and may start gobbling at any given moment. I plop myself down on the sofa for a little while.

11:02pm - Everyone decides it's time to go home and starts saying goodbye.

11:15pm - No one's left yet.

11:24pm - They all have their coats on. Everyone's still inside the house.

11:33pm - I think the front door just opened.

11:45pm - Wait, I think they may have left. Nope, Grandmom forget to take one of her ceramic plates with her.

11:48pm - Ok, everyone's gone. It took almost an hour for the goodbyes.

12:00am - Thanksgiving is over as I pack it in for the day. I'm exhausted although I didn't actually do anything. In fact, I was only awake for 12 hours. The 3 F's: Family, Food, and Football. That's what Thanksgiving is all about.

I hope everyone has a very happy Thanksgiving, wherever you find yourself. The Ross Press Release may check in at some point over the next few days, but no guarantees, as I have to see what the schedule entails. Enjoy!

Weekend Recap

Good evening everyone and welcome to the Weekend Recap, where you get a little insight to my life over the past 2 days. I am always trying to convince myself that it's not all that exciting, but then again, everyone comes back on Monday looking to read about my weekend, so when it all comes down to it, we have a case of natual supply and demand. Nonetheless, here's what happened over the past couple of days...

- Friday night: Went into the city and first order of business was to get some dinner. We agreed on pizza and the reason I mention this is because we took Jared's recommendation on Ultimate Pizza (57th St & 1st Ave). This place was about the size of a closet, but made some damn good pizza. It should be noted that this place had a walk-up window for the late night drunks who are stumbling around looking for a slice. Reminded me of the old Acme Pizza, or for the younger kids, what's now Canyon Pizza up at the Penn State.

- Saturday: Jessica hinted that she wanted to go the gym, and since I've been a lazy piece of crap lately, I felt like it couldn't hurt to go. So we went. Had a nice little workout; got the heart pumping and the blood flowing. I mentioned a couple weeks ago how a company was opening up the Soup Nazi's restaurants all over the place. It's a franchise called Original Soup Man, and we decided to check it out. I have to say that the first go around wasn't as impressive as I expected. The selection was minimal, the portions were skimpy, and it was way overpriced. The small size (not sure how many ounces) was $4.95 for the vegetable, $5.95 for the chicken soup, and an absurd price of $8.95 for the crab bisque. You can get a whole bowl of crab bisque at the finer seafood restaurants for less than that. Any case, I tried the chicken vegetable soup and it was just fair. I'll give the Original Soup Man another chance at some other point, but this time around, I was less than impressed.

So, how about those Penn State Nittany Lions? Champions of the Big Ten! (I refuse to acknowlege the fact that they are technically "Co-Champions" with Ohio State. In the NFL, if two teams in the same division finish atop the division with the same record, but one team wins the head-to-head matchup, they are the Division Champs. Same theory should stand true in the NCAA. Penn State and Ohio State both finished 7-1 in the Big Ten. Penn State beat Ohio State in their matchup. Penn State wins the conference...end of story.) What a great season...I don't even know what else to say. It all came together this year as I've mentioned many times before. Michael Robinson came around. Tony Hunt came around. All of the freshman wide receivers exceeded all expectations. The defense was absolutely superb as Alan Zemaitis and Tamba Hali upped their NFL stock significantly this season. When all of these things come together, you're bound for a great season. Just think that PSU is :01 from an undefeated season...but then we'd all be bitching about how BCS is a travesty (which it is) and how PSU would be the odd team out of the National Championship picture (assuming USC and Texas win out). I can't say enough great things about the Nittany Lions this year, and I just hope they cap off their excellent season with a win in whichever bowl game they end up being selected to.

- Saturday night: The Jessica and I enjoyed a fine dinner at the Blue Water Grille down in Union Square. If you like seafood, I highly recommend it. You know what often goes unnoticed...when you have excellent waiter service. I have to say that the waiter we had was wonderful. It's one of those things where you notice when the service is not up to par, and when it's satisfactory, you just brush it off as being expected. But how many times do you tell the waiter/waitress after your meal that they did a fine job? I actually did on Saturday night. This guy was thorough, extremely personable, and went above and beyond the call of duty. Each course even came with his own recommendation, which helped aid the decision process. So at the end of dinner, I said to the guy, "I have to tell you that you did an excellent job," and he seemed to appreciate my kind words. I find it important to recognize positive achievements and not just be the person who only speaks up when there's complaints.

Another topic of discussion: the bathroom attendant. Ever been to a restaurant when there's a guy who's job it is to be the so-called "assistant" in the restroom? What an awkward idea. As soon as I open the door, I feel it being pulled open, and sure enough there's a guy standing there with a suit on and a big smile. Now what does this guy actually do? He turns the faucet on for you, puts some liquid soap in your hands and then hands you two paper towels? Big deal. And I'm supposed to give this guy a $1 tip? Please don't get me wrong, as I'm not trying to sound cheap. It's the principle of the tip being expected for a service that I do perfectly fine every day on my own. I can turn on the faucet, get some soap, and my own paper towels. If I used any of the products they have there (which are absurd, by the way...15 different colognes, eye drops, deodarant, mouth wash, you name it), then maybe I'd consider giving the tip. Bottom line is that I can do everything on my own and don't need this guy standing on top of me. Therefore, in my mind, no tip is warranted. Please let me know if you disagree.

Afterwards, had a few birthday celebrations to attend. First off, went down to the Greenwich Village for a belated bday celebration for Kelly at the Greenwich Brewery. It's was great to see Kel and the rest of the crowd that came out Saturday night. Afterwards, an early bday celebration for Alexis at the Red Lion. I also want to take this opportunity to wish Alexis a very happy 24th birthday (real birthday on Thanksgiving Day)! Alexis is a big supporter of the RPR, and you may have read her very detailed and accurate accounts of Laguna Beach episodes. On a few occasions when I missed the latest episode, Alexis filled in with a great column for me. Happy Birthdat Alexis!

- Sunday: Got up pretty early so that the Jessica and I could meet up with Julie and her mom for breakfast, since they were in town for just a couple of days. The one good thing about getting up early on a weekend day is that you feel like you can accomplish stuff and not be a waste of space like I usually am. So instead, I took the opportunity to watch the NFL pregame shows. I'm going to discontinue my comments on the Eagles since they cause me grief, mental anguish, high blood pressure, and nausea. These are the side effects that come along with awful performance on the football field. So, I'm not going to say anything and just wait for next week with hopes that they can at least make this a respectable season.

That's all I have for tonight. This is going to be a short week and I think I may only have a post on Monday night and that'll do it before I head home for the Thanksgiving. I'll probably do my Thanksgiving article tomorrow. (Not sure what that entails, but I'll think of something good.)

One of Brian's Other Pictures

This is a picture of a house in the New Orleans area that's in pretty bad shape. I tried to post this one the other day, but it didn't work.

 

Brian's Pictures from New Orleans

There's Brian with an upside down stop sign and the Superdome in the background.

I'm Gonna Provide Some Randomness

Well, after the marathon Austin postings, let's get back to basics here on the RPR. A whole week has passed by and I haven't had the chance to do the usual ramblings and/or nonsense. As James Carvill said in Billy Madison, "Have at it, Hoss".

- Courtesy of the Jessica: An interesting story about some 'regular' guy in New York City who keeps in contact with Lindsay Lohan for a week straight, because she thinks he's a celebrity. You can check out the full article on Gawker.

- Why is that any time you go to a Wal*Mart or Target, you can't get out of there without dropping $20-$30 on random items? Someone please explain this to me.

- As each day passes, I become a bigger and bigger fan of Death Cab for Cutie. Love "Plans". Love "Transatlanticism". I need to check out their older records as well. I came across an mp3 last week from when they had done an appearance on NPR. They covered the 1995 hit single "Sick of Myself" by Matthew Sweet, and it's an excellent version in my opinion. You can check out the mp3 file by clicking here and then you'll see another link for the actual mp3. (Courtesy of the blog - Yeti Don't Dance)

- So we have Thanksgiving coming up next week, and that's worth a mention. I really enjoy Thanksgiving since it's the true American holiday in my mind. It doesn't have to do with religion or anything else...if you're American, you celebrate it. Plus, Thanksgiving is all about the 3 F's: Family, Food, and Football. But we'll touch more on the holiday next week. In the meantime, while I look forward to my trip home to the Philadelphia, it increases my craving for a cheesesteak. I haven't had a good cheesesteak in I don't know how long. We're talking about a ridiculous level of food cravings at this point, folks. Let's not talk any more about it, and maybe I'll let the craving subside, at least for the time being.

- So this weekend...I'll be in the New York City for another exciting weekend with the Jessica. (Her and I have a very fun Saturday evening planned!) We also have Penn State closing out its regular season on Saturday vs. Michigan State, with a potential BCS bid coming with a win. And normally I'd be more excited about the Eagles-Giants game on Sunday, but the Birds blow and the season's down the tubes. Therefore, I have no expectations for the rest of the season. More on the weekend on the flip side.

- I finally downloaded this Picasa program (powered by Google) and so I think pictures should finally work again on this website. With all of the text, it was beginning to look more like the Wall Street Journal than a blog. Thank you again to Owen for the insight on this program.

- That's it for tonight. Enjoy the weekend.

Austin, Texas Recap Part 2

So after breaking my Austin trip down into two parts, it's time to ante up and provide you with the Recap Part 2. Let's not waste any time.

When I left off, I was on Friday evening, and we were about to go out on Sixth Street. I never got into the Real World: Austin, but I understand that the folks on the latest Real World partied on Sixth Street on more than one occasion. Sarah and Jared mentioned that those guys went to the Dizzy Rooster, and we walked by it, and to be honest, it didn't look all that exciting. Again, can't comment on it too much because I never got into that season of the show. Regardless, to explain Sixth Street...it's basically a zoo. One bar lined up against another bar lined up against another bar. It gets so busy on the weekends, that the cops just barracade several blocks and just let all the drunks wander around. I've seriously never seen so many bars in a 3 to 4 block radius...absolutely amazing. We first went to this place called The Aquarium, because they had - you guessed it - a set of aquariums lined up along the whole back wall of the bar. I also tried one of the Texas beers called Shiner Bock and it wasn't all that bad. Remember, don't mess with Texas. (Just had to throw that slogan in there at some point.)

Highlight of the evening was when we went to Pete's Dueling Piano Bar. Now, I don't know if you've ever been a piano bar, but this was only my second time at such an establishment. (First time being when the Jessica and I went out to San Diego right after graduation in late May 2004. We checked out a place called the Shout House in the Gaslamp District, and after that time, I vowed that I needed to get back to a piano bar - it was that good of a time.) Let me tell you, Pete's didn't disappoint. We walk in and it's wall to wall people, and I'm talking real Texas people. We had cowboy hats, we had people singing and dancing...it was a rodeo in there. (How's that for an appropriate metaphor?) If you've never been to a piano bar, the set up is as such: they have two pianos up on a stage facing each other. Adjacent to each of the pianos is a drum set, and off to the side, there's a bass guitar. So at any given time, there could be as few as two people playing and as many as four. However, they will have like 5 or 6 guys working that night and they're all rather multi-talented and can hold their own with each instrument. So it's a big set of musical chairs. They take requests, playing songs we all know and love, and make up other songs in the process. They love to embarass people with a birthday, and even loved to call out us "Yankees" on occasion. "Y'all Yankees ain't gonna know this one cuz it's a Texas song, ya hear?" is what the singer with the cowboy hat, long gray beard and the "I Heart Dixie" shirt said. (He didn't have that exact shirt on, but I added the detail for decoration.) Regardless, Pete's Dueling Piano Bar was a true Austin spectacle and may have even reached an 8.5 on the Spectacle Scale.

Saturday would be the day that we drove down south to San Antonio. We headed out in the early afternoon down I-35 about an hour and a half. I was picturing rolling hay stacks and desert along the way, since that's what you'd expect there to be outside of the major Texas cities. Instead, you saw fast food restaurants, outlet malls, car dealerships, and even a few more strip clubs along the way. Even Texas sees a bit of suburban sprawl to complement their Ford F150's. Along the way, we made a stop at the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch and Safari, and it was quite exciting. After you get off the highway, you drive about 15 minutes to the middle of nowhere, and the next thing you know, you're in Africa. Well, let me tell you, the safari was an interesting experience. They give you a few bags of animal feed, and you literally throw it out of the car window as you drive along the path, and the animals will mosey right on up to the car. I had never been on one of these safaris before, so I didn't know what to expect, but when a car door and window are the only thing between you and wild animals, it's a little unnerving. Right in the beginning, we almost got attacked by an ostrich. That's right, an ostrich. After it came right up to the window, Sarah thought it'd be a good idea to tap on the window a couple of times. Then the ostrich decided to start pecking at the window, and with some force I might add. It's a damn good thing the window wasn't down, that's for sure. We were almost attacked by an emu as well. I was making crazy animal noises throughout and it must not have liked something, because it came at Jared's window with a fierce look in its eye. Along the way, we saw various types of antelopes, giraffes, gazelles, and many other horned deer type animals that I don't remember the names of. The zebras mistook the side mirror of Jared's car for some food, because it started gnawing on it. Unbelievable. We became one step closer to nature on this day, and luckily made it out alive.

After leaving Africa, we continued south to San Antonio, making it there in the late afternoon. My first impression of San Antonio: Where is everyone? It's considered a medium-sized city that many people would recognize by name, and yet there were hardly any cars on the road in the downtown area, and not too many people walking around at the time. Of course, when we made it over to the Riverwalk, that's where all of the people are. Here's the lowdown on the Riverwalk: The San Antonio River runs right through the middle of the city. A while back, they decided to make all of these manmade extensions and then started construction on buildings and restaurants and the like all around it. It's actually slightly below street level, so you can take a set of stairs down to it from anywhere in the vicinity. The architecture is pretty cool and we heard a lot of the stories from this little river boat tour that we took. What's funny is that there's basically no barrier from the river when you're walking alongside of it. I can imagine it'd be a slight hazard after some genius downs a 60 oz. margarita at Casa Ole, and then decides it'd be a good idea to go for a swim. We enjoyed another Mexican meal and then ended up hanging out at this trendy martini bar for the evening. Good times all around.

On Sunday, it was time to see more of the sites. Jared and I took a trip over to the Alamo as Sarah and the Jessica went over to the Market Square for some shopping. I have to say that I've always enjoyed American history and was looking forward to seeing the Alamo. Jared warned me not to expect much because everyone thinks it'll be like 10 times bigger than it actually is. True story. What we often forget is that the Americans lost at the Alamo and most of the fort was destroyed. The front of it (the facade that many would recognize) sits right in the middle of downtown, and there isn't much to it. We got a cool picture of us standing in front of it the night before, with the Alamo lit up in the background, and as I've mentioned before, I'll get those pics up as soon as I can. So Jared and I walked through the museum area, viewed a short movie on the story of the Alamo and there was pretty much it. Alas, it's something to see. Across town in the Market Square, there were a bunch of Mexican kids performing native dances, which was also quite a scene. Many of these kids couldn't have been more than 5 or 6 years old, and there performing elaborate cultural dances. Definitely impressive.

That pretty much did it for the San Antonio portion of the trip. It's a fun little city, but other than the Riverwalk and the Alamo, there's not much else to see. However, if you're in the Austin area, it's worth the 1.5 hour drive down there.

On the way back, the Mexican dinner from the night before must have stirred up some kinda virus and I began to feel like hell. Honestly, my stomach was about to file a lawsuit against me. Once we got back to Austin, I was pretty much immobilized for a while. However, I had to be a trooper because Sunday night was our trip out to the famous BBQ restaurant, the Salt Lick. Sarah and Jared had been talking this place up for a while now, and it didn't disappoint. The whole trip, I wanted to see some scenery that was true, stereotypical Texas. Now was the time. Salt Lick is located in the remote town of Driftwood, TX on a road that doesn't even have a name, but instead is numbered "FM 1826" (I did some research and found that FM, with regards to Texas roads means "Farm to Market" Road). Three words: Middle. Of. Nowhere. And there was a crowd of people there like you'd not believe. People came from far and wide to get this famous Texas barbeque. Unfortunately, I was under the weather, but still enjoyed my BBQ chicken, which was the safest bet with a weak stomach. It's a shame because I know I would have enjoyed the BBQ brisket, ribs, and sausage. It's also worth noting that the blackberry cobbler for dessert was out of this world. Hey, if so many people come to a place that's in the middle of the backwoods, you know it's for real. Sarah and Jared didn't lie.

On Monday, still feeling like I got run over by a truck, it was time to pack it in and head back to the East coast. The trip to Texas (beside the 24 hour virus) was a complete success and the Jessica and I had a wonderful time. It didn't end up being as much of a different world down there as I thought, and many of the people even lacked thick accents. They have some great food in Austin, definitely a cool college town to be in, with a great nightlife scene. If you like the outdoors, it's a place for you, with the rolling hills, rivers, and so on. Even if you ever find yourself in Houston or Dallas and have a day or two to spare, Austin's only a 3+ hour drive. Thank you again to Sarah and Jared for playing excellent hosts, and I'd like to give Austin and the whole state of Texas the Ross Press Release highest recommendation!

Side notes: Sorry I didn't get a chance to write while I was down there, as you can see we were pretty busy the whole time. Jared and I will collaborate on an article at some point in the future. Also, as I've said about 25 times at this point, as soon as I can a) get some pictures, and b) download this Picasa program to get the pictures up on the blog, I'll do so.

Hope you all enjoyed the Austin recap. I'll be back on Thursday night to catch up on the occurences from this week, and another weekend preview.

Austin, Texas Recap Part 1

Ladies and Gentlemen, I had the honor of visiting beautiful Austin, Texas for a few days and I had an absolutely fantastic time. It was almost like another world down there, but then again, it wasn't as much of a distant land as I originally thought it to be. First off, I'd like to thank Jared and Sarah for being wonderful hosts to the Jessica and I. Second off, I'd like to mention that plenty of digital pictures were taken on this trip (by Sarah, of course. Ross still doesn't have a digital camera, in case you forgot), and we'll get them up here sometime in the near future, and when I say near future, I mean before the end of calendar year 2005. Now, on to the trip review...

When rolling out of the plane and into the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on Thursday night (or as Jared explains, "They call it 'International' because they make a few flights each day down to Mexico."), the first thing I see is some little airport restaurant called the "Hill Country Bar" and first thing I hear is country music playing. Interesting. I immediately think to myself, "I'm not on the East coast anymore." After meeting up with Jared and Sarah, we head back for the "crib tour" as they like to call it. On the way, we notice an overabundance of strip clubs and Mexican restaurants. (Insert any wise remark here) Literally, every corner is some sort of Mexican restaurant, and every few blocks you see a strip club. In many cases you can't tell the strip clubs from the Mexican restaurants because of the neon lights.

First, we check out Jared's place, which Sarah gave a bad rap. I mean, come on...how bad could it be? It wasn't as bad as it was made out to be, but the story about the homeless guy in the swimming pool was pretty funny. Also, if you can picture this, the toilet was so close to the bath tub, that you could probably wash your feet while sitting on the can. Absolutely astonishing. When it all comes down to it, Jared's place was good enough for a grad student who normally doesn't spend too much time in the apartment anyway. Jared - don't let Sarah and her Club Med apartment bad mouth you.

Which leads me to Sarah's "crib", which was a very cozy set-up. Her pool didn't contain any homeless people from what I understand, and she had plenty of room to operate, excellent air conditioning, and sofas so comfortable that I fell asleep in them on more than one occasion. Sarah has some quality living in Austin, that's for sure.

Side note: You know what we saw down there? A Sonic Restaurant. Multiple Sonic Restaurants. Yes, "Americas' Favorite Drive Thru", which has had TV commercials on the East coast for as long as I can remember, actually exists. I once looked on their website, and it turns out that there are no Sonics on the East coast north of Virginia. Crazy national advertising has them showing 30 second clips in the New York area. Go figure....

Friday was the day that we went around and checked out what Austin had to offer. After an excellent breakfast at the hippie owned and operated breakfast joint, Kirbey Lane (has anyone ever had Gingerbread pancakes? These were fantastic), we made our way over to the University of Texas campus. We made our way through most of the campus, seeing many classroom buildings and the gorgeous new recreational facility (possibly better than the White Building!). Their student union building doesn't come anywhere close to Penn State's HUB though. While walking through campus, you'll always see people speaking and trying to gather a crowd for attention. At Penn State, it was the Willard Preacher. On this day at UT, it was the Jesus freaks. Yes, a bunch of them were out and they had the one thing that would encourage people to stop for just one moment: cash. They were giving out $1 bills if you correctly answered a trivia question or riddle type question. And when the trivia was over, they started preaching about JC. We didn't really care, so we left after winning $1 and pocketing it for our own profit. (The question I answered correctly: What are the raised bumps called that deaf people use to read? Answer: deaf people don't need braille. Brilliant, huh?) We walked around a little more, checked out the downtown area (set up similar to State College where the downtown area more or less borders the south end of the campus) and went to the Texas Co-Op (bookstore, souveniers, t-shirts, etc.) Overall, I'd say they have a nice campus down there at UT. The November temperature of 80 degrees doesn't hurt either.

Austin also happens to be a very scenic town and its natural landscape in the Hill Country region of Texas has some beautiful views. One of them is from the top of Mt. Bonnell, which, despite it's monicre of "Mount" is not actually anywhere near the size of a mountain. It's more of a lookout point. You drive up this windy hill, park the car, and then walk up a set of exactly 100 steps to the scenic viewpoint. You get a great view of the Austin River and some gorgeous houses that sit along the river. Cool item to point out: Some of theses houses have little inlets from the river, and many of them have garages for their boats. Think of a garage connected to a house made for one or two cars. Now think of a garage connected to a house, sitting on a river, made for a jet ski or another small boat. It's amazing.

Being the music fanatic that I am, I remembered reading about Waterloo Records in Austin, which is said to be one of the best college campus record stores in the country. So of course, I had to check it out. I was impressed by the wide variety of music held in Waterloo, from the national artists all the way down to vast selection of local music from the "Live Music Capital of the World". I definitely enjoyed roaming around in there for a half-hour and even picked up the new record by Matt Pond PA. (After a few listens, I'll share my thoughts.)

Friday evening's dinner brought us to the Hula Hut down on Lake Austin, which, if you love Mexican food, outdoor seating, and a quasi-Hawaiian atmosphere, you'd love this place. All of these restaurants have fantastic salsa and nachos, which you subsequently fill up on before your meal. Or if you're like me, you fill up on the nachos, and still polish off your enchiladas anyway.

Friday night's going out location: the famous Sixth Street, which is where I'll pick up my story tomorrow evening. It's getting late and as I'm typing, the extreme level of detail is taking me much longer than expected to put this all in print. So, here's what you have to look forward to in Part 2 of the Austin Recap: Sixth Street Craziness, how we almost got attached my ostriches, emus, and zebras, the trip down south to San Antonio, the Riverwalk and the Alamo, and how Ross' fun was partly cut short due to an unfriendly stomach virus.

Brian: Live from the Dirty South Part 2

Before we get to my trip to the land of the Stars and Bars, here's another report from Brian in Louisiana:

A 78 yr old man said this to me yesterday: True love is a lot like herpes, except herpes lasts forever.

Doug: What'd you think of these cracklins (basically chopped up pig deep fried and seasoned)?
Brian: They're good, but they scream heart disease.
Doug: We may not eat the healthiest food down here, but it is good. This is deep fried pig fat. Maybe that's why everyone dies young.


Brian: I've never even shot a real gun, let alone own one.
Doug: I got one behind my front door—loaded too. We take our right to bear arms very seriously down here.

Yesterday I toured the Levee, Sewage and Water Systems. Here are some pictures from where one of the levees broke. In one you see the front steps of where a house once stood. The last one is the pile of trash that's built up. About 30 ft tall, stretching as far as you can see. [Editor's Note: Ross is still having trouble uploading pictures to the blog, but no worries - Brian's pictures are safely stored in my Hotmail account for future use.]

Destination: Lone Star State

As mentioned earlier this week, the Jessica and I are taking a trip to the Lone Star State tomorrow to visit Sarah and Jared in Austin. As soon as Sarah moved back to Texas and Jared moved down there as well in summer 2004, we told them we'd come visit. Sure enough, a little over a year later, we are making good on our word and traveling to the state made famous by Willie Nelson, Ross Perot, Janis Joplin, Nolan Ryan, Lyndon B. Johnson, and a father/son duo who were each elected to be President of this crazy country, to name a few.

On the agenda are the following: checking out the University of Texas campus (let's hope they lose on Saturday vs. Kansas so that Penn State moves up in the BCS), seeing Austin's famous Sixth Street with all of its bars and restaurants and possibly a hike and/or kayaking (this was Jared's idea...still not sure how I feel about it though. Those of you who know me, know that I'm not much of a wilderness person, but I'll be a good sport while on this trip). Also, we're taking an overnight trip to San Antonio, checking out the Riverwalk and the Alamo and whatever else there is in San Antonio. Another thing I can't wait for is the food. Jared and Sarah keep talking up the Barbeque and Tex-Mex, so I'll get my fill of ribs, chicken, and beef. Mmmm, let's hear it for carnivores.

I've always been interested in the differences in culture in various parts of the United States, and to be honest, I've been stuck in the northeast portion of the US for so long that I haven't really gotten a chance to see much of the rest of this country. I think it's a safe bet that the culture and people interaction in Texas will be a little different than what we're used to up here in the blue states. I just hope I don't get the comment "Y'all ain't from around here, are ya?" too many times. I'll try not to stick out like a porkchop at a bar mitzvah (that's an old Eric Steinberg saying). I'll keep an eye out for the cultural nuances and include it in my report when I return. It should also be noted that we'll have some decent weather while down there, as we're looking at some days with highs in the 80's. Maybe a tan is in store for this pasty white guy. Correction, maybe a sunburn is in store for this pasty white guy.

During a few moments of downtime in Austin, we're going to embark on 2 RPR "Firsts": a post from the road, and a collaborative post with co-writer, Jared Melzer. Check back at some point during the weekend and you can enjoy whatever it is that we put together. (At press time, neither one of us have any idea exactly what we're going to write together.)

Otherwise, I'm coming back on Monday night, and by the time I get back, the Eagles-Cowboys Monday Night game will be on and I can begin to rip my eyes out at how awful the Birds play. By that time, I'll be tired from traveling and disgusted that a team who was in the Super Bowl just 9 months ago is now having their current season go down the drain. In other words, I'll be writing the Austin recap on Tuesday night, most likely. Also, if I can get the damn picture function on "Blogger" to work, then maybe I can post some pics here and there. The function has been on the fritz lately and haven't had the patience to figure out how to fix it.

Anyway, I'm out for now. Enjoy your weekend. I'll see y'all later. (Practicing my Texas lingo)

Brian: Live from the Dirty South

Brian has been kind enough to send me some short stories from his time working on a consulting job down in Baton Rouge, LA. As you can imagine, he's encountered some crazy folks down there, and I've been lucky enough to hear some of the stories firsthand on the telephone. This will hopefully be an ongoing item, so here's what Brian is starting out with:

I'm still "washing" my other stories, but here's one from today that was pretty good. Basically, what I'm going to do is take any story that was good before, then tell it to my boss. He always makes a great comment to make it even better. For example...

My buddy, Doug (our IT guy) is a 300 lb former Marine who was part of the Tactical Air Command running helicopter missions into New Orleans after the storm.

Doug: We see a crowd of dogs going nuts, then realize they were eating a body. The 50-caliber [gun] took care of that. It's sad, but once they get a taste of human blood you've gotta euthanize 'em.

Now I tell the story to my boss and it gets better:

Brian: Doug was telling me about the search and recovery down there. Said he saw this crowd of dogs circled around something, turns out they were eating a body. Said once dogs get a taste for human blood you have to euthanize them, so they hit them with the 50-cal machine gun.

My Boss: Yeah, he looks like he ate a few people down there too.

Here's a story from today:

I told my boss and secretary about the crack house across the railraod tracks that you can see from the fire escape at the office, then we went outside to show them.

Brian: Yeah there was a fight there a few weeks ago. The one guy was out in the street yelling, and some other guy came barreling out of the house. They started beating the crap out of each other.

My Boss: Let's try to start another fight. Tasha, yell down and tell the guy wearing #10 that the guy in the blue called him an assh-le. Or tell him his mother's a whore.

Brian: Actually, his mother probably is a whore.

My Boss: Fine then, he said you're mother's not a whore. Those are fighting words.

TO Goes Home

I was debating the silent treatment on the latest in the Terrell Owens saga until it basically came to an end today, with him being suspended for the maximum of 4 games and not being asked to return to the team afterwards. We all saw this coming after the Eagles decided to suspend him for Sunday night's game. Let's face it: the guy is an absolute headcase. He's nuts. There's no other way to describe it. The Eagles did everything they could this year to salvage him and try to keep him on track, but TO is a loose cannon that just went off. The Eagles pulled the trigger and said, "We've had enough." I don't blame them. As much as I loved the McNabb/TO combination (20 TD's in 21 games), this man just could not co-exist with the rest of the team. He's said too many negative things about his teammates, the coaching staff, and the organizational overall to continue to be a member of the team.

Right now, I'm happy with the situation. I think the players will be a lot happier. Some of these guys will have to step up and find other ways to win some games, and possibly sneak into the playoffs (right now, I'd doubt it). It's a shame to lose such a great talent, but that just means that Greg Lewis and Reggie Brown are the go-to guys for Donovan. Andy Reid will have to call more running plays, and Westbrook will probably see more touches on the rush and the pass. I don't have high expectations at this point, but maybe it's good for the team to have this distraction off of their shoulders. Maybe they can play looser. Maybe they can have more fun on the field. Maybe the offense will completely go down the tubes and they'll wish they had TO on the field. We'll have to wait and see.

All I know is that I'm gonna remember a lot of the stories to come out of the Eagles' 2004 and 2005 seasons. I may even look back on it and laugh some day. By the way, sorry to all the folks out there who purchased TO jerseys. You might want to just hang them up in the closet for a while and invest in a Brian Westbrook jersey instead...

I watched Laguna tonight, but had it on mute most of the time because I was on the phone with good friend Bobby Hipp. First person who has a few minutes, please give me a guest write-up on this week's episode? Appreciate it!

In other news, if you read the comments section from yesterday, Jared alluded to the trip that the Jessica and I are taking down to "ATX", otherwise known as Austin, Texas! We'll be down there from Thursday night until next Monday. Just to give everyone the heads up that I'll be posting on Tuesday night and on Wednesday, depending on how slowly the packing effort comes along. Then, the RPR will be taking a short hiatus until I return. However, I'll be sure to have some good stories, and may even check in with a small collaboration with Jared! Don't worry, this is just fair warning on the agenda for later this week.

Back on Tuesday night...

The Recapping of the Weekend

As promised, let's recap the weekend that was...

- Friday night went into the city to be a guest of the Jessica's at a New York Comedy Fest event featuring Mario Cantone. Even though his IMDB.com entry may not be the most impressive we've ever seen, he was pretty damn funny. Before the show, we were in a private cocktail hour and Mario actually came in and was mingling with the guests, which I thought was pretty cool. Just the fact that this guy was in there going up to people in the room, saying hello....it was a nice gesture. As for the show, I was very surprised by all 0f the dead-on impressions he did of celebrities. He was doing impressions of everyone from George W. Bush to Jessica Simpson to actors/actresses from the 1950's. He did this whole song and dance routine, and overall, was very entertaining for close to 2 hours.

- Saturday: Big excitement of the day was the PSU-Wisconsin game. I guess the guys in Las Vegas know something that I don't when they put a 10.5 point spread on this game in favor of the Nittany Lions. That's why they're the book makers and I'm just a schlub that questions them. Regardless, how many great things can you say about this team? Great performance all-around. Michael Robinson...gotta love his control over the offense. Whether it's the runs, the improved passing accuracy, whatever...the guy's been a true leader this year. Tony Hunt has also looked great. The guy quietly ran for 150 yards and has done an outstanding job this year. And how about Deon Butler stepping it up this game, getting not one, but two receiving TD's and ended up with 125 receiving yards of his own. On defense, gotta point the finger toward Tamba Hali, who was an absolute beast, recording 4 sacks and numerous tackles. This guy is a playmaker and definitely increased his draft value after this performance. Of course, we can't question the legend of Joe Paterno. Although he may sound like he was hitting the bottle before interviews, the man is 78 years old and can still field a team that is among the top in the nation. All Penn State has to do is win on November 19 against Michigan State and they'll wrap up their first Big Ten championship since 1994.

To anyone that was in attendance at the game on Saturday, I'm interested to hear about the atmosphere. How was it compared to the Ohio State game this year?

- Saturday night...it was great having a nice dinner with the crowd. As mentioned in the weekend preview, there was 8 of us enjoying the food at a great Italian restaurant. Note to everyone out there: Possibly one of the finest things in life is enjoying dinner with a large group of friends. Don't get me wrong: it's always fun to eat dinner with your girlfriend/boyfriend/best friend/whoever. But it's rare to get a large group of friends together, given that people are often busy or out of town on the weekends. Without a doubt, good times all around.

Afterwards, went to a quiet Irish pub called Jameson's that we like. I've decided that the chill places are the best to hang out in. I'll be honest: I don't need a bar with a ton of people. I don't need loud, thumping music. I don't need to yell in order to have a conversation with the person next to me. I find it far more enjoyable to be able to sit down at a table, with some decent music in the background (not agonizingly loud), and possible a nearby TV with a football game on. That is the way to go, my friends. Also went to some quaint lounge as well, which was cool because it was rather chill, not very crowded, and as we noticed, played almost all 80's songs. Basically, the conclusion from the night is that the less people in the bar, the better it is.

- Sunday: New York City Marathon day. You can't help but be impressed by anyone who can run 26.2 miles all at once. Back in my track days, I used to be happy when I made it 7 or 8 miles. I couldn't imagine trying to triple that distance. We watched the leaders finish on television before heading out to watch all of the "common folk" run near the 16th mile marker as they enter Manhattan from the Queensborough Bridge. I gotta tell you, these people are nuts. I saw people running in chicken costumes, squirrel costumes, dressed up like the Amish people (top hat and all), running with video cameras, running with flags, running with pizza boxes. I couldn't believe some of the things I saw. Regardless, these runners just kept moving, and I think the statistic is something like 98% of all runners complete the course. I'd say that's a rather impressive figure. I say, whatever keeps them on their feet and moving in the right direction is fine by me. I only hope that someday I'm in decent enough shape to run a marathon. Ok, you can stop laughing now...

I'm going to refrain from commenting on the Eagles because there isn't a whole lot to say. We all know about the parity in the NFL, and I just have to resign myself to the fact that this team was solid for 4 straight seasons, and the window of opportunity is closing. On the other hand, the division opponents went through some tough seasons during that period, so now is their time to turn it around. All of the distractions from this season obviously haven't helped much, and you can't help but wonder what it'd be like through 8 games without this whole TO nonsense, McNabb being healthy, etc. Oh well, what can ya do?

- That's it for tonight. This dog and pony show will return on Monday night.

A few quick items

Hey, it's almost the weekend and so we can't complain about that. Here's the weekend preview: (But before I begin, I was thinking about the balance between the weekend preview and the weekend review. For the most part, I know what I'm doing this weekend. And so I have two options: I can either tell you about it right now in detail or I can wait until Sunday night and review it all after everything's happened. I try to find a happy medium between the two. I give some vague comments on my plans, and then take you through it in some detail on Sunday. I think it works out better that way. Glad we were able to clear this up.)

- After work on Friday, I'll be heading into the city and meeting up with the lovely Jessica Rose for a cool event as apart of the New York Comedy Festival. Through work, she was able to score us free tickets to see comedian Mario Cantone at the Town Hall Theater. A little private party before the show, free tickets...wow, I get to live the extravagant lifestyle of the Jessica. I'm sure it'll have a good story to go along with it.

- As for Saturday, I have three words: Big. Ten. Championship. Yes, at 3:30pm we have Penn State Nittany Lions hosting the Wisconsin Badgers (booo Alexis) for what could end up deciding the Big Ten champion. I have to say that I'm pretty pumped for the game, and I'm hoping that PSU (players and fans) shows up with the same intensity as they did for the Ohio State game. They are putting themselves in position for an excellent bowl game, but must win this Wisconsin game, and their last game vs. Michigan State. While we're at it, let's hope Ohio State and Michigan lose again, just for some breathing room. (On the gambling front, does anyone think that PSU being favored by 10.5 points is a little much? I gotta believe it's gonna be a fairly tight game...)

- It's always fun to get a whole bunch of people together to hang out, go out to dinner, and enjoy life. Looking forward to seeing the following people on Saturday night: Eric/Abby, Alison/Reza, Crystal/Brad. Good times all around.

Other notes: For anyone around the New York area, Seinfeld's famous "Soup Nazi" is back and even opened a few franchises. Now renamed The Original Soup Man, Al Yeganeh is planning on having 5 locations in Manhattan (4 of which are yet to be opened). There's also some locations in Jersey, and for my Philly burbs folks out there, look for one opening in the Willow Grove Mall. Looks pretty exciting to me. Can't wait to try the famous lobster bisque. If you check out the website, it even has the customer rules posted. Let's hope that whenever I get over there, I don't get yelled out and they take my soup away. That'd be my luck... [Thank you goes out to the Jessica for the lead on this story.]

That's my story folks. Please make sure you have a pleasant weekend wherever you find yourself. Be sure to tip your waitress. I'll be back after the weekend. I'm gonna try to post on Sunday night, but can't guarantee since the Eagles are on ESPN Sunday Night football, so have to see how it all plays out.

Paternoville - the song

This is too good not to post....a song about Paternoville, the hordes of students sleeping in tents, waiting to get the best seats at Beaver Stadium. We Are!!! Penn State!!!

Paternoville
(Right Click, Save Target As)

Thank you to Jon Sobotkin for the lead on this...

"You're slacking with the RPR" - Jared

As you can see from the title of this evening's post, the natives are getting restless. Here's the story on last night: I sat down to type, but before I could get into a post, I started playing with the formatting of the blog. I've been thinking for a couple of weeks that I want to change up my template, maybe add a few more items to the sidebar, and so on. I made the effort to learn some basic HTML, but have to be honest that it's beyond me and my patience. Regardless, I made some changes, then went to save everything, and lost all of the changes that I made. So I was left with zero updates for the evening, gave up, and went to bed. That's the story in a nutshell. As we say at work, "the net of the whole story is" that I'll play with the formatting again in the next couple of weeks and see if I can add a fresh new look to the Ross Press Release.

Tonight we're going to do some quick hits....I'm gonna ramble off a bunch of stuff on my mind. Let's not waste any time.

- I have a knack of hitting some small rodents while driving through woodsy areas. At home, I've hit a record 3 possums. (Honestly, who hits any possums, let alone 3 of them?) I've hit squirrels, rabbits, and a few other random animals that I wasn't sure what it was when it ran in the middle of the road, and therefore couldn't decipher what it was afterwards either. Of course, none of this is intentional....I don't try to hit these little animals, I just can't get out of the way in time. I've had some close calls with deer, but luckily, have stopped in time (knock on wood). Point of the story...almost ran over a raccoon tonight. That would have been another one to add to the list. This little guy was smart though...he was hanging out on the shoulder, saw my brights, gave me a look, and then ran the other way. Nice work, now go tell your buddies that they need to learn how to do that as well.

- Sports update: TO might not play on Sunday because of a bum ankle. What other great news can the Eagles give us?

Sixers lost their first 2 games. They lost a game on Tuesday night that they seemingly had wrapped up against Milwaukee, and then blew it in overtime. On Wednesday night, they pretty much got their asses handed to them against Detroit. The team seems very one dimensional with Allen Iverson being the main source of offense. Oh wait, it's been this way for the last 5 years or more.

- What's better: doing 2 loads of laundry per week, or investing in extra underwear so that I don't have to do laundry as often? Someone needs to do some Cost/Benefit research on this topic and then let me know.

- Random thought: Back in college, I could grow a goatee or beard whenever I wanted. In fact, every few months, I'd grow the goatee just for the hell of it. And then in December and May, I'd grow the "Finals Beard", where I wouldn't shave at all until finals were complete for the semester. That brings up a dilemma: even if I wanted to grow some facial hair now, I'd go through a few stages:

Day 1 = Clean-shaven
Day 2 & 3 = Cool stubble look (Patrick Dempsey style)
Day 4 & 5 = Homeless person laying on a subway grate in North Philly
Day 6 = Full Beard

So how do I bypass Days 2 through 5? I'd need those days to not be in work, and they'd go beyond a standard weekend. Vacation time probably wouldn't work since odds are that I'd be doing something worthwhile where I need to look presentable. Maybe Thanksgiving? Nope, my mom hates the facial hair and would threaten me. If I had light hair, I might be able to get away with being in work through all of the stages, but all of you have seen my hair...it's one shade lighter than jet black. Pointless rambling here, but I never claim to always make a point.

- On this November 3rd, I'd like to wish good friend Andy Franson a very happy 24th birthday. For those who don't know, Andy was one of my roommates during senior year of college and ranks near the top of my "Overall Good Guys" list. He has been a great supporter of the RPR from the beginning and contributed a great piece previewing the 2005 PSU football team back in early September. Andy, here's to a very enjoyable birthday, be sure to consume some brews, and look forward to hang out in the near future.

That's all I have for tonight. I'll check back in tomorrow night with a weekend preview. Enjoy Thursday.