Weekend Recap: One Day Late

Hey I'm back after the weekend, and taking the night off last night in honor of watching the Super Bowl and the craziness that ensued on "Grey's Anatomy". How about that episode by the way? That code black is some scary junk. Leaving us with a cliffhanger for next week...

Let's run through the weekend recap. I was back in the Philadelphia for a short visit with the parentals. Saturday for lunch met up with Brandon and Jonny Belman, who was in town for a short visit for some grad schools. You heard it hear first: Jonny Belman will change the world some day. He'll find the cure for cancer, if he doesn't succeed with that, he might find the cure for some other ailment and we'll be happy nonetheless.

Saturday evening, went to a comedy show down at the Kimmel Center with my folks and the Jessica. We saw "Defending the Caveman", which is a solo act with a guy laying out all of the differences between men and women, and likening the root of the differences with two sexes back to the caveman days. And let me tell you, it was pretty damn funny. He explained the reason why women always call men "assholes". And why women always look for compliments from men (because they always compliment each other, and thus expect it from men as well). He explained that men don't often show their emotions with their friends, but rather express it in different ways (like calling your best friend "dickhead" or "douchebag"), and that men bond by doing things like working in the garage or watching football, rather than bonding through conversation as women do. You get the idea....the show was hilarious and I definitely recommend it. It's one of those theatrical events where you laugh the entire time and constantly think to yourself, "I do that!" and "My girlfriend does that too!".

So did you know that Ted Turner has a restaurant? Neither did I until my parents told me that it had just opened up in Philadelphia and we were going there after the show. Apparently, Ted has a ranch out in Montana and loves his beef. So he opened a few restaurants called Ted's Montana Grill. Of course Dad had to make the obligatory "Is Jane Fonda going to be our waitress?" comment, and then the hostess went on to give us a whole rundown of all the wives that Ted Turner has had. It's amazing that one person knew that much about a guy who owns a few TV stations. She even mentioned one of Jane Fonda's other ex-husband who had so much money but then "snorted it all away". I couldn't make this up. Anyway, the restaurant was great. If you are a vegan/vegetarian, don't go here. It's all beef/bison/chicken. I tried a bison burger and it was fantastic. I found the bison to be very similar to regular beef, very tender, and extremely tasty. Ted's Montana Grill gets the RPR recommendation, especially if you're a carnivore like me.

Super Bowl Sunday: made my way back up here with the Jessica to watch the big game. And since we've all seen the game, the highlights, the post-game interviews, and the clips of Hines Ward and Jerome Bettis in Disney World, then let's just skip to my commentary.

- TheJessica thought I was nuts after I was able to name all of the Super Bowl MVP's going back to SB XXV as they came out on the field before the game. (Don't remember earlier than SB XXIV). And yes, I even knew Dexter Jackson, Larry Brown, and Mark Rypien. There might be something wrong with me.

- Did we really need Tom Brady flipping the coin? The fact that he got booed and laughed about it was priceless.

- You tell me that after the 1st quarter, that you didn't think that Seattle had a chance to win the game?

- How great was it when John Madden would comment on how he could predict a Steelers running play, simply because Bill Cowher had his arms folded across his chest?

- Yes, the Seahawks did get jobbed on a few of those calls. I'm still not sure Roethlisberger got in on that TD. That was a lame offensive pass interference call on Darrell Jackson. And that holding penalty on the Seattle offensive lineman to wipe out the completion to Jerramy Steven at the 1 yard line: that was pretty questionable as well.

- Let's give credit where it's due: They don't call him Fast Willie for nothing. The "gadget play" TD... excellent play call, excellent execution. And I still wouldn't want to meet up with Joey Porter in a dark alley.

- I'm still not sure that I could name more than two guys on the Seattle defense. I'll give it a shot... Lofa Tatupu (great name) and Kelly Herndon (guy who made the INT and was too slow to return it for a TD). Could probably name some more, but you get the idea.

- (Don't worry, I'll come to commercials later)

- Bill Simmons wrote a running diary on the Super Bowl. The diaries are Simmons at his best. Check it out.

- Loved Mike Holmgren's comment today. (something along the lines of) "We knew we'd face a tough challenge with the Steelers. I just didn't know that our other opponent would be the guys in stripes". Something tells me the league might send him a little fine for that one...

- Any championship isn't complete without a hometown celebration including some arrests.

- This comment was left in an IM for me from Andy (big Steelers fan) shortly after the game ended: "I can't freakin believe this shit dude...Unbelievable...First Penn State finishes number 3 in the country and wins in the Orange Bowl...then the Steelers win the Super Bowl...I think my luck has finally changed with sports". I can only hope that my luck with the Eagles will change in the near future as well...

Now, for the commercials. Janet suggested that I run a poll on everyone's favorite commercials. So let's do just that: Please vote for your favorite in the comments. Here's some choices...

a) FedEx with the Cavemen
b) The Chimps & Jackasses for CareerBuilder.com
c) The streaking goat for Budweiser
d) The young Clydesdale for Budweiser
e) MacGyver and Mastercard
f) Other

My vote goes to the FedEx with the cavemen for randomness, creativity, and overall "that was crazy factor" based on the end of the commercial with the cavemen kicking the small dinosaur, and then getting stomped on by a larger dinosaur. Completely out of left field. Runnerup was the chimps and jackasses for CareerBuilder.com. You have to love monkeys in any commercial. Booes go out to the Diet Pepsi commercials with Jay Mohr and P.Diddy because they were pretty worthless and to the Burger King commercial with the Whopperettes. Should have stuck with superimposing the King in football highlights.

And since I have nothing else to add, I'll call it a night. Back tomorrow with the standard nonsense.