giggle pop

I am pretty certain the writers of 24 have learned how to read my mind. Tonights episode began with jack stripping and being sprayed down with water. Bless.

I guess it all started around when I was 8 years old, even though I did not know it yet. I have watched NCAA basketball most of my life, and at that time was also into the NBA. My favorite player was John Stockton. I was young and knew relatively little about the game, but I knew he made a lot of assists and that I kind of liked his hair.

Fast forward about Seven years, it is a usual Mid-March Thursday in Minnesota. By the time I was in middle school I had figured out that if I pretend to be sick the first few days of the NCAA tournament my mom would let me stay home from school, and I could spend the day watching basketball. This year was like no other, I got my mysterious march fever and stayed home, little did I know this day would end up influence where my life would go. My favorite part of the tournament has always been the Cinderella teams, random schools with names I could not pronounce and seeing the fans going crazy for them. This year, I think it was my sophomore year of high school, I watched one of those teams with weird names and crazy fans pull off an upset and eventually make their way to the elite eight. On that day I became a fan of Gonzaga.

About a year later I was watching the tourney again, and applying for colleges, so I of course checked out Gonzaga, and just fell in love with the school and ended up going there. Met some great people, had so some great times and miss it. Now here I am almost four years after graduation and still a die-hard Zag, if anything more of one than I have ever been. It is not always easy being a Zags fan. Over the years I have seen 1 Elite Eight, Four Sweet 16’s, two second round exits and two first round exists. Some I have seen my team go down just watching the scores flash as they were showing other games, some tourney losses early on did not effect me much and some felt soul crushing. I will never forget Blake Stepp missing a buzzer shot against an unstoppable looking Arizona in 2ot. When I close my eyes I am back in my room and can picture it perfectly. There was one other loss that stands out to me that strongly, UCLA in 2006. We were minutes away from the Elite Eight, The ‘Stache was the best in the country, JP Batista was amazing, and so on, that was supposed to be our year. But in the last 90 seconds of the game we blew a huge lead and lost by two, the ‘stache was on the floor crying. I too was crying as I saw the seconds ticking away, and friend was literally holding me up in the bar I was at.

This year we once again went out in the 16, but I did not cry, I just felt proud of my boys, as I always will. A lot of them will be back next year, and I know one of these years it is all going to gel and a final four run will happen. But until then I will keep on my with obsessive cheering and wearing my Zags shirts with pride. I have some pretty serious obsessions with other sporting teams (see Chelsea, Real Madrid, England and US national teams, Minnesota Twins) but no team could ever begin to rival my love of Gonzaga basketball. So until next year, GO GONZAGA G-O-N-Z-A-G-A.

Just for fun here is my Zags dream team.with no accounting for positions etc, just my five all-time favorite zags. STOCKTON, BATISTA, THE STACHE, DICKAU, and BOULDIN on the bench I would have STEPP, TURRIAF, VIOLET, PARGO, and magic shirt MALLON (don’t know why just always loved him).

First off not going to talk about basketball, still depressed and a nice Zags dedicated post is coming soon.

Golf- Arnold Palmer tourney is going on. No Camilo or Sergio so my interest is fairly limited. Tiger (or le tigre as I like to call him) is playing, and playing well, finished as of Saturday….waiting to see what happens on Sunday. I am starting to get a bit of a crush on Le Tigre, I don't know maybe it is the same effect Roger Federer has on me, hmmm. Masters is coming up soon woohooo!! *imagines Camilo in green jacket*

Football- Lots of world cup qualifiers, and a few friendlies. England seemed to dominate in their friendly, I did not want to cough up the $20 to get it on PPV and since I have dial up I am waiting until I can get into town and get on real internet and watch some replays. Sounds like my Chelsea boys, esp JT and Frankie did well.

Spain beat Turkey and looked ridiculously hot doing so as well. I must give a special shout out to my Blancos Iker and Ramos who just looked wow, not to mention both played incredible (especially el Ramos in his bright yellow boots). And I found yet another Spanish cutie who is way too young for me, Mata. I have noticed him before with Valencia but never knew his name, but now I do. Turkey’s keeper, Demeril is pretty frickin hot, but compared to Iker in an armband and el Ramos flashing a bit of his abs he barely registered for me this time around. The clock work orange also won, not particularly a fan (same with Spain) but there are a lot of Blancos playing for them, and Hunty scored a goal, and Robben took a great corner that also turned into a goal. Lots of other games, some teams won, some lost….Right now I am just not so patiently awaiting the England qualifier on weds. Oh yeah and Ballack scored for Germany, it was a beauty goal…now if he would only do the for Chelsea.

Right now I am watching US v. El Salvador. I have never cheered against the US or anything, but England has always been my team. I got into the sport watching England in the Eurocup when I was in high school, so the lions will always have a huge spot in my heart. But now I am making a big effort to cheer on the US national team as well, going with the national pride an all. Having eye-candy like captain Bocanegra definitely does not hurt, I am also starting to think Brian Ching is pretty hot too. Watching this game I have huge respect for our boys in the red, white, and blue. The boys were down 2-0 and then came back and tied 2-2, this turned out to be a great game to watch, and I had a ton of fun screaming at my tv. I am having a total loving of the USA team right now. Pretty much every El Salavdor player took a dive and stayed down beyond what they could reasonably milk in the second half. C-Ron himself would have even been saying, “come on get your ass off the ground pansy.” Those El Salvador fans look scary, it must take some serious marbles to play in front of fans like that. I may even attempt to get into MLS this year, I am in the market for a team to cheer for….if you have any suggestions feel free to try and convince me.

On another note, I am trying to figure out how to cheer for the US….do I say Come on USA? or Go USA? or just chant loudly USA! USA! USA! ? hmmmm does anyone know?

Have y'all seen the new Quiznos commercial where the oven talks to the dude? Anyways the commercial will give you a glimpse of what would happen if I died and was reincarnated as an oven.

I love mascots for food. Count chocula, the Cadbury bunny, Cap’n crunch, The hamburgler, Jared from subway, The trix bunny, Tucan sam, snap, crackle and pop …I could go on forever. However there is a breed of food mascot that I just don’t like when the mascot is the food itself. M&M’s, the tuna on star kist tuna, peeps, the chips a-hoy cookies and so on. I don’t like thinking I am eating the character that made me giggle on the commercial on tv.

I am sure many have seen the recent m&m commercial where the m&ms are in the grocery store and one says “ooh look we are on the guest list” and the other says “no that is the menu” and then they looked all sad. That does not make me want to eat m&m’s that makes me want to start a foundation to stop the cruel treatment of candied creatures that melt in your mouth not in your hand. Same thing goes for the chip’s a-hoy cookies…in one commercial they were driving and singing it is not right to eat something that drives and sings. And Mr. Peanut? He is like the classiest mofo out there, you can’t eat him that would be like eating the dude from monopoly or some English Duke. Just not right, not right at all.



On the other hand food mascots like count chocula and cap’n crunch are just awesome. You could sail the high seas with the cap’n and enjoy his cereal along the way. You could go on a crime spree with the hamburgler, get chased by a mob of children with the trix bunny while he plots to get his precious cereal back. But you would never eat your treat providing comrades, and if you did, well you would be put in food jail.

So next time those advertising fascists want you to eat the creature you just enjoyed watching on tv just say no.

Okay so I am spending too much time on the internet lately. Anyways, I am bored and I just made one of these twitter things. I am not really sure how it works, or if I know anyone on it. If you are a twitterer add me. I think you can find me under gigglepops.

I rediscovered my love of boxed wine, and wine in general. Believe me I have a pretty comprehensive knowledge of the beverage, well at least well more than the average person, I even sold wine for a while. The name of my blog is actually taken from a tasty little Australian number made by molly dooker (it is not available in a box unfortunately). However, I still highly enjoy the convenience of boxed wine. There are some decent everyday ones out there…unfortunately not in northern Minnesota, but that does not mean there are not some good ones out there. Here are a few reasons why boxed wine is awesome.
· 1) It stays good for weeks so you can have one glass at a time. If you are single like me and enjoy having a glass (or three) of wine, like to drink alone in a dark closet (j/K) and are sick of being judged for drinking the whole bottle by yourself it is a great option.
· 2) A box is equivalent to four bottles and usually around $20 (for a decent one) that is $5 a bottle my friends.
· 3) Good to have around for cooking, if you use wine for cooking. Though my cooking involves wine, it is more in the form of drinking a few too many glasses and then making ramen noodles and/or a pop tart.
· 4) The right box can fit inconspicuously on any bookshelf. I had one throughout much of my senior year of college I continuously replaced but always had a post-it on it that read “Chateau Heidegger appellation Dasein”. (yes I realize Heidegger was German and I am using French wine terms, and the name makes no sense).

5) Sometimes you just gotta Keep it class yo.





+



=Awesome

On 24 this week Jack Bauer was driving a semi-truck. Not sure why but I found that super awesome and hot. But this is Jack. I had to miss last weeks episode so I am kind of lost, but when I don’t know what is going on I just watch Jack Bauer shoot and interrogate things. It’s odd I don’t like action movies, but 24 is my favorite show of all time and it is basically a really long action movie. Jack=Unconstitutional interrogation manmeat.

March 22, 2009
This Weekend in Sports (with pictures!)
Football
YAAYY Real Madrid won today, lots of great Dutchie goals and one from Marcello as well. My dear Gago did not play until later, and I don’t think Higuain played at all, meaning there was a serious lack of hot argentines out there, but oh well Iker, Canna and el Ramos held down the hotness and the defensive line (another shut out!!). And Mr. mmmmm mmmm Metzelder played!!! Unfortunately barca won yet again. Surprise, Sur-frickin-prise. Someone needs to lock up Messi until after the season, seriously. Some of us Kickettes had a great chat during the game today. (had a good one for Chelsea game too yesterday)

*on a slightly related note. The chat today has inspired me and I think I may turn my large wooded yard into a sanctuary for injured or retired footballers. Also may bring in the types of Messi and Xavi who are adorable but need to stop scoring goals for teams I don’t want to win *cough* barca *cough* and worry not, I am sure I will develop this brilliant plan more soon.

Golf
There is a tournament going on this weekend, have not really watched. There is a lack of Camilo and Sergio, and too much football and basketball so I will catch up next week for the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Oh well here is some Camilo looking hotty-boombastic anyways. Mmmmm Bendy bend little lawn crawler.


Annnd those arms!!!


Sweeeet 16!!!

The Zags are in the sweet 16…helll yeah!!! Jesu-whattt! Get out the clear stripper heels espn because Cinderella is in the house this year!!! If you cannot tell I get slightly excited (and usually cry) if the Zags make it to the Sweet 16, I am hoping this is the year we make our return back to the elite 8 as well. We play UNC next. I won’t lie it will be a tough game, but a good game for us. UNC is not a huge team in size, does not bully and plays a running game. Basically don’t hit any of our weaknesses, so we have a fighting chance. And we beat them a few years back!! So bring it on Tar Heels my boys are coming!!

The Zags played Western Kentucky last night, looked like a thrilling game, I of course could not watch any of it because damn CBS would not show it here. So I watched Duke/Texas and slammed wine as I watched the Zags score. I did see the last minute and Goodson’s wonderful last minute shot to win the game. I was so proud. And thought to myself…he could teach Blake Stepp a few things about making a lay up under pressure. If any of you remember that game (I believe it was 2003) against Arizona, I will never get that image out of my head and will forever despise the University of Arizona.

I still am madly loving on Matt Bouldin…especially his pretty pretty arms my oh my, those things are beautiful. He has crazy eyes, yes, but also great hair and as I said the arms of a god. Not to mention his mad ass playing skills. He is quickly becoming one of my favorite Zags of all time, and is nipping on the heels of JP Batista. So here is some barely legal zaggy manmeat.



Oh and I hit a new low yesterday when I noticed a really hot player for UCONN (#33 I think) and felt the urge to say “that’s the best thing about college basketball players. I keep getting older, and they stay the same age”

Tennis
Indian wells is going on this weekend. I could not find anywhere showing it. But the Semi’s were Roger/Murray and Nadal/Roddick. Roger lost, I was sad so did Roddick…that also made me sad. So it is Nadal and Murray in the final and I am of course cheering for the Spaniard. Now I said I was going to not cheer for Nadal until he went sleeveless again, but I don’t like Murray so here I am. Not sure if final has been played yet or who won. Anyways VAMOS RAFA!!

Let me begin this post by saying I know virtually nothing about cars, and do not especially care to. But I do love my car, and I figured it needed a little blog time. My car is named either Freddy the Focus Road Warrior. Or simply Freddy. He is a 2002 Ford Focus and just about the cutest car on the planet. White with black trim, and grey interior. I really hope I don’t have a stalker on this blog, because I can see giving out that information leading to a bad episode of law and order.

The other day I was driving the long drive to St. Paul (a few hours) and I love road trips, even mini-ones like that. I have my music blasting and have a good time. Every time I see a fellow focus on the road I give my focus driving brother a fist pump in solidarity that would make Lech Walensa proud. So this is dedicated to my Focus loving peeps.

Anyways I got Freddy a little over a year ago. I also loved the car I had before him, a hand-me-down 1994 Bonneville named Bonnie. Bonnie was getting old and beyond repair, so I sent him out to pasture, okay well donated him to charity, same thing. Anyways I needed a new car, that would start and drove etc which Bonnie no longer did. I drove around creepy used car lots in New Orleans, since I did not have much money, so needed something cheap. Then I saw my dream car staring at me from some especially creepy lot. For as long as I can remember I wanted a Focus, and there was Freddy. Pretty low millage, looked in good shape ran well the many times I drove him and was perfectly in my price range. I knew it was fate. After some debate, and talking to people, I knew in my heart that Freddy was for me. I then purchased my first car, and drove him around town for a while.

Here I am about 18 months later, and my and Freddy are still going strong. We adventured from one send of the Mississippi river all the way to the other end (I literally went from a few miles from the bottom of the Mississippi to a few miles from the top). He survived his first Minnesota winter in style. Struggled on a few of the super cold days , but also stepped up and helped start a few other cars. People always rip on Ford for being bad cars, but they can screw themselves, I think my Focus is awesome. Some of the coolest people I know also drive focuses with pride (my dad and best friend to name a few).

So to all the Ford hating car snobs out there…
VIVA LA FOCI!!

A Okay so I have not updated in a while. But here are some of my ramblings on sports. Expect no reason or logic.

Quick Catch-up (mainly football stuff)
Blues won last weekend (YAY), Real Madrid won last weekend (YAY) I actually could not see any games, this whole giving up skipping church to watch sporting events for lent was a bad idea. I may cheat this week though, because I really want to watch Real Madrid.
I am not going to discuss anything involving Real Madrid and champions league in the same sentence. I am still sinking deep into a purple lake of despair after that Liverpool game. But Chelsea are through to the Quarter Finals of Champions League YAYYA GO BLUES!!! Of course yet again they draw Liverpool. If you have not picked up on this yet I hate Liverpool with about as much passion as anything can be hated. A fellow kickette commented the other day that this CL meeting of Chelsea and Liver (I am just calling them Liver from now on) is an annual event like the academy awards. Which it indeed is, especially considering the acting skills of the Liver boys. But whatev’s I ain’t worried…Chelsea got this COME ON BLUES! Oh my I am just dreaming about what it would be like if John Terry scored the winning goal when we make it to the final.

Football this week
Chelsea lost to f’ing Tottenham. UGH I hate the spurs as well, even though dear Carlo and uncle ‘arry are there now. It was depressing, and the only thing that kept me from turning into a Zoloft commercial was Man Utd today. All I have to say is HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA maybe mixed in with a little LOL or LMAO and some more HAHAHAHAHAHA they lost to Fulham 2-0 looking at the stats that wonderful London club outshot them like a billion to one. Not to mention TWO yes TWO Man Utd players got sent off with red cards. I did not actually watch the game because I was watching Chels of course, but I just watched the score and stats on espn and got some updates in chat with Chelsea girls, and my imagination did the rest. In my little fantasy world Vidic (aka Robo-Cop) may or may not have been crying with little sparks flying as happens when robots cry. Man, I can’t even think of anything else to say, just can’t stop laughing.

Oh almost forgot about golf. Tiger is back! Camilo did pretty well in tournament this weekend. Michelson won. Sergio sucked it up. I was also glad to see that yummy brit Oliver Wilson playing here again, he did pretty good too.

Basketball!!!!
Here is the big one I FRICKIN LOOOOVE MARCH!!! In the words of the great Dick Vitale AWESOME BABY!! Zags are through to the second round!!!! The first game against Akron. The first half was a nail biter as usual, but then the Zags kicked it into gear and made it hurt. I am still loving Matt Bouldin more than anything. I seriously want to have his babies, lots of curly haired crazy eyed lovely armed babies who will grow up to be future Zags players. Okay done with being creepy. Otherwise the tournament is going as usual with all its awesomeness, some good upsets, lots of games going as planned etc. There are people who can give much more insight into this who are not as lazy as I am. Right now I am just waiting for the Zags game tonight. Playing Western Kentucky….I wonder if anyone on their team plays the banjo? Anyways, I know somewhere in the next few games the Zags always get knocked out of the tourney, and I cry. But fuck it, I am just going to say it: GONZAGA TO THE FINAL FOUR BABY!!!, I mean gotta happen some year right? Please?!!
As usual, no matter how much thought and research or even random guessing goes into my brackets, they are absolutely awful as usual.

It was a frosty January day, about a month before the bar exam. I needed a change of study scenery, I was sick of my house, and sick of my usual coffee shop. I ventured into “downtown” and found a lovely little coffee shop, it had big tables, bagels, and wireless internet. This was the perfect establishment, or so I thought. After a few hours of vigorous work on con law I decided I need a break. So I fired up the old mac and went to my favorite website, kickette. As some of you know (I think a few kickettes may even be reading this) this is an awesome website of football gossip, and lots of girls talking about our favorite things, football and hot footballers. On this day there was a wonderful little story on the main page, it had pictures of the new David Beckham Armani ads. I hope you are familiar with these ads, they basically involve becks in virtually no clothing looking hotty bombastic.
See example:

Splash news via Kickette

Now this is just what I needed on this long day of studying. Say what you will about becks, I wont get into my opinion on his playing, and I am bored to death of the will-he-wont-he Milan saga. However, when it comes down to it, stick that man in a pair of undies and he’s still got it goin’ on.

Anyways, I am sitting on my well deserved break admiring the above photo, then I notice the lady cleaning the tables behind me gasp. Now I gasped in the “damn it’s getting hot in here” way when I saw this picture, nope she gasped in a, gasp, judgmental way. She was actually judging me for looking at mr. golden balls barely covered golden balls (I know that was terrible I could not resist, sorry!). I turned around and saw the look on her face that accompanied the gasp, it was full of disapproval and judgment. The look on my face was initially one of confusion, trying to understand this moment that pulled me out of my happy place, and it quickly switched to a judgmental look of my own. I judged her for not enjoying this photo. I mean how could you not. I knew then and there I would never come back to this establishment, it clearly was not staffed by my kind of people. I am still baffled by this women and her moment of judgment. I honestly think her vagina should be revoked, yup I did just say that.

Another week(end) of sports. And I am in no where near as good as a mood as I was last weekend. Okay, okay it was not that bad, I am still depressed about Real Madrid’s draw in the derby.

Football

Yay Chelsea is through to the semi’s of the FA cup. Please, please let us get some sort of trophy this season!! We won 2-0. I did not watch the game because it was on at 6:30am, I did actually make a vague attempt to wake up for it, but my dog decided to sleep on my phone and I could not hear the alarm. So not much opinion on the game other than it is awesome the blues won!

I don’t even want to talk about what happened in Madrid. 1-1 against atletico. On the whole atletico played well, and we were lucky to get out of there with a point. Though I am remaining positive because we had a lot of good chances on goal. The new Dutchie, Klaas, is finally scoring some goals, and the goal he scored Saturday was off a BEAUTIFUL pass by Higuain. I am going to take a moment to profess my love of Gonzalo Higuain, he should have been on the field since the first minute of the game. He is a great finisher, but more importantly he is a frickin’ great play maker. When Gonzo is on the field I feel like RM’s game really picks up to another level. Even when we were struggling first half of the season he seemed to carry the team. A big task and hard to believe he is only 21. With Higuain up front and Gago holding down the midfield it makes me very optimistic for next season and the rest of this season. If these two stay on form and develop, they are going to do great things in the future, they both seem to be getting better and better. Okay done talking about my young Argentines. We are now SIX points off of Barca, it seems like a lot but I still have 108023804398% faith in the blancos to keep the trophy at the Bernabeau where it belongs!!!

Champions league games for both Chelsea and RM tomorrow. Chelsea is up a goal on Juve and RM down a goal against Liverpool. I am super nervous about both, especially RM. It would break my heart to see them knocked out of champions league, but even more so if it happens now because to put is simply I cannot stand Liverpool. I also desperately want to see Chelsea go through, I still have bad dreams about last years CL final.

I am sure I will be writing tomorrow either very happy or crying or a mix of the both. Oh well COME ON BLUES and HALA MADRID!!

Basketball

The Zags won yet another WCC tournament. Once again we are conference and tournament champions!!! The final was tonight against St. Mary’s. If anyone watches the Zags, the ESPN announcers seem to tie ever win we had to a St. Mary’s player Patty Mills getting injured, whether we were playing them or not. I swear anytime he is around the ESPN guys strap on the clear heels and give him a lap dance (okay I can’t ENTIRELY blame them he is pretty hot and with accent). Now tonight we beat them, badly, in the WCC tournament, with Patty Mills and still they cant just give us credit for playing well. Okay, well they did a bit tonight, but I am still annoyed. March madness officially begins on Sunday, and I can’t wait, I just hope we do not get screwed again in the bracket, and can actually do something during the big dance.

Jack Bauer

Yeah I know it is not sports, but I wanted to put it in somewhere. If interrogation was an Olympic event Jack would totally win gold, silver, and bronze. This season of 24 is awesome just plain and simple awesome.

Yay! It is finally warm enough to run. I have spent the whole winter stuck inside, barely being able to get in a walk a few days a week because it was too cold. Now it is warmish, and I have been running for the past three days. My distance is still okay, my time is horrible, but I don’t really care it just feels so nice to be back out running. Hopefully I will be back into decent shape soon. I think I am going to train for another marathon this summer, and hopefully won’t get injured again.

I really love running up here, I could definitely live up here for a long time, mainly just because it is perfect for distance running. I can leave my house go out on to an empty road surrounded by tons of pine trees and all around beautiful scenery and just run for miles. It is easy just to lose myself look around me and relax. Though knowing myself I am sure at some point I will actually get lost while running on some country road and be eaten by some sort of bear, mountain and/or bob cat, or maybe a horse. Still, it is a great feeling being able to just throw on my shoes and start running out the door and in a few minutes I feel like I am the only person in the world because I could go for an hour and see only one or two cars. One of my favorite things I have are my running shoes. They are getting pretty dirty but other than that are still in great shape. Sometimes it seems like the combo of them and a trusty iPod are all I need in the world.

Now I need to decide if I want to try and get up at 6:30 in the frickin morning to watch the Chelsea game. I miss my DVR sooooo much. Hope everyone has a great weekend, I am going to spend mine on my couch watching football, golf, and basketball I can’t wait!

Songs of the day: 1) “Get on your Boots” U2 and 2)“Watch me Go” Girls Aloud
Why: Both are new additions to my running playlist and were awesome.

This is an idea I have had stirring in my brain since I discovered men’s water polo this summer at the Olympics. It came to my mind again after watching part of round two of the Honda Classic (golf), I decided there really needs to be a sports network more geared towards women. I am not talking about showing women’s sports, I am talking about making one for women viewers.

For instance I am pretty new to watching golf, I enjoy it, it is relaxing to watch. I also love a few certain hottie golfers e.g. Camilo Villegas, Sergio Garcia, Oliver Wilson, Adam Scott, etc. Now even in good golf coverage they usually only show the leaders of the day. I had a good time watching on Thursday because Sergio was up at the top of the leaderboard most of the day so there was definitely a lot of sexy Spaniard on the TV. Then today he does not have such a good round, and bam he is gone. Camilo has not done well at all so far, so he is barely seen as well. Now the golf channel I am certain is geared 125% towards men. I know this fact with certainty because almost every commercial is about some sort of erectile dysfunction, I mean one commercial break has more ED commercials than anyone should ever ever ever ever see in a lifetime. Now if there was a network geared towards me, I mean women, the coverage would be a bit different. Of course you show the guys who are leading I do like watching good golf being played. But also give a little air time to the lawn crawler in tight pants bending his body in intriguing ways to scope out a put.

Don’t get me wrong I do actually watch sports for the game itself. I can tell you most anything about football, tennis, college basketball, and a bit about golf. I also know and am interested in other things though. Like a certain goal keeper who remains hot even though he is going through some questionable haircuts. A certain French midfielder who likes to strip down after games to his little briefs…and proceed to jog (sigh). Or a certain tennis player with a wonderful left arm that I now cheer for a little less since he started wearing sleeves. The camera men on these male oriented networks do a great job of covering the action of games, however they just do not know where to point the cameras in post game celebrations and jersey swapping. I think there is a market here, because I know many other girls out there who think just like me!

Bonus star and proud pat on the head for anyone who can name my referenced athletes in the last paragraph.

In honor of the WCC tournament this weekend I figured I would share a story of Gonzaga cheering past that took place between me and a dear friend. It was the year after we graduated, and we were watching one of the best Zags season to date. A man known only in my heart as “the ‘stache” was taking the country by storm and things were looking like they were going to shape up to be our best tournament performance ever. Of course the season ended as it always does with me drunk and crying in some bar as I watch my team lose a game they never should have lost.

Anyways, as I was saying, a few years back I was talking with a friend while watching the zags play. During this season a player named J.P. Batista was one of our other top players. As watching the game and the bulky muscly Brazilian go up for a shot or rebound or some sort of basketball move and one of us made the comment “wow he is like man-meat.” At that moment one of my favorite words was born-- “manmeat”, and my fascination with male athletes really kicked into high gear. So from time to time I am sure I will be posting pictures and what not of my favorite hunks of manmeat, I think I may have already. Here are a few to start things off, because a little objectification never hurt anyone, right?

Fernando Gago (Real Madrid/Argentina): my favorite manmeat!

Camilo Villegas (golf): bendy manmeat

Yoann Gourcuff (Bourdeaux/France): bambi manmeat

Fabio Cannavaro (Real Madrid/Italy): finely aged Italian manmeat

I found all the pics on google or realmadrid.com, cannot remember original sources.

On a slightly related note: The lovely Fabio won fan favorite on Top Chef and I was reminded of a quote of his that I kind of live my life by. “Everything tastes better with an accent.”

I am debating on temporarily lifting my personal boycott of Top Chef to watch the reunion show tonight. As some of you may know, I went on a boycott of the show when my delicious Italian Fabio was kicked off before the final. I said I was going to boycott the show if he did not win, and I intend to stand by it. I know breaking the boycott tonight will mean I only skipped one show, but the principle is still there. I also still plan on boycotting next season unless they give me another wonderfully accented European man with awesome one liners that make me sigh and giggle all at once as a contestant. I figure I should watch tonight though and hope Mr. Fabio wins fan favorite.

I am also still working on my thoughts on the new U2 album. So far I really like It, spent most of last night listening to it and playing wii (best night I have had in months sadly, darn bar exam). The song I cannot stop listening to is “Moment of Surrender.” I highly recommend it, and will write more on it after I have given it a few more listens.


Song of the day: U2, “Moment of Surrender”
Why: I love it when Bono tries to be St. Augustine

Here are somethings I was thinking about today that you probably did not want to know.

I hope you got the reference to "The Office" in the header

I am convinced 24 is the most awesome show ever made, and Jack Bauer is the coolest/sexiest man ever. If you have not been watching this season you should, it’s awesome.

Glaze doughnuts and iPhones do not mix.

Do you ever watch those shows about the apocalypse on the History channel? I do. I mean you never know, right? Anyways, I am fascinated when they have the experts on. There is always some guy who knows more than anyone reasonably should about something like the meaning of the third horseman’s hat. It makes me wonder, what event in their life prompted them to become an expert in something completely random. There seems to be turning points in everyone’s lives that lead to an interest in things. Like various events in my life have resulted in me really wanting to stop and eat every time I see a white castle. I just wonder what event in their life led them in the direction to be an expert in apocalyptic prophecy. I also wonder where I can find one of their phone numbers. They seem like a useful friend to have around, you know, if they are right and the world is ending soon.

Do you ever find yourself liking a song you really wish you did not like? Right now I can’t stop listening to Britney Spears “Circus.” Though watching her life is an amusing glimpse in to the crystal ball of the future of Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift.

I love watching reruns of the show wife swap on lifetime network. I am also fully aware of all the things wrong with that statement.

I used to feed the animals in my yard because I thought they were cute. I still think they are cute, but in the back of my mind I secretly wonder if I stop feeding them will the try and eat me instead.

I promise I will write about something other than football soon!

But for now I watched the Chelsea v. Pompey game today. I really do love when games are played in the rain and mud. It just makes the beautiful game that much more beautiful. I know I am a little crazy, but I still believe with 100% of my little heart that the Blues can win the title. I know it seems like a pretty long of a shot, considering Man Utd has a 7 point lead on us with a game in hand. Then again, all I have heard for the past few months is that Barcelona had La Liga wrapped up with a pretty little bow and cherry on top, but now that does not seem to be the case. So I am staying optimistic as I like to do, and going to firmly believe we can win the title until it is in United’s annoying little hands.

Okay I suppose I should talk about the game that was actually played today. I will sum up each half as I watch.

First half: The whole time I was yelling “will you get the ball in the back of the f’ing net already?!?!” basically a lot of chances, nothing yet to come of them. Most notably a few firecracker from Lamps that was saved. There were some great saves from Pumpkin Pete as well. 0-0 at end of half. COME ON BLUES!

Second half: Chelsea pass the ball a lot. Ricardo Quaresma comes on the field (first game I actually get to watch him play) He is another source I am directing my optimism at, I really hope he does well at Chelsea. I swear it has nothing at all to do with his abs, nothing whatsoever, I base every bit of my thoughts on sports solely on the game itself. RQ makes a few good passes that should have resulted in goals, but didn’t. GOOOOOOAAAALLLLLL DROGBA!!! Beautiful finish there. YAY 1-0 final. Oh I have been missing the days of Chelsea scraping out 1-0 dirty wins, the days when we were winning trophies.

Yay!! Essien and Carvalho will be back in action soon, it has been tooooo long since I have seen my balding Portuguese love helping hold down the back line.

On a related note--I have a list of famous people I want to sit down drink a few pints with and have a deep drunken conversation. David James is on that list. In case you were wondering it is a long list, and a few of the others that come to mind right now are Charles Barkley, Plato, Winston Churchill, and Kid Rock.

I just watched the reply of Barca-Atletico game in another failed attempt to finally see this weeks Real Madrid game. After seeing Kun Aguero’s goals once again, he is quickly jumping onto my list of Argentine footballers I just cannot get enough of. He is in good company with the likes of Fernando Gago, Gonzalo Higuain, and Lionel Messi. I know they are a tad young, but I just am weak for the ridiculous talent mixed with adorableness.

Also Pep Guardiola is starting to nip on the heels (just a little bit) of the special one (Jose Mourinho) as hottest manager on the planet.

Not to worry this is a slight fascination with barca right now, coming out as love of Pep and Messi and by no means a fanship. I can say with confidence you will not see me running around in the blaugrana anytime soon.

Sorry it’s a long one. If you are not a U2 fan you will probably be bored out of your mind.

I consider myself a bit of an expert on the band U2. I have been a step beyond obsessed with the band for a quite a long time. I have assembled a collection of every album, almost every single (at least the ones with interesting b-sides) a decent collection of live tracks as well. Keep in mind this is all before iTunes came out with there complete U2 set which was good by all means, but still not entirely “complete.” I have had more than one period in my life where I have spent months at a time listening to pretty much nothing besides the band. I used to know every word to Joshua Tree and War off the top of my head, and it just gets worse from there. I am also a bit of an amateur historian on the band as well. I even met Bono once before one of their concerts, he was awesome, he sat and talked to me for a while, I could barely speak and was in complete shock. The Edge and Adam were also wandering around but I did not get a chance to talk to them. It was very cool meeting my hero and have him actually live up to coolness expectations on pretty much every level (which is hard to do after years of near worship).

What I am getting at here is that I know a thing or two about the bands music to say the very least. They are coming out with a new album tomorrow. I think some of it was available on their website already, but whenever they have a new album I make an effort to avoid listening to anything but the first single so I can get the right first impression of it. At some point in the next few days I will post my initial thoughts on the new album. It will probably take me a few months of listening to get my real thoughts on it, and as I discovered with most of their past albums the meanings change immensely for me as I collect new experiences in life.

The past few albums seemed to come out and say what I needed to hear at just the right time. “All that you can’t Leave Behind” came out my senior year of high school and “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb” came out my senior year of college. On the whole I prefer their earlier works, “Achtung Baby” is probably my favorite for a lot of reasons I wont discuss now. But the former two mentioned really managed to help me through some hard times in life. Now here I am just out of law school, trying to figure out the next steps in my life. This means I probably had higher expectations of this album than I should, the question is will it live up to expectations on the first few listens.

Now, it seems to be a consensus around the world that Australia is a pretty cool place. I have never been and definitely would not mind going. Unfortunately my knowledge of the place is mainly derived from my own fantasies of surfers with accents, Jay from “The City”, and the 80’s classic “Land Down Under.” Then today I discovered yet another reason to want to visit Australia, kangaroos! In case you were wondering I have always wanted a pet kangaroo, I would train it to bring me snacks and diet sodas in its pouch.


I was familiar with the creature, even saw one hopping around the Gonzaga campus (I am serious, a real kangaroo). I knew they lived in Australia and looked something like this.


I always figured that they were pretty rare, as most cool animals seem to be. That was until this morning, when I learned something new. I saw on a morning talk show, which I watched for about 5 minutes (I will discuss my feelings on morning talk shows at a later time) that there are twice as many kangaroos as people in Australia. That is just awesome. Now with the chances of a kangaroo encounter seeming much more likely, the land down under is moving to the top of the list of places I want to visit.

Related note, another wonderful export of Australia—Golfer Adam Scott: Manmeat with a side of vegemite.



Song of the day: Men at Work “Land Down Under”
Why: A classic is a classic

I am sitting here with a perma-smile on my face after an absolutely fabulous weekend in sports for my teams. I enjoy sports a lot, mainly football (soccer), ncaa basketball, tennis, and am getting into golf as well. I just kind of write what I think, and it will often have more to do with the hottness of the athletes as opposed to anything really insightful into the games.

NCAA Basketball

Yay the Zags once again went undefeated in the WCC conference (which we had already clinched a week or so ago). I have been a die hard Gonzaga fan for about 10 years now, which is making me feel quite old. Even with some questionable performances this season I am still remaining optimistic for a good tourney performance by the boys this year, and yes I am aware it is more often than not a futile task. But hey it is March and the begininngs of March Madness are sweeping through me...counting down the days until the tourney!!!

On a related note…I just cannot get enough of Matt Bouldin and his arms. Mmmmmm.

Football

Yes I watch far too much football, it is a bit of an obsession for me. My teams are Chelsea for the EPL and Real Madrid in La Liga.

Let’s start off with the Chelsea game, which I sadly could not watch, but that did not stop me from yelling out in excitement in the bar I was in at 11am (long story) while checking the score on my phone. First off our fearless captain John Terry gets his first goal in a long time, then other team equalizes, and then in true dramatic fashion Super Frankie Lampard scores a last minute goal to win. This puts the blues back at #2 in the league still trailing the ever pestilent Manchester United. Oh I was a happy happy girl. I still have not been able to watch a game since Guus (who I like to call “Goose” because it reminds me of Top Gun) took over a few weeks ago. This win coupled with a win in the first leg of the Champions League game against Juventus and Liverpool losing to Middlesbrough HAHAHAHAHA (sorry ‘pool fans) including an own goal it was a good day in the Premier League.

Moving on over to espana for some La Liga fun. My beloved Real Madrid won 2-0 over Espanyol on Saturday, another game I had to miss but was yelling with excitement upon seeing scores come up. That is about a million league wins in a row for the boys in white and Captain Raul scored his bazilionth goal or something like that. Then today Barcelona lost in an absolutely wonderful game against Atletico. I spend about 90+ minutes a week being an avid fan for whatever team is playing Barca. Now, I have respect for Barca and a bit of a crush on Little Leo Messi and Xavi, but I want nothing more than to see Los Blancos win the league yet again, and that involves the once invincible looking Barcelona loooosing, which they are doing a wonderful job of doing lately. A few weeks ago, all you would hear about is how Barca had La Liga locked up, but now that Real Madrid is only FOUR yes FOUR points off the lead things are getting exciting.

Last but not least, watched a great draw between Inter Milan and Roma over in Italy. I still can’t decide what team I am going to support in Serie A. Right now I am cheering for Inter, but pretty much only because Jose Mourinho is the manager. I am still telling myself everyday that once he takes the trophy in Italy the special one will be packing his bags and coming back to Chelsea where he belongs!!! However, this still leaves me with a need of a team in Serie A to cheer for, maybe I will stick with Inter maybe not….any suggestions?

Ray Hudsonism
Anyone who watches games on gol tv in the states gets to experience the colorful commentary of Ray Hudson. I would give just about anything to have this man narrate everything because he cracks me up. Today he had a particularly great line about his man crush Little Lionel Messi. “He’s got the swivel hips, like a Turkish stripper.” BTW the goal that prompted that comment was beautiful.

Have you ever woke up one day and realized you were living your favorite song whether you wanted to or not. The first time I heard “Tangled Up in Blue,” I could not make sense of it. After a while I began to realize it is simply about life, just walking through it with mix of near inappropriate optimism and wonder and taking note of the small things that make up the big picture. However, my new found fascination with the song stems from something a little bit more literal. “I had a job in the great north woods working as a cook for a spell…so I drifted down to new Orleans…but all the while I was alone, with the past close behind” Just reverse that line, and you pretty much have the last few years of my life. I have spent my whole life living in some sort of city until now, now I live in the frozen woods of northern Minnesota, and it is surprisingly a pretty interesting place. I figure as I enter into this new chapter of my life, I would write my adventures on this internet thing.

I am new to this whole blog thing, but it seems fun, and maybe slightly narcissistic to think people actually want to read it, but hey it gives me something to do. Still deciding what this is all going to be about, but will most likely be a mix of my thoughts on my favorite things bad tv, various sports, philosophy, candy, alcohol, music, and whatever may be wandering through my head on any given day. Basically an attempt at me to attempt to be funny and entertaining. I have some interesting, well at least amusing, topics planned and will try to update a few times a week. I am still working on all of the formatting and stuff so expect this to look nicer and more creative eventually, and any tips or suggestions on formatting is greatly appreciated.

I assume if you are reading this, you probably know me. If you don’t know me then hello new people. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

I think I may add a little thing at the end of each entry called “song of the day/post” or whatever where I will have my favorite song that day and why it is my favorite…

Song of the day: Girls Aloud “Can’t Speak French”
Why: It makes me smile