Some Summer Pics (as promised)

In no particular order:

 It was great to see Green Means Go captain and cheeseburger expert Dorko in DC last weekend after sectionals.  This is Keri "not drinking" at the Argonaut. We promise.  Keri and I are taking over Philly the weekend of November 11 so look out.

This is a crazy, wack moth-like bug I saw in Raleigh near my sister's. (Actually outside my niece's dance studio.)  It's wings look just like leaves.  Nature!

At Oak Island, met this super cute baby dog. He is a Havanese, so likely a communist.  If that's what Communism looks like, I am all for it.

Here's Danielle, Me and Emily in NYC at her surprise 40th b-day party.  I am looking forward to turning 40 and looking like that!

 I hope to never own a car again.  If I do ever own a car, I hope it is this one I saw on H st NE DC.

A certain someone got a pretty high score on my semi-functional Ms Pac Man machine and wanted to make sure I captured it.  My 2nd place 52360 is particularly embarrassing given my home court advantage.

I went to the Kennedy center with Sarah and Frank to see Seinfeld.  This is the "Foyer of Flags" or some such nonsense.  I am looking forward to their wedding, which is coming up soon.

Home on the Range

Happy Thanksgiving. Sorry it's been a while. Things have been busy with work.

Minneapolis is really cold, as expected. I like living in the Sheraton, watching cable and eating room service. As always, my hotel room us much larger than my home, so it seems pretty plush. I fly home on Thursday nights and the trip into LGA is always delayed and fills me with rage, but that's part of the deal, I guess.

Nationals at the end of October was great. Ambush lost most of our games but we still had a great time. There's no scrubs at nationals so any win is respectable. We came in the 16th seed and left in 14th place so, we did better than expected. We're fired up about next season. We were there over Halloween and I spent a fair amount of time in my costume, but so far no photos of that have surfaced. (If someone sends me one I'll post it here.)

I'm at my parents house in rural Maryland for the Thanksgiving Holiday. (I only narrowly escaped being at the Magic Kingdom with my sister and nieces.) We had a huge Thanksgiving feast (turkey, stuffing, asparagus, oyster casserole, mashed potatoes, grapefruit salad, and cranberry sauce) for just the three of us.

My parents have added to their domestic 'ark' which previously had 2 female golden retrievers, 2 female house cats and 2 male horses. We now also have 2 female mini-horses. Mini-horses are like big dogs that live in a barn and don't fetch.

Some great things of late:

• I've been playing some Little Big Planet. I think it is pretty rad.



• I watch this puppy cam about 6 hours a day. It is the best thing ever.



• My friend Gideon is a talented artist and his blog has some very interesting sketches

I guess it's time to give up on the Eagles. Not sure yet who my playoffs team will be. Maybe the Jets?

In other sports news, I'm excited about the Iverson/Pistons trade, but not that he's wearing #1 now so that Rodney Stuckey can keep the 3. This makes no sense to me. The Hoyas look pretty good so far this season as well, so we'll see how that goes.

Finally, congrats to Tim and Alex who've welcomed newest Rogers baby Rafa to the family. In a surprising turn of events, he's a real cutie.

Sing a Tsonga of 6 Games

So, last night I went to Rod Laver arena to watch the quarter-finals of the Australian Open. I had an absolute blast. I went with Lauren (aka Mama because all Australians are required to have a nickname). What I didn’t know until we arrived was that Lauren had been a ball kid at the Australian Open, back in the Sampras era, so she was super wise about all the goings on at the Open.

When we arrived we wandered around the grounds a bit and actually saw the tail end of a doubles match between the Williams sisters and a Chinese doubles team. The Chinese team prevailed and we headed off in search of beers.

We ate some noodles, and settled in to the center court at Rod Laver to see the quarterfinals match between world #1 Justine Henin and Maria Sharapova. The place was mostly full and the crowd was pretty in to the match. There were some great points and long rallies, but Sharapova dominated from the first serve until match point. I won’t be surprised if I see her again on Saturday when I go back to see the final.

My mom stayed up all night back in the US to watch the match live in case I turned up in a pan the crowd shot on ESPN. No such luck, as my seats were pretty much back row, but you’ve got to admit that’s dedication to the cause.

After that, there was a men’s quarter final between my new crush Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and the Russian #14 seed, Youzhny. Despite being un-seeded and a relative unknown, Jo-Dub dispatched the Russian in three sets to the delight of 6 or 7 very loud French fans. Tsonga’s up against R-Fed next, which may well be a tough spot, but might prove entertaining none-the-less.

I’m psyched to have been to the US Open in 2006 and now the Australian Open. Maybe Wimbledon is next?

Also, please check out this link for the Puppy Television Channel. If this ever gets off the ground I will quit my job for sure and stay home and watch it 24 hours a day. I may even have to consider the Astronaut’s approach to practicalities.