Rick Reilly is a truly inspired man. I am including a link that everyone should read. Including the president of the NCAA. It's about the best article I've ever read!

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3815656

I've also included the link on our side bar

13-0 Utah Utes
Sugar Bowl Champions
This, is what perfection looks like!

What's Your Pirate Name?

I just took this quiz to find out, you should too.

My pirate name is:

Bloody Harry Rackham

Every pirate lives for something different. For some, it's the open sea. For others (the masochists), it's the food. For you, it's definitely the fighting. You have the good fortune of having a good name, since Rackham (pronounced RACKem, not rack-ham) is one of the coolest sounding surnames for a pirate. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

I also took the following quiz to find out I am a dragon:



And that my ninja skill is invisibility.

Blackout!!!!!!!

I wanted to get this post in before the BYU game. Mostly because this game set up the Y game to be as big as it is. On Nov. 6, Utah beat TCu 13-10 at Rice-Eccles stadium. And it was one of the most exciting and nerve wracking games I have ever attended. Below are some pictures from that night. And it'll be just another memory in a great season after the Utes take care of BYu and go to another BCS game. GO UTES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GO UTES!!!!!!!!!!

"I am a Utah Man, sir, and I live across the green. Our gang, it is the jolliest that you have ever seen. Our coeds are the fairest and each one's a shining star. Our yell, you hear it ringing through the mountains near and far.
Who am I sir a Utah Man am I. Utah Man, sir, and will be till I die. Ki! Yi!
We're up to snuff, we never bluff, we're game for any fuss. No other gang of college men dare meet us in the Muss. So fill your lungs and sing out loud, and shout it to the sky. We'll fight for dear old Crimson for a Utah Man am I!"

	University of Utah Marching Band - Utah Man
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Emma's Birthday

So while we were down the other day, Jason asked me to come help him with Emma's birthday cake. She wanted a Princess Castle cake and Jason wasn't sure how to make it. At first he asked if Rachelle's mom had one of those "cake frosting spreader thingy's." I said that's normally called a butter knife and he said "No, the thing with the wooden handle and the plastic top.". I said oh, you mean a spatula? He again said no so I said I'd be there in a few minutes. When I came over, spatula in hand, he said "Yeah, that's what I meant. What's that called?" I then told himit's called a spatula and he felt really dumb. Below I'm attaching some pictures of the construction of and finished product. I think we did a pretty smash-up job considering we did this all from scratch. And although we had to leave the party before the cake was eaten, I was told it was actually pretty good. Enjoy.

I saw this little test on Michelle and Aaron's blog and thought it sounded funny. So I decided to steal it and give it a try. Rachelle's answers in red.
1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet name; current car)
Ally Ranger
Natalie Focus
2. GANGSTA NAME: (favorite ice cream flavor, favorite cookie)
Moosetracks Snickerdoodle
Cookiedough Chocolate Chip
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)
Red Penguin
Blue Lion
5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)
Scott Aurora
Lynn Provo
7. SUPERHERO NAME: (The + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink)
The Black Dew
The Green Lemonade
8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers)
Vince Walter
Don WIlliam
9. STRIPPER NAME: (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy)
Polo Black Starbursts
SoCal Milkyway
10. WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother & father's middle names)
Mele Walter
Kenneth
11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 6th grade teacher's last name, a major city that starts with the same letter)
Knowles Kingston
Parkinson Paris
12. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower)
Summer Snapdragon
Summer Rose
13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you're wearing right now + ie)
Strawberry Shortsie
Apple Shirtie
14. HIPPIE NAME: (what you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree)
Cheerio Palm
Granola Oak
15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (The + your favorite hobby/craft, favorite weather element + tour)
The Hockey Lightning Tour
The Aves Holding Sunshine Tour
16. YOUR CELEBRITY COUPLE NAME: (half of your name, half your significant other's name, mixed together in whichever order sounds best)
Chrichelle
Rachris (pronounced Rach-ris)
After doing that, I'd have to say that names #2, 4, 9,& 11 are some of the best names ever.

And don't worry, we'll be posting another Avery update with pictures (and even video) soon. Hopefully this weekend. So stay tuned.

Let us know which celebrity name you like better for us.

GRADUATION

Chris And Rachelle

I have been meaning to blog about my graduation and Rachelle's been on me to get this up for a couple of weeks now. So I'm finally getting around to it. I graduated from the U of U on Thursday May 1st. It is fantastic to be done! Except for the job hunt which ensues. My convocation was held with the College of Health, which also saw graduates from Physical and Ocupational Therapy, Parks & Recreation, Speech Language Pathology, Nutrition, & Health Promotion/Education areas. My degree is Exercise and Sports Science with a minor in Nutrition. There were 4 available areas of emphasis in the ESS department an mine was simply Exercise Science. Overall graduation was what you'd expect. The speakers were pretty good in that they didn't go too long (although the speaker representing those receiving graduate degree's was fairly full of himself and got a bit annoying). The worst part of the whole thing was waiting through the people receiving their graduate degrees because they had to be given their hood and have the title of their thesis read. Then, as the professors started to lead the procession out of the arena, they PA system started to play "We are Family" by Sister Sledge and the whole place turned into a party. After we got out of the arena, I got a phone call from Rachelle asking where I was so I could meet up with the family for some pictures before we went to dinner. I asked where she was and she told me that she was at the door we came in at (which was the North entrance). I asked her if she was sure, and if she could see a parking lot in front of her (which would have meant that she was at the West entrance where the graduates were coming out of the building. She said no, so I went to the North entrance and sure enough, she was no where to be found. So as I was walking back to the West entrance, my brother called me asking where I was. Right about then, I saw them all standing right in front of the West entrance as I expected they might be. The worst part of the whole thing, was that PK had his little daughter Natalie wearing a BYU onesie under her dress, so that when I tried to take a picture with them, he'd lift up her dress to show the BYU logo. For that, I must destroy him. Anyway, after some pictures, we went down to the Gateway Mall and had dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen. When we got there and asked about the wait for 12 of us, we were told it would be about a hour if we wanted to sit at one table, or about 30 minutes to be split up. We decided to wait for one table and somehow my mom worked her Mele family magic and got us seated in about 15 minutes.

Chris And Lynsey


So now that I am done, the challenge becomes finding a job. And so far, no go. I'm realizing that either the job will pay good but the pay won't be stable month to month (as is the case if I were to become a personal trainer), the pay is good but there are no available benefits (as is the case with many of the jobs I've considered), or the pay isn't great but benefits are available. And we're trying to find either something I can do from home so I can watch Avery and rachelle can keep her job, or something where I can match rachelle's current salary and get benefits so that rachelle can either stay home or get part time work. If we find something were rachelle's not working, we'll most likely be moving back to Utah County. Otherwise we'll be staying up here in Ogden so rachelle can keep her job up here. Wish me luck in finding something soon. Because our little guy is coming and he's not going to wait.

Leiter Family

Well, Rachelle warned you all that more sports posts were coming. And she was right. After last night I have learned that my beloved Avalanche will be playing the Detroit Red Wings in the second round of the NHL playoffs, thus rekindling the best rivalry in sports. The Avs looked solid in knocking off Minnesota in round 1 while the Wings stumbled a bit against Nashville, but look to be back on track. This should be an epic series. Both teams currently feature goalies who are playing very well, forwards who are skilled and can score, and defenseman who are big and physical. I predict Avs in 6 but will see how it turns out. Game 1 is tomorrow night. In other news, Rachelle's Spurs look very good. The jazz look like they should advance without troubles, and my Lakers look to take command of their series tonight. And on the diamond, my Cubs are on fire.
Since I normally do this every year but haven't done so yet, here are my picks for the NHl and NBA playoffs as well as MLB regular season.
NBA
Lakers over Nuggets in 5, Hornets over Mavs in 6, Spurs over Suns in 6, Jazz over Rockets in 5
Celtics over Hawks in 4, Sixers over Pistons in 7, Magic over Raptors in 7, Cavs over Wiz in 6
Lakers over Jazz in 6, Spurs over Hornets in 7
Celtics over Cavs in 5, Magic over Sixers in 6
Lakers over Spurs in 7
Celtics over Magic in 7
Lakers over Celtics in 7
NHL (first round are what actually happened)
Wings over Preds in 6, Sharks over Flames in 7, Avs over Wild in 6, Stars over Ducks in 6
Canadians over Bruins in 7, Pens over Sens in 4, Flyers over Caps in 7, Rangers over Devils in 5
Avs over Wings in 6, Sharks over Stars in 6
Canadians over Flyers in 7, Pens over Rangers in 6
Avs over Sharks in 7
Canadians over Pens in 7
Avs over Canadians in 6
MLB
NL West Winner - Diamondbacks
NL Central Winner - Cubs
NL East Winner - Mets
NL Wildcard - Dodgers
AL West Winner - Angels
AL Central Winner - Indians
AL East Winner - Red Sox
AL Wildcard - Tigers
World Series - Cubs over Indians

PS. Due to some recent comments made on one of our previous posts (complaining of too much sports on this blog), I will now be taking requests for future posts. So if there's something you're wanting to know about us. Or there's just something you think it'd be funny to hear about, leave me a comment and I'll see what i can do for you. (I must caution, this offer is good for Chris, but I cannot vouch for Rachelle and whether or not she'll cooperate)

These guys deserve recognition

I just wanted to post this article to bring attention to a little publicized story I came across over the last few days. In case any of you were not aware, hockey player Richard Zednik was playing for the Florida Panthers on Feb. 10th when he was the victim of a freak accident. During the game, his teammate was knocked over and in the process, the players skate nicked Zednik in the throat severing his carotid artery. Zednik immediately knew something was wrong (although he said the cut didn't hurt much at all) and skated over to the team bench while holding his neck. The problem is that his team was playing the Buffalo Sabre's, so the opposing team's medical staff had to work on him. They were quick and efficient in taking care of Zednik and getting him to a local hospital where he was able to have lifesaving surgery. Because the staff was able to work so quickly and efficiently, Zednik is alive and out of the hospital with no lasting effects despite losing 5 pints of blood.
This same medical staff was on hand for the the Buffalo Bills game against the Denver Broncos 5 months earlier. During this game, Bills back up tight end Kevin Everett was on the field for the opening kickoff. As Everett prepared to make a block, he lowered his head and had a helmet to helmet collision with a Bronco player. This collision severed his 3rd and 4th cervical vertebrae. As Everett lay on the field, unable to move, the medical staff sprung into motion. They quickly became aware of the severity of the situation and feared he might have an injury to his spine. So they decided to try a radical new treatment and medically induce a state of hypothermia in Everett. Because of this quick and radical decision, Everett was able to walk into the Bills stadium and be with his teammates for their final game of the season.
Both men faced life threatening injuries which, at the very least, figured to drastically change their lives. And both men were able to walk themselves out of the hospital they were treated in because of the quick actions of one medical staff. It's people like the one's working on that staff who should be touted as role models and hero's. People who had a job, knew what to do, and did it in order to save a life. And I felt that even though it's just one obscure blog out of Utah, someone should give them the credit they deserve. I only wish I knew their names in order to give these people proper credit and respect.

Zednik Everett

Chris as a Father

We forgot to put this in our last post, but if you want to see what Chris will be like as a father, go to the link below. You will not be disappointed.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=17tNCL5sg44

Part 2 (Sports Stories)

Well, here's what we've been up to since April. On May 19, I ran the Ogden City Half marathon. And I really enjoyed it. The course starts up Ogden Canyon and runs around Pine view reservoir and down Ogden Canyon into the city. Most of the course is downhill and the weather was perfect. So much so, that Rachelle and I are planning to assemble a team for the marathon relay next May. So if you'd be interested, let me know. We need 3-4 more people to complete our team. I know the picture shows me finishing at 2 hours 15 minutes, but my actual time (as clocked my my ankle band) was 2 hours 11 minutes.

(Me finishing the half marathon)
Then, a week later Rachelle and I were able to attend a Western Conference Finals game between Utah and San Antonio. Man! I never knew Utah fans had that much venom in them. We heared things ranging from Spurs suck, to get your A** back to Texas, to you wanna fight and see who a better fan? It was funny because, as you can see below, Rachelle was decked out in her Spurs gear. I was wearing a black and white shirt that said adidas, but had no Spurs logo on me anywhere. However, that happened to be game 3 which was the first game in utah. So the arena gave out these horrible power blue shirts which said "True Blue" with a jazz logo on them. So we caught a lot of heat for refusing to put them on. I think the funniest thing about going to the game was that it was the only game Utah won in the series. That brings our total to 7 Spurs-Jazz games attended. And after an 18 game winning streak for SA going into that first game, Utah has won 6 of the 7 we've attended. So Rachelle was campaigning for Utah fans to buy her tickets to game 4, on the basis that she is a back luck charm for the Spurs. Obviously, SA went on to win the NBA championship so she was okay with the loss later on.
(Rachelle at the 2007 Western Finals Game 3)
Finally, what looks like it may be the best part of our season this year; Rachelle, Pk, Amy, Natty, and I went to the Utah vs. UCLA football game on September 15th. The game, which saw the then #11 ranked UCLA team get destroyed 44-6 by the then 0-2 Utes. It was one of the most exciting football games I have ever attended. That beat down dropped UCLA out of the top 25 rankings all together. However, Utah failed to capitalize on that win by getting hammered by UNLV last saturday. Utah has been decimated by injuries this year. And with tough games still remaining at Louisville, TCU, and BYU; and with Wyoming still to come at home 6-7 wins could be tough to come by. But then again, maybe they will rediscover that team which rolled a very good UCLA team when they play the Cardinals, Horned Frogs, Cowboys, and Cougars. And then they could still have a shot at extending their bowl game winning streak (currently second in the nation at 6, behind only Boston College who's at 7 in a row).
(Rachelle and I watching Utah crush UCLA)
And I couldn't leave you without commenting on our fantasy sports league and the current pro-sports leagues. In my April 1 post, I mentioned my predicitons for our basketball our baseball leagues. I was 50% in the basketball leagues. I was right calling Trogdor to win the WCBL, but I gave Rachelle's team too much credit in the "All Cross-Over League" and I beat her to win that league as well. Then, I led the Windy City Billy Goats to the #1 record in the regular season. So what happens? The sleeping Giant that is the Iowa Wifflers sneek in and beat me in the highest scoring game of the season. So he's now battling it out against the Bronx Bombers for the league title while I am playing against the KB Droolers (and loosing quite baddly) for 3rd place. The Fenway Fanatics (one of my pre-season picks) had a tough year and should finish 5th. We're also underway in fantasy football and hockey. I have two teams in each sport. One football team looks to have a long year while the other one looks to be a strong contender. Hockey starts next week so we'll have to see how that plays out.
Speaking of hockey starting, it's my favorite time of the year. Baseball is in the playoff drive, football is getting into full swing (college and pro), and hockey and basketball are getting started. So here are my predictions on what will happen in each of the "big four" sports.
Baseball
Boston (AL East Champs) over Los Angeles (AL West Champs)
Cleveland (AL Central Champs) over New York (Wild Card)
Boston over Cleveland in the ALCS
New York (NL East Champs) over Colorado (Wild Card)
Chicago (NL Central Champs) over Arizona (NL West Champs)
Chicago over New York in the NLCS
Chicago over Boston in the WS: This may be more of wishful thinking. San Diego is just as likely to get the wild card as is Colorado. But I like Chicago's pitching and if they get to the WS, I don't think there's any team that's gonna stop them. (Just like Boston when they won it a few years ago)
Football
DAL (NFC East Champs), Carolina (NFC South Champs), Green Bay (NFC North Champs), San Fransisco (NFC West Champs), Philadelphia (Wild Card), and Minnesota (Wild Card)
Carolina upsetting Dallas in the NFC title game
New England (AFC East Champs), Indianapolis (AFC South Champs), Pittsburgh (AFC North Champs), Denver (AFC West Champs), San Diego (Wild Card), and Baltimore (Wild Card)
New England over Pittsburgh in the AFC title game
New England over Carolina in the Super Bowl
Hockey
San Jose, Detroit, Colorado, Vancouver, Anaheim, Calgary, Minnesota, and St. Louis
Colorado over San Jose in the West
Pittsburgh, Ottawa, Atlanta, New York Rangers, Carolina, New Jersey, Toronto, and Washington
Pittsburgh over Ottawa in the East
Colorado over Pittsburgh in the Stanley Cup Finals
Basketball
Phoenix, Dallas, San Antonio, Denver, Houston, Utah, Los Angeles Lakers, and New Orleans
San Antonio over Dallas in the West
Detroit, Boston, Miami, Cleveland, Chicago, Orlando, New Jersey, and Toronto
Chicago over Detroit in the East
San Antonio over Chicago in the NBA Finals

Finally, an update (or 2)

Yes, I know it has been while since I last posted on my blog here, so now I am going to attempt to atone for that by posting twice on the happenings since then. So this will be a two part posting. The first will be on the fun things we have been doing with our friends and just Rachelle and I. The second will be anything relating to sports which have occurred since April 1.
For the weekend of May 11-13, Rachelle and I decided to celebrate our 3rd anniversary by going to Mesquite and Las Vegas. It was a lot of fun and a well needed retreat from school and work. We spent Friday afternoon and Sunday morning in Mesquite, and all day Saturday in Vegas. It was a lot of fun. We cruised the strip for a while and saw the Mandalay Bay aquarium and the MGM lions. We also did some shopping at the M&M factory, some outlet malls, and at various little shops along the strip. I still think the best part of the trip was escaping the chilly temperatures in Ogden, and enjoying the 100 degree weather in Nevada.
(Rachelle and I across the street from the M&M factory)

On June 18, a strange thing happened. I turned 25! That's right, somehow I made it to 1/4 of a century old! We didn't do a whole lot for my birthday. As always, Rachelle and I went to Red Robin for dinner. And we went to dinner with my family at P.F. Changs in SLC which was fun. But I think that the highlight of the day was the cake Rachelle made for me. She discovered a cake called strawberry fridge cake (which is a white cake with strawberry glaze drizzled down through holes drilled into it and then covered with a white frosting). She made a round one which she decorated to look like a baseball which said Cubs on it. It was awesome!

(My Cubs birthday cake)
Our big thing this summer was to go camping. We tried to go several times, but only managed to get out twice. The first time was the weekend of June 22nd-24th. We went to Monte Cristo campsite (which is about 40 miles east of Ogden) with the Brainards and their friend Dan. It was a lot of fun, but the highlight was definatley the huge bonfire we made. We found a dry stump (probably 2 feet tall and 1 foot wide) which we put into our fire pit and lit up. Despite Rachelle's obvious distaste for it, we certainly attracted the interest of most of our neighboring campers. It was very entertaining. We also camped in a campsite in which the ground squirrels teamed up with the tree squirrels to attack us by stealing food and dropping pine cones on us (We think Dan may have been in on the attacks). The down side to this was that the squirrels were all over the ground and therefore, we had to watch the stupid little dog in the campsite next to us (whose owners weren't watching at all) catch and kill a squirrel. We were all very upset with that, but what can you do?
Our second camping trip of the summer was the weekend of July 22-23. We were at the Ruch's for a BBQ with all of our friends which was very fun (even though Doug or Trines, I forget who, hit me in the face with a wiffleball because when we decided to play, it was too dark to see the ball). Afterwards, we decided it would be fun to go camping. So we packed up our things and drove up AF canyon to the Granite Flats campground. We were lucky enough to find an open site so we set up camp and stayed over night. It was also a lot of fun. The highlight of this trip was probably the huge tent and mattress we were trying out. The mattress was one that Rachelle and I bought shortly after our previous camping trip because we found out that our old mattress had a hole in in. The tent was one that we tried out for the weekend as a test run. We borrowed it from the office manager at the PT clinic I was working at. And it worked out so well, we did decide to buy it.
(The Monte Cristo bonfire)

(Us with the Ruch family at Granite Flats campground)
Finally, the biggest thing for me lately, has been my preparations for my PT school applications. Which are a huge headache to complete. I really hope that I can get accepted to a program, and start this coming summer/fall. But in reality, it'll be very tough and so we'll have to see what happens. For now, my list of possible schools stands at:
Utah
UNLV
University of Colorado @ Denver
A.T. Still University
Washington University of St. Louis
University of Iowa
Pacific University (Oregon)
University of Texas @ San Antonio
University of Texas Southwest @ Dallas
Eastern Washington University (possibly)

Please, see part 2 to see what we've been doing related to sports lately.

MLB & NBA Season Predictions

Here are my annual predictions for how the NBA playoffs and the baseball season will shake out. If you have any discrepancies with my predicitons, well that's tough because it's my blog. Feel free to comment but there's no guarantee I'll change my picks. So here we go. I'll start wiht the NBA playoffs:
West: East:
1-Dallas 1-Detroit
2-San Antonio 2-Cleveland
3-Phoenix 3-Miami
4-Utah 4-Toronto
5-Houston 5-Chicago
6-LA Lakers 6-Washington
7-Denver 7-Orlando
8-Clippers 8-New Jersey
PLAYOFFS (Rnd 1):
W-Dal over LAC, SA over Den, LAL over Phx, Hou over Utah
E-Det over NJ, Orl over Cle, Miami over Was, Chi over Tor
PLAYOFFS (Rnd 2):
W-Dal over Hou, SA over LAL
E-Chi over Det, Miami over Orl
CONFERENCE FINALS:
W-SA over Dal
E-Chi over Miami
NBA FINALS:
SA over Chi (in 5)

And now for my baseball predicitons.
NL East Central West AL East Central West
Mets Cubs Dodgers Red Sox Tigers Angels
Phillies Cardnials D-backs Yankees Indians A's
Braves Brewers Padres Blue Jays White Sox Rangers
Nationals Reds Rockies Devil Rays Twins Mariners
Marlins Astros Giants Orioles Royals
Pirates
PLAYOFFS (Wild Card):
NL-Mets over D-backs, Cubs over Dodgers
AL-Tigers over Red Sox, Angels over Indians
PLAYOFFS (LCS):
NL-Cubs over Mets
AL-Angels over Tigers
WORLD SERIES:
Cubs over Angels in 6 games

So there you have it. That's how the NBA playoffs and MLB seasons will play out. ONce again, feel free to comment on my predicitons, and I'll at least read your comments. And before I go, I need to update you all on the state of fantasy sports I am a part of.

FANTASY:
Congratulations to Kelly Coston, manager of the Ut-Giants in both the Year 2 and Cosmo Kramer football leagues. Kelly quietly had a good season and benefitted from the #1 seed (yes that was me both times) being beaten in the semi-finals of each league, to take the titles.
Conratulations to Team Bryner in the Who's the Best NCAA tournament challenge. Although it's not yet official, Matt is currently sitting with a comfortable lead over the other competetors in the league. And he's the only team with his pick for national champion actually playing in the championship game (Florida).
Honorable mention is due for Alamo City Domination, managed by Rachelle (who is soooooooooooooooooooo hott and wonderful) and Team Ruch, managed by Jason (who's not very hott at all, sorry buddy) for what looks like a 2nd and 3rd place finish respectively and for each getting one of the final 2 teams right.
Good Luck to each of the teams in the Bases Loaded II baseball league. Fenway Fanatics and Bronx Bombers look like the top dawgs, but watch out for sleepers Windy City Billy Goats and Iowa Wifflers, niether of which should be over looked.
And finally, it looks like it will be Trogdor Burninators vs. They call me the Tank in the WCBl finals matching the regular season #1 vs #2. Prediciton: Trogdor 5-3
And in the Cross over Ankle Breakers league, it looks like it'll be O-town Smackdown vs Old School Style, and Alamo City Admirals vs All Crossover in the semis. Predicition: It will be O-town vs Alamo in the finals with Alamo getting revenge for her WCBL loss with a 6-2 win.

So there you have it. The latest O-town ramblings. And I leave you with a random picture of a penguin.

Basketball thoughts

First of all and long overdue, I must congratulate the Dougdale Streakers on their improbable run to the WCBL championship last year. It was a come from behind, surprise win by the team who stayed quite and slowly made his way through his opponents.

However, things have been quite the opposite this year. He has remained thw quite type, but his fortunes have drastically decreased. The same could be said for the fortunes of "The Tank". (Whom, according to the author of "I Get Around" the official information source of the WCBL, we have discovered is actually not a tank but a golf cart) He finished dead last in the WCBL last season. This enabled him to have the #1 pick in this year's draft (which he used to select LeBron James). He has turned it around and after four weeks is sitting at 4-0 and 25 points which ties him for first overall (along with Trogdor Burninators). I know the season is a long one, but in the early going, Trogdor and Tank are looking very tough along with our league commisioner's Alamo City Revenge (who sit at 3-1 and 20 points). I predict that the league will finish with Trogdor winning the Northern U's division followed by Alamo City, KB, and Dougdale (it's a long fall from the top). The Happy Valley Zoobs division will be Tank followed by Midgets, Lobsters, and Celtics. I see the Burninators and Revenge being the toughest outs in the playoffs although, nobody is going to want to play Tank or Lobsters. I predict (of course) that Trogdor will be the WCBL champions. I want that banner!

I also need to vent about the NBA for a bit. Now I understand that the Utah Jazz have the best record in the league, but I'm still not sold on them as a serious contender. I had the chance to see them play the San Antonio Spurs live last night. And the prevailing thought I had coming out of the arena was that the Jazz are a good team, but that the only reason they won the game was because the Spurs had a horrible night more than the Jazz having a solid one (and no, that not just because I am biased against the jazz, that's just the way I saw it) I see the Jazz winning the northwest division by a large margin (the other teams in the division are mediocre at best) and possibly winning a playoff round because they'll have the home court advantage in the first round. But they're not on the level of San Antonio or Dallas. I put them on the second tier along with Phoenix, Lakers, Houston, Clippers, and maybe New Orleans/Ok City. I will give them credit, they beat the team which I feel is the best team in the NBA (when healthy), but I just wasn't impressed. The thing that worries me the most if I'm a Jazz fan is the one dimentional approach that they took in the game. If you stop Carlos Boozer, you will stop the jazz. It's that simple. Having said that, I hope they're losing to my beloved Lakers as I type and that my Lakers knock them out of the playoffs (mostly so I could go to a playoff game and see my lakers play). And the last thing I need to post is a list compiled by my wife after attending the game last night. She calls it the "Top 5 reasons to hate the Jazz":

1-Their fans are so fair weather (outside of a select few, they cheer only when the Jazz are winning). Even their owner is fairweather (he wouldn't even stay in his florr seats because the team has a few down years).

2-The staff at the Delta Center/Energy Solutions Arena/ Nuclear Waste Plant(or whatever it's called now) do not care if they kill the fans leaving the game because they just don't want to scrape or salt the sidewalks.
3-The team is so freak set on giving every player a nickname no matter how stupid it may be (i.e. AK47, Gira, and Memo)

4-They have been running the exact same plays for the last 22 years (or however long Jerry Sloan has been coaching) and even a high school girls could figure out what the game scheme was.

5-The team mascot. What the fetch does a bear have to do with jazz? And why does he think it's funny to brutally mutilate and mame other teams mascots? Last night we were forced to watch the bear run over the San Antonio Coyote with a Cement truck and we found it to be very distasteful.

So there you go. My aimless ramblings for the time being. Until next time I'd like to wish the best of luck to the Kraken (a football team in the Cosmo Kramer fantasy league), and Scarface's Vikes (in Year 2 fantasy league) both of whom are on top of the league and gearing up for the playoffs. I'm looking for a big weekend from both teams who have a chance to clinch their division with a win.

Scarface OUT!

"Marathons"

So I am trying to figure out what's the deal with people paying money to go and run 26.2 miles? Not drive, but run. So I recently went out and participated in one of these events. That's right, I acctually ran 26.2 miles! And let me tell you. I don't know what the craze is. It cost me $50 to run in the 30th St. George Marathon. Now I will admit, I wasn't the most dilligent person in the world when it came to my pre-race training. I did a few runs, but not as many as I should have. Having said that, I felt like this race would be the death of me. You start out by getting up at 4 am and getting on a bus which takes you out to the middle of nowhere. This place is acctually fun because they have flood lights set up everywhere, music blasting (much I'm sure, to the shagrin of the homes located not too far away), fires roaring, and people and port-a-potty's as far as the eye can see. The only bad part about this is that it is October in Utah meaning that the temperature is freaking freezing! I think I heared that it was about 30-something degrees out. So if you weren't standing next to a fire, you froze your you-know-what off. Finally, around 6:45 am they have everyone lineup and prepare to start the race. At the start, you have this little chip which is attached to your shoelaces. They do this so that when you acctually cross the starting line, your personal time is recorded and not the time of those in the front of the line. (I hope that made sense) So then you get going. And I have to say that the first 7 miles of this race felt great. You're running through country and the people who live on the ranches and farms out there acctually get up and come out to the road to watch you run by. But then you come to what I am now going to affectionatley going to call "The Wrecker". The Wrecker is a gigantic hill which the course designers so generously placed in the course between the 7th and 8th mile markers. Now, me knowing that my training was not up to par and that the race was 26.2 miles long, I decided that I was going to walk up this hill in an attepmt to conserve energy. I don't want to say that this was a mistake because attempting to run up this hill would have probably prevented me from finishing the marathon, but this hill destroys people. And not just first timers like myself. It also did quite a number on my father-in-law who was running his 18th consecutive St. George marathon. When we got to the top of that hill, my quad muscles felt as though I had never in my life exercised or stretched them in any way. That was a sign of things to come. From there, I acctually got back into a respectable pace and when I came to the 13 mile mark, I felt good. I also knew that my 1/2 marathon time would be considerably slower than any of the 1/2 marathons I have run, but I was okay with that knowing that I still had to run the same distance. That's when the trouble started. Long story short, by mile 17, I felt as though I could not lift my feet off of the ground. My ankles were throbbing, my knees were throbbing, my hips were aching, and my back was hurting. By mile 19-20, the shuttles which are available to pick up runners and drive them to the end of the race were looking pretty inviting. But I decided that I would be very mad at myself, and probably would force myself to run another one in order to finish, if I did not complete this one. So through a slow but steady combination of walking and foot shuffling which closely resembled running, I made it to the finish line. At this point, I could not feel anything from the waist down, save for m throbbing right knee which I think was the victim of some sort of tear. But the feeling of going thourgh the shute, having some old lady hang a finishers medal around your neck while telling you how great you did, and the thought that I never have to go through that again, is one of the most euphoric moments of my life.

To be honest, a month or two from now, I'll probably be ready to sign up for another marathon which will be accompanied by a stricter training regimine. But for now, I still say that it was the single worst decision I have ever made.

On a more upbeat note, I have to comment on the sports world. How about those Detroit Tigers? It's not every day that I will pull for a team from Detroit (considering that my two most hated teams in all of professional sports reside in Mo-town, the NHL's Red Wings and the NBA's Pistons, and the putrid Lions of the NFL exsist only to pester my Vikings), but any time the horrid Yankees go down, it's a good thing. And now, New York newspapers are reporting that manager Joe Torre is out and the "Hampster" Lou Pinelle is in. How great would that be? Also, the NHL is under way and to all you "experts" who have picked my beloved Avalanche to finish in the bottom half of the western conference this season, I want you to watch an Avs game. Watch the so called "kid" line of Marek Svatos, Woljek Wolski, and Paul Stastny and tell me that the Avs are not set for the future. Those kids can play and are good, solid, two-way players. Look out for the Avs, they are due for a championship.

So until next time, I'll be out there on the ice trying not to kill myself.

"The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year"

In my first ever blog on this site, I want to discuss my favorite time of the year (sports-wise that is). It is this time of the year in which Baseball is kicking into the push for the playoffs, college and pro football are both getting into the swing of things with a few weeks under their belts. Conference and divisional games begin making each game more important. Basketball is gearing up for the pre-season and trainning camps. But most important of all, hockey pre-season games have begun. And the regular season begins Oct. 4th! How can you beat that?

How about the two divisional races in baseball? That's right, only two division's in baseball are realistically still up for grabs. And were it not for a monumental fall from grace by the Mo-town Tigers, we'd only be talking about the Dodgers and Padres beating on eachother for the rights to claim top spot in the NL West. But you have to give it up to the Twins from the Twin Cities. They loose their #2 guy and rookie of the year candidate not once, but twice and still managed to not only hang in the AL Central, but to make a run which see's them 1/2 game out of the top spot and comfortably ahead of the defending champs.. I still see Detroit winning that race, but Minny gets the Wildcard and a matchup that no one wants. Other than that, congratulations are in order for the Mets, who clinched their division for the first time since 1988 and for ending the Braves reign of terror in the NL East. Also, to the (shudder) evil Cards and Yanks who both have quite the strangle hold on their respective divisions. And the A's out in Oakland, who despite losing several key players over the last few years, remain in post season contention. Now it reamins to be seen if they have their, now almost automatic, post season first round exit.

Switching to football, HOW BOUT THEM VIKES!!!!!! 2-0 after beating Washington and Carolina, both of whom are supposed to be playoffs teams in the NFC this year. And the Utes of Utah look to have rebounded from a disapointing first game loss to a better than expected UCLA team two post convincing wins over two teams that they should have. I am prediciting a tight race in the NFC North with the Bears edging the Vikes but both teams making the post-season. And the Utes will win the MWC championship for the second time in three years after knocking of the other two championship threats TCU and BYU in SLC. You heared it hear first. And while I am on the topic anyone see that game between Oregon and Oklahoma last saturday? What a freaking joke! After watching that game, I think I'll go front as an official for the Pac-10. All you have to do is manage through the first three quarters and then, swing calls in favor of the home team if it's a close game and you're set. On the other hand, the requests made by Oklahoma's AD for the game to be expunged from the record books is ludacris as well. The schmucks who vote on the AP and Harris polls just need to keep the screw up's of that game in mind when voting in the rankings. For me, this is just another log on the fire of the argument in favor of a playoff in college football. That way, even if the official is a bone head during the regular season, the best team will win the title.

Finally, hockey (God's great gift from the frozen North) has arrived again and this season looks to be better than ever. All sorts of teams have renued hope for the upcoming season, and the perrenial favorites have reloaded for another run at the most historic trophy in North American sports history. Although, my beloved Avalanche look like they could be in for a struggle this year. They're going to be relying on a lot of youth this year and how they handle the pressure and heat of full time NHL duties will determine how far my Avs go this year.

And finally I want to turn your attention to a story about Tiger Woods posted on fox sports today. Apparently, some Irish tabloids published topless pics and said that they were of tiger's wife under the headline "US Filth". The article supposedly talks about how American women (even though Tiger's wife isn't American) can't keep their clothes on and have no morals, and then goes on to bad mouth almost each of the wives of the American golfers there for the Rider Cup Tournament. First of all, when you think about women going topless on beaches and having less than stellar morals, outside of maybe Las Vegas, the first place that comes to most minds is somewhere in Europe. And secondly, why would anyopne want to light an extra fire under Tiger Woods. He's already the most dominant athlete the sport ever has , and probably ever will have. And he already wins several events on his reputation and namesake alone. Now you've given him even more of a reason to take his frustration out on the golf course. Good call by the editor of that paper. You can hear that conversation now. Editor to writer: Tiger Wodds will be playing against our guys in this tourney on our turf. How can we give him some motivation to play well in this tourney that he doesn't seem to care much for? I know, let's run a smear story about his wife! Writer to editor: Yah, that'll get him going. Both laugh for a few minutes and then head to the local pub to watch the soccer match.

So there you have it. My first post on this site. Let me know what you think and I'll get another post up in a few weeks. Until later, I'm outta here. See ya on the ice!