Vacation #2

Ahhhh… lets go back in time here to August 11, 2011.

Our second vacation of the summer, as we went to visit my Aunts house on the Eastern Shore in Nanticoke, MD. Last year I decided to cut myself off from the outside world and just enjoy my time away from e-mail, cell phones, and the world in general. This year I tried to make the same promise but I did not do a great job.

Lisa drove down to Nanticoke with her parents and the boys on Tuesday August 16th, and when her parents left that Thursday I drove ended up joining my wife and kids for the remainder of the weekend.

When I got to their house Thursday night I could immediately tell the new addition was the outdoor pool everyone had been playing in all week long.





So as much fun as the pool was the new big thing for Jack this year was the golf cart. At one point he had woken up badly from a nap and was crying uncontrollably and to get him to stop he was asked if he wanted a ride in the golf cart. Jack immediately stopped crying and ran to the garage that housed the golf cart.




It was a fun weekend. The weather really prevented us from going out on the boat but we were able to do some fishing and Lisa ate crabs on Thursday before I arrived. We can not wait to do the trip again next year.

NFL Playoff predictions

So the NFL season is more than half way done and the playoff picture is becoming a little clearer. Through 9 weeks and 1 game this season the playoffs look like this (according to ESPN)

NFC
1. Green Bay Packer (NFC North Champions)
2. San Francisco 49ers (NFC West Champions)
3. New York Giants (NFC East Champions)
4. New Orleans Saints (NFC South Champions)
5. Detroit Lions
6. Chicago Bears

AFC
1. Cincinnati Bengals (AFC North Champions)
2. Houston Texans (AFC South Champions)
3. New England Patriots (AFC East Champions)
4. Oakland Raiders (AFC West Champions)
5. Baltimore Ravens
6. Pittsburgh Steelers

So looking at my prediction back before the season started all of the teams except the Colts and the Rams have a shot at making the playoffs. As it turned out the Colts and the Rams turned out to be two of the worst teams in the NFL this season…. But hey the Ravens beat the Rams 37 to 7 while the Rams turned around and beat the Saints 31 to 21.
(Yes Tony that’s a dig at you)


Anyway my friend, Matt (also probably one of three people who actually check and read this blog) decided to do our a little more than midway NFL Playoff Predictions. Now at the time of this blog week 10 has already started and the Raiders have beaten the Chargers. Matt and I made these predictions on Monday November 7th.

Since it is my blog I will put my predictions first.

NFC
1. Green Bay Packers (NFC North Champions)
2. New Orleans Saints (NFC South Champions)
3. San Francisco 49ers (NFC West Champions)
4. New York Giants (NFC East Champions)
5. Detroit Lions
6. Philadelphia Eagles

AFC
1. Houston Texans (AFC South Champions)
2. New England Patriots (AFC East Champions)
3. Baltimore Ravens (AFC North Champions)
4. San Diego Chargers (AFC West Champions)
5. Pittsburgh Steelers
6. New York Jets

NFC Wild Card Games
Philadelphia Eagles over the San Francisco 49ers
Detroit Lions over the New York Giants

AFC Wild Card Games
Baltimore Ravens over the New York Jets
Pittsburgh Steelers over the San Diego Chargers

NFC Divisional Games
Green Bay Packers over the Philadelphia Eagles
New Orleans Saints over the Detroit Lions

AFC Divisional Games
Houston Texans over the Pittsburgh Steelers
Baltimore Ravens over the New England Patriots

NFC Championship
Green Bay Packers over the New Orleans Saints

AFC Championship
Baltimore Ravens over the Houston Texans


The Baltimore Ravens over the Green Bay Packers



Now to be fair yes my pick is a complete homer pick. And I do think the Green Bay Packers are the very best team in football. I would love for the team to go 19-0 too. But for me to have the Ravens in the Superbowl and not pick them and defend them… well I just could not justify my fandom if I did.

Now on to Matt’s predictions for the playoffs

NFC
1. Green Bay Packers (NFC North Champions)
2. San Francisco 49ers (NFC West Champions)
3. New Orleans Saints (NFC South Champions)
4. New York Giants (NFC East Champions)
5. Detroit Lions
6. Philadelphia Eagles

AFC
1. Baltimore Ravens (AFC North Champions)
2. Houston Texans (AFC South Champions)
3. New England Patriots (AFC East Champions)
4. Denver Broncos (AFC West Champions)
5. New York Jets
6. Pittsburgh Steelers

NFC Wild Card Games
Philadelphia Eagles over the New Orleans Saints
New York Giants over the Detroit Lions

AFC Wild Card Games
New York Jets over the Denver Broncos
Pittsburgh Steelers over the New England Patriots

NFC Divisional Games
Green Bay Packers over the Philadelphia Eagles
New York Giants over the San Francisco 49ers

AFC Divisional Games
Pittsburgh Steelers over the Baltimore Ravens
New York Jets over the Houston Texans

NFC Championship
Green Bay Packers over the New York Giants

AFC Championship
New York Jets over the Pittsburgh Steelers


Green Bay Packers over the New York Jets



The funny thing about predictions and the NFL is that we are both pretty sure we have it wrong. But it sure is fun to predict it all.

Clark Kent & Lois Lane ; Little Wonders (Superman/Smallville)

So every once and a while I get into my "Superman" kick. As I am watching the original Superman movie today I found the below video on you tube about Superman and Lois Lane.

I married a local celebrity?

So yesterday I get a text message from Lisa that WBAL-TV was at St. Pius X school today to see how the school’s Montessori program is doing. The school took video of the students and wanted to speak to a parent. Well since Lex is a student in the program Tim Tooten interviewed Lisa for the story.

Local Catholic School Adopts Montessori Style - Video - WBAL Baltimore

Now Lex was in the corner and was not seen on TV but it was still fun for him to see mommy and his teacher on TV.

2011 NFL Predictions

AFC East Team W L T
New England Patriots 13 3 0
New York Jets 12 4 0
Buffalo Bills 4 12 0
Miami Dolphins 4 12 0

AFC North Team W L T
Pittsburgh Steelers 13 3 0
Baltimore Ravens 12 4 0
Cleveland Browns 4 12 0
Cincinnati Bengals 3 13 0

AFC South Team W L T
Indianapolis Colts 10 6 0
Houston Texans 9 7 0
Tennessee Titans 9 7 0
Jacksonville Jaguars 2 14 0

AFC West Team W L T
San Diego Chargers 11 5 0
Kansas City Chiefs 6 10 0
Denver Broncos 5 11 0
Oakland Raiders 4 12 0

National Football Conference - 2011 Regular Season
NFC East Team W L T
Philadelphia Eagles 13 3 0
Dallas Cowboys 11 5 0
New York Giants 7 9 0
Washington Redskins 6 10 0

NFC North Team W L T
Green Bay Packers 11 4 0
Chicago Bears 10 6 0
Detroit Lions 9 7 0
Minnesota Vikings 4 12 0

NFC South Team W L T
New Orleans Saints 13 3 0
Atlanta Falcons 12 4 0
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 11 5 0
Carolina Panthers 3 13 0

NFC West Team W L T
St. Louis Rams 10 6 0
Arizona Cardinals 7 9 0
Seattle Seahawks 6 10 0
San Francisco 49ers 2 14 0

AFC Playoffs
1 New England Patriots 13 3
2 Pittsburgh Steelers 13 3
3 San Diego Chargers 11 5
4 Indianapolis Colts 10 6
5 Baltimore Ravens 12 4
6 New York Jets 12 4

NFC Playoffs
1 New Orleans Saints 13 3
2 Philadelphia Eagles 13 3
3 Green Bay Packers 11 4
4 St. Louis Rams 10 6
5 Atlanta Flacons 12 4
6 Dallas Cowboys 11 5


AFC Wild Card Games
New York Jets @ San Diego Chargers
Baltimore Ravens @ Indianapolis Colts

NFC Wild Card Games
Dallas Cowboys @ Green Bay Packers
Atlanta Flacons @ St. Louis Rams

AFC Divisional Games
New York Jets @ New England Patriots
Baltimore Ravens @ Pittsburgh Steelers

NFC Divisional Games
Green Bay Packers @ Philadelphia Eagles
Atlanta Falcons @ New Orleans Saints

AFC Championship
Baltimore Ravens @ New England Patriots

NFC Championship
Atlanta Falcons @ Green Bay Packers

Superbowl
New England Patriots vs. Atlanta Falcons

NFL Superbowl Champions
New England Patriots

League MVP- Tom Brady
Offensive MVP - Michael Vick
Defensive MVP - Jerod Mayo
Rookie of the Year - Julio Jones
Coach of the Year - Jim Caldwell

NFL is Back

THANK YOU BABY JEBUS!!!!!!!!!!!

FOOTBALL IS BACK and it starts tonight.

I have finished my three fantasy football drafts, and already picked my survivor team. I am ready to sit in front of my TV all night tonight and all day Sunday and do nothing but watch football.

Tonight we get the defending Superbowl Champions the Green Bay Packers vs. the New Orleans Saints. I have no idea and actually do not even care who wins this game but what a great game to start the season with. The last two defending champions, who I have predicted will both be in the playoffs at the end of the season.

My next post I will give my prediction for the season. Including the win and loss totals for every team and of course the Playoffs. However, if you look at my baseball prediction I clearly do not have a clue as to what I am talking about.

The Ravens have a tough first 4 weeks including games against Pittsburgh and the New York Jets but overall I think their schedule is going to favor them most weeks. I love the Ravens Offensive Line this season and with Vonta Leach being signed I expect Ray Rice to have an amazing season. I am not sure about the defense as I do not think they are going to be as dominating as they have been in the past but they will still be good. This is going to be a fun season especially for Ravens fans. I am also excited to see the Philadelphia Eagles play this year too. The Eagles seemed to make all the moves with the name free agents this off season.

I am in three Fantasy Football Leagues this season. My first draft was on August 28 and is a keeper Fantasy League. In this league I finished in 7th place the previous season and actually made a trade for Michael Vick which ended up being vetoed by the time of the draft. I had the 8th pick overall in the draft and my team looks like…

-21 Matt Schaub (HOU - QB) Keeper
-120 Josh Freeman (TB - QB) Round 3
-8 Michael Turner (Atl - RB) Keeper
-105 Fred Jackson (Buf - RB) Round 2
-316 Tashard Choice (Dal - RB) Round 17
-161 Dexter McCluster (KC - WR,RB) Round 6
-36 Reggie Wayne (Ind - WR) Keeper
-49 Dwayne Bowe (KC - WR) Keeper
-92 Dez Bryant (Dal - WR) Round 1
-133 Malcom Floyd (SD - WR) Round 4
-245 Joshua Cribbs (Cle - WR) Round 12
-273 Jordy Nelson (GB - WR) Round 14
-301 Anthony Armstrong (Was - WR) Round 16
-204 Rob Gronkowski (NE - TE) Round 9
-344 Ryan Succop (KC - K) Round 19
-176 Ndamukong Suh (Det - DT) Round 7
-189 Julius Peppers (Chi - DE) Round 8
-217 Charles Johnson (Car - DE) Round 10
-64 Jerod Mayo (NE - LB) Keeper
-148 Jon Beason (Car - LB) Round 5
-288 Terrell Suggs (Bal - LB) Round 15
-232 Bryant McFadden (Pit - CB) Round 11
-329 Asante Samuel (Phi - CB) Round 18
-77 Eric Berry (KC - S) Keeper
-260 Patrick Chung (NE - S) Round 13

This team is pretty good. I had actually worked out a trade in the off season to get Michael Vick, but the commissioner vetoes the deal at the last minute. I was upset but it seems to have worked out so far.

My next draft was with my fraternity brothers. I am the commissionaire of the league and I try to be as dirty as I can (Just kidding but that does not prevent everyone from thinking that).This league is a PPR league and I had the number 1 draft pick overall. Now what I find interesting is I never expected to have the number 1 draft pick. So I ended up rating Michael Vick number 1. I was listening to Matthew Berry of ESPN and was sold on Vick as a number 1 player overall. However, when the draft started I could not do it and ended up drafting Adrian Peterson from Minnesota as the top pick.

-72 Josh Freeman (TB - QB) Round 6
-97 Sam Bradford (Stl - QB) Round 9
-1 Adrian Peterson (Min -RB) Round 1
-49 Fred Jackson (Buf - RB) Round 5
-25 Peyton Hillis (Cle - RB) Round 3
-169 LaRod Stephens-Howling (Ari - RB) Round 15
-192 Dexter McCluster (KC - RB) Round 16
-24 Greg Jennings (GB - WR) Round 2
-48 Dez Bryant (Dal - WR) Round 4
-96 Steve Smith (Car - WR) Round 8
-120 Johnny Knox (Chi -WR) Round 10
-145 Robert Meachem (NO -WR) Round 13
-73 Brandon Pettigrew (Det - TE) Round 7
-144 Zach Miller (Sea - TE) Round 12
-121 Chicago (Chi -Def) Round 11
-168 Detroit (Det - Def) Round 14
-193 Billy Cundiff (Bal - K) Round 17

Overall I really like this team. I was sniped once during this draft and Tom Brady went with the second to last pick of the second round. But besides that I felt my draft was excellent. This team should compete on game days.

And finally there is my league that I have the live draft every year. This league is fun and when we have the draft everyone has a good time. But honestly I hate setting this up. I spend too much time making sure everything is correct by players drafted and it’s hard to focus on my draft and team. Not to mention EVERY year it seems like it is impossible to get everyone in one place at one time for the draft. Last year took the cake when two people just completely forgot about the draft and did not even show. Truthfully I almost did not do the league this year because I am really sick and tired of the problems with draft day. I almost made it a free league and was just going to tell people to draft on line. This league is the only one I am in for money and it was an auction draft. Basically you can get any player you want but you have to be willing to spend the money. The Salary cap was set at $400 and this league is another points per reception league.

Michael Vick (Phi - QB) $80
Peyton Manning (Ind - QB) $45
Maurice Jones-Drew (Jac - RB) $75
Frank Gore (SF - RB) $55
Ryan Grant (GB - RB) $20
Daniel Thomas (Mia - RB) $13
LaDainian Tomlinson (NYJ - RB) $8
Willis McGahee (Den - RB) $4
Delone Carter (Ind - RB) $4
Mario Manningham (NYG - WR) $30
Mike Sims-Walker (StL - WR) $14
Braylon Edwards (SF - WR) $20
Deion Branch (NE - WR) $7
Anthony Armstrong (Was - WR) $1
Zach Miller (Sea - TE) $9
Jared Cook (Ten - TE) $4
Josh Brown (StL - K) $1
Detroit (Det - DEF) $10

I started too really like this team as I was drafting. I was thrilled to have Vick and Manning until 2 days after the draft the Colts announce Manning is having maybe season ending back surgery. My Running Backs are not bad at all but Wide Receivers are horrible. I cringe every time I look at my wide receivers. I know what I did wrong and I was too patient for the position when I should have spent money to get a star. I have a feeling I will not be walking away with the championship this season.

In the end it will be a fun season and I can not wait until Thursday night for the Packers and Saints. Go Packers!!!!!!!

The week that was

Okay, I know I now suck at blogging. I apologize for the handful of people who actually read this who actually care when and if I update the blog. Without having the hotel job to occupy my time I find it harder to sit down and actually put my thoughts down to share with the world. I owe you at least two movie reviews, vacation photos, my NFL football predictions, and talk of my Fantasy Football teams. So please forgive me and I will try to keep the blog better updated.

So last week was an extremely interesting week…

The fun started on Tuesday August 23, 2011 at 1:51pm. I had just gotten back from lunch and was chatting with one of my co workers. I remember turning to type something on my computer when I felt everything shake. I asked out loud if “we were shaking” and someone said yes I feel that too. I was about to utter the words, “Was that an earthquake” when earth moved below us. I had officially experienced my first earthquake. Looking back the next few moments were pretty funny. The girl I was just talking to immediately went into the doorway outside of my desk, while I grabbed my cell phone, I-Pod and keys. As I was going to the same doorway we our VP doing his best Michael Scott impersonation running out of the building yelling “Get out” That was all I needed to hear and I ran outside like everyone else in the building. For me, that moment was such a scary and surreal experience. My adrenalin was pumping and I could not stay focused when it was time to get back to work. I immediately called my family to make sure everyone was okay (thankfully they were). The USGS said the earthquake was a 5.8 that the epicenter was in Mineral, VA. I cannot imagine what the 9.0 felt like in Japan back in March. The East coast did become the laughing stock for the west coast (I am going to laugh and post pictures the next time the West Coast has an ice storm). Thankfully us east coasters do have our own sense of humor about the Earthquake…



Thankfully, everyone was okay and we had no damage done to our house.

So on Wednesday we took Lex to GBMC hospital to get his tonsils and adenoids taken out. This was a rough day for me. I know the surgery is routine but it was knowing that it was my boy that needed to be put under anesthesia really sucked for me. I knew the worst thing I could do was let him see how worried I was that he was going to have surgery so Lisa and I really built up how exciting this was for him to be getting his tonsils and adenoids out, and even planned a night out with him on Tuesday. However, he fell asleep on the way home and we never got to take him to dinner or a movie. His surgery was scheduled for 7:30am and we were told to be there by 6am. They told us one of us could go back with him when it was time so he could be put under the anesthesia and Lex picked me. So at 7:30 Lex and I start to walk back to the operating room when he saw that Lisa was not around. He then told me he wanted his mommy which we had to tell him it was too late since he already picked me but I told him mommy would be there when he woke up. The next part was really, really hard to be a part of. Lex saw the operating room and immediately knew something wasn’t right. He had this big frown on his face and was really scared. The doctors and nurses really did all they could to make him comfortable but in the end I had to hold Lex down and watch him scream and cry for me as they put the mask on him to make him sleep. Even as I type this I am fighting back tears thinking of that image of Lex. The surgery lasted maybe 25 minutes, and everything went fine. Then the second hardest part was when they took us back to the recovery room seeing how much pain he was in. Poor Lex was just miserable. But they discharged us from the hospital around 11:45 and we were home with him by 12:30.

When we got home Lex hospital pain medicine was working in full effect. He was acting like everything was fine. We even let his girlfriend Kaelyn come over to spend some time with him but I could see around 6pm everything started to wear off and he became miserable. He was refusing to take any of his pain medicine or antibiotic and he ended up falling to sleep around 7:30 that night. I was going to be home with him all day on Thursday and I promised Lisa I would get him to take both medicines no matter what.

On Thursday around 11am his “older” girlfriend Ri Ri came over with her brother and mother. As soon as she walked in Lex told them he would take his medicine for them. The antibiotic taste just like bubble gum but the pain killer actually taste pretty horrible and he has not taken that knowingly since (Yes I have put it in his drinks).

As of today Lex is doing a whole lot better but he still is in some pain. Each day that goes by you can see him improve and hopefully his voice will be back to normal soon.

Now everyone knew that Hurricane Irene was on its way, and I received a phone call from a friend of mine who basically scared the crap out of me about information he was given about the hurricane. So after I scared my family with the same information we did everything we could to be prepared for the storm on Saturday. The rain started around 11am and the family just did everything we could to make ourselves comfortable and ride out the storm. I was constantly checking Facebook and Twitter to see what was happening with other people. I became a little worried when I saw how many people had their basement flood and their roof’s leak. We were once again incredibly lucky that we didn’t lose power and had no damage from the storm. We had one worry area where our neighbors roof spits out water into our garden so we put a giant trash can there to catch the water. I ended up dumping the water from there at least three times. I ended up going to bed around 1am and just hoped for the best. When I woke up on Sunday the rain was gone, we had power, and no damage. I was relieved.

Over all it was a very eventful week that I really am glad is over. I thank my lucky stars that everything worked out for me and the family.