A great blogger that I follow posted this yesterday, and I have been thinking about it non-stop since then. If you are a sports fan, go read it and then come back here. The rest of this post will make much more sense then. If you’re not a sports fan, you might be bored or disinterested in this entry. Consider yourselves warned.

I, like every other sports fan I know, have quite a few athletes or teams that I dislike irrationally. The Yankees, for instance. I have no real reason not to like them, but I cannot stand them. To the point that I will not touch their logo, if I can possibly help it. Illogical? Yep. So when my desk was COVERED in Yankee gear by a coworker who thought he was funny, I freaked the hell out, and refused to work at my desk until someone had removed everything. I hate the Yankees.

Some other athletes I can’t stand, and the irrational reason why:

Brett Favre – Retire already. You screwed over a team who loved you for years and years, just to bounce around from team to team, landing at the rivals of the organization that you found your fame with. Please just retire now, so you can be in the HOF and be remembered for being a great player, not the ass who can’t decide whether or not to retire.

Michael Vick – I don’t think I need to explain why I hate you. I also hate the Eagles for hiring you, even if it is for a backup position. You went to jail, therefore should no longer be allowed to play professional sports. End of story.

Eli Manning – You make dirt look intelligent. I cannot stand your postgame interviews, as you make my IQ drop with every word you utter. It amazes me that you and Peyton are so frigging different. Are you adopted?

Alex Rodriguez – You’re a cheater. You should not be allowed to play anymore. The fact that you were never punished for your cheating just makes me hate you more.

Manny Ramirez – You’re a cheater. You should not be allowed to play anymore. The fact that you were punished for your cheating does not make me hate you less.

Francisco Rodriguez – You were a great player when you came out in 2002. You helped us win the World Series. Off the mound, you’re a jerk. You’ll sign baseballs and pictures for the Hispanic kids who ask you, but completely ignore any other kid.

Steve Nash – You might be a great basketball player, but PLEASE get a a haircut that makes you look good. When you play you look like you haven’t showered in a month. It’s disgusting. (Please note: Shawn Germain of my beloved Ontario Reign had the same problem last year. This year he cut his hair and he is HOT. It worked!)

Scott Schoenweis – Whiny little bitch. You complained because the Angel management wouldn’t make you a starter. You bad mouthed your team to the press, so they sent you to Chicago to play with those idiots. You’re one of two traded players that I can recall being booed when you came back to Angel Stadium.

AJ Pierzynski – Speaking of Chicago idiots, hello the king of them! As I learned yesterday, not only are you hated around the league by fans and players alike, you’re hated in your own town! Maybe you should be less of an ass both on and off the field.

Sean Avery – You’re just a jerk. A dirty player on the ice, and a big mouth off of it. I didn’t like you when you played for my Kings, and I don’t like you now.

If I sit and think about it long enough, I could probably come up with a bunch more. But it’s time to move on to more positive things. Like searching for new recipes to try! Or sitting on the couch watching an NCIS marathon. Whichever.

The last couple of weeks have been busy for me, and yet every time I sit down to blog, I find myself with nothing of interest to say. So I'm going to fall back on bullet points, and if you want further details, you can go ahead and ask me.

• The dancing class Donald and I signed up for has been a blast. We skipped last week due to exhaustion, but the other classes have been great fun. You rotate partners, so you have to learn to dance with people that might not be as good as you'd like them to be. (See? Wasn't that nice?) Everyone there is really nice, despite some lack of rhythm, memory, or  in some cases, deodorant. When this class ends, I want to try and get into another one.
• I've started a new hobby! I am big on taking pictures of things, and keeping mementos of events, (ticket stubs, cards, parking passes, etc.) but I never have anything to do with them. A couple of my friends are big scrapbookers, but I'd always rejected the idea since I have no creativity. As it turns out, you can copy other people's ideas using your own pictures and paper, and it comes out looking great! So I've started scrapbooking. I took a beginner's class last week, and really enjoyed it. And a friend generously sent me some stickers, vellum phrases, tags, and an album to get started! I'm taking it slow, because it can be REALLY expensive, but I'm enjoying it!
• I also joined the Ontario Reign Booster Club. I've mentioned on multiple occasions that I've become a huge Reign fan, and I thought joining the Booster Club would be a great way to get out and meet new people with the same interests. I'm notoriously shy, but I've been trying hard to get past that. My first step was the small scrapbook class I mentioned, and now I'm jumping into a booster club with both feet. I have no idea what I'll be doing, but it'll be a way to get out and meet people, rather than sit at my computer wishing I had more friends to hang out with.
• Mia got a new vet and I LOVE her. The first thing she did was look at Mia's medical history and get downright pissed off that they (the clinic) had been treating her for 5 years but hadn't figured out what was wrong. In her words it was "unacceptable!" I couldn't agree more. She basically suggested an "overhaul" for Mia. She has all new prescription food, a firm restriction on treats (she can't have ANY), and she got several skin cultures, blood tests, and different shots to help treat the problem. It cost me an arm and a leg, but at least now I have a vet who wants a permanent cure, not just a temporary fix. The best part, in my opinion, is that the vet called me the next day to go over everything she'd done, since she didn't get to see me when I picked Mia up. The previous vet NEVER called me to talk about what happened. In fact, it's something I've complained about to the clinic. They do a whole battery of tests every time I come in, and then I hear absolutely nothing about the results. I go back 3 or 4 months later and lather, rinse, repeat. This time I'm getting answers and I am THRILLED!
• Donald and I have decided to move in together in the next couple of months, so I've been going through my stuff and getting rid of things I just don't need or want. All day yesterday I sorted through boxes and boxes of junk, taking out what was salvageable for Goodwill, and putting the rest in bags for the dumpster. I made 8 trips to the dumpster, and had a full bag of clothes and a box of odds and ends for Goodwill. And I'm only about halfway done with my second bedroom/office/junk storage room.

I think that about covers everything. I feel like I should have so much more to say, but I just don't.

I am a jinx.

I have been to 5 LA Kings hockey games this season. Four of them at Staples Center and one at the Honda Center when they played the Anaheim Ducks. Know how many games the Kings have won while I've been there watching?

None.

Not one single game have they won in my presence. They came close once, losing in a shoot out, but they've never actually won the game. It's almost comical, if you think about it. They've lost 9 games at home this year, and I've been to 44% of them. They've lost 18 games all season, and I've been to almost a third of them. We have tickets to another game in March, and I'm almost afraid to go. They're in last place already, so it's not like they need my assistance in losing!

My jinxiness (yeah, I said it) doesn't limit itself to hockey either. My boy Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts (who I really think should be renamed Peyton Manning and Those Other Guys) lost to the freaking Chargers because I was busy watching a minor league hockey game rather than cheering on the greatest QB in the game (who's jersey I got for Christmas. So VERY cool.). I let them down and they lost. (Thankfully my Steelers crushed the Chargers last weekend. I would have been very close to wrist slitting had the Chargers taken out both of my teams.)

So, rather than thrill you all with the new masthead I've done, I'm going to keep the Steelers theme until they've completed their season. It's bad enough they have me as a fan, I don't want to bring more bad luck to them by beautifying my blog!

A while back I talked about how I was committing myself to being a Steeler fan this football season, and up until today it’s been very easy to do so. However, today my boy Peyton Manning played the Steelers, and while I was dressed out in my borrowed Steeler jersey and hat, I cheered for Peyton the entire time. I couldn’t help it. I did cheer for the Steeler offense when they did something good, since Peyton wasn’t on the field at the time. But since I had a friendly bet with Donald on the outcome of the game, I was relying on the Colts defense to keep the Steelers from scoring. It came down to the very last seconds of the game, but the Colts prevailed, and this happy little guy will be coming my way, compliments of Donald and his losing Steelers, very soon. Go Peyton!

So, yesterday I thought massages were the greatest things on earth. I felt very relaxed afterward, and even though the huge knots in my shoulders were still there, they were significantly smaller. (The massage therapist told me that he’d have needed another 80 minutes to get them out, and that I really need to stress less or come in more often. Don’t I wish!) Today, I’m not so relaxed and happy. My back, from the neck down, feels like one large bruise. It hurts to touch, to lean back on a chair, and to be hugged. I’m sure that it was good to release all the tension locked up in there, and that my muscles are just not used to being untangled, but holy hell, I almost wish I was tense again. At least that pain was bearable.

Donald and I are now the proud owners of Ontario Reign season tickets. This is the first time I’ve been a season ticket holder to ANYTHING, so I am probably more excited than the average person. Last week I wrote about how much fun the game was, and that we were considering getting season tickets. Monday morning I got an e-mail from an account rep at the Reign saying he read my blog, and thanking me for my support, and letting me know of the ticket packages that they had available. To say that I was shocked would be an understatement. He read my blog? I felt freakin’ famous! (Yes, I realize it’s easy to do a search on blogs and find people who are writing about certain stuff, but let me have my moment here.) I figured since we’d been talking about it, and then he contacted me, it was a sign from the hockey ticket gods that we should purchase and purchase now! So we went down to the arena this morning and picked out our seats. We also got a tour of the arena including the VIP clubs and Sky Box area. Erik, our account rep was great (and I’m not just saying that because he might read this), and if you’re interested in tickets, I highly suggest you give him a call. Send me an e-mail if you want the number!

Aside from that fun bit of information, I have nothing else to report. After we got our tickets, we wasted time in Costco, had lunch, and then went looking at models of houses we’ll never be able to afford. I love doing that. Model homes are usually just awesome, and I love seeing how they’re decorated and laid out. I do feel a little bad for the sales reps, since we have zero intention of buying the house (I do not need a brand new house that’s over half a million dollars, when there are 3 or 4 year old houses for sale nearby for one-third of the price of these, thanks). But it’s a fun distraction for a Friday afternoon.

If you have a minor league hockey team in the area, I highly suggest you get tickets and go check them out (provided you like hockey, of course). Last night we went to the Ontario Reign game, and it was GREAT fun! We'd gone to a Los Angeles Kings game last month and had fun, but the Reign game was much better in my opinion. There were only about 5000 people there, out of a 9700 capacity, which made it a little more up close and personal. The seats we had were 8 rows off the ice, and still cost us less for both than one seat in the upper section of the Kings game. Plus, I didn't feel like my extremities were going to suffer from frostbite by the end of the first period. BIG plus.

The team doesn't seem so great (their record is 4-3 and they looked pretty bad in the 2-0 loss last night), but the fans seemed REALLY into the game. During the break after the first period, they had sumo wrestling. Two fans selected from the crowd were dressed up in massive sumo suits, and escorted into the middle of the ice. I wish I'd taken a picture of these guys trying to stay standing while trying to knock each other down, because it's just hysterical.

My favorite part of the game is the fights. It's a little like a NASCAR fan only watching the race to see the accidents, but I can't help it. These guys are hilarious. Halfway through the first period gloves started being thrown and 2 players started circling each other with fists raised. It looked a little like 6 year olds emulating a boxing match. The rule is that the referees won't get involved until the guys hit the ground, so they're free to punch the hell out of each other as long as they remain standing. There were quite a few scuffles between players, which I think played a big part in why I had so much fun. I'm a little sick, I know.

While I love watching baseball, hockey is certainly way more entertaining to go see. Season tickets are pretty inexpensive for this team, so we might just become serious fans!

We spent the weekend in Arizona, and I swear every time I go out there I’m ready to pull up stakes and move. It’s so gorgeous and the people are so nice. Yeah it can get pretty damn hot, but it’s not a huge difference from California. And the housing prices are just amazing. I can buy an 1800 sqft house in AZ for nearly a third of what I pay for my 900 sqft apartment in CA. Remind me again why I shouldn’t move?

We went out there to watch my friend Duke play baseball again this year. Like last year, the team was… not so good. And like last year, it was a lot of fun. This year they got to play a game in Tempe Diablo Stadium, which is the spring training facility of the Anaheim Angels (I won’t call them the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. I just won’t). The only thing greater, in my Angel-obsessed opinion, would be if they got to play at Angel Stadium in Anaheim. Even still, this was pretty damn cool. They had a 9am game on the Angels practice fields, and then the 8pm game was in the stadium. That leaves a whole lot of hours to kill in between. Donald and I hit up the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch, and then spent the next several hours driving around Tempe. We found the biggest Bed Bath & Beyond I’ve ever seen, and miracle of all miracles, I was able to walk out with only one item. Tempe is a lovely city, and even when we got a bit lost driving through it, we had a good time together. The night game at the stadium was great. It was a little colder than I’d prefer, but nothing terrible. Duke’s team got spanked, but I got some great pictures of them, as well as some awesome pictures of the stadium itself (I learned how to take great pictures at night. Yay me!).

We stayed with my friends Tony & Kerry & Jenn, and since they all had to work Saturday, we killed time by driving around the city and casually looking at houses. When we got back, the 5 of us went to a great steak dinner at Firebirds, and then out to the greatest bar/club I’ve ever been to, called Graham Central Station. It had a huge dance floor in the main room that was mostly for line dancing and two stepping. The music was mostly country, with a couple of R&B/Hip-Hop songs mixed in occasionally. In that same room were 6 pool tables, 4 bars, and a mechanical bull. (I did not ride the bull on this trip, but I think I’m going to try it next time!) Off of the main room on one side was a room called South Beach that had R&B and Hip Hop music continually, 2 bars, and also had cages for dancers. On the other side of the main room was a room called Carnival, that had a very eclectic mix of Pop, Rock, and Hip Hop. Between South Beach and Carnival was a Karaoke bar that actually employed 4 people to be constant backup singers to whatever poor drunk soul was attempting to sing. I loved the variety of it all, and the way it was laid out. The speakers in each room were set up so the music didn’t “leak” from room to room, despite the wide open doorways. If you didn’t like the song in the room you were in, it was incredibly easy to go somewhere else. Not like at a regular club where there’s only one option. My favorite part of the place, aside from the variety, werethe waitresses (Tubey Ladies, as I called them) who walked around with test tube racks full of different shots in tubes. Ever since the bar scene from Miss Congeniality, I’ve always wanted to go to a bar that had shots in test tubes, just to try it out. I even kept one of my tubes to take home and compare to a regular sized shot (I contend the tubes have less capacity, but it’s just a theory.) We hung out for around 4 hours, and I danced a good portion of the time. Donald taught me how to two-step, and by the end of the night, I was fairly comfortable with the basics of it. Duke and his buddy showed up (totally not planned) and he and I danced as well. It was such a great time. I was a little bitter when they closed the place at 2 and told us we had to leave. But now I have yet another reason to look forward to going to Arizona for!

Sunday we all woke up late and went out to lunch before Donald and I made the long trip home. All in all it was a great weekend. I can’t wait to do it again!

My Angels are done. They fell to the Boston Red Sox last night and have been eliminated from the playoffs. I pouted for a while last night, and I’m sad today as well. But on my way to work this morning, I stopped to get the mail, and this was in it:

How can you be sad when you’re looking at him?

So, I'm a hardcore Angel fan. This is no secret. However, aside from the 1979 playoffs (when I was all of 5 months old) I've never been to a post season game. I've always wanted to go, but when ticket prices skyrocket from $30 to $110 per seat, I have a hard time with it. (Parking went from $8 per car to $10 per car. I don't get it. It's the same parking lot it was last week when we weren't in the playoffs. Why is it now $2 more for my car to rest upon the asphalt?)

Wednesday night Donald and I went to Game 1 of the ALDS between the Angels and the Red Sox, and I hardly have words to describe what it was like. Intense, electrifying, amazing. None of those seem adequate. When we got there, the place was loud and crazy and the energy was high. The same was true even at the bottom of the 9th inning when we were down by 3 runs. (Yes, we lost. But there are more games to come.) I've just never seen anything like it. Some people were a bit more rude than usual, (I suppose they think the amount of acceptable rudeness is directly related to the ticket price. Lower during the season, higher during playoffs.) but for the most part everyone was there to root on our team and to have a good time.

It was awesome and wonderful to be in a stadium with 44,000 other people who are just as excited about the game as I am. I can't even imagine the energy that we'd have had if we'd won the game. The next playoff game I'll be at will be game 5 of the ALCS, provided that the Angels win the ALDS against the Red Sox. Keep your fingers crossed!

Go Angels!

This past weekend I had my first experience with a fantasy football league draft. It was …interesting. It amazes me the amount of research, energy and concentration that goes into an event that starts with "Fantasy." Like my Twitter said the other day, if that amount of research and energy was applied elsewhere, we'd have world peace and the cure to all cancers. It was funny to watch. Everyone had out magazines, and draft sheets, and schedules, and rosters, and various other odds and ends that they studied intently. If not for the huge draft sheet hung up on the wall (adorned with idiot-proof brightly colored player stickers) you'd think it was a group of older college kids studying for their final exams. There was the paper work, the heads bent in concentration, the occasional exclaim of frustration, and the not so occasional wisecracks being tossed back and forth.

I like football. It's fun to watch, and gives me something to cheer for when baseball is over. But I don't understand the attraction to the fantasy leagues. The girls from the Playboy calendar could have paraded through there in all their naked glory, and no one would have noticed. (To be fair, the men from the Chippendale's calendar could have paraded through as well, but I sure would have noticed and alerted every female within a 5 mile radius.) I'm not knocking the activity, I just don't get it. But I promised to pay attention to Donald's team this season (even if he did let my boy Peyton get picked up by another guy's team) and see if I can finally understand what all the fuss is about.

I won't be holding my breath.