Last Weekend of March

Greetings from sunny California!

Yes, that's right, I am currently sitting outside my back yard with my shirt off working on my tan. This needs to be done because I'm in an office all day, and I am VERY white. It's actually kind of gross, but hopefully this sun will help things out.

Anyway another weekend is in the books. Nothing too crazy happened. Saturday we biked up to Zott's, up in the hills which is about a 9 mile bike ride. We do this a few times a year and it's really fun. The ride up there is really hard, especially because none of us bike regularly, but when we get there it's beer time. We'll get burgers for lunch but there's always a few pitchers of Sierra Nevada which tastes so good after that bike ride.

Jimmy was in town and he joined us up there, Thomas, Bryan and I did the ride, but Jimmy drove to meet us. Jamie and Megan also drove up there to meet us so we had a good little group. It was fun.

After lunch we biked back home and showered. Then met up back at Bryan's to watch a movie and continue with the beer drinking. We watched that new movie, Sex Drive, mostly because the main character, Josh Zuckerman, went to middle school with us, so we wanted to check out the movie. It was actually pretty funny. We all liked it a lot. I think it helped that we were drinking throughout the movie, but either way it was good times.

After the movie wwe just played some drinking games and Bryan's mom joined us, which was fun. We had some dinner and then around 9:30 decided to walk downtown to 1st and Main to meet up with Jimmy and have some more beers. That was fun as well and then I just walked home.

So nothing too crazy, like I said before. Now it's just another week of work until Thursday night and I'm off to VEGAS BABY! So excited about that. I haven't been to Vegas in a couple years so it's definitely time to scratch the itch.

I'm sure I'll have a hell of a story for next week, but maybe now considering the Vegas motto. So we'll see.

Anyway I hope you are doing well. Enjoy the sun!

The New (few months old) Bond

Hey Everybody,

I know I've been MIA lately on the blog, my bad, it's been a really busy week for me. Last weekend not too much happened, so instead I'll share my thoughts about Quantum of Solace. I saw it in the theater when it came out in November, and hated it. Terrible movie. It just came out on dvd the other day and figured since I have Netflix, I'd check it out again just to make sure my initial thoughts were correct, or in fact I was mistaken.

Terrible movie.

Ok, I shouldn't say terrible movie, because as a movie it's really not that bad. It has good scenes, good fighting, shooting, chases, etc. As a Bond lover, it sucks. Let me explain.

First off, before everybody says anything, I do like Daniel Craig as Bond. I think he's a very good Bond.

1. No opening to the movie with the white ball (barrel) strolling across the screen from left to right and Bond walking back to the left, then shooting down the barrel and blood streaming down. That didn't happen until the end credits. Why? First of all it should have been at the beginning, it wasn't in Casino Royal either and it also bothered me then. So they put it in the end, but what's the point? If you're going to have it at all, put it in the beginning as usual, the end is just stupid.
-Yes, I understand they are trying to "remake" the Bond franchise, but doing so with the movies is understandable, this part of the Bond movies has nothing to do with the actual movie, it's just a Bond staple, and there's no reason to get rid of it.
-The best explanation I have heard about this was randomly tonight from Bryan, who said that they were introducing Bond with these 2 new movies, and he wasn't really "Bond" as everybody knows him until the end of this 2nd one. Now he's gotten over the chick, and ready to just be a badass. So ok, it's at the end, I can get over this if in fact the next one has it, and is more of a traditional Bond, which leads me into point #2.

2. Why are they reinventing Bond? Was Bond bad? Last I heard the series had been around for 40+ years and it has tons of fans. Bond is a classic movie where you know exactly what is going to happen, but it's always thrilling and entertaining. You know he's going to get the girl, get captured, have the entire plan laid out for him by the bad guy, and then he saves the world. Every single Bond movie is like that and that's what's great about it. These new movies are like the Bourne movies, but without Bourne. Bourne is awesome cause he kicks everybody's ass. Bond was more "spy" and more "sophisticated" type that drank martini's and wore tux's. I think they should have stuck to what the "Bond" films are.

3. Quick Points:
-No Q - What's the point of not having him? He's awesome, it's like Alfred in Batman movies.
-Bond didn't get the girl - complete bullshit
-No Bond theme song - yeah that's right, nowhere in the movie did they play any of the Bond theme songs
-No "martini, shaken, not stirred" - stupid Vesper drink is taking over - not cool with that

-He never says "Bond, James Bond"

-He doesn't gamble in this one - usually along the way Bond is seen in some sort of social setting where he wins a ton of money from somebody, so easily and skillfully, but that doesn't happen in this one.  Don't even get me started on playing Texas Hold 'em in Casino Royal, that was absolute crap, should have been Baccarat, but that's the older Bond so I won't mention it too much here.  Anyway, he should have gambled at some point in this movie.

4. The entire plot of this movie, somebody buying up all the water in Bolivia and then charging the government twice what they were paying before in order to make money....Ok, two things. First, this happened in real life. And the guy got away with it. It's true, right now in South America, it might not be Bolivia, but one of those countries, a private sector owns the water, and is making a fortune with it. Bond movies are supposed to have rediculous plot lines like nuking a country, or stealing all the gold from Fort Knox, not something that has actually happened. Secondly, who cares about Bolivia? Really? This actually did happen, you know who cared about it? Nobody.

Ok, enough ranting about this dumb movie. I guess I just don't like it mostly because I grew up on Bond films. I've seen them all, own most of them, and love them. It's a great series. Yes there are some bad Bond films, but I'm just more of at traditional Bond fan. And yes, Connery is and will always be Bond, not even a question.

Things I liked about this movie:
- They're reintroducing SPECTRE, which is now called QUANTUM, but that's ok, SPECTRE was a sweet bad guy in the old Bond movies, so I like how they're going back to this
- Felix is awesome, he was cool in the old movies as well, so I'm glad they brought him back

Ok I think that's it for now. I can't think of much more. If I do, I'll come back and add to this, but feel free to leave your comments or questions if you'd like. This is just my opinion of course.

*For the record - my favorite Bond film of all time is "You Only Live Twice"

Hope you all are doing well.

Cheers!

Spring Training Weekend

Sorry everybody, i forgot to post my blog about last weekend. This will be a short one since I'm sure none of you actually care....

Weekend was awesome. Went down to Spring Training with Erik, Bryan and Jamie. Much smaller group than normal, but just as much fun. Went to the casino, got cleaned out. Went to happy hour, drank some Mai Tai's that were delicious. Then PF Changs for dinner, good times. Bryan wa struggling but made it by. Myst that night, it's a nightclub, Jamie's friend hooked us up with a VIP status, good times but could have been way better.

Next day - recovered, went to the Giants baseball game. Met these sweet old guys sitting behind us and were hanging out with them for awhile.....found out they were also from Los Altos, small world. Then just hung out that afternoon until dinner at Saddle Ranch. Pretty fun. From there we went back to Myst, our buddy there hooked us up with an even better VIP place. Not just a table, but our own room with a balcony overlooking the dance floor. That was pretty cool. Bryan met this chick in a bachelorette party that was identical to Natalie Portman. He liked that a lot, but nothing happened at the end. Oh well. Otherwise a great time.

The next morning sucked. We were all super hungover and had to catch an early flight, 9am to be exact. Erik had confusion on his flight, which was all my fault, but basically he missed his, and ended up sitting at the airport for 5 hours until he could catch another, in which case he didn't get back to DC until late that night. I felt really bad for him. Meanwhile, Bryan and I made it home safely and I spend the rest of the afternoon on the couch. It was nice.

So that's it from the weekend, nothing too special came out of it, but overall a good time.

This weekend coming up who knows. Maybe some day drinking at Zott's on Saturday, but I have a feeling Friday night will be pretty quiet and low key, which is a good thing now and then.

Alright that's it for me. I love you all.

Work Friends and Erik's Home for Spring Break

Greetings!

It's Monday, the day after daylight savings, and every year it bothers me. Not the time change, that's fine, it's the people that can't handle it. "OH MY GOD I HAVE TO WAKE UP AN HOUR EARLIER!!!" Relax. It's really not the end of the world. It's an hour, deal with it....And then you get these people on Monday who ask what time you woke up today, and I reply "6am" or whatever, then they proceed to say, "the new 6 or the old 6?" Jesus, I don't know, I woke up and my clock said 6. Since I'm a normal human being and change my clocks the day of (which is Sunday), I guess that means I woke up at the "new 6." Alright, enough ranting about people....

So last week I was thrown into a training class Monday morning since my boss had to change his schedule. It was a bit last minute, but luckily I was able to shift my schedule around in order to make it work, and it turned out to be awesome. The class in itself was just alright. I learned some stuff and shared some laughs with some people throughout the days, but whatever, I have come to expect that with training classes. The cool part was the people I met in the class, Jason, Pierre and Katrina. They were all very cool people.

So throughout the week we kind of befriended each other and talked during breaks and stuff, pretty standard. However, on Thursday, they were planning on driving up to Muir Woods after class and then checking out San Francisco since some of them had never been. They invited me to go along with them which was definitely the right decision. Luckily we got out of our class earlier than expected....just a little after noon, so we had plenty of time to enjoy the rest of the day. As I drove up north with them in the car, I tried to point out the "landmarks" of the west side of the bay area. These included Apple Headquarters, The Linear Accelerator, and of course, the "Flintstone House." Anyway we stopped just over the Golden Gate to take some pictures and stuff, but then kept on heading north until we got to Muir Woods, which is just about 15 minutes farther, so it wasn't too bad at all.

The woods were really cool. It was cold and damp, mostly because it had been raining that morning, but also because we were literally in the middle of a forest and the sunlight didn't reach the ground too often. It was pretty cool though, we walked a few miles on some trails and had some good talks. Everybody was keeping an eye out for an Ewok, but unfortunately we didn't find any....they must have been hiding. Katrina had a bit of a problem with staying on the trail...she was really excited to go stand next to the big stumps and things, which was actually really funny, and honestly nobody cared she was off the trail.

So when we finished up there we headed back across the Golden Gate and into San Francisco. We drove by the Palace of Fine Arts which everybody seems to be in awe of, but I just know if from a scene in The Rock. I don't know what else is special about it, but again I'm not a very "artsy" guy. Anyway we drove down Lombard Street, not on request, I just thought they'd like to do that, and then headed to Union Square. I took them up the glass elevators in the St. Francis hotel which of course scared me to death. I love those things but I am deathly afraid of heights. So when we made it back down to the safety of the ground, we walked around the corner and found a place to eat dinner. Pierre enjoyed a Guinness while I had a simple Sierra Nevada, and then Katrina and I split a bottle of white wine. Jason drove us home afterwards.

The car ride home was pretty fun. Had some good laughs and shared some stories. Then while we were on the way to my house (they were dropping me off), I asked if they were up for having a beer or two at The BW, otherwise known as The Boardwalk. Of course they agreed and we headed there. I taught them what a "Peanut Race" was and they fell in love with that. It was really a fun time. Pierre offered to drive from there and I'm pretty sure Katrina's exact words were, "Let's get wasted!" Anyway a few pitchers of Anchor Steam later, and multiple peanut races, we were all definitely under the influence. It was time to head out so they dropped me off and I said my goodbyes. I don't know when I'll be seeing them again but I hope it's sooner than later, they are all very good people. For reference: Katrina and Jason work at BAE in Johnson City, NY and Pierre is in Rockville, MD.

The rest of the weekend I will recap quickly - Friday I worked, got off early afternoon, ran errands with my brother (who is home for spring break) and then just hung out that night. Made a cameo appearance at 1st and Main that night, then went home - Saturday was more errands, and it was beautiful weather so we walked to the high school and played catch with a baseball, football, and then a little frisbee. Thomas and Bryan were with us too. Went home from there and had a beer or two, Dad got home from his baseball game and took us to 1st and Main for another beer, then came home and bbq'd dinner, played drinking games afterwards and had a good night, fell asleep watching Tremors which is always awesome - Sunday was pretty lazy, after sleeping in of course we bbq'd hot dogs for lunch and watched Body of Lies, not bad, but nothing spectacular, then cleaned out the garage which wasn't very fun but at least the jeep is able to be driven again, plus I'm ready for good weather so I can drive it around. After that just hung out a bit, then went to dinner with my dad's old police partner and his family, then called it a night.

Great times last Thursday. I guess I probably should've blogged on Friday so this one wouldn't be so long but oh well. The weekend was pretty regular, nothing too crazy happened. It was great weather though and I'm really looking forward to the summertime. Just 4 days and I'll be in Scottsdale for Spring Training so luckily I don't have to wait too long for warmth and baseball.

See you all soon.

Bryan's Birthday Weekend

Greetings!

Another weekend has passed and it's time for the summary. First off let me tell you, it wasn't nearly as crazy as I thought it was going to be. That's not necessarily a bad thing though...

On Friday we all got out of work early and headed up to the cabin, it was Bryan, Andrew and myself. Thomas and Katie were in the second car about 20 minutes behind us. We made it up there with no problems, and actually had to walk up the driveway. There was still enough snow that we couldn't drive without doing a bit of shoveling first. However, we all pitched in and busted it out in about 20 minutes, so we were able to bring the cars to the top. That really helped out for the rest of the weekend.

The rest of the day was pretty mellow. We headed into Snowshoe for a beer or two and picked up some pizza's for dinner. Then just returned to the cabin and hung out there for the rest of the night. Ate dinner, watched some tv, had a few beers and a few discussions which is always a good time. We knew we were getting up early Saturday to ski, so we didn't go too big that night.

Saturday morning came and we left early for the mountain, just three of us, Thomas and Katie stayed at the cabin and relaxed all day. So Bry, Andrew and I snowboarded from the opening of the mountain until 1pm, and called it quits. We got in 18 runs in that time which is pretty solid....the snow wasn't excellent but still really nice and it was a ton of fun. We hit Grizzly and the top of it was really nice, some untracked powder, but towards the bottom it was all chopped up and icy, which is not a good time.

After skiing we just went back to the cabin. Relaxed in the hot tub and had some lunch. Late afternoon we put on Rambo 4 since Katie had never seen it. Of course it was awesome as usual, Katie didn't think so though....I guess she's not much of a Rambo fan. I don't know what's wrong with her, you'll have to ask her.

The decision for dinner that night was to eat at Snowshoe, and then come back to party afterwards. Dinner was delicious as always, and of course we had a few beers while we were there. Katie thankfully drove us home and then we started up some drinking games in honor of Bryan's birthday. A little beer pong (real beer pong, with paddles), and then some cards gave us a few hours or entertainment. We were thinking about going to the club at the end of that night, but ended up staying in the whole time. Everybody, except me, just changed their minds. It was alright though, we had a really fun time and then just fell asleep watching True Lies.

Sunday morning we cleaned up the cabin and took off, headed back down the mountain to home, where we all are now. All in all it was a good trip, could've been better, but could've been a lot worse.

I'll update this when something interesting happens, otherwise I'll just see you next week!