worst case scenario

i've tried not to think about this, but it's time to face reality and admit there is a possibility the heat and lakers will play in the nba finals.  after some heavy deliberation, i've decided that if it comes to that i'll be forced to root for LA.  it sounds crazy, i know.  especially because the lakers winning would be their 17th title, putting them in a tie with boston for most all time.  but i just can't root for lebron under any circumstances.  ever.  i need him to somehow go his whole career without ever winning a championship.

on another note, what happened to the "hanging on the rim" technical foul call?  lebron had two of these last night that seemed pretty blatant to me.

how far ahead do the bruins need to be in this series to feel confident?

they look good.  thomas has been spectacular in net.  but we've been down this road before.  for now i'm gonna stick with my general apathy towards hockey and not really get too invested.  i think i need to see at least a 4 goal lead in a deciding game to really believe they'll beat philly.

and how did the refs/horn and light operator not know right away that this was a goal?  it hit right in the middle of the net and bounced out slowly.  all the players knew.  the crowd knew.  even the people watching on tv in my bar knew.

michael scott vs. fancy wedding in england

ok, so i wrote this on sunday afternoon with the intention of posting it monday morning.  then the bin laden thing happened, and that kinda took the wind out of it.  but i like this blog a lot, and for the first time i've got a poll to go along with a blog entry, so i'm posting it anyway.  so here it is, exactly how i wrote it pre-terrorist assassination day:

depending on who you talk to, there were two MAJOR events that occurred last week within a 12 hour span.  the first was michael gary scott's departure from "the office."  the second was a very expensive english wedding.  both topics dominated my facebook news feed on thursday night/friday morning.  so the question is, which was a bigger deal?  for me it's a no brainer.  "the office" was this decade's "seinfeld," and michael scott was it's leading man.  sometimes i loved him, sometimes i hated him, but i feel like i know him.  the royal family has no actual significance other than being related to people who ruled the country hundreds of years ago.  also, they're in england.  vote for what you think in the poll to the right.

the armageddon of eastern conference semifinals begins today

hopefully this picture sums up how things go.  i'm not sure what else to say.  the entire season since opening night has been leading up to this matchup.  i'm nervous.

1986 Red Sox lineup

Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of Clemens' first 20K game, and they re-aired it on NESN.  That got me thinking about a conversation I had a few weeks ago.  Somebody asked me if I could name off the top of my head the starting lineups for both Sox championships teams in '04 and '07.  I think if I really thought about it I could, but not easily, and I might get some mixed up.  But the '86 team I still know easily:

1B: Buckner

2B: Barrett

3B: Boggs

SS: Owen (in a trade for Ray Quinones)

LF: Rice

CF: Armas

RF: Evans

C: Gedman

DH: Baylor

 

I think the reason for this has got to be baseball cards.  I spent a ridiculous amount of time with them in 1987.  when I found these pics on the web I remembered them perfectly.

Or it may be that kids are just better and remembering stuff and i'm getting old.

ipad restaurant menus

i went to a new restaurant the other day and asked to see their tequila list.  the bartender handed me an ipad.  now i like to think i'm reasonably tech savvy.  i have a fancy 4G droid phone, and i understand how ipads work.  but as far as menu's go, i thought it kind of sucked.  so if i wasn't a fan, i can't imagine how somebody's grandmother would react to it.  the problem is it's just way too involved.  when i look at a tequila list i want to be able to glance over everything, see the prices, and pick one i like.  instead i had to click on a few different things to get to tequilas, then i had to click on each category, then i had to click on each specific one in order to find out the price.  it took forever.  if you want to sit for half an hour before you order and have a full page of information available for every possible item, then this is for you.  i suppose it's not the ipad's fault though, just the way that they set it up.

the other issue is, how can they not lose them?  how can a large busy indoor/outdoor waterfront restaurant hand out menus that are worth $400 each?  drunk people will drop them.  angry people will try to take them.  disgruntled employees will steal them.  this may be the wave of the future, but i don't think we're there yet.  the place has been open less than 2 weeks.  my guess is the ipad menus don't last 2 months.

the NFL draft is finally here! and then we can stop talking about it

i watch a lot of espn and espn2 in the day time before i go to work.  and for weeks and weeks they've been talking about the NFL draft, more and more as this day has gotten closer.  and each year it gets worse than the year before.  more in depth analysis.  more interviews with "experts."  more of my former spider classmate todd mcshay talking about which guys are moving up and down his draft board.  what i don't get is why people want to hear all this?  if you look at the history of the draft some high picks do well, and some flop.  sometimes you get jamarcus russell #1 overall, and sometimes you get tom brady in the 6th round.  nobody knows who's going to be great and who's going to be out of the league in 2 years.  but the media talks and talks and talks about as if they know exactly what each guy is going to do.  well guess what, they don't, and it's a huge waste of time.