Whatever Wednesday

Perpetuum Jazzile performing "Africa" by Toto... pretty cool stuff.


Thanks for the Tweet, Schmeike.

Nashville with the Zs

This is why they call it Nash-Vegas.

No trip is complete without trivia and beer... this time courtesy of Beyond the Edge.

BB King's Blues Club.


Here's where the Tennessee Titans play. WVU beat Ole Miss in the Music City Bowl in December of 2000 in this stadium. My wife and I attended, sat 10 rows away from each other and didn't even know it.

This is the Coyote Ugly Saloon. This place is well known for encouraging women to dance on top of the bar. They even made a bad movie about Coyote Ugly in the late '90s.


Mr. and Mrs. Z keeping it real.



We're nice.

Wednesday's One Word

AMAZING!

Direct TV

Dont EVER purchase it.

'nuff said.

What a weekend...

It was a happy WV Day for me. I had the day off and I made the most of it. I headed to Morgantown Thursday evening and visited with my Mom's family. We had special guests in from San Diego and Columbus, so that made it even better.

Friday was crazy. I had breakfast with my out of town family and grandparents. I visited with one of my best friends and his newborn daughter. I then visited with my Dad for Father's Day. I followed that up with a visit to my favorite restaurant in the entire world... Black Bear with another good friend. There I had a Dead Guy Ale, a build your own burrito and some chips and guacamole. I'll blog more about Black Bear later. I capped the day off with a fishing trip at Opekiska on the Monongahela River.


Saturday morning I drove back to Charleston so we could attend a friend's wedding shower and Sunday we celebrated Father's Day on our back porch, grilling and playing Trivial Pursuit with my wife's family.



It was a whirlwind of a weekend, but it was an enjoyable one. I even managed to lose 2 pounds. That makes -10 on Nutrisystem and -13 total.

One Term Wednesday

ON CRACK!

Weighing In

Down another 3.5 pounds this week. I'll take it. That makes 8 total pounds since being on the Nutrisystem diet and 11 pounds overall.


I found an entertaining website last night. I have mixed feelings about it and I don't know whether to cry, drool or barf. Check it out: http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/

Marian Hossa

For those of you not familiar with Marian Hossa, let me provide a little background. Hossa joined the Pittsburgh Penguins at last year's trading deadline. He was probably the Penguins third best player behind Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. He helped the Penguins make the NHL Finals last year. They didn't win it, but his contribution was very important. The Penguins wanted to keep him for the next 7 years and offered him a seven-year, 35 million dollar contract to stay. He turned that down for a one-year, seven-million dollar contract to play for the Detroit Red Wings. His reasoning: "It was a really tough decision for me to make," Hossa said. "When I compared the two teams, I felt like I would have a little better of a chance to win the Cup in Detroit."

Well, we all know how that turned out....

A dejected Marian Hossa after losing the Stanley Cup Finals to Detroit in 2008.


An even sadder Marian Hossa after losing to the Penguins in the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals.

So, yeah, I think this is why I love sports.

I've been asking myself for years why I enjoy sports so much... Why do I follow the same teams religiously? Why do I put so much time and effort into watching any and every game I can? I usually find myself asking these questions after one of my favorite teams loses. WVU football and basketball are gut-wrenching. The Pirates gave me the worst sports loss I've ever been a part of and then continued to lose for the next seventeen years. The Steelers had playoff loss after playoff loss in the 90s and early 2000s. Reggie Miller and my Indiana Pacers never won a championship, but were oh so close 5 or 6 times. And the Penguins.... oh, the Penguins... they won back-to-back championships in 1991 and 1992 under Mario's reign. However, at that time in my life, I didn't even know what a hockey puck was. I started following hockey in 1993. :/

That brings me to the point of this rambling post. Friday night was game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the evil Detroit Red Wings and my good guys, the Pittsburgh Penguins. It was for all the marbles. Win or lose, the playoffs are over. The game was in Detroit. Prior to this game, the Red Wings were 11-1 during the playoffs in Detroit. The Penguins were outscored 11-2 in Detroit and hadn't managed to pull off a victory there the entire series. And oh yeah, there's game 5 of this series where the Penguins were beaten 5-0 in Detroit. So, needless to say, I wasn't confident about this game 7.

The Penguins scored 2 goals in the second period. Both came from the rough and tough Maxime Talbot. They took that 2 goal lead into the third period. I kept telling my wife and 2 friends we watched the game with, "That isn't enough! We need a third goal." I wasn't convinced two goals would get the job done. However, to my delight, I was wrong. The Red Wings added a goal late in the third period to make things extremely interesting over the last 3 minutes, but the Penguins prevailed and won the Stanley Cup.

We've watched 21 of the 23 Penguin playoff games this season. It's been a long journey, but this year, it was rewarding. Watching the final seconds tick off the clock in game 7 was one of the best moments I've experienced since becoming a sports fan. After losing to the Red Wings in last year's Stanley Cup Finals and beating all expectations this year by winning a game 7 in Washington and Detroit makes it even sweeter.

This, my friends, is why I'm a sports fan. The lows make the highs so much better. The highs don't occur as much as the lows, but when they do, I'm pretty certain there's nothing in sports that beats that feeling. So, sit back, chill out and watch the video posted above. Maybe you can catch a little of that feeling as well.

I honestly can't believe it!

Go PENS!!!!!!

The Little Cat Was Being a Little Weird

Yep. He's drinking his water laying down.

One Word Wednesday

SEVEN!

Weigh-in Tuesday

I've lost 4 and a half pounds since last Tuesday! Woohoo!


That's a chihuahua.

The Drama of the West Side Kroger

Oh, the West Side Kroger, you're so close to our dwelling

It's so tempting to stop and shop you, oh my, my mind must be swelling

The storefront's a mess, My decision starts to digress

What was I thinking? I was hoping, I must confess


Oh how I love your parking lot's miniature size

And how that elusive shopping cart is my fender's demise

The cars parked in the fire lane are breaking the law

Nobody seems to care, though, you only add to the Kroger hoopla


Your fruit is never fresh, your vegetables are always lacking

Around every corner, you wonder who might be packing

Your deli is shady and your beer section sucks

That's no fault of your own, I blame those legislature schmucks


I hope you've planned to stay for a bit, the checkout lines go on for miles

It's a good thing there's always free entertainment, somebody's gotta make my dumb ass smile

It's the dude in front of me rocking a mullet, or the lady at the cash register yelling for friends

That's right, you guessed it, the good times at the West Side Kroger never end!!!

One Word Wednesday

BORING! ;)

Another Weight Loss Journey

I've struggled with my weight my entire life. I was a fat sixth-grader. I trimmed down in the eigth and ninth grades thanks to an amazing growth spurt (I probably grew a foot in a year). Thanks to that growth spurt, I started playing basketball on a very regular basis. I stayed at a trim 180 lbs. throughout high school. College happened and I gained my freshman 15.... well, make that my freshman 40. Spending all day at the student union provided easy access to Wendy's and Burger King and I took full advantage. During my second year of college, I stayed out of the student union and started playing basketball every single day after class. I lost 55 lbs. and made it down to 165. Crazy what a little physical activity will do for you, eh? I was scrawny and athletic. I had never felt better physically!


The real world was hard on my weight, though. I graduated in 2001 and by 2004, I was 208 pounds! I worked in a mall for 2 years and next to a seafood restaurant for another 3. What was I supposed to do? Heheh... I know, have willpower! I started running every night after work and made it down to my high school weight of 180. And now, on June 2, 2009, my weight has krept up to an embarrassing 235 lbs. I'm fatter than I've ever been! I eat out too much. I drink too much home brew. I overeat whenever I get the chance and I've allowed a sedentary lifestyle to get the best of me. I've lost the weight before and it's high time I started the process of losing it again.

That brings me to my point. I've enlisted the help of a little program called Nutrisystem. 5 days a week I have my meals planned out for me. That means no overeating, no eating high calorie meals and no drinking beer! I've lost a significant amount of weight twice in my lifetime and it's time to start the third. If Dan Marino, Mike Golic and Chris Berman can be successful with this program, so can I! Obviously it doesn't take a lot of brains if a Pitt grad, a Notre Dame grad and a lifetime asshole can do it.

A lot of weight loss specialists sound so cliche' when they say, "It isn't a diet, it's a lifestyle change." They sound silly, but they're absolutely right. I've dieted before and it worked. However, I've never been able to keep the weight off. That's what I hope I learn from using the Nutrisystem plan... portion control and long term discipline.

I'm at the point in my life where being healthy has become important. If I continue down the path I'm headed, I'll be in trouble. It's time to nip this weight problem in the bud. By the end of August, I want to be 200 pounds and on my way to a conistently healthy lifestyle. 200 pounds isn't my goal weight, but it's a solid start.

I'll keep you updated.