I'm Back

I think this is the longest I’ve gone without a blog entry since starting this bad boy in August. A lot of people asked me if I was too depressed to write after the Super Bowl debacle but that’s not the case. The Internet crashed at the Red Roof Inn that we were staying at and the connection has been extremely shaky here in Carlsbad. The Internet has already crashed in the middle of two unsaved drafts and it’s a rather discouraging occurrence. I just downloaded a program called Blogger for Word and I’m writing my entry in Word so that the Internet shakiness won’t have any affect. It’ll probably improve my spelling and punctuation, too.

The trip to Detroit was a lot of fun. Anytime you get to vacation with your brother and good friends it’s going to be a lot of fun. It really frustrated me that we could only find 2 tickets to the game and I really owe Morgan and Cliff a ton for letting me and Renee go. The next time the Hawks go to the big game, I’m going to do things differently.

I don’t have a ton to say about the Super Bowl. It was very frustrating but there’s nothing we can do about it. The Seahawks executed like crap and they didn’t deserve the win. The refs didn’t help at all but the Hawks are good enough to overcome that if they just played their game. The Steelers D executed their bend-but-don’t-break strategy perfectly and the offense made enough big plays to get the W. The two calls that frustrated me the most were the Roethlisberger TD and the Locklear holding. The QB sneak was ridiculous because the side judge ran halfway down the goal line with one hand up like he was spotting the ball short, then suddenly decided that it was a touchdown. That was absolutely ridiculous and it made me want to vomit. The Locklear hold was an example of an official anticipating something that didn’t happen. In the Carolina game, on Steve Smith’s punt return, the official anticipated a block in the back then saw the blocker pull up at the last second so he picked up the flag. On the Locklear play, the official saw Locklear get his hand inside Haggans shoulders and anticipated he would hook him or drag him down. Neither happened and it was obvious. I would have loved to see that one picked up, obviously. 1st and goal from the 1, down 14-10. Pittsburgh’s shoulders were slumped, oh man….It hurts to think about how the game could have gone. I won’t even talk about the penalty on Hasselbeck because it was so freaking absurd but those 15 yards proved to be huge thanks to Randle El’s sweet pass.

OK, I realize I just wrote a lot about the officiating but I still blame the Seahawks first and foremost for blowing the game. I just hope that they use this memory as motivation for next year and come out determined to kick ass. I’d like to resign Shawn. I feel like running back is one of the most overrated positions in football but I think Shawn is very underrated as a running back. I don’t know if that makes sense but it does to me and he fits our offense well. Let’s get him locked up for a few years and Franchise Hutch if we have to.

I’m back in Carlsbad right now for about 2 more weeks and I’m loving the weather. It’s sunny and 70-75 every day and a nice change from the rain of Seattle and bitter cold of Detroit. Renee’s flying down next week for President’s Day and I’m definitely looking forward to that. I only have 2 months left before moving back to Seattle so I’m glad she’s getting one last chance for a vacation in the sun.

On February 23rd, I’m flying to Ushuaia, Argentina to meet my mom. I was supposed to spend more time in South America but my friend Will had his Ecuador trip cut short and I decided to just do the Antarctica thing. We’re catching a boat from Ushuaia to Antarctica and we’re going to spend a few weeks kicking it with the penguins. I’ll definitely charge the camera batteries for this trip.

In late March I’m going to drive back to Seattle then start the baseball road trip in the beginning of April. I’m getting so ridiculously excited for the trip that I can’t stand it. I promise to break down the trip and devote a whole entry to it soon. I think the Mariners could surprise some people this year. I guess after posting 93 losses last year and 99 the year before, a simple .500 winning percentage would be great. I’m amped for a full season of Felix Mania and I’m expecting great things from Mr. Johjima. The strating rotation should be better and Mr. Beltre will have a better year. Jeremy Reed is a year older and I think he’s poised for a breakout season. Only time will tell but I’d like to have a lot to talk about this summer. It’s so painful to root for a 90-loss team, I can’t even describe it. Let’s go M’s!

The road trip ends on June 2nd in Denver and I’m flying to Berlin on the 8th for soccer’s World Cup. I’m going to be there for 15 days and I’m going to try to be in a different city every day. I’m going to travel to the site of the best game for each day and try to actually attend 1 or 2 of the games if I can. Even when I can’t attend the games I want to be in a bar in the city it’s taking place in and party with the winning fans afterward. I’m going to buy a US jersey and a Japan jersey and wear those two shirts for the entire 2 weeks. They’ll probably be nice and ripe by the time I return.

The World Series of Poker starts on June 27th and I’m going to try to drive down to Vegas at some point between the 23rd and that day. Poker has taken a backseat in my life and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I need to figure out how to get back on my game by the WSOP. I don’t think drinking 843862873 gallons of beer in Germany will help my poker game that much but there are sacrifices that we all have to make for the good of humanity. I’m just trying to do my part.

Well, blog entries after a long hiatus are usually about future plans. Sorry if there isn’t anything new or interesting in here. I’ll try to figure out how to host excel files on the Internet then put up a link to both my baseball road trip and World Cup schedules. Until then, remember my motto: “Everything in moderation, including moderation”.