It was a Super Bowl???

I am going to be honest, no matter what happened last night I was going to be a little upset. As you know I am a Philadelphia Eagles fan. This means that I was born with an ever present dislike for the cities of New York and Washington DC and an overwhelming hatred for Dallas and their stupid little cowboys. For the New York and DC things, the dislike is far greater than just cause of their sports teams. It actually harkens to the overall inferiority complex that the whole city Philadelphia has when compared to these two cities, each a mere two and half hours away (though I imagine it would be less if Mrs. Twink is driving).

Remember that Philadelphia was the start of it all. It was the political and financial center of the US during its inception. It was the most powerful city in all the land. And then, someone important decided that the political center of the new country should be closer to the actual geographic center. So instead of the beautiful city of Philly, the capital was moved to a crazy marsh land between Maryland and Virginia.

Then some other people decided that the financial of the US needed to be colder and have far less land if it was going to be a real powerhouse. They moved their financial businesses to a tiny island which they had scammed out of some Natives years before. The details of the trade involved land to the "White Folks" while the Natives received some primitive guns, small pox, alcohol and anything else that they could whittle themselves away with.

What was Philly left with? Well there was still some good art, some good food and a decidedly insane passion about sports teams. Philly fans have always been, and always will be loyal. Yes, we may call sports radio to complain about a teams management, yell and scream about how the star player needs to give a little more effort, even boo cultural icons (yes, we booed Santa Claus) but we do it for one simple reason. WE CARE. We still fly our team’s flags on our homes and cars. We stick with them through the rough times and we are rarely rewarded with any sort of championship. Most of all we cheer. We cheer for our teams and have a great deal of animosity directed for their rivals.

This brings me to last night’s game. A competition between two worthy competitors. The New England Patriots, and their pursuit of perfection (aided by the use of some interesting video equipment), and the New York Football Giants, and their desperate attempt to topple the ever present beast. Both of these teams I tend to somewhat loathe. Going into the game with this sort of mindset I was pleasantly surprised by the game overall. It was an epic battle, regardless of my personal conflict. Former Eagle Assistant Steve Spagnuolo's Defense had a fantastic pressure game for the enigmatic Pats offense. Overall there was great game play and some amazing individual plays (David Tyree, I am looking at you). It may have been the best Super Bowl I have ever seen, but something was lost. I didn't have a horse in the race. I would have been happy with a tie...

I guess I am now looking forward to the 2008 season and who knows what that will bring.

Whoo Hooo.... We Won!!!

Finally, McNabb Has Come Back to Philadelphia.

I am not going to get my hopes up to high, but it was really nice to see the Birds take control of a game from the opening whistle. The deep passing game set up the run, the way the offense is supposed to run. Curtis and Westbrook had huge games, and McNabb showed that he is a great quarterback, despite being overly criticized. (BTW, I agree slightly with what McNabb said, but being in Philadelphia, I am sure his criticism is amplified that that of other QBs in the league, black or otherwise.)

One thing about yesterdays game that I enjoyed that many other people hated was the throwback uniforms.

This year is the 75th Anniversary of the Eagles, and for this game they decided to pay homage by wearing replicas of the 1934 uniforms. These are yellow and powder blue, not the traditional green, but these colors have meaning. These are the colors of the Philadelphia flag, the Philadelphia Warriors (later to become the Golden State Warriors) also wore these colors. They are classic Philadelphia. I also think that these Unis are cool because they are pretty basic, with a hit of the Eagle in the helmet. Plus STRIPED SOCKS.... how could you go wrong.

It is getting close to time for me to update my game day wear and one of these jerseys will be part of that update.

The Phils?... Are they Making a Move???

We have won three straight from the Mets. We are going for a four game sweep tonight. We have a chance to get some momentum and make a move for the playoffs. Notice I am saying we, like I am on the field.

Listening to game four of the series, I have a sense of hope. We are getting back a number of quality players, like Chase Utley, and for the first time in a long time I think we have a shot at the playoffs. It is a good feeling, who would have thought the Phillies could bring me such joy (everyone should think this). Lets just hope there is no heartbreak.

Moving: Part 2974

This weekend I once again started to move. On Saturday, Elan and I headed to the City of Brotherly Love, to casa de Bricknhymr. I was looking to move my Desk, which is a really industrial metal/wood corner piece, and my bed, which is the most basic twin you have ever seen. We were meeting my Father and his friend at 8am on Sunday to make the drive down to my new place. I lucked out cause Dad's friend Jimmy had a small pick-up which would come in really handy. I had contacted U-Haul, but they wanted like 150 bucks, and I would have to take the smallest truck, not the cargo van that I wanted. (whining) "Cargo vans don't go one way"... Ummm , Sorry U-Haul Man, but I am pretty sure that if the cargo van can go two ways, it can go one way as well. Just stop a two way trip half way through....

Anyway, I went to pickup Elan at Greenbelt (that is the northern most metro stop for you non Balto-Wash peeps) and we were off... sort of. It was like one and I had not eaten and was starving, as was Elan, which was convenient. We punched up a bagel place in the GPS and were off... except, there was not bagel place. There was nothing. This sucked. I was still hungry and my digits were beginning to look mighty tasty. We happened upon a little flea market. It looked somewhat promising, so we stopped. This was a mistake. First I am sure there was some fantastic food at the market, but I couldn't order any of it. This was entirely due to the fact that I know absolutely no Spanish. If I was adventurous I would have tried to get some tacos or something, but it was just not going to happen. On the plus side, I now know where to get a framed picture of "Jesus", if I ever happen to need such a thing.

We headed out, from the flea market and decided to head to Tawneytown Sandwich Shoppe, and yeah, it is a Shoppe. This place is one of the best kept secrets in Catonsville. Lets just say after a Blues Brothers and a slice of Chocolate pie, I was set. However, it was about this time that I realized that I did not have the keys to my house. That's right, we were about to shove off without any possible way to enter my abode, so we had another detour on the trip. Back to my apartment we went, which wasn't so bad since it was basically on the way.... Except 495 was backed up like something crazy... I am beginning to think that this may be the worst trip home ever, and I still have 175 miles to go. SUCKS!!!!

We made it to my apartment after heading through the back roads of Owings Mills. At this point we were about 2 hours into our journey. We checked the traffic, which was clear, grabbed some water, which was cold, and we were off. It is at this point that I decide to pull Super Huge Bonehead move of the day. That is right, I locked the keys in my apartment.... Seriously. We had to head over to the leasing office and get them to come open the door. Hours = 3. Distance equals basically zero. I was back where I started. SUCKS!!!!!

We did finally got on the road and had a pretty smooth trip up to Philly. The skyline of my home town has always been something I have really liked.

It is pretty nice overall, it has character, grace and you can still see Billy Pen on the top of city hall from most parts of the city. But now the Comcast building is being put up, making the city look something like this:

(Artist's rendition)

The thing is a giant blue monstrosity. I am not sure it really works, I guess I will have to wait and see for it to be complete and lit up.

So we finally made it home and I set off to start to break down furniture, but was distracted by the new Verizon FIOS service that Mom got. It is pretty sweet, at least for TV. I will give you all an internet update at a later date. The big distraction was that we stumbled upon Smokey and the Bandit... Yup, Burt Reynolds, Sally Fields and that great song. Sooooo Goood. Seriously, just look at this poster, how could you go wrong.

After seeing the Bandit get the best of that Sheriff, we finally got to taking care of the furniture, of course, this is also the same time that my sister came home and we decided it would be a good time to head to dinner. We went to Maggio's, a really good Italian place. They have the best Pizza and pasta. This place recently moved from its famous strip mall facility to an old supermarket around the corner. During the move, something amazing happened. They hired the best looking wait staff I had ever seen. It was like some sort of Mecca. Tons of good looking girls. The type you would... well you know. Oh and this is our waitress...

Yeah, we got the one non-18, non-hottie... seriously.

Well , the food was pretty good and we headed back to the house to take care of that furniture, and then we got the call. My friend Andy called and said we should come over to see his new place. We, of course, obliged and headed down the street. I must admit that Andy's new place is really nice. The furniture he and Jerri got from the Room Store was really nice, though they jumped through some crazy hoops to get it. After a Mock Draft (to be discussed in a later post) and a beer, we once again headed back to the house to move that furniture downstairs. It was midnight when we started, but things went pretty quick and we were done by one, and I fell asleep at around two.

This would have been no big deal if my dad come to the house when we agreed too, 8am... yeah, he called at 6:21... SERIOUSLY. He and his friend Jimmy, with his pickup truck were headed to the house, and they would be there no later than 7am.... SUCKS!!!!

We did get everything into the truck, made the trip down to Baltimore, and my new room in Bengi's place. but man, it was a weekend. I am sure there is more to add, but my fingers hurt.

The Simpsons..... and The Celtics

Duh Duh DA DA DA ..... yeah that is my weak attempt and writing out the Simpson's theme... though there is a funny joke about it in the movie.

That is pretty much what I can say about the whole thing. The Simpson's movie, which I saw last night, was very funny. There are clearly lots of little joke throughout the movie, and they start from the very beginning, I mean the 20th Century Fox beginning. To be honest, we have been waiting for this movie for about 15 years (I guess they took the time to come up with a really good title) but over all I would say it was well worth it. The movie has a touching story, a political point or two and a hilarity throughout.

I saw the Movie with my friend Danielle who is recently back from Israel. It was really good to see her. She is thinking of doing some exciting things like Teach for America. I am really excited for her.

As for the Celtics, let me start by stating that I am, as expected, a Sixers fan. This means that I have an gene that cause me to hate the Celtics with passion. And for the past two days I have been steaming. Kevin Garnett, The Big Ticket, was traded to the C's for like 72 players, 8 draft picks, 2 Concessions Stands, 7 Maintenance Workers, part of the Big Dig Tunnel, 2 Gallons of Clam Chowder, a set of knifes made by Paul Revere and 2 guys wearing Larry Bird Jerseys. Seriously, Boston may have traded the farm for Garnett, but they are going to get the best out of this deal. I hearken back to when the Sixers traded Sir Charles for Jeff Horneck and a couple of shlubs. Here is the basic idea. In basketball, never trade quality for quantity, you just can't win that way. The Celtics have become one of the dominant teams in the East this offseason, which really makes me mad, cause the Sixers will continue to be a mediocre team in a really bad division. I this going to be another awful season.

and I am out...