Before I Die: Discovery Cove

Just how awesome would that be!

My Favorite Oscar Moment

After hearing these two perform their song I immediately was cheering for them to win. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

From the Portfolio of Ansel Adams

Cute and Cuddly

101 Dalmatians Edition:

A Utah Adventure

This past week I spent a couple days in the "Beehive" state; also known as Utah. My trip began in Stockton, CA where the basketball team beat the University of the Pacific on Wednesday night. Thursday morning we boarded the bus and headed to the Sacramento Airport to catch our flight to Salt Lake City.
We arrived in Salt Lake City, gathered our luggage and boarded the bus for Logan, UT. On the way up the coaches decided to stop to eat. We stopped in Davis County, UT and the city of Centerville, where the majority of the team decided to sit down at IHOP. As we walked through the doors the restaurant was completely empty. The the three waitresses immediately jumped up to attend to us and began what practically became a three stooges routine competing for our attention. The shorter of the three began with "Hey Coach! I can play basketball" and then proceeded to do her best dribbling interpretation. The tallest of the three then chimed in with " You're too short to play, I'm the tallest one here I'd be great at basketball." Eventually the novelty of our team wore off plus a couple of the guys decided to go to Quizno's instead.
After we got through the comedy routine a woman with her mother and baby entered and sat in the same general area as us. The baby's mother when she found out we were a basketball team went crazy and asked the team to autograph a piece of paper for her baby. The guys being the good sports they are obliged. After the wonderful experience at IHOP we made it back on the bus and finished the drive up to Logan.
That night the media guys and myself went to go see a movie. We got the number for a cab, which turned out to be the only cab in town. The cab driver's name was Russ; a white guy who drives a white cadillac. The drive begins well enough making small talk before this cabbie goes all racists on us! He begins telling us stories of the Utah State Football team and how they get all their players from central LA and that at the end of every season the sheriff has just gotten enough evidence to charge some players with crimes that occurred during the season. When we finally arrived at the theater he was still spewing his thoughts. The movie was great! I saw Juno for the second time. We got back in the cab, but this time we were given a history lesson about mormon settling in the area, which was about as offensive as the cab ride to the theater.

Utah was crazier than I thought!

From the Portfolio of Andy Everson

"Breath"

Reading Corner Update

I finished "You're Okay It's Just a Bruise" this past weekend. The book chronicles a Los Angeles Team Physician from the beginning of his time with the Raiders till he was no longer with the team, and all the insane things that went on in between. It was a good read and very relatable. I was appalled by some of the actions of the Team Orthopaedic on a number of occassions. I also found that some of the characteristics of the more shady characters in the book mirrored those of some of the people that I have worked with and some that I currently deal with on a daily basis.
Heather, I would definitely recommend you pick this one up. There was definitely some crazy stuff going on!

Up next is "The Book of Honor: The secret lives and deaths of CIA Operatives" by Ted Gup

Whale Watching: Santa Barbara

After arriving back into Santa Barbara from a basketball trip, David and I decided to go on a two and a half hour Whale Watching adventure.
It is officially the season of the California Grey Whale migration north to Alaska. Unfortunately, our timing may have been a little off. Yesterday was the second day of the whale watching season, and despite the previous trips sighting of a Grey Whale we were not as fortunate. On our trip though we did see some Common Dolphins, Dall's Porpoises, and California Sea Otters. David also had a little bout of motion sickness.
The nice thing is that since we did not see a Grey Whale, we got what the company calls a "Whale Check." The "Whale Check" allows us to go on another trip at a later time within the same season for free. I'm going to do some research as to the height of the migration season to increase our chances next time and David has promised to take his motion sickness medication, so that he may enjoy the boat trip more.
Hopefully, I will have some good whale pictures to put on here after that trip.

Cute and Cuddly Monday

Brandy remembrance edition:

Our first dog when my brother and I were growing up was a german shepherd named Brandy. Brandy and I always seemed to have a rough relationship. I believe as the story goes that one night I was crying in my crib and Brandy managed to jump in on top of me. I'm pretty sure she was just curious as to what was making all that noise, but maybe she was trying to smother me. Well quite a few years later I got my revenge when I blew a whistle in her ear. Unfortunately, I think I gave Brandy a stroke as she was never quite the same after that incident. So, here's to her memory.

Just for Papa!

Here's the Daytona 500 Starting Grid:

1 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Lowe's 187.075 48.109 Leader
2 55 Michael Waltrip Toyota NAPA AUTO PARTS 186.734 48.197 -0.088
3 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet AMP Energy / National Guard - - -
4 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota FedEx Express - - -
5 41 Reed Sorenson Dodge Target - - -
6 20 Tony Stewart Toyota The Home Depot - - -
7 12 Ryan Newman Dodge ALLTEL - - -
8 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet DuPont - - -
9 5 Casey Mears Chevrolet Kellogg's / CARQUEST - - -
10 9 Kasey Kahne Dodge Budweiser - - -
11 99 Carl Edwards Ford Office Depot - - -
12 8 Mark Martin Chevrolet U.S. Army - - -
13 43 Bobby Labonte Dodge Cheerios / Betty Crocker - - -
14 6 David Ragan Ford AAA - - -
15 42 Juan Montoya Dodge Texaco / Havoline - - -
16 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Shell / Pennzoil - - -
17 187 Kenny Wallace Chevrolet Furniture Row/DenverMattress.com
18 16 Greg Biffle Ford 3M - - -
19 77 Sam Hornish Jr.* Dodge Mobil 1 - - -
20 44 Dale Jarrett Toyota UPS - - -
21 15 Paul Menard Chevrolet PEAK / Menards - - -
22 34 John Andretti Chevrolet Makoto - - -
23 83 Brian Vickers Toyota Red Bull - - -
24 18 Kyle Busch Toyota M&M's - - -
25 1 Martin Truex Jr. Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker - - -
26 7 Robby Gordon Dodge Jim Beam - - -
27 66 Scott Riggs Chevrolet State Water Heaters - - -
28 17 Matt Kenseth Ford DEWALT - - -
29 01 Regan Smith* Chevrolet Principal Financial Group - - -
30 28 Travis Kvapil Ford K&N Filters - - -
31 07 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet Jack Daniel's - - -
32 38 David Gilliland Ford FreeCreditReport.com - - -
33 70 Jeremy Mayfield Chevrolet Junior Johnson's Midnight Moon - - -
34 22 Dave Blaney Toyota Caterpillar - - -
35 19 Elliott Sadler Dodge Best Buy - - -
36 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet AT&T Mobility - - -
37 96 J.J. Yeley Toyota DLP HDTV - - -
38 26 Jamie McMurray Ford Crown Royal Cask No. 16 - - -
39 45 Kyle Petty Dodge Wells Fargo - - -
40 40 Dario Franchitti* Dodge Dodge Journey - - -
41 78 Joe Nemechek Chevrolet Furniture Row Racing - - -
42 00 David Reutimann Toyota Aaron's Dream Machine - - -
43 2 Kurt Busch Dodge Miller Lite Champion's Provisional -
Did Not Qualify
44 84 A.J. Allmendinger Toyota Red Bull - - -
45 21 Bill Elliott Ford Little Debbie - - -
46 49 Ken Schrader Dodge HealthLife.com - - -
47 160 Boris Said Ford 7-Eleven Slurpee / No Fear - - -
48 10 Patrick Carpentier* Dodge Valvoline - - -
49 137 Eric McClure Chevrolet Hefty - - -
50 109 Sterling Marlin Chevrolet Miccosukee Resort & Gaming - - -
51 27 Jacques Villeneuve* Toyota Bill Davis Racing - - -
52 150 Stanton Barrett Chevrolet NOS Energy Drink / SKI / SBM - - -
53 08 Carl Long Dodge MILLSTAR Tools / Rhino's Energy Drink - - -

PS: Mom you will be happy to see that John Andretti raced his way into the 500 field during the 125's.

Happy Valentine's Day

From the Portfolio of Andy Everson

I discovered this artist while on the Men's Basketball Foreign tour to Canada. I ended up buying an Art Card (see below), because that was all I could afford. I however thoroughly enjoy his work. Here's a first look:

"Under a Salish Moon"

Visit his website in the links section.
More of his work will be showcased on my blog in the coming weeks!

Before I Die: Westminster

In honor of Uno; the Beagle, who won Best in Show at the 2008 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. The Westminster Dog Show is an event that I would love to make it to one day. I was reading an article on MSNBC today during one of the hours of complete boredom at work when I found out that not only can spectators watch the judging they also get to go back stage and see and pet all the dogs. All those cute and cuddly show dogs would be 3 days very well spent. Who's up for a dog petting good time? Westminster '09 road trip style!

From the Portfolio of Ansel Adams

Straight out of "Best in Show"

I came across these pictures today that reminded me of "Best in Show"

Cute and Cuddly Sunday

Collie Edition:

Before I Die: Australia

Another location that I'd love to spend some quality time in!

Special Notice

David's brother is going to be completing the AIDS/Lifecycle event this June. The AIDS/Lifecycle event is a 545 mile 7 day bicycle ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles June 1st through 7th. All participants are required to raise a minimum of $2,500.00 in donations. Jason's donations will go to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.


If you would like to make a donation to Jason here is a link to his Lifecycle page:
http://www.aidslifecycle.org/6830

From the Portfolio of Ansel Adams

A weekend at the Movies

With a rare weekend with no basketball game scheduled I was able to indulge in a little quality me time at the movie theater.




The first movie I saw was "Atonement". I had wanted to see this movie since it first came out, and has since been nominated for numerous awards. I did enjoy this movie and the rotating view points of the same events and the consequences of those events. The ending was unexpected, but fitting and really brings the story to an end. I would recommend "Atonement" as worth the price of admission.






The second movie I saw this weekend was "The Kite Runner". I had seen the previews for this movie quite awhile back and had wanted to see it before I had read the book. Being the good book reader I am striving to be I held off till I had finished reading it. As my consistent blog readers know I loved the book and regard it highly; if you have not read it I strongly encourage you to! Anyways back to the movie, the movie was great. The adaptation from the book was well done and captured the essence of the story very well. The message of this story is very powerful and has affected me very much. We have all done things in our lives that we are not the most proud of but to quote the book and movie; "There is a way to be good again.", we each just have to find our own path to achieve it. I strongly recommend this movie and book.

Cute and Cuddly Sunday

Bull Mastiff edition:

Congratulations Heather and Zeb

Congratulations on your epic return to Oregon and Beaver Nation!

Reading Corner

Another book read and another one started.

I finished reading "Auschwitz: A New History" by Laurence Rees on my last road trip. In the beginning I had a hard time getting into the book, but that soon faded and I ended up having to find places to stop. I've always enjoyed reading about history and it was interesting to read about how Auschwitz came into being and how its role and function changed throughout World War Two.

Next on the docket is "You're okay it's just a bruise" by Dr. Rob Huizenga. This book is about the experiences of a team physician working with the Los Angeles Raiders in the 1980's.