Great Moments in Sports that I have witnessed

Us at the Liberty Bowl 2004

Us (with t) at the UofL-UConn game 2005

Us at UofL-Villanova 2006

Us at Gaylord Arena in Tennessee for UofL-Georgia Tech 2nd round NCAAs in 2005

Before Darren (I quit the whole "DH" thing; it's dumb and y'all know him or me anyway) and I started dating, I was a punk-rock, alterna-freak who only wanted to go to shows or hang out with loser skateboarders and do other crap that I really wasn't good at. I swam and liked UofL sports, but I didn't really go to games or obsess about stats. On our first trip out of Louisville together (all the way to Cincinnati!), we went to my first MLB game (reds v brewers, talk about shitty teams). Since then, we have become sports junkies together. Over the years, we have seen some very memorable games and events.

1. Busch Stadium, 1998: Sammy Sosa and Mark Maguire each hit a home run (44th and 46th, respectively) during the great home run race that saved baseball post-strike. It was still the best baseball game I've ever been to (yet somehow my sister fell asleep in the 7th). The game went to extra innings, with StL winning in the 13th on a play by Willie McGee, who was 86 at the time. I have pics, but they were taken on film and I still don't have a scanner.

2. Arthur Ashe Stadium, 2006: Darren's lab partner got some tickets to the US Open on a Monday night, so we drove up to Flushing to watch Andre Agassi v Andre Pavel in the first round. It was the first match of Agassi's last tourney and it lasted until well after 1am (Agassi won). Billie Jean King and Serena Williams were also there for some dedication thingy before the match.

3. Freedom Hall, 2001: UofL vs Tennessee. In Rick Pitino's first season, the Cards were down 6 points with 31 seconds left. Reece Gaines hit two threes along with Bryant Northern's one and we ended up winning by 1 (UT hit a layup also). I have never heard the Hall so loud before. Here is a crappy video of it.
4a. Papa John's Cardinal Stadium, September 2, 2000: Kentucky, led by fatty Jared Lorenzen, had a chance to win the game when Dave Ragone was intercepted with about 8 seconds left to play. The score was tied at 34 and the defender had to only jog into the endzone. He forgot that Zek Parker was a UofL wide receiver and the defending C-USA champ in the 100 meters. Zek caught him at the 2 and then the field goal try was blocked. In OT, UofL intercepted Lorenzen on the first play and Tony Stallings ran it in 25 yards the next play. This game was also great because the game was delayed about an hour due to rain and lightning. Darren and I poured onto the field with the rest of the crowd in the 3rd quarter to get out of the stadium. We ran to the car, went back to his place, changed into dry clothes, and went back to the stadium, not having missed a minute of game time.
4b. Papa John's Cardinal Stadium, September 27th, 2002: Louisville beats #4 Florida State in a monsoon. Louisville came back late to tie, then intercepted Chris Rix on the first play of overtime. Henry Miller then ran it 25 yards for the win (exactly as in the UK game in 2000). And yeah, I helped tear down the goalposts.
5. Citizens Bank Park, July 15th, 2007: The Phillies lose their 10000th game to the StL Cardinals 10-2. Darren, Laura, and I were there to root on the Cardinals (well, in Laura's case, to eat hotdogs and ice cream), but we got the added bonus of being present to watch the first professional sports team reach that landmark.

6. Great American Ballpark, April 4, 2003: Sammy Sosa hits his 500th home run. I know Sammy's been tainted by the steroid scandal, but I really loved to watch that guy play (besides, if everyone's cheating, is there really an advantage?).
Honorable Mention: Any of the basketball or football games that Darren and I have gotten to go to since we moved out of Louisville. Philly may suck, but at least most of the Big East schools are nearby. Too bad we seem to be cursed to always watch UofL lose, such as last Saturday at Seton Hall.
That's all I can think of for now.

Triathlon Training week 7: run 11.88mi, bike 8.75mi, swim 3500 yd. totals 57.46/83.8/14100 Great week for running; got to get in the pool more

Favorite movies that I can think of right now

Sorry, flipping channels and thought of stuff to write down, such as movies that I really like
1. Addams Family Values: the movie I just flipped to. Send the Addams kids to summer camp, hilarity ensues! "I'll be the victim!" "All your life" Amanda Buckman and Wednesday, during swimming safety class.
2. Batman Begins: This was on earlier. Christian Bale and Cillian Murphy are awesome. Katie Holmes can't act her way out of a paper bag.
3. Spaceballs: on yesterday. I remember when my best friend and I were in Yellowstone years ago, there is a geyser named Lonestar because of its distance away from geyser basin. The whole hike there, we just kept chanting "Lonestar" in our best Dark Helmet voice.
4. Drop Dead Gorgeous: Absolutely stupid movie, but anything that makes fun of beauty pageants is great in my book. Denise Richards' "talent" alone is worth watching. Also great parts by Brittany Murphy and Amy Adams.
5: Usual Suspects: I was almost late to get my hair cut because it was near the end when I flipped. Although the ending makes the rest of the movie pointless (think about it), it still rocks.

Triathlon week 6: ran 6.05mi, bike 16.5mi. Totals 33.7/75.5/10600. I suck.

Adios pelo largo!

Two hours ago, my hair was 22 inches long. I like my hair long, but it was starting to get ridiculous. It was hard to run with because it was so heavy, especially when sweaty. So I cut it all off. And, for those of you who are in the know about our old cutting hair off theory, I am not going through any major life changes. I just knew I wanted to cut it, and then I realized I had enough to donate. I may use Locks of Love, but I've heard they sometimes charge the recipients. I hope that's incorrect, but I may look into other services as well. I'll just keep 12 inches of hair in a Ziploc bag for now.

My hair is now 9 inches long at the most. It's shorter than I wanted, and I may have to go pigtails for a while, but my hair grows crazy fast (must be said in former capital one credit card accent with Eastern European dude). It also looks a lot like my middle sister's hair, which is good.

Why I hate the PPA

Look, I get it. If you park at a spot and don't donate your change, you should get a ticket. Ditto for parking in handicap spaces, double parking, parking in a bike lane, etc. In Louisville, if you were 5 minutes late getting to your car, no problem. A quarter got you 20 minutes, and, in general, the rules made sense. Then I moved to Philadelphia, where parking is apparently a serious civic matter. Here is a brief sampling of some of our run-ins with the PPA.
1. DH was 1 minute over his allotted time at a meter. When he arrived, the ticket was already on the windshield and not a PPA officer in sight. I admit, we were at fault, but I wonder if the ticket was on the car maybe a little early.
2. DH dropped off Max at doggy daycare, which required 20 seconds inside the building. Got back to the car, and a PPA vehicle was pulling up, but no ticket was on the car. 6 weeks later, we get a citation in the mail for failure to pay a parking ticket on time. Uh, don't you actually have to give the ticket, PPA? We got that one overturned.
3. DH parked at a meter that didn't require feeding until 9am. When he got there at 8:55, there was already a ticket. Also got that one overturned.
4. Parking on East-West streets is free on Sundays, while North-South streets charge at the regular rate. Except for Chestnut St, which is apparently exempt from the free Sundays rule, and also happens to be the second closest street to the gym and also near several churches.
5. I pulled up to a meter at the gym and I had 6 quarters, good for an hour and a half. I put the first two in, and got my :30. Then I put the 3rd in: the meter still read :30. This happens often in Philly because the meters themselves are possessed. So, I put in another quarter, still :30. Now I am angry because this has cost me 30 good work-out minutes. Happily, I saw a PPA official walking up the sidewalk towards me. When I asked her how to go about getting my money back from the messed up meter, her comment was "well, you can always move to a meter that isn't broken." Great, then I can lose all four quarters to the evil PPA.

The moral of the story is that the PPA is a little too gung-ho in this city. They are nearly omni-present because of their huge numbers of employees (DH's theory is that it keeps unemployment artificially low, like the professional gas pumpers in New Jersey) , and they have been known to write tickets for unexpired meters, tow cars parked legally, etc. Interestingly, the reason there are such large numbers is that they are supposed to be donating a large portion of their profit to the schools, public transportation, and the airport. However, despite revenue going up 50% in the last 5 years, the schools have not received a dime ($4 million was promised). The Inquirer ran a great series of articles on this recently; for a good one, click here.

Triathlon training, week 5: ran 3.25 mi, bike 18.65 mi, swam 3700 yards. totals 26.65/58.55/10600. To think, I used to swim that in a day, now it's been 5 weeks. Sheesh.