There is ESPN.

But blast it, there’s like 10 channels to choose from. ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, ESPN Classic 2…to infinity. Then there’s the weirdest sports being shown on them like tennis, NCAA softball, bowling, World Series of Poker, continuous re-airings of ESPN Sportscenter. It’s insane.

So I opted out for NFL Network. I miss football. The swellest thing is they show old NFL games. Last night I watched the Rams vs. Titans 2001 Conference Final game. Of course at the end they rubbed in the fact that oh…the Rams lost to the Pats in the biggest upset ever in the Superbowl.

Right now I’m watching the Houston Oilers (I didn’t even know they ever existed) vs. the Buffalo Bills AFC Wildcard game from some year that I can’t quite make out. The Oilers have weird uniforms and an odd logo…I bet that had to be the reason for their death in the league.

I also found myself watching some quality minutes of tennis. Watched Sharapova win one of her matches. She’s good, but I found the mens match more entertaining. It’s faster paced, harder swings, more movement, which equates a higher  interest rate on my part.

Another down side to all the ESPN affiliates right now is Brady keeps popping up on screen alongside Moss. I’m tired of hearing about the Patriots 4 receivers!

This time of year is quite fun in the Sports world in general. But right now it is especially. Mamba can’t make up his mind if he wants to be traded or not. Florida’s coach is going pro. (A Yay for Duke by the way), the NCAA granted Duke players an extra year of eligibility, Jamal Lewis left Baltimore (hip hip hooray), the Grizzlies got a new coach, The Orioles are about as good as the Yankee’s right now, and the list goes on and on.

And the Fallbrook guys should be proud of me. I spent some time watching the WSOP. I think I gathered a few tricks of the trade. Anna Dukes says, “It’s okay to lie (in poker) but you can’t tell the truth”. I also learned how it’s okay to go all in, especially if you want to lose quickly or if you know you have more chips than everyone else (that is a sure way of winning the hand). Also bluffing when you have more chips than everyone and then going all in…looks to be lots of fun. I think ya’ll (I’m in the south ya’ll) should wear sunglasses when you play, all the pros are doing it.
(I realize most of you aren’t interested in this, and I have done other things today which you might find more interesting to read, but this is a subliminal shout out to Toshi, who used to comment on my blog a lot, to comment on my blog again.)

And the Representative from California takes the floor.

“I’ve found a reason to show, a side of me you didn’t know. A reason for all that I do, and the reason is you (my readers).”

I went to Wordstock and not many people recognized me from my blog, in fact only two people did. But then afterwards a few people put two and two together…which is grand in it’s own special way.

I talked to a few people about it and their reasons was that I don’t post pictures, just a bunch of really cool and spiffy text. (well that’s what I think at least)

So take this!

The usual boring plane shot…taken somewhere over some state. I believe we were still in California.

Another one of those boring dotted landscapes. I believe this time we were over another state. Looks the same to me though.

Oh look…it’s me.

And me again.

Oh, and me again. This time I was posing for my book cover insert. You know the one I’m going to write in a few years titled “Why I have Bad Karma (How to tell if you have it too)”

I got the thumbs up of approval to tell you the next story. In true Puddle fashion, my plane from California took off 40 minutes late. It was grand for a time, because I got to get a 40 minute nap (it’s hard for me to sleep when the plane is moving). But then it set me up with 15 minutes to get onto my connecting flight when I was supposed to have an hour and 15 minutes. We also hit turbulence which slowed us down the extra 20 minutes. I made my connection PTL. But then we had to wait an extra half hour so they could load the luggage from the other plane. Which is another PTL situation because I was able to get my luggage on time.

Let me explain. I’m on holiday leave…and it’s my first one in 2 months. Those poor people who sat next to me. They must have thought I was crazy.

First step in Minneapolis. Gotta have a first for everything.

I had a long time in a plane by myself. I tried to occupy my mind by listening to music…but after a few hours that got a tad boring. So I let my mind wander just a little. During it’s wandering I thought “If I started a band, was in a band, or got to choose the name for a band, what would I name it?” I thought, I pondered, I thunk, and I thunk, and I decided on “Puddle of Love”. You can get so many meanings and images from that. I think it’s grand.

I have no idea what language that is next to the English, but I do know one thing…it’s not Spanish! This was taken at the Memphis Airport. Not one sign was in Spanish. How odd is that?

“You can feel my touch on your shoulder, because your shirt is my fingers.”

Now ya’ll can’t say you don’t know who’s blog this is.

I’m Stateside again trying to finish cleaning and repairing our old house before the walk through. I just finished scrounging for food. Serious scrounging. What did I find? Cans of Tuna, a can of cream of mushroom soup, a bag of rice, and a few veggies.

One small problem…no can opener.

But a remedy soon came, Meek decided we could ask the neighbor for a can opener, and she did. And we got one, so I made cream tuna and rice for everyone. D Dawg seemed to enjoy, so it’s all grand.
Now we are discussing Oil, War, Money, and the Rich. Rich topics mind you.

Tomorrow I’m flying to Memphis, the home of the Blues.

While out with Darren today we caught sight of a TV warning flyer’s of Tuberculous.

Plays, “If I should die tomorrow there’s no doubt that you would miss me” (I know it sounds conceited…but you better)

Skips to the best part of the song. “Don’t cry for me, more than a moment please. Though the times shall pass, we will meet again.”

Presses the skip button again to “I’ll be leaving this place, I’m going it won’t be far away, but you know it won’t be forever.”

EOP (End of Playlist)

So yeah, pray that I survive and don’t catch it. I’ll try to post about all of the swell things that I’ll be experiencing over there.

Bon Voyage.

Duke Lax lost…to John’s Hopkins. I’m bummed. 12-11 was the final score. Last time it was 9-8. That blasted 1 point. Hopkins’ happens to be the enemy of all lacrosse schools. It’s a shame that they are now tied for the second most lax titles.
So for the third time this year I shall write “there’s always next year”. And technically there is, unless of course the world explodes. But if that were to happen, sports would seem rather silly and trivial.

Sigh.

Onto a different topic. I went out with Niki, Cons, Boo, and Michelle this weekend to Apple Bee’s. When this thought hit me…and then ricocheted and hit the other girls upside the head.

It seems that Victoria Secrets clothes run on the larger side, as in like most of us fit into their smalls or xtra small undies, and we are normal sized individuals.

So what the heck do the stick models wear?

Are their undies custom made? Are they actually normal sized but PSed to be ultra thin?

There was an odd moment of silence. The kind where you can almost hear everyone’s brains churning, digesting the information. Then there’s the moment where everyone is waiting for someone to speak first…but an odd chuckle/giggly sound comes out instead and you aren’t really sure who did it.

We were stumped.

So we moved on to other topics, such as…you know other topics.

As some of you know (or others will soon know) my dad moved to Thailand a little over a month ago. In the process he annexed some people to our small or rather itsy bitsy family.

There’s no longer just father and daughter…there’s a mother and a sister as well (or will be soon or something of the sort).

It’s new, different, and swell all mixed together. “A real page” as Smish would say.

Onwards to a whole new volume!

Well it’s been a while since I talked about…competitive group sports.

Last night I sported my Duke Lacrosse shirt in support of today’s Duke vs. Cornell semifinal game. I wore it all day. I wore it when I went to the mall, when I went to AppleBee’s, when I went to some little Mexican Restaurant with Cons, and when I went…everywhere. I got looks, I got comments, I got snarls…and it made me happy…

Because…

Duke won.

We’re going to the finals!

Duke’s going to be playing against John’s Hopkins, who they lost to in 2005, which means…Rematch!

I’m ever so happy.

Monday is the day and I’m marking it on my calendar.

About the rough and tough NBA.

I caught the last quarter of the Jazz/Spurs game. Boozer rocks!

I hope they win… it all… but they most likely won’t.

Over where?

At the Wordstock blog.

What’s happening over there?

The last two days of Wordstock were blogged about.

Really?

Yeah…they finally posted them.

Dude!

No…Sweet!

Dude!

Sweet!

Word!

Take Stock!

Yeah, it rocks.

As in like…Word! Stock. Rocks.
Whew.

This is a post dedicated to the people who broke away from the chains of murky Christian bluegrass music and started on the road to modern Family music. (Not that the Christian Bluegrass is bad or anything…it’s great to listen to for old times sake)

While listening to Tory’s (or Chuck’s) playlist of older family music (older as in 1997 on), I realized just how long ago it was since the last time I listened to the stuff, and how way back then…it was the coolest stuff ever.

Whenever a new FTT came out, everybody would hover around the tape player (how outdated is that?) and listen to EVERY song. There was no such thing as skipping that song that sounded funny. If you were the one to mention such a dreadful thing, whoa be to you.

Dance nights consisted of that technoy song replayed at least 5 times. And when Rhythm and Grooves came out the dancers rejoiced, now we could just flip the tape over and over.

For every FTT I have an associated memory with it. Like when March on Strong came out we just started a series of road trips up and down the coast of North Carolina to Florida. The tape player in our van was broken (those old Astros…gotta miss them) and there were 4 of us OC/Jett’s each with a Walkman and 1 tape. So we would have fights over who could get the tape for the first hour, then the next…and the next…and the next. Thank God that Ipod’s and Mp3 players have now come around.

Anyways, back to the topic at hand. As I listened to each song on her playlist, I started to think, “Hey without this song coming out we wouldn’t of had this one…and this one…and hey, yeah that one to.” So here’s my list of songs and musicians that I think kicked started our modern era of Family Music.

1. Whoever wrote “Be a Survivor”, started the “rap” movement. However, most people would probably give Hot and Cold  that title, but I think Philly’s “Hallelujah” really did it, because after that we got the likes of “Do or Die” and Modis Operandi”, and those last two are the ones that gave us Jaydee (or well inspired him of sorts).
2. I think Emanuel’s earlier stuff started the Techno trend, then NTL took over…and now we have Trance instead of Techno which is all over the place and definitely getting better as time goes on.

3. Vas and his rougher voice started the “rock” movement with “Emanuel”. Because of his willingness to break out of the softer mold (or maybe it’s just his willingness to sing) we get the likes of SOE and POA and others…like Red Sky! now.
4. Godfrey was the first to start modern punk (aka the 3 chord wonder) with “I Don’t Care” and a few other songs on “I’m Still Here”. It’s swell that he did, because now STEM is around to continue it on.

5. In the Women’s harder singing department, I think Hopie was the first to try and succeed with her songs on Flying Colors. Haven is doing great at it too.

6. Slower songs that women sing…umm…well that’s sorta been around since the first FTT ever came out, but I think Joni has a great voice in the folk genre, and Niki does great with the Irish/Bluesy stuff, and Julie just has a great voice.

Of course, I’m not a musician or a singer. I’m just an appreciator of the grooves and the notes, basically I’m just talking out of my fingers. Anyone is welcome to correct my ignorance or add on to the list.

Yesterday I had a Mountain Dew. In fact it was a 2 liter MD. It was nice, it was big, it was once lost, and then it was found (along with the facial mush). And guess what I did with it?

Go on ahead and guess?

…?

I dumped it down the sink!

It was painful. I whimpered sounds of anguish, I laughed tears of sadness, and I came out stronger for it. Or at least that’s what they tell me.
Naty had her first taste of the stuff, she thinks Lemon Twist tastes better. It sounds like a rip off to me but…(I wonder if it’s healthier?). I gave Phil the ceremonious last drops, and he dumped them down the other sink. Ungrateful people.

I kept the bottle. I want to continue in Cesco’s and Mike D’s trend at Wordstock.

I got so excited that they were drinking MD during their concert. I thought for sure that I had found my fellow peeps and homesters. I told Philonious all about it. He just nodded his head with his big smile in his little fashion. Then after the concert I met up with them near the water fountain, and the truth was told. It was just water inside the bottle, and they were taking off the label (my guess to disguise the fact that it was in fact a Mountain Dew bottle.)
On the bright side, at one time there had to have been Mountain Dew in it. So they can still be my peeps.

***

I had my first take of lacrosse with my PEMEX wall. Wall ball is definitely in no way more fun than having a person there and playing catch. Every muscle in my upper body is sore from twisting and pulling it in odd ways to catch a silly ball. But I love the sport, so it’s all good.

***

My home members make me feel so warm and fuzzy inside. They make me feel so needed…when there is no food. See I’ve been gone for 2 shopping days (equating to roughly 2 weeks), so my handy dandy superior food shopping skills have been missing. Other swell people have taken the torch to fill the empty stomachs, but as some of my home members have told me “something has been missing”. No Duh? It’s me.

So I’m heading State Side tonight to listen to many hours of LET’S GO! with my chauffeur, Chuck, tomorrow. (Though if you see us while we’re out I look like her caddy.) We’re going to be bringing lots of food and goodies home to feed the staving Teamalians. At least that’s the hope.

So…LET’S GO!

Sorry to interrupt you from your busy schedules (and mine as well) but I have earth breaking news.

I have make-up! Like OMG! My lost bag of facial mush has been found today, a week after a camp where 250 barely known individuals had to look upon my pure uncontaminated sweaty face for a week, because the before mentioned products became lost in a move between countries. I’m sorry for the pain that I might have caused some people. But on the other hand, you were all seeing the real me, because it’s not like I wear it that often…actually hardly ever. So in that train of thought PTL.
Oh, and Joan, you should be happy to know that I found your DVD’s and will be sending them in the mail in two days. Well not me personally but Speck.  Please tell the kids not to hate me.
Tuesday, May 22nd 2007 shall be marked as one of the swellest days in 2007.