Picture Catch-up Part 2, Football Games

Other than the several Ravens games I go to each year, I thought I'd like to see another stadium this year and how the crowds treat me. A bunch of friends are Steelers fans so I figured I'd head there.



Justin, Marko and I tailgating



This was a pretty awesome stadium and I can't wait to go back next year



I was really impressed how few Ravens fans were there. The Steelers fans apparently don't sell up their seats for big games like a lot of fans do here in B'more.

Overall, I was treated pretty well, even after we won. It may have had to do with being surrounded by friends that were Steelers fans, or that I didn't really try to start anything, or that I'm 6-4, 260; regardless, it was a pleasant experience.



I've wanted to see Mike Vick play live because it's hard to see the whole field on TV and what affect he actually has on defensive backs. I chose the perfect game to; the 59 - 28 pummelling of the Redskins on a cold and rainy Monday night.



Let's just say that after the TD pass to Desean Jackson on the 1st play of the game, it was easy to see how scared the DBs were that he could pass like that and it allowed him to run all over the field. I was happy with the decision to go to that game, but I wish it was somewhere else; I can't stand FedEx Field and it's a nightmare to get to/leave from.



This is from the Ravens - Steelers game in baltimore last weekend. I went to both games this year and amazingly, both stadiums were pretty silent while I left. BTW, this picture is from an iPhone app called 360 Panorama, it works pretty well during the day, but figured I'd try it at the stadium and like the results (will get one at the Ravens - Saints game next week during the day to see how much better it comes out).

Fantasy Football

My league had our draft Wednesday night and I had the 2nd overall pick. I love theses drafts because the entire time we are making fun of each other's picks or giving someone shit for taking too long. We hold our draft at a sports bar/restaurant and sometimes it gets out of hand toward the end when everyone's had several beers and we're cursing at someone at the other end of the 12-15 person table about taking our handcuff too early while the geriatric couple sitting near us looks on in horror. This year they gave us our own room and it was a good thing, as I think we were louder than usual. I especially enjoyed this year's draft because most of the people in the league are from the company I left only a month ago and it was good to see them again.

Here's my team:
1. Maurice Jones-Drew
2. Roddy White
3. Drew Brees
4. Reggie Bush
5. TJ Houshmanzadah
6. Jericho Cotchery
7. Donald Brown
8. LeSean McCoy
9. Visanthe Shiancoe
10. Donnie Avery
11. San Diego
12. Earl Bennett
13. James Davis
14. Brian Robiskie
15. Kenny Britt

I went down the high risk, high reward path from the seventh round on picking mostly rookies and pissing off the guys that picked Westbrook and Addia. Overall, I'm pretty happy with my team but will need to drop someone and get a kicker before week 1.

Weekend Review

I don't have any pictures from Friday night, nor do I have the writing ability to accurately describe the events that transpired. I will say this though, the night involved all of the following for some or all of the people in my group:

• Bartender's
• Trivia Pursuit cards
• Teachers
• A vice-principal ralphing outside the bar's window
• Some game involving charades
• Getting carded for ordering water
• Someone giving someone else's number to the bartender
• Defining the term "Cranking a Squeege"

Saturday I went out with Newman looking at houses. He is in the market to buy and I wanted to see a bunch of houses in Canton that weren't mine and I couldn't afford. We looked at a total of 10 houses and he found 2 he really likes, and 1 that would be an awesome investment (short sale) but was too big for what he wanted. After looking at the houses, we grabbed some food at Nacho Mama's (love this place) then parted ways before the holiday party that night.

I got to the party a little early so I could set-up Rockband and help out if necessary. I think this year was more fun for me than last year because more people from work showed up and several from my group of friends. We played some Rockband (I sang and everyone kinda stopped talking for a minute and looked over to see if they needed to call for an ambulance) had some good food and counted the minutes till the gift exchange. I am not going to explain the format, but let's just say there was lots of stealing and plenty of strategery going on. I think I ended up with one of the best gifts because of it. I do, however, feel a little bad for whoever got my gift. I used a gift bag and wrapped a brick (since I have plenty of them lying around) in tissue, then placed two of those mini-cereal boxes on top with more tissue paper. Actually, I loaded it with tissue paper so no one would be able to see the brick. People were stealing it since it was heavy and they thought there was something good in there. There was a Starbucks giftcard, but it was under the cardboard under the brick ... thankfully the person found it before throwing the bag out. For your viewing pleasure:





Sunday was fun (other than the Ravens losing). This was the first game I went to with my dad, and his second game ever. He didn't come to the tailgate, but seemed to have a good time during the game (until the end when he had to break-up a fight while leaving). Not really much to say about the game, I can't be too upset because the Ravens had 3 chances to score a TD and couldn't ... plus, I am pretty confident in the ability of the Steelers to get 6 inches if that touchdown wasn't overturned (if you didn't see (or hear about) the game, none of that will make sense). I didn't drink much throughout the day because I had to bolt right at the end so I could make our volleyball game. We went 1 - 2 and after the game I was pretty pissed ... I hate losing.

Battle of the Beltways with a side order of frigid

Sunday was a fun day ... haha ... get it ... it rhymes. This should be the last of my barrage of posts for the day.

The Ravens - Redskins game was moved to 8:15 which proved to be good for hot chocolate sales but that's about it. It was cold during the tailgate and even colder during the game. I got to the lot around 4:30 and realized that I wanted to go home to my 58 degree house cause I cold walk around in shorts and still be comfortable. Here, I was wearing UA (Under Armour) pants with jeans over them, long warm socks with a second pair on top, a UA cold gear long sleeved mock turtleneck thing with a long sleeve shirt over it with a jersey over it with a hoodie of it with a ski jacket over it, and a cheap pair of gloves they sold me in the parking lot with a nice pair of gloves over them ... and a knit beanie ... with my hood up. It was cold ... and especially cold for me since my life goal is to move to Arizona and never see snow again.

The game was great (defensively). I'm very glad the Ravens got out to an early lead and were winning comfortably toward the end of the 3rd quarter so I could leave and start to feel my extremities again. I don't know how the people at the Pittsburgh game handled the 7 degree weather, but I guess they are more used to it. Ed Reed was a beast all game and in the next play from the picture below he decided to run backwards into the end zone after picking up the Portis fumble that he caused.

I like the Redskins, but I live in Baltimore and like the Ravens more. Since they are in different conferences and only play each other once every 4 years, I am OK with cheering for both. I would probably be more of a Skins fan if I grew up watching a lot of football but my grandpa was more of a Orioles fan and I went to a ton of those games (including Cal's 2131) instead. Of course I find baseball to be one of the most boring sports there is, so figure that one out.

Holiday Parties this Weekend

My friend Boozer from my volleyball team is having a holiday party tonight for the team and a bunch of friends. Several of my friends from work are coming with me and this should provide a perfect distraction from the earlier events of the day. I don't know if we are staying at her house the entire time or if we are going to venture out later on, either way it should be a great time.

As I said earlier, tomorrow is my first performance as Santa. I really don't know what to expect and don't know if I will be into it, but it will be nice to see all the excited kids. I also don't know a lot of the kids' names so I feel like I need to put together an index card and tape it to my sleeve like a quarterback does with their plays. I just hope there are some good pictures. Think it's acceptable if I drink before, it will definitely increase my commitment to acting like Santa?

Not necessarily holiday themed, but Sunday will definitely be a party. The Ravens - Redskins game is at 8:15 and I will be tailgating from 3:30ish on. I'll probably get to Fed Hill before that and watch some of the 1 o'clock games at Cross Street Market. Don't expect any posts until Monday at the earliest, but if there are any they will probably be lies and written after quite a bit of drinking.

Saturday's Terps Game

The Terps are 5-0 at home this year and 5-0 (going back to last year) against ranked teams yet they can still suck beyond comprehension at times. I understand why everyone rags on the ACC because somehow the Terps are in 1st (again) in the Atlantic division and have a loss to Middle Tennessee State on their record. On to the game ...

This weekend's game was another wet one with the rain starting an hour or so before game time. Other than the fact I was in shorts and a jersey and freezing cold, this made it a lot more fun. For some reason I enjoy the messy games a lot more and don't mind hanging out in the rain. I didn't go with my usual crew and this resulted in us getting there later than normal and not tailgating for as long. On the plus side, I remember a lot more of the game but I also felt the cold a lot more. As sloppy as the game was, it came down to a pretty exciting end with the Terps getting a field goal with under 3 minutes (I think) to play to put them up by 2 and then UNC throwing an interception with just over a minute (I think).

By the way

F the Terps and their inconsistency. That's all ... goodnight.

There goes Trivia night

So I start my new/second job tomorrow night. I have been looking for a second job for a while but needed something flexible and this job seems like it will fit that description. I am hoping to get some extra money to help with the bills but it will suck losing two nights that I would have previously been able to unsuccessfully work on my house. I am also sad that I won't be able to watch the Terps play V-Tech tomorrow night but am happy Florida State lost last weekend and will probably lose this weekend too. I also need Wake Forest to lose to UVA ... lets make that happen.

Maryland Homecoming Football Game

I went to the Maryland vs. NC State football game this past Saturday as part of my fabulous birthday weekend. We got there several hours early and set up shop for tailgating. At first we thought the weather reports about heavy rain all afternoon were BS because it was really nice out and warmer than originally expected. That sure didn't last. We start hearing people yelling and looked over and could see the edge of the rain making its way toward us (it reminded me a lot about when I was in Ireland and everyday you could see the edge of a storm somewhere off in the distance). After a few minutes of the rain we decided that it wouldn't matter because it was just going to continue all day. We continued our drinking, grilling, and baggo (cornhole) playing. We also made it a point to stop by some tailgaters that had an awesome ice luge last year to see what they brought this time around.

Needless to say, this is a bad ass ice luge. If you look at the shoulders there are small funnels that pour out into the opposite hands of the Terp.

When we got to the game it seemed like everyone but us were wearing ponchos. The stadium had a good amount of people considering the weather and that NC State was perceived to be a weak opponent. The game was really sloppy but Maryland was able to win 27 - 24 in the last few seconds with a field goal (after already having won with a TD pass to Darrius Heyward-Bey that was ruled incomplete but definitely was a catch).

This photo shows how much it was raining during the game. I got it from umterps.com and hope it is OK to publish it on here.

We went back and tailgated some more as we waited for the parking lots to clear out then headed home (with a short detour towards DC ... oops). Our plan was to go to the Green Turtle in Columbia to watch the UFC fight but within a few minutes of getting home there were 4 guys passed out on a couch.

Weekend Review

I accomplished my goal this weekend and did not spend any money and still had a great time.

After working on my house Saturday and watching a movie in the morning I went for a walk around Canton. Stopped by Blockbuster to return the movie and pick up some new movies (I subscribe to the BB Total Access and believe it is better than Netflix since I can walk to the store and get a new movie immediately for free and still have the next one in my queue arrive in a couple days) then continued down toward the 1st Mariner building and looped around till I got back home. Cooked some lunch and wasted an hour and a half of my life on the worst (maybe not the worst but definately up there) movie ever; The Happening. Walked up to Patterson Park and watched my sister's BSSC football team shutout some horrible team 50-something to 0.

After the game, we (me, my sis and her bf) headed to Dockside and had dinner (they paid, thanks!) before heading out to Mahaffey's to meet up with some people from their football team. I stopped by my neighbors' for a minute and a couple beers before going to Mahaffey's since a couple of them ran in the B'more marathon and were having a party later. Back out at Mahafee's I had a couple beers that I think people only bought to increase their level in the 100 Beer Club but didn't want to drink. Gotta love the 9% beers. I stayed there for a while until my sister's choice of music on the jukebox started getting to me and I had to leave.

I went back to my neighbors' house and by this time the party had started and there were a bunch of people there. I started playing the drinking game "baseball" (which I had never played before) and ended up drinking more than I had planned. After a while everyone wanted to head out so about 10 of us made a quick pit stop at my house and finished off one of the bottles (yes I keep multiple on hand) of Jager before heading to Looney's. Thinking back on it I find it funny that there were that many people crowding around my kitchen with a drop cloth hanging between the living room and the kitchen and my couch and bike also in the kitchen with my ceiling half missing (run-on sentence?). We got to Looney's and went upstairs to go dancing (I haven't danced since college but since my friend couldn't find her husband she used me instead). A couple of the people that had the Jager shots with me bought me shots at the bar so it all worked out in terms of not needing to buy anything. We closed out the bar (I think) and I went home and passed out.

I woke up feeling great at 12:45 Sunday and immediately updated my fantasy football team (good thing too cause I didn't have a full line-up ~ ended up winning). I packed some beers and rode my bike over to my sister's bf's house to watch the Ravens game. After getting there I think the realization that I had entirely too much to drink the night before hit me like a ton of bricks. I went to the basement and passed out until the 3rd quarter. When I came back upstairs and saw the score I really felt like going back down to pass out again. Instead we waited until the end of the game (and the Redskins final and the Dallas ending) then went outside to play football in the street. A couple collisions with cars and some scraped knees later, my team won. I got a ride home since it was dark and I didn't feeling like getting hit by a car on my way home. That pretty much ended my weekend since I wasn't able to get to my volleyball game after getting home (stupid car).

Bored out of my mind

I got home from work yesterday, did some more demolition on my house (expanded the hole in the ceiling), cleaned up for 3x longer than I destroyed stuff, watched the second to last disc of Six Feet Under and went to bed around 11. I didn't go out (it was hard to resist the texts saying "In Canton drinking, where are you?") and didn't spend any money.

I woke up at 8 this morning and actually got out of bed. Cooked some eggs and watched a movie then did some more work on my house (less messy stuff today cause I am running out of room to put the rubble). Now I am going crazy cause I don't want to watch any movies and don't have cable to watch football but don't want to spend money at the bars to watch it. I was going to walk over to Fed Hill, but my friends are either out of state or getting ready for weddings. I don't think this not spending money thing is going to work out ... I am pretty sure I will be at a bar watching football by 2.

Football Funday

Yesterday was the first Ravens game of the regular season I went to this year. If you recall, I went to the Ravens - Vikings preseason game (for about 15 minutes) but ended up getting rid of my tickets to the Cincinnati game. Rob and I started out at Mother's in Fed Hill around 11:30 for brunch, Brian got there shortly after to meet up with us. Mother's was good and bad ... the good was the Maple leaf 'dilla I had for breakfast and all the TVs showing the 1:00 PM games while we waited for our 4:15 start ... the bad was the complete lack of drink specials. We had our 'dillas (and a couple beers) and headed over to Cross Street Market and got the more valuable $5 32 oz drafts. A couple of those and we headed back to Mother's to watch the games for a little while. Rob and I left Brian to his Eagles and made our way to lot H for some tailgating with my sister's bf and his crew. I also met up with an ex I hadn't seen in several months that was tailgating (I think that was awkward but was drunk and am not sure). Several Natty Boh's and a couple of Jager bombs later we made our way into the stadium. A bag of pistachios, half an order of nachos and another couple beers later the Ravens won and my voice was shot. Rob and I headed back to Cross Street to get picked up by his awesome fiancee. I had her drop me off at Tiburzi's so I could see some of the Dallas - Packers game but fell victim to the long day of being in the sun (nothing to do with drinking) and went home to pass out around 10:30 PM. My fantasy team is down 30 but I have two WRs going tonight, I hope Favre and Rivers have a shoot-out and Cotchery and Chambers come out the best.

The Amazing Race

Please disregard the napkins, they are so we could judge how much was spilled. This was a redo because Brian didn't know how to record using my camera and it turned out pretty bad. I feel like this was a poor performance on my part, and I assume on Dundalk's too because this is about 3 hours into the tailgate after lots of food and drinking.

Me vs. Dundalk Rob

Maryland vs. Delaware

Several things came together to make Saturday a great day:

- Terps football season opener

- Opponent was Delaware (a bunch of my friends went there)

- Tickets were easily available

- Game was at 3:45

- Tailgating started at 11:00

- The rain decided to stay away

- We didn't run out of beer

- The food was awesome

- Maryland won (even if they looked pretty bad)

The rest will be shown through pictures and captions.

Me displaying finesse required to play cornhole

Jones and Bob waiting to throw

Can you say vegetables?

I think it's going in the hole

Waiting for the food to be ready

"It's Paris, with an E"

Meggett about to run over some Blue Hens

"Go Terps!"

Watching in the stands

The end result

This weekend

This weekend I learned some things:

• When you leave work early on a Friday to take a nap before happy hour, you won't wake up until hapy hour is over
• After you miss happy hour, there is no desire to go meet up with a bunch of people that are already drunk
• I am not a mason and don't know how to repair a chimney with bricks missing
• I grossly underestimate the amount of mortar needed to replace two bricks
• Going out at 2:00 PM for a 7:30 PM football game = not remembering the football game
• NFL Preseason football = not worth remembering
• Mother's is a good place to go before a worthless football game
• I still love Dog Pub and always will but hate that I can't refuse the free shots of GM they give me
• Nacho cheese washes out of shorts pretty well
• Tropic Thunder is funny but tries too hard to be as un-PC as possible
• The movie theater in Linthicum is a great deal
• Phelps is a great swimmer but I still prefer watching any track event over swimming

At Mother's before the game

Quick shot for J's bday, also before the game