Had a lot going on again this weekend. I will say this, I knew that moving into a house was going to be expensive, but I had no idea how many things pop up. Whether its furniture, or the heat, or landscaping, etc. I feel like all we do is write checks. We keep telling each other that we need to ride this out and once we get completely settled, it will slow down. Right about the time it slows down, our baby will be born and I will be paying for three, so the endless cycle of spending will probably continue. Its all good though. We are having a boy who I am going to be taking to Tribe games for the rest of my life. What could be wrong with that?
Allison Kaufman was back in town doing some photography this week and we had dinner and some drinks with her on Friday night at Taza, a Lebanese restaurant at Eton. We have been there a bunch of times, and for me, it is adventuresome. I am a meat and potatoes kind of guy. This place is very good and relatively inexpensive. They have great babaganoosh and Hummus. It is always great to see AK and nobody is better to rap with. We went to Mitchell's ice cream for desert. That is a Cleveland suburban, married guy Friday night. Dinner and drinks, desert, go home. It is so funny the 180 lifestyle difference between living here and living in the city. I love them both equally, but for what is going on in my life now, this is what is right for us. The baby is coming in February and we are getting ourselves acclimated to this life. We love the house and the neighborhood so much.
I do miss my friends a ton though. Yesterday was a prime example. All I wanted to do was hang out with friends and watch football. I surveyed my options here. Jeremy has two kids and with the Browns on a bye week, was with his family all day. Jared just had baby boy #2 last week (congrats out to Jared and Stephanie) and had a bris. I called my guy Bilsky, but he was in Vegas. I also didn't want to stay home all day and neither did Leah. So Leah, always the good sport that she is, and I went to Champps, had lunch and watched the first half of the early games. They do a nationwide weekly fantasy football deal where you pick players with a $25 salary cap, so we both turned one in. That kind of interested Leah, but she obviously isn't down with watching football all day. Not that I took it for granted, because I appreciate my friends a ton, but I definitely miss the access to and the number of friends in Chicago. The other funny aspect of it was we literally walked into Champps right before 1 PM and got a table no problem right in front of all the TV's. Gotta love C-town.
Speaking of the house, all of our baby furniture was purchased on Friday. In talking to my friend Adam in Columbus, he told me they got all of their baby furniture (his wife Jenny is due next month) at this place in C-town called Bellini, and it is closing at the end of the year. They had everything we were looking for and Leah loved it. We ended up getting pretty much everything we need from their floor samples for a great deal. To quote Adam, "Now the furniture is arriving, I guess this is really happening to us."
On 60 Minutes last night, they aired a riveting piece on the Duke rape case, where a stripper alleged that three members of the team pulled her into the bathroom and sexually assaulted her. All three players deny the allegations. It got a ton of press when it happened a few months back, and like most people, I immediately assumed they were guilty. But after watching this piece, where the three suspects were interviewed, the second stripper was interviewed, and the Durham DA declining comment on almost everything, my view completely changed. Talk about a rush to judgement. The facts I found out were interesting. After the alleged victim reported a rape, she was given pictures of every member of the Duke Lacrosse team and couldn't identify any of them as her attackers. The entire team was forced to give a DNA sample to the police and were assured that all parties found without matching DNA would be cleared. When the DNA tests came back, none of the players DNA was found to be on or inside of the alleged victim and none of it matched. So a second lineup of pictures was placed in front of her, every player in one big group. She picked out three guys and said she was "90% sure" these were the guys. Though earlier in the first lineup, she said of one of the attackers she wasn't sure he wasn't even at the party in question. One of the accused players had his cell phone records checked. He made 9 separate phone calls during the time the alleged rape was taking place. Then 10 minutes later, he was filmed by a camera at an ATM taking money out. The DA is up for re-election is seems to be pandering to the Black community because this case is wrought with racism. The players were all white and the strippers were Black. These three players are clearly being railroaded. The other stripper says no assault took place, the DNA doesn't match, and there really are no facts backing up her story - no injuries, bruises, etc. Yet these three kids were indicted, cuffed, faces put all over the news, and essentially have had their lives ruined. It doesn't even matter WHEN they are found innocent because this stigma will stay with them forever. To quote Colin Finnerty, one of the indicted players: "I never expected anyone to get indicted, let alone myself. It's changed my life, no matter what happens from here on out. It's probably going to be something that defines me my whole life."
Did you see that brawl on Saturday between "The U," The University of Miami and Florida International University? It was a full scale melee. Nothing like the low class Canes swinging their helmets as weapons, stomping on defenseless players on the ground with their cleats, and throwing punches. The guy doing the most stomping was one of the captains. Then as the riot finally breaks up, they jump up and down as a team waving their helmets high to the sky. I heard the radio call of the fight, and color man Lamar Thomas, a former Canes WR, was saying "that is what happens when you come to the OB (Orange Bowl), you can expect to get your butt whupped. You don't come into the OB and talk smack. This is our house. Lets take this outside into the parking lot. I feel like getting in the elevator, going down to the field and joining in." Click here to read the story and listen to Thomas' moronic comments. What a disgrace Thomas, and the whole program are. This is the same Lamar Thomas who has been arrested for assaulting his pregnant girlfriend and jailed, violated probation, had to be admitted to the psychiatric ward for attempting suicide, and did more jail time for choking his fiancee in front of his 6 month old son. How did this guy get this job? The best is that it was "Join the Team, Not a Gang day" at Miami. 700 local youths were on hand. Head Coach Larry Coker might as well quit now, because he should be and will be fired at the end of the year. Not only for letting his team run wild, but for their collapse as a football power.
Song of the Day: "Just a Little Bit" by 50 Cent
Allison Kaufman was back in town doing some photography this week and we had dinner and some drinks with her on Friday night at Taza, a Lebanese restaurant at Eton. We have been there a bunch of times, and for me, it is adventuresome. I am a meat and potatoes kind of guy. This place is very good and relatively inexpensive. They have great babaganoosh and Hummus. It is always great to see AK and nobody is better to rap with. We went to Mitchell's ice cream for desert. That is a Cleveland suburban, married guy Friday night. Dinner and drinks, desert, go home. It is so funny the 180 lifestyle difference between living here and living in the city. I love them both equally, but for what is going on in my life now, this is what is right for us. The baby is coming in February and we are getting ourselves acclimated to this life. We love the house and the neighborhood so much.
I do miss my friends a ton though. Yesterday was a prime example. All I wanted to do was hang out with friends and watch football. I surveyed my options here. Jeremy has two kids and with the Browns on a bye week, was with his family all day. Jared just had baby boy #2 last week (congrats out to Jared and Stephanie) and had a bris. I called my guy Bilsky, but he was in Vegas. I also didn't want to stay home all day and neither did Leah. So Leah, always the good sport that she is, and I went to Champps, had lunch and watched the first half of the early games. They do a nationwide weekly fantasy football deal where you pick players with a $25 salary cap, so we both turned one in. That kind of interested Leah, but she obviously isn't down with watching football all day. Not that I took it for granted, because I appreciate my friends a ton, but I definitely miss the access to and the number of friends in Chicago. The other funny aspect of it was we literally walked into Champps right before 1 PM and got a table no problem right in front of all the TV's. Gotta love C-town.
Speaking of the house, all of our baby furniture was purchased on Friday. In talking to my friend Adam in Columbus, he told me they got all of their baby furniture (his wife Jenny is due next month) at this place in C-town called Bellini, and it is closing at the end of the year. They had everything we were looking for and Leah loved it. We ended up getting pretty much everything we need from their floor samples for a great deal. To quote Adam, "Now the furniture is arriving, I guess this is really happening to us."
On 60 Minutes last night, they aired a riveting piece on the Duke rape case, where a stripper alleged that three members of the team pulled her into the bathroom and sexually assaulted her. All three players deny the allegations. It got a ton of press when it happened a few months back, and like most people, I immediately assumed they were guilty. But after watching this piece, where the three suspects were interviewed, the second stripper was interviewed, and the Durham DA declining comment on almost everything, my view completely changed. Talk about a rush to judgement. The facts I found out were interesting. After the alleged victim reported a rape, she was given pictures of every member of the Duke Lacrosse team and couldn't identify any of them as her attackers. The entire team was forced to give a DNA sample to the police and were assured that all parties found without matching DNA would be cleared. When the DNA tests came back, none of the players DNA was found to be on or inside of the alleged victim and none of it matched. So a second lineup of pictures was placed in front of her, every player in one big group. She picked out three guys and said she was "90% sure" these were the guys. Though earlier in the first lineup, she said of one of the attackers she wasn't sure he wasn't even at the party in question. One of the accused players had his cell phone records checked. He made 9 separate phone calls during the time the alleged rape was taking place. Then 10 minutes later, he was filmed by a camera at an ATM taking money out. The DA is up for re-election is seems to be pandering to the Black community because this case is wrought with racism. The players were all white and the strippers were Black. These three players are clearly being railroaded. The other stripper says no assault took place, the DNA doesn't match, and there really are no facts backing up her story - no injuries, bruises, etc. Yet these three kids were indicted, cuffed, faces put all over the news, and essentially have had their lives ruined. It doesn't even matter WHEN they are found innocent because this stigma will stay with them forever. To quote Colin Finnerty, one of the indicted players: "I never expected anyone to get indicted, let alone myself. It's changed my life, no matter what happens from here on out. It's probably going to be something that defines me my whole life."
Did you see that brawl on Saturday between "The U," The University of Miami and Florida International University? It was a full scale melee. Nothing like the low class Canes swinging their helmets as weapons, stomping on defenseless players on the ground with their cleats, and throwing punches. The guy doing the most stomping was one of the captains. Then as the riot finally breaks up, they jump up and down as a team waving their helmets high to the sky. I heard the radio call of the fight, and color man Lamar Thomas, a former Canes WR, was saying "that is what happens when you come to the OB (Orange Bowl), you can expect to get your butt whupped. You don't come into the OB and talk smack. This is our house. Lets take this outside into the parking lot. I feel like getting in the elevator, going down to the field and joining in." Click here to read the story and listen to Thomas' moronic comments. What a disgrace Thomas, and the whole program are. This is the same Lamar Thomas who has been arrested for assaulting his pregnant girlfriend and jailed, violated probation, had to be admitted to the psychiatric ward for attempting suicide, and did more jail time for choking his fiancee in front of his 6 month old son. How did this guy get this job? The best is that it was "Join the Team, Not a Gang day" at Miami. 700 local youths were on hand. Head Coach Larry Coker might as well quit now, because he should be and will be fired at the end of the year. Not only for letting his team run wild, but for their collapse as a football power.
Song of the Day: "Just a Little Bit" by 50 Cent
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