Day 213

First things first. Happy Hannukah everyone. Everyone loves 8 days of gifts. Too bad we don't follow that. But nevertheless, Happy Hannukah. More exciting news in Robuck family. My brother in law Scott got engaged to his long time girlfriend Lauren on Friday night in Scottsdale. Lauren's family lives in California and she was headed back there for her birthday (she left yesterday), so Scott said he was going to take her out. They went to dinner and he gave her a necklace for a gift. As they got back to their condo, their was a trail of rose petals leading up the stairs and into their living room where Scott had a box for her. She opened it up and their was a velour sweatsuit that said "Scott's bride" on the back of it, he got down on one knee and proposed. She said yes. No date has been set for the wedding, but it will assuredly be a long engagement. Probably shooting for summer of 2008. Probably before Dave and Sara. hahahaha. Its crazy to me that Scott is engaged. I was at the kid's bar mitzvah and now he is getting married. I guess I have been around the Robuck family a long time. I couldn't be happier for the both of them and Lauren will make a great addition to our family. What's crazier is that when they get married, I'll and a one and a half year old. Yikes! Congrats to them both. Lastly, in classic Scott fashion, at his engagement meal with my in-laws and Lauren's family who came in for the engagement, he ordered the special which was by far the most expensive thing on the menu. hahahahahaha.

Quick Movie Review: Leah and I saw The Holiday Friday night. We are trying to get in as many movies as we can now, since the entire free world tells us we will never go to the movies again once our son is born. Anyways, I was somewhat reluctant to see this movie as I thought it would be a chick flick. But like last year at this time with The Family Stone, I was pleasantly surprised. This romantic comedy is set in LA and a small village in England. Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet are both great as characters who switch houses and parts of the world for two weeks tto get away from their troubles. I'd give it a strong B+. Eli Wallach is brilliant as well.

Saturday Leah and I went to Detroit to see Matt. We haven't been there in a while and probably won't have a chance to get their again before the baby is born, so we drove up for the thrilling (or not) Detroit/Canisius game. We then went to dinner at the Melting Pot. It was good to see the Deez as always. We were back by 1 yesterday and watched another sad performance by the Browns and an even worse performance by my fantasy football team. Pretty much nobody on my team showed up in the week that really mattered. I'm down a manageable 16 point with Bengals QB Carson Palmer and K Shayne Graham, but Sean, my opponent, still has Bengals RB Rudi Johnson. Anything is possible, but its likely my season will come to an end at midnight tonight. We did go to Aunt Nancy and Uncle Keith's for a Hannukah Party last night. The food was solid. Aunt Lisa's artichoke dip is the whup and as usual I filled up on it. I did manage to bury some brisket and chocolate covered pretzels for desert. All of that equalled up to a solid stomach ache last night. Fun was had by all.

I'm sure by now you all caught the big Knicks/Nuggets fight Saturday night in New York where the Knicks G Mardy Collins clobbered Nuggets G J.R. Smith and a melee ensued. The Nuggets had four starters on the floor with a minute left and a 20 point lead; definitely a low class move by George Karl. Knicks Coach/GM/laughingstock of the NBA Isiah Thomas was seen to caught by cameras saying to Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony "I wouldn't go into the lane if I were you," essentially telling him someone was going to get hurt. Be that as it may, this fight was escalated by one man, Anthony. His low class move running into the fray started the first wave of punches, and just when things seemed to calm down, he sucker-punched Collins in the face and back peddled like a coward. Today's news is that the NBA laid down stiff penalties, including 15 games for Anthony, the NBA's leading scorer and one of its top stars. Both teams were fined $500,000 as well. Bottom line, Carmelo Anthony is supposed to be one of the faces of the new, young, NBA. Instead, Saturday with one cowardly sucker-punch, he is just another NBA thug. the league has a major image problem and episodes like this just affirm it. But Anthony of all people should be smarter than that. You think fellow stars from his draft Dwyane Wade and Lebron James would have done something like this? Of course not. Either way, Carmelo deserves 15 games. Rumor has it that George Karl was taking up for his Carolina-buddy and ousted Knicks coach Larry Brown by running it up on the Knicks. That too is a jackass move. But worst of all is Isiah. How many more times can one man disgrace himself and still keep his job?

Its the end of the year and on Thursday I will unveil my best and worst in TV, Movies, and sports. But has anyone had a worse year than our President and reigning two faced hypocrite #1 George W. Bush? Lets look at his scorecard. The war that he foolishly dragged us into is a huge embarrassing disaster that gets worse every day. Iraq is in shambles with warring factions Still not under control. His approval ratings are lower than any President in history. He is despised around the world. He vowed that Vice=President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld would stay throughout the term of his presidency. Two days later, he and his right-wing buddies lost control of the House and the Senate. Two days after that, Rumsfeld quit with his tail between his legs. Now, W is back-tracking and talking about the need for bipartisanship. Funny how his tune has changed since he has no legs to stand on. Is it too late to recount again for the 2000 election?

I hope you were able to catch my schtick on More Sports and Les Levine last Thursday. Nothing like an hour of talking Cleveland sports. I told Leah I could have done it for three hours. It was so much fun and i can understand why my dad loved doing his sports professional spots. I am working on getting parts of it putting on youtube.com for the out of towners to peep. Between this and my columns for The Cleveland Fan website, I've got a nice little side hobby going on. Too bad I have yet to make one cent doing so. Oh well.

Song of the Day: "It Ain't Over Till it's Over" by Lenny Kravitz