Day 215

Merry Christmas to all of you out there. I am live from Scottsdale, Arizona. It is sunny and somewhat chilly here. Since we arrived here on Friday, the temperatures reached about 63 degrees. The sun is always out, but its definitely long sleeve weather most of the time. As I said, we flew out here on Friday. On our plane were my friend Gregg's parents, and the Lepene brothers (and wives), who I went to high school with. I haven't seen Scott in years, and the first thing he said to me was "I was so sorry to hear about your father. He was such a great man." These are the kind of things you don't forget. It happened now two years ago and I probably haven't seen Scott in 8-10 years. What a class act. Because of Leah being 7 and a half months pregnant, we were put in the bulkhead row, which gives us more leg room. It was huge considering I was in a middle seat. That was the good news. The bad news was that the tray-tables in that row come out of the arm of the seat. Poor Leah, she couldn't get her tray-table over her stomach! So we had to share. We brought our DVD player with and watched "Good Night, and Good Luck", the story of Edward R. Murrow's crusade against Senator Joe McCarthy's communist call-out. While it was mildly interesting from a history standpoint, I found it to be pretty boring. I liked it better than Leah did. David Starthairn did a spot on portrayal of Murrow and George Clooney was his usual solid self as producer Fred Friendly.

Yesterday was day #1 of our movie tour - we saw "The Pursuit of Happyness" starring Will Smith and his son Jaden. Not only was this movie pretty much depressing, it was so slow. You figure out exactly what is going to happen in the end right away but getting there seemed to take forever. I'd give it a C. Not the worst movie I ever saw, but I'd tell you to pass. Today, like all good jews do, we are going back to the movies and going out for Chinese food. The selection today is "We Are Marshall" , which I am very much looking forward to seeing. My friend Sheri saw it and said she literally cried the whole time, but it is so good. The rest of the week will most likely consist of a couple more movies, and the Nordstrom Men's sale. Since the pregnancy and the double mortgage have been in full effect, I haven't bought any sort of clothing, shoes, etc. This is usually my one shopping excursion of the year. Thursday I am off to Lawrence, Kansas to meet my brother for the aforementioned Detroit/Kansas game at Allen Fieldhouse.

I will be off the blog until Friday to recap the behind the scenes experience with my brother in Lawrence. I'm just out in Arizona enjoying a relaxing vacation. The highlight thus far was the reunion with Casey. I cannot tell you how good it was to have her back. She has been an all star since the minute we got here.

In case you didn't hear, one of the alltime music legends, the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, died this morning from complications from Pneumonia. Brown was only 73. I was a fan of his music and his style. Nobody out on a better stage show in his day than "Mr. Excitement, Mr. Dynamite, and the hardest working man in show business."

My condolences go out to Melissa and Bobby Melsher on the lost of Melissa's father last week.

Two sports related items:

• Over the past couple of months, I began to strike up an email friendship with Pistons GM Joe Dumars. Essentially it started as some political discussions between Joe and my brother and MD brought me into it. Next thing I know, Joe and I are one on one with emails weekly. He literally couldn't be a better guy. He is such a smart man, not just with his moves running the Pistons, which he does brilliantly by the way. So this past Thursday, the Cavs played the Pistons in Cleveland. Jared took me in his seats. Joe and I planned to meet for to face for the first time and we did towards the end of the Pistons blowout win. Again, he couldn't have been nicer. I know it sounds strange - why would he bother with me, but we just seem to get along well and share many of the same views on the world.


• Nice showing by the Browns yesterday. Its just one disgraceful performance after another these days. Can it get any worse? What I don't get is that they still pulled over 55,000 fans at yesterday's 22-7 loss to 4-11 Tampa Bay. Romeo Crennel decided to bench big-mouth Braylon Edwards for "undisclosed reasons." Where was this weeks ago when it mattered? Edwards allegedly missed a team meeting Friday because his power went out. Funny thing is, our power went out Thursday night as well. Not that I am defending him because I think he is an absolute clown (I saw him at the Cavs game Thursday night with his boys wearing a leather Fedora tilted to the side). Every time I think we have hit rock bottom, we go a rung lower.

Song of the Day: "Hot Pants" by James Brown - the trumpet breakdown in the middle of the song is the best.