Time for a new mower

First of all I want to talk about my darn mower. It is now working correctly. This was a hand me down mower given to us when we moved from Pekin to Morton. We used to own a Craftsman riding lawn mower, but when we moved to Morton, our new yard didn’t warrant the rider anymore. So we sold this mower and Sarah’s dad gave us this extra mower that belonged to her mom (Sarah’s Grandma). Anyways, thats the mower we’ve used for a couple years since moving in. Fairly decent but used mower. So lately, I’ll mow until it runs out of gas. Then fill it with gas, fire it back up, and it’s good to go. BUT, if I dare wait 5 minutes in between filling it up and starting it back up – the mower doesn’t start. Doesn’t even want to attempt to start. Almost like it’s overheated or something. The last couple times I’ve waited 2-3 hours, tried it again, and it worked. But flaky! What’s going on mower people?

So this got me thinking it might be time for a new mower. Wednesday, I borrowed my neighbor Craig’s mower (thanks Craig) and it was AWESOME. A great mowing experience. So I’m thinking for Father’s Day, I need a new mower. What kind? Where from? Any features I have to have? Time to start shopping.

Lakers World Champs

The Los Angeles Lakers successfully went back two back last night and won the 2010 NBA Championship. I scheduled a “guy meetup” at Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the games. Unfortunately, BWW was jam packed with no seats in the house about a half hour til gametime. So, myself, Rodney (my bro), Greg, Seth and Aaron all went to Old Chicago down by the river to watch the game. Great game. I was soooo cheering for the Celtics but the Lakers pulled it out.

Kobe Bryant won his 5th NBA Championship ring in 2010.

Why was I cheering for the Celtics? I’m not a Boston fan and I’m not really a bandwagon jumper. The reason was simple. I logged into one of my online sportsbooks I bet at the other day. Randomly, I noticed I had one pending bet. Took a look and apparantly I had made a $10 future bet like 5 months ago for the Boston Celtics to win the World Championship. The bet was at 20/1 so my $10 returned $210. WOW! This was way enough reason for me to cheer for the Celtics. They couldn’t do it for me though. I’m cool with it cause I woulda lost the money on the USA Soccer or on Baseball betting anyways.

As for the game. Kobe didn’t play well. Artest saved them in this game. He came up huge and hit some big shots. Ray Allen looked horrible for the Celtics. The Celtics controlled the whole game but I still had that sense that the Lakers would pull it out in the end.

That’s enough for tonight. Hope you all have a great weekend! It’s FRIDAY!!!!!!!!

• myself, Jared Morris, Jason Proehl, Ryan Burks, Josh “Goose” Watson, Jeff Thompson, Jason Friedrich, Blaise Rodgers, Scott Winders, JD Proehl

We beat Sacred Heart Griffin our first game by 10 or so.  Kind of an ugly game.  Then we beat New Berlein in game two.  That was a great game and we ended up winning by just a few.  The quarter finals we played defending champion AC Central.  We ended up beating them by 10 or so in a hard nosed game.  Then in the championship we lost to Pittsfield for the 2nd straight year.

All in all it was a well rand tournament and always fun to play with old highschool friends.  Check out the picture of our Glory Days team below.

So a lot of controversy has came from this speech. Michael Jordan is a different dude.  You can not expect him to get up on stage and make the same old, boring, speech that everyone else does.  He obviously is a very competitive person and apparently used anything and everything to “fuel” that fire.  He talked about how his high school coach made a mistake “cutting” him instead of another dude (who was in the crowd).  He flamed Dean Smith for not getting MJ on the cover of Sports Illustrated.  He ripped on the Bulls a little bit for their comment that Organizations win championships.  He thanked the likes of Isaiah Thomas, Magic Johnson and Pat Riley for bringing out the best in him.  He destroyed Bryon Russell for his comments when Jordan retired.  One thing after another.  It was like the opposite of a “roast”.

So did Michael come off as a bitter old man?  Maybe a little.  But one thing is apparent.  This guy just wants to be better than everyone when it comes to basketball.  That is what MAKES HIM TICK.  This is why he is the best ever.  To expect Jordan to come on stage and act any differently is naive.

What did you think of this?  I’ve toyed with the idea of creating a Michael Jordan website dedicated to his life… Maybe some day.  Until then, congrats to Michael Jordan for making the hall of fame!

Great season Bluejays!

Nah, actually he was ready to talk Cardinal baseball later that week so this should be a fun season.  Enjoy the pics.

So for the last few weeks I’ve been training (running) to be in shape for this race. I like to set goals and I like to meet my goals. So I set a goal of finishing this 2 mile run in 15 minutes. That’s just 7:30 per mile – no biggie right? Well, not back in the day. Back in college we were force to run these in like 13 minutes max! But now, I’m strugglin. I haven’t time myself much but I’m pretty sure to date I’m sitting at around 17 minutes or so. My brother Rodney and I went running today through Morton and finished 3.25 miles in 27:30… Not bad I guess. So, I have a month or so to shave that down to 15 minutes for 2 miles. Can I do it? I’ll report back as the training continues!

I created this post because I was tired of people not “believing” me when I told them this.  Where else would I get all this pictures?  And I’m the skinny kid out on the court, the boy amongst men, if you will.

So to make this the LONGEST post ever, I am going to attach a bunch of photos from the years I was there… Be sure to check out all of Jordan’s cars.  He brought something new each and every session.  SICK!

The highlight was the 6th or 7th inning when Soriano (Cubs left fielder) showed that he’s nothing better than a little league outfielder. He misplayed two fly balls and looked pitiful out in LF. This gave the Cardinals a 3-1 lead. We decided to make our way toward the gate in the 9th inning and watch closer to our exit. Bad idea. Soriano got back at everyone by jacking a 2 run bomb to tie it in the ninth. Ouch! The Cardinals did end up rallying in the 11th to win 5-3 and send us all home happy. We didn’t leave til 11ish and got home close to 2:00 AM. Next time – we stay! Fun times though.

But last week I felt SUPER old. We were running a little short on guys so we asked a kid that was shooting on the side to jump in and play for a bit. He was an 8th grader who will be a freshman next year. He came in and held his own, played pretty aggressive actually. At the end of the game, Coach Mott says,

You know who that is don’t you?

I was like, uh… no…

That’s the son of “keeping name disclosed”.

I was shocked as it was the son of a guy that I played highschool basketball with. Holy cow! Now I felt really, really, really old! Oh well, I guess it’s good I’m still able to be out there with all these youngsters!