Now to the sports

It's been a pretty awesome week in terms of the teams I root for. First off, the White Sox have been playing decently well, at least they've been winning games and are in first place. Carlos Quentin is the best thing since sliced bread. Too bad Paul Konerko is tanking horribly, and I still love Swisher's attitude even though he's struggling at the plate too. Final White Sox thought is, does anyone else get heartburn watching Bobby Jenks throw? I mean, the guy is great (14/16) but he ALWAYS lets runners on and then has to work out of the jam with K's or popups. Where's my Tums?

Bulls: Besides the Noah crap, the Bulls are still looking good with the #1 pick. Hopefully they don't trade it.

Illini: So I'm pretty sure I'm the only person who never turned on Bruce Weber. For real, you can ask my dad. I've been sticking up for him the last 2 years, telling people that his recruiting will get back on track and he'll be more than fine. So now all the bandwagon jumpers can EAT IT, because ESPN.com just ranked his 2009 class as #2! Go Bruce!

NASCAR: Yes, I'm slightly redneck. And yes, I like Dale Jr. See my first ever post for my defense on that. Anyway, by the slight chance anyone reading this watched the race last Sunday, Jr. was leading the race, looking like he'd win it when he cut a tire and rode the wall for about half a lap. Thanks to some awesome pit work and last minute top-off he cruised from about 21st to 5th as others either crashed out or had to pit for fuel. He's still sitting pretty 3rd in points. Awesome.

P.S. My wife just confirmed to me that I literally said "Bruce will be fine, just look at his 2009 class." Oh yeah, the class they just ranked second in the nation. Granted, the standings will shift, but hey, (I'd say "Bruce is back" here, but I know that he never left).

Drop it like it's hot

I was just going to post about all of the great sporting news that's been happening this week in Illinois, but I noticed that I haven't posted since Saturday.

So, first thought: Is it really Wednesday already? Monday holidays really mess things up (in a good way).

Second: According to those experienced with the childbirth process (not me, I wouldn't have noticed), Linnea "dropped" somewhere between Sunday night and Monday morning. That means we could have the baby any time from soon to about a month. A lady she works with said it took her 2 weeks after dropping.

Holy crap. My chances of taking the Ph.D qualifiers (since I haven't finished my Master's thesis yet) look to be dropping quickly. Oh yeah, and holy crap.

Umbrella!

OMG, I almost forgot. My dad and brother gave me an umbrella today as kind of a "gonna be a dad gift." I know it sounds dorky that I'm excited about getting an umbrella, like REALLY excited, but hey, this isn't your grandma's umbrella. We're talking about an umbrella I've wanted for like a year. I've wanted a golf umbrella for a while, but Linnea will never let me get one because they're too expensive. Anyway, what do I unwrap in the garage today? Not only was it a golf umbrella, or even a huge golf umbrella, but a red, white and black Odyssey (they make putters) umbrella, complete with wind vents and the actual putter grips they use as the handle! You could say I was ecstatic about this. It gets sweeter when you consider my 2-ball white steel Odyssey putter has the same EXACT handle. YES! A joyous day. I'm actually hoping for rain tomorrow while we're golfing during the shower. Ooooh, no pun intended, but hopefully it's fate. Please do a little rain dance for me.

Addiction

I didn't realize exactly how addicted to call of duty 4 I was until we came back home this weekend for Linnea's baby shower. We're staying with her mom, and unfortunately her brother is one of those Halo-playing types, so he's got an Xbox 360, with no COD4. Even if he had it, I couldn't get my fix. I absolutely HATE the Xbox controller. Some may argue it's more ergonomic than the PS controllers, but there are NO button configurations more logical than the PS controller, which makes an engineer like me happy. Anyway, we were at my parents' house this afternoon since some of my family is in from out of town, so I got to play on my brother's PS3. All I have to say is it was joyous, but short-lived. I really wish I had brought my PS3 with me so I could be playing right now. Maybe I'll just go grab a beer and take up finger nail biting as a hobby.

Busy week...

I guess it was a busy week, because I didn't even think about blogging, and when I did, I had absolutely nothing to talk about. Oh well. I did give myself a buzz-cut this week, so that was nice. It's funny how whenever you get a haircut, the usual response is "oh, did you get a haircut?" Now, I can understand that with a simple trim or something, but I've been getting it with the buzz. Yes, I got a haircut. Obviously. There's like 1/4" there. It used to be like 1 1/2", now it's 1/4". Quite noticeable. I guess I'll accept excuses from my friends whose second language is English, and may not know how else to bring up my new cut. But otherwise, I'll give you a funny look.

This week was pretty big in sports for me too. First, unfortunately, we must say goodbye to Deron in the playoffs. Too bad he had to meet the machine that is Kobe. Anyway, first floor Scott '03 still loves you Deron. I'm so happy the White Sox have turned it around. They won 8 in a row, 3 of which to the slumping Indians, solidifying their AL central lead. Carlos Quentin has to be the best move EVER. Also, congrats to the Bulls for the first pick in the draft, and all 1.7% chance they had to get it. Not sure who they should get though. Beasley would be a good front court addition, but Rose has more star potential.

Little Guy!

We had an ultrasound today and got to see the little guy again! Everything looks good and healthy, so that was nice to hear. The funny thing is, we're at week number 33 and he measured 6 lb, 4 oz, which is a 36 week size!!! I think the 33 week average is around 4.5 lbs. So he's either going to be really early, or big. It looks like he'll live up to his mom's genes in that all her family's babies are quite large at birth, and the little guy is supposed to keep gaining about a 1/2 lb every week. Another exciting thing we learned was that he's already head down and butt out, in the perfect position for birth, so Linnea can feel less nervous about that. Check out the images we got at the appointment in the album below.

Little Guy

It was a plain Sunday today. That's why I couldn't think of a title for this post. Anyway, we went to church 2 weeks in a row. That hasn't been happening a lot, but now that we've finally found a church we're comfortable at, we don't seem to have that problem anymore.

Right now I'm dying for Linnea to stop watching TV downstairs so I can play Call of Duty. I had to do some work this afternoon, and help Linnea at a concert she managed tonight, so I didn't get my fix today. Yup, I'm still addicted to that, and I don't think it'll be getting better soon. I've even had frequent dreams about it. I'm hopeless.

Happy Birthday Bailey!

It's our dog's birthday today. She's 1.

Other random stuff today:

So I was driving home and had to take a detour for some reason. You could say I was at a stop sign I'm not usually at, since I hate waiting at stop signs to turn left onto busy roads. It's out of the way too. Anyway, I had my windows down and this semi-old lady gave me a "hey baby." Maybe it was a "hey sugar," I don't remember, it was quite traumatic. I didn't know what to do, but luckily she was on the right, and the traffic coming from that direction was minimal, so I focused my search for an opening to go in the other direction and prayed she wouldn't say anything else, or come over to my car.

Oscar Pistorius

Congratulations to Oscar Pistorius. He won a long battle with sport's higher powers and he is now allowed to attempt qualification into the Olympic games as a double amputee sprinter. Yes, he has no feet, and has a chance to be in the Olympics this summer. The debate over whether he should be allowed to run or not has been hotly debated. Check out the old articles on ESPN.com or something. Anyway, a researcher in Germany conducted "research" that proved his carbon fiber blade prosthetics gave him a metabolic advantage over normal runners, so the IAAF banned him from competing. That's why I got so interested in this. I personally do research in human locomotion, and I can tell you for an almost fact that this "research" probably only proved he consumed less oxygen than if he had feet. So now everyone thinks they're an expert in biomechanics and think that this German dude is the be-all end-all and think that Oscar is "cheating" by having this so-called advantage. They forget to realize that HE HAS NO FEET, or calf muscles for that matter. Have you ever realized how big sprinters' calf muscles are? I would assume anyone who didn't have to power their calves would consume less oxygen. And no calf muscles = MUCH less running power. So think what you will. Anyway, an even higher power (CAS) overruled the ruling, and he can now compete. The only problem is that his past times wouldn't qualify him into the Olympics. Anyway, I wish him all the luck to compete for the equality of disabled athletes.

Yogurt anyone?

Hopefully today is a sign that I'm not as addicted to this blog as I seem. I only checked it out once at work today! It was even after someone told me they posted a comment and bashed my love for ballroom dancing. You should try it. You'll love it, and if not, you probably suck at it anyway...

So to the real reason of this post. I definitely looked down after eating my lunch and what was there? A 2 inch long streak of strawberry banana Yoplait light! It was so long because I didn't even notice it for about 15 minutes. 15 minutes of yogurt on my chest. Good thing I'm talented at making fun of myself, or that would have been really embarrassing. Unfortunately it had some time to soak in, so I've been smelling the aroma all afternoon. The shirt is crusty now too.

Other random things today: I almost got smashed into by a P.O.S. Taurus wagon running a red light. That was 5 seconds after I almost got smashed into by a P.O.S. Accord hatch back coming out of a parking lot. It was fun, let me tell you. I think the damage to my car would have cost more than buying both of those cars 5 years ago, combined.

Kiss Kiss

I was uploading some pictures of our dog, Bailey, and I couldn't pass this up...

Random

Since I only started my blog yesterday, I find myself checking on it about every 3 minutes even though I have nothing to add to it. Some times I look at it just to look at it (I know, it's not that great, but I've only got so much time to make shit look good, and right now it's focused on my back yard). Other times I look at it and add some random thing to the layout (like my new links or my signature at the bottom of the page - I haven't decided if that's tacky yet).

I guess I'm addicted already. I'm not surprised, I have the hereditary addiction gene. Yes, it's an addiction gene. I don't believe in just alcoholism being passed down (which is one -ism I don't have, phew), but a predisposition to be addicted to anything and everything seemingly enjoyable. For example, I'm addicted to golf, gambling, diet coke, Call of Duty 4 (the worst one right now, I can't stop playing), and obviously this blog.

It's too bad I'm not hopelessly addicted to writing my Master's thesis, or that shit would be in the bag already. Oh well. It'll get done, I'm just not dangerously close to that deadline point yet to where my all-star, procrastination-overcoming, last-minute ass kicking comes into play. I guess that's for another post... Maybe I should make a "thesis writing" thread in here, but not right now. I am working on it though, believe me. It's just hard because in the gait analysis world it seems something else that I have to write new Matlab code about always comes up when I think I'm at the point to actually write my papers and be done with the damn thing.

I guess it's back to work on a literature review I don't have time for, for something I just want to skip over and ignore...

Dance!

Check this out. These kids are 13, and they can dance way better than all of the stars that made it to the finals of Dancing with the Stars this season.

Kicked in the face!

I've been used to feeling baby kicks and flips for a while now, but last night took the cake. I was totally talking to the baby and he kicked back right where my mouth was! He responded to my talking, it was amazing. If I wasn't already in bed I would have jumped around or giggled like a girl or something. It was truly the coolest thing that's happened so far, after hearing his heartbeat for the first time.

Welcome

Hey to all those 2 people who may read this because I told them to. I guess this is really more of a welcome for myself into the blogging world. I've always been interested in starting a blog, but have been resistant until recently. I guess all of that unfruitful posting on ESPN.com message boards to semi-morons is finally getting dull... I really brought that upon myself by being a Dale Earnhardt Jr. fan. I know what you're thinking, but I've actually liked Dale Jr. since before he started even racing in the Busch series, and I have the AC Delco hat to prove it. Reason being my dad was a Dale Earnhardt fan, so naturally I followed. Anyway, being a Jr. fan means that you're interested in the most insane posts on ESPN.com. His haters are retarded, and a lot of his fans are too, and they all post their extremely misspelled and utterly retarded comments, arguing back and forth about who is king shit of fuck mountain, when really, it's me, so they should save their breath. (That was kind of a joke, but if you know me, you know I don't think not highly of myself.)

Anyway, I have to help with a test in the lab today, so I better go before my whole life gets sucked into this. Also, I apologize to those offended by my use of the word "retard." In no way do I use that to describe people who have *insert PC word for mental handicappedness here*, I reserve "retard" only for those I feel are stupid by their own doing. Since the phrase "king shit of fuck mountain" is freaking awesome, I should probably credit my friends Thom and Bob for it, as I think it was a joint collaboration over some Keystones back in the day.

Later dudes,
Louis (or Louie, or Lou, just don't change once you stick with one)