Wild World of Tennis

It has been a big week in the world of tennis, I hardly know where to begin. Let's start with the Olympics. Roger Federererer once again demonstrated that the last four years of his supposed tennis supremacy have been nothing but a joke, a facade, a ruse distracting fans from the Nadal's greatness. He blew it, AGAIN, in the Olympics...opening the door (not that he needed it) for my Rafa to grab gold. I realize the Olympics are supposed to be a great time of nationalism and zealotry for one's country, but I think the only way I could have been happier was if I had won the gold myself. As if growing up on a small island off the cost of Spain and making it all the way to Olympic gold wasn't enough: my boy Rafa is finally No. 1 in the world!!!!! Even Michael Phelps realizes this guy's greatness.

Rafa wasn't the only one picking up victories this weekend. My coach and I won our first doubles match on Saturday. Our opponents were tough but with my serve and my coach's hustle they were no match. Our arsenal of skills, tricks, and moves proved too much. Watch for me in 2012 in London. If Dara Torres can do it, so can I!!!!

Up Up and Away

I realize I have taken a bit of an extended hiatus...please forgive me. All of my creative juices have been diverted to other areas lately and this here blog has been the main victim. But I AM BACK.

In the past, I have tried to steer these little posts away from being cynical rants- I can restrain myself no more. The source of my ire is shared by so many it has almost become cliche, but I just can't keep quiet anymore. These flipping airlines have gots to go! I would like to detail here all of things I would like to do to airline executives and the TSA, but I don't need to have all future flights include my being detained endlessly in that plexiglass box.

I was in Chicago this past weekend visiting friends and family which meant I had to subject myself to the mercy of the airline industry (United in this particular instance...but they are all indistinguishably miserable). I remember,when I first started traveling abroad, how there just seemed to be crowds and lines everywhere. And in America things seemed orderly, calm, and easy. Well now I can find that mass chaos of crowds and confusion right here in Philadelphia!! It is no longer possible to be a civilized human on a plane...the stakes are just too high. Whereas, once I would gladly be the last person on the plane to spare myself the rush to hurry up and wait on that little connector thing. Those days are gone!! In order to attain coveted overhead storage space (packed now b/c of baggage restrictions) one must can all that one can to get on to that plane as soon as possible, whatever the cost. This new law of the land was demonstrated by the 50 year old dude who pushed me out of the way to get in front of me for the 8 feet separating me and the ticket agent.

The flight home was no treat either. Thunderstorms in Philly caused a cancellation of my flight and an automatic rebooking on the 6am flight this morning. Great way to start the week!!

The weekend was fun though and I will be back with sunnier posts real soon. Just had to share.

Awww

I realize I am a bit late on getting the scoop on this story as about 10million people have already viewed the video on youtube. The video, of course, is of Cristian the lion. A lion purchased as a pet, set free, and then gloriously reunited with his owners. I wanted to include the video but I can't because youtube is blocked (and I don't know how to put videos into posts). The video's heartwarming qualities should have been mitigated by the Whitney Houston soundtrack that plays...but they were not. at all. In fact, I seemed to really let the water works flow, in step, with that crackhead's crescendo. and IIIIIIIIIIIIII ey I will always love youuuuuuuuuuuu.

I was really touched and happy, then enter my ever sympathetic roommate who approaches the scene, sees me crying and then begins cackling wildly (as he is known to do) and proclaiming the video a fraud. I now have proof that Roommate's heart is black and shriveled. This story and video are amazing.

I have long worried because I just do not think babies are as cute as animals and this video did nothing to assuage those worries. mannnn, do I want a lion.

Mad Men and Mad Cool

Unaware that the series is available On Demand, I filled up my Netflix queue with the first season of the AMC series Mad Men. Even if you had never heard of or seen this show in the last year, you have undoubtedly been hit with the recent deluge of praise being lavished on it everywhere. The style! the characters! The accuracy! Everyone it seems thinks this show is great. I hate missing out on stuff like that, so with no delay, I started watching last night. I made it through the first two episodes (which right there says a lot) and it is good. Not glued to the television like The Wire good, but still really good.

The overt sexism, racism, anti-semitism, adultery, smoking, and day drinking make it a real pleasure to watch. The working world before PC entered the lexicon and HR manuals everywhere. I can't claim to love going to work everyday but at least sexist comments are, for the most part, made behind closed doors.

In my continuing quest to discover emerging blog talent I bring to you If You Got It, Flaunt It
very smart and funny, and the author throws around words like "mad" and "hype" which I really like and would do on this blog if I wouldn't seem like a supreme d-bag for doing so. The blogger also knows how to do cool techie stuff like putting captions under pictures and placing pictures in locations other than the top let hand corner. It's pretty dope.

Go Fish

Today's post comes at the suggestion of a faithful blog reader from Colorado. I am struggling here for a segue into this topic....As if it wasn't uncomfortable enough having non-english speakers spend an hour handling your feet during a pedicure the awkward and frankly strange factor appears to have increased dramatically.

The picture shows a fish pedicure being offered in the DC metro area (kitten, were you aware of this)??. The deal is you plunge your tootsies into the foot bath as normal except, in this instance, it is filled with tons of little carp fish that nibble at your toes and soles, snacking on your dead, rough, callused skin. totally f-ing disgusting. They say this has been done as an alternative because the razors once used for this purpose are now considered un-hygienic by many health boards. I remain skeptical that this is a better alternative! PETA should stop whining about my eating meat and rally around putting an end to this inhumane fish slave labor!

Springrolls Are for Suckas

My culinary reputation suffered a major setback last night. I attempted to make a healthy version of the spring rolls offered by a neighborhood bar...with little success. They were pretty repulsive to look at and did not taste much better. They came up short in the categories of form (totally unappealing), function (gaping holes on the bottom causing contents to cascade out when picked up), and taste (ick). I view this as a lesson better learned in close company than in front of my live studio audience (seats still available, by the way, for the first taping).

In any event, the foulness of my dinner became a distant memory when I checked out this site: www.puslovers.com totally and unbelievably foul. There must be a real sick-o behind this pus-fest.

I'm Back

After a week of sun soaked activities I am BACK!!! (sigh). The shore was great and I was able to darken my skin color by a few shades while my roommate conquered the mighty waves of the atlantic in a kayak. A week of beach, swimming, tennis, reading, and ice cream achieved its goal of fun and relaxation.

A note about the reading part: instead of reading Not Well Advised for school I read The Sex Lives of Cannibals which was far more entertaining albeit slightly less helpful in writing this week's assignment for class. I think travel writing could be my new calling so stay tuned for the carly-pumpkin world tour.

Upon my return from the land of sun and sea breezes I found myself back in may apartment with plenty of the former and NONE of the latter. Our AC is really not up to the task of keeping our place cool when the temperature is 8,000 degrees. So I spent the day as motionless as possible (save for the energy required to fruitlessly call Comcast to get the Tennis Channel added to our package). In the evening, my roommate and I found sweet relief inside the movie theater to watch the Dark Knight. As you know, action films are not really my thing as they tend to be awfully short on choreographed dance routines and Julia Roberts has yet to really break into the genre. The movie was also off to a bad start with a running time of about 2.5 hours. WAY over my typical attention span. At best I was hoping to not be bored. I was not bored. I was captivated, totally mesmerized by the duel for Gotham between Batman and the Joker. Followed it up with Batman Begins last night on TV.

So, that's all for now.