Super Bowl Answers

So, the Super Bowl didn't go as I had hoped, but I have to give credit to the Saints, they played an excellent game. At least a former Alabama player, Roman Harper, got himself a Super Bowl championship since he never won a BCS Championship.

Well, without further ado, here are the answers to the questions from yesterday.

1. In 1998, John Elway and the Denver Broncos defeated the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl.

2. The Cowboys, the 49ers, and the Steelers are the 3 teams who have won at least 5 Super Bowls.

3. In 1969, Joe Namath, guaranteed victory in the Super Bowl and delivered by leading the Jets to an upset victory over the Colts.

4. The Washington Redskins have won the Super Bowl 3 times, in 1983, 1988, and 1992.

5. In 2001, the Baltimore Raven's middle linebacker Ray Lewis was named MVP of Super Bowl XXXV.

6. Backing his team in 1999, Atlanta's mayor put up peanuts and a case of coke in a bet.

7. The Buffalo Bills lost 4 straight Super Bowls.

8. Mike Jones, whose tackle saved the Super Bowl for the St. Louis Rams in 2000, was released in 2001.

9. Super Bowl XXXVIII was in 2004, Super Bowl I was in 1967.

10. The only city to have a Super Bowl champion and Stanley Cup champion in the same year was Pittsburgh in 2009.

The Super Bowl

Since today is the day of the big game, I thought I would post some trivia questions about the Super Bowl. The questions (or answers I should say) come courtesy of Jeopardy and the website J! Archive. I'll list the answers and then tomorrow list the questions, you can see how many you know. Go Colts!

$100 - In 1998 John Elway and this team sent the Green Bay Packers packing to win their first Super Bowl.

$400 - These 3 teams have won at least 5 Super Bowls.

$400 - In 1969 this QB guaranteed victory in the Super Bowl and delivered, beating the Colts 16-7.

$500 - 3 time Super Bowl champs, they won in 1983, 1988, and 1992.

$800 - In January 2001 this team's middle linebacker Ray Lewis was named MVP of Super Bowl XXXV.

$800 - Backing his team in 1999, this city's mayor put up peanuts and a case of coke in a bet.

$800 - This football team from New York state lost 4 straight Super Bowls.

$1600 - Mike Jones, whose tackle saved the Super Bowl for this team in 2000, was released in 2001.

$2000 - Super Bowl XXXVIII was in 2004, this was the year of Super Bowl I.

Final Jeopardy - It's the only city whose teams won the Super Bowl and the Stanley Cup in the same year.

Sweet Potatoes

February is National Sweet Potato month. In honor of that, I thought I would tell some interesting facts about this wonderful vegetable.

• North Carolina is the #1 producer of sweet potatoes in the country, producing almost 700 million pounds of sweet potatoes in 2007.
• Sweet potatoes were grown in Peru as early as 750 BC.
• George Washington Carver is known for his peanut inventions, but he also came up with 118 different products using sweet potatoes.
• During World War I when wheat flour was running low, sweet potato flour was used to stretch supplies of wheat flour in baked goods.
• They are delicious!

What is Right

Today, I did something that was right. It was very obviously the right thing to do, even a child would have known it was the right thing to do. Yet, it was a difficult thing to do. I wanted to ignore it, walk away, and pretend to be ignorant. I knew what the right thing was, it didn't even inconvenience me all that much, but it was still a difficult decision. Why is it that even the simplest decisions become so difficult when it comes to choosing between right and wrong?

It reminds me of the verse: "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." - Romans 7:15

On a side note I wanted to mention my wife's blog: http://kmcbride83.blogspot.com/. In the last few years, Kimberly and I have been wanting to cut back on what we spend on gifts for christmas and also give more to charity as well. Kimberly has a very obvious passion for giving to others as well as doing various crafts...she has recently discovered a way to combine the two passions. Please go check out her blog to read more about it.

Waiting

I'm reading a book about a man who promised to build a school for children in a village in the mountains of Pakistan. So, he went home to America and raised money and got supplies and returned a year later only to find out that they needed a bridge first.

Sometimes it feels as though having to wait for something is delaying what should be happening now. Lately, I'm coming to the realization that maybe when we have to wait for something it's because we aren't quite ready yet. We are being given the opportunity to prepare a little more, and testing our patience all the while.

"I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry." - Psalm 40:1

"Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience." - Colossians 3:12

God in everything

Lately, I've been listening to the newest album from mewithoutYou, and if you've ever listened to them, you know they've got some pretty powerful lyrics. I could probably write several posts on their songs, but I'll just stick to one song in particular that has been running through my head quite a bit lately.

In everywhere we look

Allah, Allah, Allah

In everyone we meet

Allah, Allah, Allah

In every blade of grass

Allah, Allah, Allah

It doesn't matter what you've done...

what effect is without a cause?

so what does it matter what you think you've done?

now, lay your faithless head down

in neccessity's Cotton Hand

there's a Love that never changes

no matter what you've done

-Allah Allah Allah

It's funny to me that I can accept God's forgiveness for myself, and then turn around and be so critical of other people. I'm no better than these other people and they deserve God's forgiveness just as much as I do. God is in everything and everyone, we just need to stop and notice that. When we do, I think we'll see people as God does.

Best game ever!

So, Saturday night, Kimberly and I took in our last Bulls game before we leave the country. It was the Bulls vs. the Gwinnett Braves and they were in a tie for first place in the division coming into the game.

The Braves jumped out to an early 6-1 lead, but the Bulls brought it back to within 2 runs (7-5) to start the bottom of the 9th. With 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th and a full count, Reid Brignac hit a shot that just cleared the right field fence and tied the game up at 7-7.

The game continued like this until the top of the 14th when the Braves scored 2 runs off of Bulls infielder, Ray Olmedo. In the bottom of the 14th, the Bulls loaded the bases, then cleared them on Jon Weber's game winning double.

The game lasted over 5 hours and was easily the most exciting game I have ever witnessed in person. What a way to see my final Bulls game! I only wish everyone else I know could have been there.

The Last Day

On February 8, 2006 I began working at my current job. Today, on August 28, 2009, I am entering work here for the last day. It's definitely started off as a day of mixed emotions. Initial mood when I got out of bed was one of excitement, because I can finally rest and relax for a little while before Kimberly and I leave the country. I thought that excitement would be the overriding emotion for the day...I was wrong.

This morning as I'm pulling into work, I'm remembering the very first day I drove to work here. The nervousness at the new job, meeting new people, etc. The excitement because I finally had a job after searching for a month. Then I started to think about all the changes that have happened in the 3 1/2 years that I've worked here.

I've gotten married, made new friends here at work, got a new position, seen friends leave from work. I also think I've matured quite a bit in my time. I'll miss the friends that I've made here, but the experiences from this job are what's going to stick with me the most.

The one impact I hope to have had during my time here is that I've earned the respect and friendship of everyone I've worked with.

Goodbye.

Things that bother me...

Three things that bother me:

1. People who tailgate.

Whoever thought this would be a good idea? I mean, when I'm going the speed limit and you are riding my bumper, it's not going to make me go faster. It's only going to make you get more mad, and I hate to see the day that the person you are tailgating has to slam on brakes and you slam into the back of their car.

2. People who drive in the pouring rain with no lights on.

I'm going down the interstate at 60 mph and can't see cars coming up behind me because they are driving a gray car in the pouring rain with no lights on...very dangerous.

3. People who park in non-parking locations when there are parking spaces nearby.

Yesterday, Kimberly and I were at the park and a guy pulls up and parks on the grass. The crazy thing is there were dozens of parking spaces within sight of where he parked. My first assumption is that he was just lazy, but no he was there to do a run. So why couldn't he just park 20 feet down in a parking space?

La Máquina

That up above is translated from Spanish to "The Machine" and it's the nickname that has been given to Albert Pujols, first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals.

I just saw a statistic this morning on ESPN that was absolutely stunning and had to share it.

With the bases loaded this year, Albert Pujols is:

7 for 9 with 5 HRs and 24 RBIs.

That means if you are pitching against him, it's pretty much better to walk him and give up a run than to possibly give up his average of almost 3 RBIs per AB with the bases loaded. The 5 Grand Slams in one season ties the National League record. The Major League record is 6 by Travis Hafner and Don Mattingly.

Bad Luck Charm

I mentioned in my previous post that Kimberly took me to see the Braves play the Nationals in Washington, DC. It was my first Braves game away from Atlanta, but the 7th one overall. While I've enjoyed myself, the Braves haven't had much success when I'm in attendance.

June 7, 1991 (Montreal Expos) - Steve Avery vs. Oil Can Boyd - Braves held it close at 4-1 before giving up 3 in the 8th and 4 in the 9th and lose 11-2.

June 8, 1991 (Montreal Expos) - Pete Smith vs. Brian Barnes - Braves scored early and held off the Expos for a 7-6 win.

September 5, 1999 (Arizona Dbacks) - Tom Glavine vs. Randy Johnson - Chipper hit 2 HRs and put the Braves in a position to win before with 2 outs in the 9th and a one run lead, Eddie Perez threw away a dropped 3rd strike. The Dbacks scored 3 more runs and won 7-5.

April 5th, 2001 (NY Mets) - Odalis Perez vs. Rick Reed - Reed gave up 1 run on 3 hits and the Braves were never in it, losing 7-1.

August 12, 2001 (Arizona Dbacks) - Greg Maddux vs. Albie Lopez - Junior Spivey of the Dbacks went 5 for 5 with 5 singles against Maddux and the Braves lost once again, 9-1.

June 22, 2003 (Baltimore Orioles) - Shane Reynolds vs. Jason Johnson - I don't remember anything about this game except it was blisteringly hot and the Braves lost 9-3.

July 4, 2009 (Washington Nationals) - Tommy Hanson vs. John Lannan - Hanson pitched 7 innings and gave up 3 hits and 1 run; the Braves bullpen pitched 1 inning and gave up 4 hits and 4 runs; Braves lose 5-3.

So there you have it, the Braves are 1-6 and have been outscored 22-54 in the games I've been to. Maybe I should buy season tickets to see the Yankees play?

Daytrippin'

So, a little update on what's been going on lately with us.  Last weekend, Kimberly took me to Washington, DC to go see a baseball game between the Atlanta Braves and the Washington Nationals.  It was a great experience since I'm a huge baseball fan.  On the way, we stopped in Richmond to see her grandmother and Uncle Lee.  I had only seen her grandmother one other time and that was at our wedding 3 years ago, so that was nice.  After we returned on Sunday night we had supper with Kim's sister Heather and her husband Chris as they were in town for a concert.

This past weekend, we drove to her parents Friday night and stayed with them one night, visiting with them and her other grandmother and Uncle Roy.  Saturday, we drove down to Georgia and saw my brother and his wife, who we hadn't seen since Christmas.  It was good to catch up with them and see their new apartment that they moved into last month.  Then it was on to see Allison and Patti who we hadn't seen in over 2 years.  We stayed with them Saturday and and Sunday night and went to Faith's wedding reception Sunday afternoon down near Atlanta.  We were also able to hang out with the other Allison Sunday night, so that was good as well.  Finally, Monday morning we made the long trek back to Durham.

For the past 10 days we have driven/ridden 1300+ miles, visited with 11 family members we hadn't seen in quite some time and a handful of friends that we hadn't seen in over 2 years.  It was exhausting, but we definitely had a good time.  To our friends down in Georgia, thank you for a great weekend and it's a shame that we don't see more of each other.  It was almost like old times again.

What was your best day?

I'm reading a book right now called A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America. Buck O'Neil was a Negro League ballplayer who never got the chance to play in the Major Leagues because of segregation. Regardless of this unfortunate restriction placed on him, he remained a person full of life and joy and kind to all. In the book he asks the author, "What was your best day in baseball?" Buck's was the day he hit for the cycle and then later met his future wife. He says remembering that will keep you young.

But this doesn't just apply to baseball, thus the title of my post. Ask yourself, "what was your best day?" Remember the times in life when you felt like you were at your best. Hold on to that.

What was your best day?

Baseball rant time!

Just thought I would warn everyone.

So, for those who know or care, Manny Ramirez (Man-Ram) was suspended back in May for testing positive for steroids. It is a 50-game suspension without pay (meaning he'll lose 7 million in salary this year); he's set to return to the team on July 3rd.

So, I just learned this past week that he'll begin playing with the Albuquerque Isotopes (LA's triple A team) until he can go back to playing in LA. Also, ESPN is going to feature each and every one of his at-bats. Is it just me or does it seem odd that he can play professional baseball while on suspension from professional baseball? ESPN should be speaking out against this too, not going along with it and profiting off of it.

I was so happy to see an actual professional baseball player get penalized decently, but baseball allowing this is just depressing.

Stranded on the Front Porch

I've been drawing blanks on what to post here lately, and I even talked about that on Saturday afternoon. Who knew that what happened late Saturday night/Sunday morning would provide me just the story to break my draught.

So Kimberly and I were house sitting for a lady that Kimberly knew from a previous job. The lady, who was going on vacation to Florida, lives in the northern part of Durham county. In Durham county, once you drive north of the city there is pretty much a 15 mile stretch of nothing but farmland and really big houses with lots of property. The house is located in a new neighborhood with probably only 20 homes.

We were also watching and feeding her dogs, and Saturday night one of them started to bark pretty crazily at around 2:30. We woke up to investigate and decided to let the dog out of the garage. I stepped out the back door, went through the yard, and opened the back door of the garage to let the dog out. In the meantime Kimberly stepped out the back door also, to tell me something. It was then that we realized we were locked out.

It was 2:30 AM, I'm wearing only shorts and some shoes, Kimberly is wearing only pajamas and no shoes. No keys to the house, no keys to our car, and no phone and a nearly empty neighborhood. After checking all of the doors and windows, and trying to break into the house, we decided the only other option was to go to someone's house. So at now approximately 3 AM we walked through the neighborhood half dressed and rang a doorbell.

Let me tell you, that was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life, because there is no telling how the person is going to react. Luckily, we got a friendly if not confused elderly couple who was nice enough to let us use their phone. After calling several people and still not being able to get in the house, we called my dad to make the 20 minute drive from his house to pick us up. We made it to their house a little bit after 4 and crashed into the bed.

It was easily the most bizarre night of my life, but one that I'll never forget.

Summer Reading

Just a few of the books that I intend to read this summer.  Being that I'm a baseball fan, it's 99% books about baseball.

The Meaning of Ichiro - Robert Whiting

As They See 'Em: A Fan's Travels in the Land of Umpires - Bruce Weber

The Complete Game - Ron Darling

Odd Man Out: A Year on the Mound with a Minor League Misfit - Matt McCarthy

Summer of '49 - David Halberstam

When Baseball Went to War - Todd Anton

Beyond Belief - Josh Hamilton

The Teammates - David Halberstam

Ernie Harwell - Tom Keegan

Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig - Jonathan Eig

Satchel Paige's America - William Price Fox

On the Road - Jack Keroauc

What are you going to be reading this summer?

Random Thoughts

I typically do these random thoughts blogs when I haven't posted in a while.  I just haven't had that much to post about lately, but here goes.

• Just watched a movie called The Diving Bell and the Butterfly about a man that has a stroke and gets locked in his mind.  He only has the ability to blink his left eye, but manages to write a book about his life and experience.  True story, great movie!
• Today is the 55th birthday of the man, the myth, the legend...Jerry Seinfeld.  In honor of him, please watch at least one episode of the show today, you can bet I will.
• A couple of weeks ago Nick Swisher played first base for the Yankees, hit a HR, and then came in to pitch a scoreless inning.  The only other time that an AL pitcher hit a HR and pitched in a game since the DH was Jeff Kunkel of the Texas Rangers in 1989.
• Switchfoot posted this statement on their Twitter last week: "So we haven't been entirely honest when we said we've been recording a new record. The truth is, we actually recorded 4 albums, 80+ songs.  We'll be releasing them one at a time, starting with the first one this aug/sept."  -  Incredible!

Pursuing your dream!

Kimberly and I just finished watching a movie called Man on Wire.  It was about a man by the name of Philippe Petit, who back in 1974 wire walked between the World Trade Center towers for 45 minutes.  It was a pretty incredible feat, but the real accomplishment was how he did it.

He realized that he wanted to do it back in 1968 before ground had even been broken on the towers.  On top of that, he would have to do the walk without the permission of the World Trade Center since there was no way they were going to allow someone to wire walk 1350 feet above Manhattan.  He pretended to be a French journalist, a construction worker, and a electric fence installer all in order to investigate the buildings and set up equipment.  He was even caught by the police one time, but it never deterred him from his dream.  Hearing him talk now 30+ years later you can hear the excitement in his voice.  Clearly this was his passion.

What are you passionate about?  What would you do to pursue your dream and would you let anything stand in your way?

Town Hall for Hope

The economy is bad right now, we all know that, but it doesn't have to be bad for you.  If you're sick and tired of hearing all the bad news about the economy then go to a Town Hall for Hope meeting near you.  Dave Ramsey will be providing insiteful answers to questions that are nagging at you about the current economy.  Even if you are not currently struggling financially this will be helpful resource for your future.

This is being broadcast live in over 5,000 different venues nationwide, so I'm sure there is one near you.  Find one, go!

Good Friday Service

Friday night we went to the Good Friday Service at Duke Chapel and let me say, it was an awesome experience.  It started off like a typical service with hymns sung and a brief sermon.  After that, there six candles and a "Christ" candle lit up front.  Someone came and read six passages from Matthew, starting with the scene in Gethsamane and ending with the crucifixion.  After each passage was read, we sung a line from a hymn and a candle was extinguished.  By the end, all of the candles and all of the lights were cut off in the chapel.  When I say all of the lights, I mean ALL of the lights!

If you ever wondering what a big chapel like Duke's looks like with all the lights off at night, it's really dark.  As I was sitting there, I was expecting the lights to come back on after a few seconds, but they didn't.  I kept hoping they would come back on, but they still didn't.  The thought that ran through my mind at that point was, "this is what the disciples must have felt like after Jesus died."  Total dispair, waiting for something to happen, but nothing.  They had placed ALL of their hopes on this man being their Messiah and now he's dead.  To me it only added to the awesomeness of the ressurection.  It was truly and amazing experience.

Also, we were in a thunderstorm, so shortly after the lights went off we had lightning that lit up the entire chapel, followed by a huge clap of thunder!