"Tonight, I'd like to give you a little bonus rock to suck on."

said Stephen Colbert last night on the Colbert Report as he aired a performance of R.E.M.'s "Hollow Man" recorded in April. Perhaps not my choice for second single, but a rocking good song, nonetheless:



And here's a bonus, the actual music video for "Hollow Man":



One day until the concert!
#remmann

I Feel Like a Storm Cloud - But My Thunder Was Stolen

For the most part, Wednesdays means that it's Quizzo night at Fado in Center City and yesterday was one of those nights. We have a good core group for our team - mostly Colleen's coworkers - and we have our regular spot in a side room to enjoy the competition and a few beers. Normally, we're a upper-middle team, hovering around 5-7 out of 20 or so teams.

Last night, we were on fire!

The stars were perfectly aligned for us. The early round questions were lay-ups for us and the category round was "Broadway Musicals," which Colleen went 10 for 10 on (I would have gotten 8 of them if she hadn't been there). On top of that, we rocked the music round, getting all ten songs and nine of the artists. In fact, we won the two pitchers of beer that come with winning that round after I pounced on "Molly" by Sponge after about 2 seconds in the 4-way tiebreaker.

We had 75 points going into Final Jeopardy! (4 points ahead of second place)

And then we had the rug yanked out from underneath us.

Because the guy keeping score forgot to mention that there was a team that actually had 72 points when he originally listed the teams in the top 3 - and we stopped listening after we heard that second place had "71" points. So we bet 68 points - enough to get us 143 with a right answer and supposedly win. But no, incompetence beat us in the end.

We had our thunder stolen. It was my night of glory, and a guy with a microphone who didn't know how to count took it all away from me. Next time we're just betting it all.

I am like a storm cloud - but someone stole my thunder. ::FLASH::...waiting...waiting...no boom.

My new toy

Today Colleen and I took a trip to Delaware to pick up something from her Aunt's house and decided to stop by Target to check out the TV I've had my eye on for awhile. After saving up birthday money and having a few good nights at the tables in AC, I was a fair chunk of the way to affording the 37" Olevia LCD 720p. And lo and behold, it was on sale. So after all discounts and such, I had more than enough for the new set.

It's so awesome! I can't wait to get the HDTV channels added and my component cables for the Wii.

Poker Report

I haven't been to AC to play some poker in quite awhile, so given that Colleen I'd still in Nicaragua and it's a three day weekend, I decided to make the trek today.

Right now I'm waiting to head home. It was a mixed day. Actually, anyone else would have been thrilled - I'm going home up $225 for about 8 hours of playing. But I'm not thrilled with my play today. I should probably be up $500, but I made a couple of stupid calls. The only reason I finished up was because I got lucky and doubled up late.

I look down in middle position to see pocket 7's. There was a raise to $12, but that really wasn't that big a raise at this table so I called. I think there another 1 or 2 callers after me. Flop came down 7Q7 rainbow. At this point all I'm thinking is how to get the most money into the pot. I'm first to act and check. Next player bets $10. I'm the only one to call. 8 comes on the turn. I bet $15, hoping the other guy has made a decent hand. He comes over the top $30.

This is where I start my Academy Award nominated performance. I sigh, I look down at my chips, I check my cards, and I carefully count out the chips before calling.

The river comes down 9 of diamonds. I'm pretty stoked about the card, because it puts a straight on the board, and if the guy was drawing, that might have just made his hand. I check. He bets $75. I think for a second and then push all on for another $150 on top.

At this point my hearts pounding like a drum and I'm pretty sure it's visible to the entire table. I'm praying for a call, but don't think I'll ever get it. I just go into my distant state. He counts out the chips and thinks about it for a few good minutes before stacking his $150 and putting it in. I still don't believe he paid me off.

Otherwise my cards were pretty good. I had pocket A's 5 times (including back to back) but got cracked pretty bad twice.

The weather and atmosphere down here were great. I took the train, which has turned out to be a real winner.

Overall a good day, and Colleen will be back tomorrow.

Camille Abate - You're on Notice!

Juan Melli over at BlueJersey has a piece up about 5th CD Democratic primary candidate Camille Abate's latest campaign mailer that claims that she's the only candidate that's been against the Iraq War from the start.

Not shockingly, that's a complete lie, as fellow Democratic candidate (and proud Harvard alum) Rabbi Dennis Shulman was vocally against the war since at least 2003. Such reprehensible behavior is nothing new from Abate as her behavior is very much rooted is a delusionary sense of superiority and a complete lack of moral fiber that is reflected by the behavior of her supporters on BlueJersey. She did this against Paul Aronsohn in 2006 and she hasn't changed since. I expect the results to be the same - a complete blowout of -Abate- but hopefully she doesn't make Shulman waste too much money before going on to face Scott Garrett in the general.

www.shulmanforcongress.com

Answering Stupid Questions...

...so you don't have to.

http://isbarackobamaamuslim.com

It's sad that such a site is necessary, but I'm doing my part in getting the Google ranking up. Pass it on.

Tweetie Layeth the Smacketh Downeth

Hilarious.



I guess he won't be booked on Hardball again.

Storming the Castle photos

DSCN0416, originally uploaded by Jim Griffin.

We're all still recovering, but here are some photos to tide you over.

Howell - Where it all comes to an end

Even after the cops tried to slow us down with a DWI checkpoint on Route 9, we pulled into the Howell White Castle at 12:15 p.m. Premo joined us as we ordered our last slider of the day and downed them without much pomp or circumstance. Thank god this unholy ordeal is over. And thanks to everyone who came out to root us on today.

Eatontown - Where the doubt creeps in

Jay's siblings joined us for sliders and coffee at Eatontown, our 24th stop. This is the stop that we've all started asking "why?" Only 2 more to go!

Woodbridge - The Homecoming

The rolled out 12 deep in Woodbridge as family and friends came to show support.  They had signs and music toshow their love.  Only 4 more to go.

Irvington - Half a storm done

We just finished our 13th stop of the day, and while it was certainly no Jersey City, all three of us are thrilled to be headed over the hump. We were about 25 minutes behind after the city stops, but heading to the burbs should help us make up the time.

Union City - Best food yet

8 down and we just had the best food so far. too bad it was a pain to get to. Plus we got comlpiments on the shirts. Brian Stack should be proud.

Milkshakes in hand

Just left Hasbrouck Heights with delicious milkshakes in hand. 21 more to go.

1Down, 25 to go

Hackettstown is in the books. The service was great(5) and the decor was second to none (4). My sausage breakfast sandwich was tasty (4) and at 4 minutes, it was a quick turn around. On to Ledgewood.