Bracket Free, WBC, My Shake (thing things have nothing in common)

I’m not hanging on to see if the 12 seed in the west beats the 5 seeed, and I don’t get pissed if Louisville (as a 1 seed) runs the table and wins (although as Debbie would put it...I should care!)

You see I don’t have a horse in this year’s Men’s NCAA tournament. I AM going to watch a lot of the games and I will root for a bunch of upsets (especially North Dakota State....go Bisons!) but this may be the first year in the last 20 or so that I have not filled out a tourney pool or bracket. I’ve been invited to do several and of course there are always the dot coms (ESPN, FOX, YAHOO, OPRAH, etc) but I just don’t feel the need to do so. I’m going to sit back and just enjoy the action.

With that said I have entered one single bracket contest. WFAN radio in New York has a contest sponsored by Buffalo Wild Wing Café where by you pick the radio personality that you think will have the best bracket. If your choice wins, you are entered into a drawing for a large TV. I have chosen the great STEVE SOMMERS, the schmoozer for those of you keeping score at home. If you’re interested you can find the contest link here.

Lately I’ve become enthralled with Major League Baseball’s answer to the World Cup (or at least the World Cricket Championships), the World Baseball Classic where teams from the US, Latin America, Asia, and even Australia (didn’t realize they even played baseball in the outback mate) are represented. Last night in the quarterfinal round the US came back in the bottom of the 9th inning to beat Puerto Rico (why do the US and their territories have different teams btw!!) Mrs. Bloggerman’s boy-toy, David Wright’s, two run single. What a moment, but I apologize to my dog and my mother (who was on the phone at the time) for the screaming and yelling in their ear as I was watching the action unfold on the screen in front of me. I really didn’t think I was going to get into all the action but this year has seen some great games and a US team that actually cares about winning and is trying. I am so ready for regular season baseball I’m shaking. Well that might have been my 3rd cup of coffee but who’s counting?

Finally, I tried to make the Guinness Milkshake mentioned in the post a few days ago. The taste wasn’t bad (I added some peppermint extract and some green food coloring) but after a huge (and delicious) dinner of corned beef and cabbage courtesy of Mrs. Bloggerman I really had no room and only got about half of it down my gullet before giving up (it might have also been the two Guinness I had with dinner that did it too). Here’s a pic.

You Give Us 22 Minutes and We’ll Give You a Trip to NYC (DAY 1)

So Mr. and Mrs. Bloggerman took a trip up to NYC to see our beloved Metropolitans play their final season in the open-air toilet bowl otherwise known as Shea Stadium. I’ll spare you most of the minutia to include the entire playlist on the radio on the drive up from DC (although I will say that we did get to hear the Schmoozer, Steve Somers, on WFAN when we crossed in to Jersey)

The Sign
The trip up was good and relatively traffic free (save the BQE) and we made it up to meet with some friends in Queens a little after 1230. After a really good Eggplant parm sandwich with all the orthodoxy walking back from shul we crossed the street to one of the best signs I’ve ever seen.

This is in response to a spate of pedestrian accidents in the crosswalk. Talk about signage that “tells it like it is”. Now all we need is the sign to sit next to the red light that says, “Hey Dumbass…you in the car…the red light means STOP and is not optional!”

The Rain Delay
We headed to Shea at 530p on Saturday for a 710p game in order to catch batting practice and tour around the stadium. It had just begun to rain but we were told that the storm would just be a summer thunderstorm and pass quickly. Not so fast. Come 645p the tarp was still on the infield and the rains hadn’t let up yet. About that time we took the time to appreciate the finer points of Shea that we might have overlooked in the past. This includes some of the area around the stadium including the old World’s Fair grounds. We also took interest in finding the “Most Obscure Player’s Jersey” that a fan was wearing. Plenty of folks have David Wright, Jose Reyes, Johan Santana jerseys but what about the Alan Zinter, Tony Clark, or Tim Tuffel’s of the world? Well we didn’t any of those but did actually find someone with a Danny Heep. What’s even better then that? She had it signed! BTW: This guy wearing the Dave Kingman was a close second place on our list! Around 715p the rains lightened up and we checked out our seats. Upper Deck but right over home plate….near perfect! The only problem was that the rain started to kick up again and we had lighting to boot. Instead of retreating back into the now crowding concourses we decided to hoof it up some 20 rows to the top of the upper deck that is protected by overhead awning. While up there we managed to pass the time by:

A: Taking in the car fire out in the parking lots in right field.

B: Hanging out with Cowbell Man

C: Watching the visiting Texas Rangers use the infield for the worlds largest slip and slide

Finally the team canceled the game around 830pm. We trudged down through the rain and out of the stadium stopping to pick up some additional free swag commemorating the final season of this dump.

Chinese and a Cookie
Since we were soaked we headed back to the hotel, changed, grabbed the car and headed to downtown Flushing where we heard there was a meca of Chinese food. We weren’t disappointed and were referred to a very modern looking place called Sunway Café. As somebody on a food board said (I read today) it looks like a Chinese Howard Johnsons.

They weren’t wrong but the food was really good and a huge variety of mostly good and greasy Cantonese fare (the kind of food I’d equate to a really good greasy spoon/diner when you’re up at midnight). We split a few dishes (Rice w/ omelets and raisins, baked chicken with black pepper, and then something I don’t remember the name of but is described by one critic as ”… an order of crispy noodles, said material wrapped in squishy rice noodle, served with a dollop of syrupy Hoisin sauce. Mellow greasy vibe.”

Finishing off the meal, a watermelon juice and bubble tea for the misses. Now to find a good cookie to finish off the night.

Not as simple as it sounds! You see evidently the rain has forced the shut down of some roads (with 5 ft of water!!) and the rerouting of others. After driving around and sitting in traffic we end up at a Pathmark over by our hotel. They have a wonderful looking bakery case but not a single fresh baked (today) cookie to be found as midnight rolls around. Bloggerman was starting to get huffy and the Misses was doing her best (G-d bless her) to calm me down. Alas, we found a diner nearby and dug into a very soft and pillow-y (thus good) chocolate chipper and dozed off for the night.

Tune in later today for Part II and updated pics here.