Some Thoughts For The Week

I haven’t been the best at updating my blog lately, but it partially has been for good reason. On top of my usual laziness, I also took a little vacation out to Camp Lieberth for four days. Now that all of the grilled meat and vodka from my vacation has exited through my pores, I am finally able to update the ol’ blog. Here are my thoughts for the week:

Sunday will be the beginning of the 100-day mark for the Ohio gubernatorial election. I can’t not stress the importance of this election enough! Please go out and read up on the issues to see why this election will have such a huge impact, not only in the near future, but on Ohioans for years to come. I am going to do my part by mixing my fashion sense and my politics. If you know me at all, you know I like to wear t-shirts. Starting Sunday I am going to wear a Ted Strickland t-shirt in some form of another for the last 100 days leading up to the election. I am not going to wear the t-shirt to work but I will be putting it on in the evening or wearing it under things. Please do your part to help. Even if you aren’t going to help register voters or volunteer, at least get yourself registered to vote. Every little bit helps, especially when our President is helping to fund Ken Blackwell’s campaign against Strickland.

The Browns big signing on the offensive line went down with a knee injury today in practice. Most likely he will be out for the year. Is anyone surprised? Poor LeCharles Bentley. Someone should have told him about the Cleveland Curse.

Please check out the Summer Party being thrown by the Center on August 19 at the Ritz Carlton. It will be an incredible time, as always.

Is there anything better than fun childhood memories coming out of the blue? I had to drive my dad’s car last week and I couldn’t figure out how to turn the cd player off, so I found myself listening to Waylon Jennings. Next thing I know I am getting a little teary-eyed thinking about all the car trips we took when I was a kid and how much fun we had listening to those songs, even though I had no idea what half the lyrics meant. Funny that I haven’t heard those songs in years, but I still know every single word. The music made me want to keep on driving to Sunset Beach, NC where we used to vacation when I was younger.

My parent’s have a flyer hanging on their fridge that says: “The White Family Reunion” from my dad’s side of the family. Maria found it very funny. Enough said.

What Costs More?

It's time for a new game called: What costs more?

Let's start out with a simple one: one pound of turkey vs. two pounds of turkey at the deli. If you answered two pounds of turkey, you are correct.

How about this one: An oil change at Lube Stop or an oil change at Firestone. If you answered Firestone, you are correct.

Now the one I am currently working on: treating a spider bite or replacing the driver's side door on my car because as I was pulling out, I saw a spider, freaked out, opened my car door to get out, then realized I had to move my car out of the street (still freaking out thinking the spider is on me) and then slamming into the side of my house with my car door bending all the way back and cracking my door hinge off (you know that scene in Tommy Boy when the car door hits the gas tank...yeah it was like that) .

I will let you know the answer when I get my estimate, but I have a feeling it would have been more economical to just let the spider go.

Membership Doesn't Have Its Privileges

It’s about time I started putting my entertainment card to use. Last night I used it for the third time as we went to Pickwick and Frolic. This review is probably three years too late for most people, but I highly recommend the chipotle chicken and shrimp pasta and Maria’s plate was overflowing with the chicken chop dinner. The food was excellent for the price and the décor was fun to look at along with the nice ambiance, considering it was 10 pm on a Wednesday night in Cleveland we practically had the whole place to ourselves.

There is a whole world of people out there who discriminate against people like me. I remember when we went to Klucks and the waitress said to the table behind us: “I didn’t tell you those specials because I knew you would be using your entertainment card.” Also the server tends to look down on you when you say you have the card. They seem to think you barely scraped enough money to pay for the one entrée and you will never be able to afford to tip them as well. Most times I tend to overcompensate for this with appetizer, drinks and desert. In the end, I actually end up spending more money then I would have had I not used the card. If only people would understand how much their discriminatory looks and remarks affect people. Just because I have an entertainment card doesn’t mean I don’t want to hear all the specials or that the wait staff should look down on me. Am I not a human? If I am cut, do I not bleed and feel like everyone else?

The Oh in Obnoxious

We went to see The Oh in Ohio at Cedar Lee on Sunday and it was unsatisfying. If you aren’t familiar with the movie, it is about a husband (Paul Rudd) and wife (Parker Posey) who have sexual issues. They are joined in the cast by Mischa Barton, Liza Minelli, Danny Devito and Heather Graham. The movie had potential and the makings of a fun indie-comedy, but it was just obnoxious in some places, especially when it came to the location.

The movie was filmed in Cleveland, though Cleveland has nothing do with the plot and it could have been substituted for any city in America. The shots of the city are fun, but some of it is just too far-fetched to be believable. Some examples for your palate:

1. Posey drives over the Carnegie Bridge constantly only to end up at a house that would be in Strongsville
2. Every house on the street has a pool. Where exactly does that take place in Cleveland?
3. Barton plays a high school student. There are no high school students in Cleveland that look like that.
4. Barton asks Rudd to “give me a ride to Case Western Reserve University” Who says that? Nobody who lives here would ever call CASE by its full name. It was almost as if the university was paying her to accentuate every syllable so that researchers would get it right in their grants.
5. Barton worked in the biology lab at CASE which was housed in the Peter B. Lewis Building. Not sure when they moved the biology lab into the business school but again it was nice product placement for the school.
6. Posey sees her office and says: “Look the Terminal Tower! I work there.” Nobody in Cleveland would say that to someone else who lives in Cleveland. Unless it is 2:45 am, you have just left the bars and your best friend is holding you up.
7. Her office in the Terminal Tower is shown to be right in front of Browns Stadium in the movie. Must have been a weird camera angle because I don’t see how that is possible.
8. Rudd is a teacher in the Cleveland Public School System, yet the school he works for doesn’t resemble any schools in the Cleveland Public School System.
9. The bar scene took place in MODA. I find that to be obnoxious in itself.
10. Heather Graham played a lesbian who lives in Cleveland. I wonder if people are going to think all lesbians who live in Cleveland look like that. Now that would be cool.

It was nice to see Cleveland represented. Perhaps next time it will be represented accurately.

You May Want To Sit Down For This One...

I think I have lost that loving feeling for LeBron. While I realize it isn't all his fault, I find that I roll my eyes the more I hear his name lately and yesterday my eyes were opened to the bigger problem.

Last week my proud city was glued to the headlines to see if LeBron was going to sign an extension for the next five years. He was the only big-name star from the 2003 draft who didn't declare his intentions right away. Cleveland got nervous. And more nervous. Finally the news came through on Saturday he was going to re-sign. I wasn't as happy as I thought I would be. I didn't start jumping up and down. I just sat there and thought about the ramifications of our one-week-wait. The initial ramifications came to light yesterday when he said he was going to change the parameters of the offer, a first for a player in his position. Instead of five years, with an option out after four years, he is going to reduce both those by one year. This is his prerogative. The city of Cleveland and the Cavaliers would never say no to his requests. Even if he was reducing the offer by two years, they would agree. We have no other choice. We know this and so does he. In that sense I do partially blame him for my current state of frustration, but at the same time, I also blame the fans of Cleveland and the media.

If you need further proof of his magnitude, check out the headline from Sunday's Plain Dealer: "Cleveland Can Breathe Again...LeBron Agrees to Sign" In essence this headline insinuates this one player has a choke hold on the city. I don't disagree with that. I used to be one of those people, and let's not get too crazy here, I still love the guy but he is not the second coming (or even the first, third or fourth depending on your religious views).

It was yesterday when it hit me most people may actually consider him the deity that is going to change this city around. I received e-mail after e-mail from people who were ecstatic about the signing. People who believe a championship will change Cleveland’s misfortunes around. People who think LeBron is going to change Cleveland by stepping on a hardwood floor. I had a woman in my office yesterday who relayed her current hardships and her monologue to me went like this: “It has been so difficult this year. I lost my job of 15 years, I had to move in with my son and help raise his kids because he can’t find work either. The school system here is failing my grandchildren and things keep getting more and more depressing. Last week I lost two family members and things have just been really hard and I don’t know where to turn. I was starting to lose faith in Cleveland until yesterday.” I then asked, “what happened yesterday?” She replied by simply saying “LeBron decided to re-sign”. I know this is a hopeful point for her but I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. It made me want to scream out to all these witnesses: Is he going to watch your kids while you look for a job or even while you are working your job, is he going to put more money into the schools, stock your fridge or pay your bills? More triple doubles does not mean more jobs unless you happen to be one of his best friends from high school. Even if he does bring us a championship, what exactly will that mean for the city? Please correct me if I am wrong, but I don’t think Detroit’s economy had a boom after the Pistons won the championship in 2004. Our fans, like so many fans in working class cities, are blind to sports success. We are starved but it isn’t for a sports championship, it is for a thriving community. What I hope is that the people of this city actually know the power for change rests in their hands and not in the hands of a 21-year old who calls Cleveland his “hood”. Believe in Cleveland but don’t believe that LeBron is going to change Cleveland simply by staying here.

Sportygrrl=Sportygrill

The harder you work for something, the better it tastes. If that is the case then our meal last night tasted like the best meal I have ever eaten.

Maria and I had all our shopping done by 4, the likes of which consisted of hot dogs, bratwurst, burgers, steak, shrimp, salads and the ingredients for the now infamous beer margaritas. Tim said he would be over and add to our meat buffet with his boneless pork spare ribs topped off with Hoisan sauce for an asian flair. We were about to have the best barbeque three people could ever throw, however the barbeque gods were not on the same page with us.

With all our meat prepped and marinated, I went downstairs to light the grill. Except the grill didn’t want to light. There was a tiny little light but it went out. Earlier in the day I actually thought about how much propane gas I had. What are the chances I would run out on July 4th for our big barbeque? Sure enough I was out of propane. Time and the holiday were not on our side. We had to move and we had to move fast, except we didn’t know where to move to. I have never filled my propane tank in Cleveland before and the chances anything was still open were slim and none, yet we all jumped in my car and started driving west. 7:50, 7:55, 8:00, 8:05…time was running out. I pull into Home Depot where all the lights were out and the employees were walking to their cars. They told us if we drove down to the other door and begged we might get lucky. So we sped down there and saw a woman manning the propane tanks. As we were getting closer we rolled down all the windows and started yelling, “propane, propane, propane, we need propane.” She said if we hurried we could get a tank and she asked us where our empty tank was. Everyone turned to me and I said: “I didn’t know I was supposed to bring the old tank.” The woman looked at me like I was crazy and explained the price difference to be about $40 between turning in your old tank or just getting a new tank. We had a decision to make and we had to make it fast. Maria stepped up to the plate and literally took charge. When we went in to pay for it, they didn’t even know how to ring up a new tank because who would be stupid enough to spend that much money on a propane tank? My fellow readers please understand that when you have over seven pounds of meat marinating in your fridge on the fourth of July, you have to make rash decisions.

As we drove back to my house, with a full tank of propane gas in the trunk, it was almost like being in a video game. We could hear illegal fireworks going off on the streets around us and we all joked about the dangers of toting around all this gas on the fourth of July. Yet we were relentless. I got out of the car, switched tanks and went to turn the grill on. Click, click, nothing. Hmmm…click, click, nothing. Not only had we run out of gas, my ignition had gone out as well. Normally I would just throw a match into the grill, but my grill can’t be that simple. There is no bottom and we couldn’t find the “match hole.” Not to mention Tim and I aren’t the bravest people in the world when it comes to throwing a match into propane fumes. I got on the phone with my father and over the next 20 minutes I talked to all three of my brothers as well for some advice. Conversations that went like this: “Ok David this used to be your grill…think where the match hole is. Can you imagine how you use to manually light this grill?” No luck. Tim and I tried everything. We waved fired around the whole grill, made small torches out of paper to stick in every possible hole, checked all the burners, checked the gas and did the same thing over and over again. Finally, sweaty and gross from frustration and humidity, we took a couple minutes to let the grill rest and decided to give it one more try and this time it worked. FIRE! You know that scene in Castaway when Tom Hanks is so frustrated from not being able to make fire and then when he does it he is so excited? Yeah, it was like that.

We started grilling at 9:30. There I was standing in the dark with my neighbors smoky fireworks surrounding me but I didn’t care. I didn’t care that I could hardly see my meat or that I could hardly breathe. I turned on my grilling sixth sense and went to work (see picture above of the darkness/smoke surrounding the steak and pork). Tim and I spent the next hour outside grilling bratwurst, burgers, steak, asian pork and hotdogs and we savored every minute of it along with a lot of cold beer and beer margaritas which we have decided will be our new signature drink. If you want the recipe, let me know because it was awesome and didn’t take nearly as long to make as the meat if you factor in the trip to Home Depot and the hour spent praying to my grill before we actually got it to light. I hope everyone had as much fun on Independence Day as we did!