This Is Better Than The Republican National Convention Anyday

Remember when Cleveland had a chance to host the Republican National Convention and there was publicity everywhere because of all the money it would bring to the city? How is it that the NCAA Women's Final Four is going to be in Cleveland this weekend and you aren't really hearing that much about it? This event is even bigger to me, but on a different level, and not just because it doesn't involve a lot of republicans running around my city. On top of the lack of Republicans, it will bring a lot of big names to this city for speaking events, games and coaching conventions, it will increase awareness of Title IX, as that legislation will celebrate its 35-year anniversary with a three-day convention in Cleveland, it will also empower young women in Cleveland with events held everyday to increase knowledge of the sport and of women in sports, and most importantly major sports publications are writing articles such as this one to shed positive light on our fine city. If you love sports and you call Cleveland home, hopefully you will realize what a wonderful opportunity this is for our fine city. I am lucky to fall into both of those categories, and I am also lucky becaue I got a volunteer gig at the event for the weekend, so I may be a little biased.

Everything I Need To Know In Life, I Learned From The Cleveland International Film Festival

Just a quick synopsis of what I learned over the past week at the Cleveland International Film Festival:
1. Director Jamie Babbit raids the cd collections of my friends
2. Sigourney Weaver makes movies better
3. When a movie is about beastiality, skipping it due to extreme exhaustion can be justified easier.
4. Norwegian movies make very little sense to me
5. British horror films are more funny (in a good way) than scary
6. Romanians make incest seem somewhat normal
7. My alma mater, Ohio University looks good on the big screen even if it is surrouned by unnecessary irony.

And All This Time I Thought It Was The Beer Making Me Fat

From www.msnbc.com and The Associated Press:

WASHINGTON - The typical Chinese restaurant menu is a sea of nutritional no-nos, a consumer group has found. A plate of General Tso’s chicken, for example, is loaded with about 40 percent more sodium and more than half the calories an average adult needs for an entire day. The battered, fried chicken dish with vegetables has 1,300 calories, 3,200 milligrams of sodium and 11 grams of saturated fat. That’s before the rice (200 calories a cup). And after the egg rolls (200 calories and 400 milligrams of sodium).

So much for my diet of wings and Chinese food. I Guess I will just have to stick to the wings-at least those are good for you, right?

“I don’t want to put all the blame on Chinese food,” said Bonnie Liebman, nutrition director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which did a report released Tuesday.
“Across the board, American restaurants need to cut back on calories and salt, and in the meantime, people should think of each meal as not one, but two, and bring home half for tomorrow,” Liebman said.

The average adult needs around 2,000 calories a day and 2,300 milligrams of salt, which is about one teaspoon of salt, according to government guidelines.

In some ways, Liebman said, Italian and Mexican restaurants are worse for your health, because their food is higher in saturated fat, which can increase the risk of heart disease.
While Chinese restaurant food is bad for your waistline and blood pressure — sodium contributes to hypertension — it does offer vegetable-rich dishes and the kind of fat that’s not bad for the heart.

So the trick is to order vegetables with your fried meats...that explains a lot.

However — and this is a big however — the veggies aren’t off the hook. A plate of stir-fried greens has 900 calories and 2,200 milligrams of sodium. And eggplant in garlic sauce has 1,000 calories and 2,000 milligrams of sodium. “We were shocked. We assumed the vegetables were all low in calories,” Liebman said.

Just like I assumed everything they served was low in calories. Now who is the dummy? Stupid researchers!

Also surprising were some appetizers: An order of six steamed pork dumplings has 500 calories, and there’s not much difference, about 10 calories per dumpling, if they’re pan-fried.
The group found that not much has changed since it examined Chinese food 15 years ago. That’s not all bad, Liebman said. “We were glad not to find anything different,” she said. “Some restaurant food has gotten a lot worse. Companies seem to pile on. Instead of just cheesecake, you get coconut chocolate chip cheesecake with a layer of chocolate cake, and lasagna with meatballs.”

What she is trying to say is stay away from the General Tso's Coconut Chocolate Chip Cheesecake.

The group says there is no safe harbor from sodium on the Chinese restaurant menu, but it offers several tips for making a meal healthier:
Look for dishes that feature vegetables instead of meat or noodles. Ask for extra broccoli, snow peas or other veggies.
Steer clear of deep-fried meat, seafood or tofu. Order it stir-fried or braised.
Hold the sauce, and eat with a fork or chopsticks to leave more sauce behind.
Avoid salt, which means steering clear of the duck sauce, hot mustard, hoisin sauce and soy sauce.
Share your meal or take half home for later.
Ask for brown rice instead of white rice.

What would even be the point of ordering Chinese if you have to follow these tips?

St. Patricks Day 2007...

...Or as I like to call it: Amateur Drinking Day at my favorite bar. This year we started out at The Old Angle, and as we found out later, we should have just stayed there. While at The Old Angle we got to watch the Ohio State game, even though they had to keep switching televisions for us, as the bar started to fill up, and we could no longer see above everyone. However the highlight of our stay there was a conversation I was privy to down in the bathroom:
Girl 1: I am so drunk on beer!
Girl 2: Oh My God, I am so drunk on beer too! This is so crazy.
Girl 3 (who stumbled in a couple minutes later): Oh My God, I am so drunk on beer! This is so crazy!
Girl 2: I can't believe how drunk I am on beer!
Girl 1: Me neither. I am so glad I ate first.
Girl 3 (from inside one of the stalls): How did you know to eat first???
Girl 1: I don't know. I guess I thought ahead.
Girl 2 and 3: Oh My God! You are so smart.

That is a conversation I never thought I would hear inside the confines of my bar. Other than that, let me recap the good and bad ideas of the day:
Starting at The Old Angle: Good Idea
Going to McCarthy's in The Flats: Bad Idea
However while we were in line for the bathroom at this bar, this stupid frat boy in a cableknit sweater yelled at the women's bathroom line to make out or tickle each other. At this point, my friend Allison said: "Does that guy know he is wearing a cableknit sweater, and that men in cableknit sweaters should never yell those things out loud because we will know he is gay?"
Going to The Harbor Inn in The Flats: Bad Idea
Going to West 6th Street on the advice that it wouldn't be so annoying because it was St. Patrick's Day: Bad Idea
Going to Cinergy on West 6ht Street: Bad Idea
Going to Panini's on West 6th Street: Bad Idea
Going to The Old Stand in Lakewood: Bad Idea
Calling someone to come pick me up in Lakewood so I could head home: Good Idea
Going to Bed at 8:00 p.m.: Good Idea
Waking up early to go to the film festival: Good Idea

All in all, it was a great four days off filled with a lot of basketball and a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone I spent it with, but next year I am staying put at The Old Angle for the duration of St. Patrick's Day.

Strong Enough For A Man But Made For A Locked Up Glass Case At My Local Ghetto Store

On the way to get wings last Thursday in Tremont I had to stop for cigarettes. While in the little ghetto store across the street from Lincoln Park Pub, I realized I also needed deoderant. As I walked up and down every eclectic aisle in this little store, I could not find any deoderant. When I walked up to the counter to inquire where it might be, the gentleman behind the counter pointed to a locked glass case underneath him. Inside that locked glass case I saw toothpaste, deoderant and body soap. I had to point at the one I wanted like I was at a deli. He then had to unlock the case to get my deoderant, and as he did this I wondered if I was getting some secret magic deoderant. Alas, it was regular Secret deoderant worth only $2.49. I laughed thinking how I passed much more expensive things while looking for the deoderant, but apparently there must be high crime on items used for hygiene. The only thing I could think of is there has to be some special ingredient in my deoderant used for drugs. If anyone knows a drug recipe using my Secret Spring Breeze deoderant, could you please pass it along?

Pro (Social) Life

As I was driving home down West 25th street past Metro Health Hospital, I may have seen one of the strangest events of my life. I saw the first man with a "Stop Abortion" sign and got the creeps, but kept driving. About fifty yards ahead at the stoplight there was another group of about ten protesters, and I was stuck at a red light looking at their gross signs. Keep in mind this had to have been the homeliest group of people I have ever seen. I always find it to be so ironic how ugly pro-life protesters look, but I guess in a way it makes sense. Nonetheless, I see the protesters walking out into the street where I thought the car behind me may have been yelling slurs at them like I wish I would have done. But NO, this is not the case at all. The protesters start hugging and high-fiving the people in the car behind me in a show of comraderie. I was stunned. I couldn't even move when the light turned green. I just sat there wondering if somehow I got stuck in the middle of some pro-life parade, but with much less candy and really ugly people.

Two Weeks Is Too Long

The past two weeks have flown by full of events and failed thoughts of blogging. To catch everyone up I got a new car, though it will never take the place of Ruby. I have to give a lot of thanks to my parents for their incredible bargaining ways as I am now driving a 2007 Hyundai Sonata. I also had to go to North Carolina for family business this past week. If only I had enough words and space to blog about the family events and craziness. Unfortunately you will have to wait to read Julie's book entitled: Does Crazy Sleep? which is sure to be made into a major motion picture or at least a Lifetime movie of the week sometime soon. I hear Meredith Baxter Birney is already auditioning for the part of crazy.

As for the next two weeks-I can't be more excited! This is my favorite time of year because of the NCAA basketball tournament (Selection Sunday is only two days away or 56 hours from now) and the Cleveland International Film Festival , which will also be going on over the next two weeks. This year I am actually lucky enough to have someone in my life to pull me away from basketball to see some movies and get me out of the house, or bar as the case may be. Do not fear, I have already taken March 15th and 16th off of work for the first two days of the tournament like I do every year. I am just glad those games don't fall on St. Patricks Day like they did the past two years. My boss always thought I was taking the days off to drink beer and go to the parade. When any normal person would know I was taking the days off to drink beer and watch basketball. I am obviously working with amateurs here.

RIP Ruby

I got news yesterday that Ruby's motor had gone out on her. It doesn't make sense to put $1,300 into my car due to the fact that she is ten years old, so I decided to let her move on to car heaven. She is not a person or even an animal, so my sadness seems unjustified, but she was my first car and I had her for eight wonderful years. Eight years that included her driving me downtown to Cleveland for work, living in Florida, driving back and forth to Kent on many many many occassions, getting towed away a few times for several mishaps and taking me anywhere I wanted to go, whenever I wanted to go. I am sure I will love my next car, but it just won't be the same without her.

Taco Twosday

Last night I met Liz for tacos at Lincolon Park Pub. When I walked in, I saw she was sitting at a table with two friends of ours that we don't usually hang out with on a regular basis. This translates to: two people who don't drink a lot. After I got my drink, I joined Liz outside for a cigarette. While we were outside, she proceeds to tell me she got a double of Stoli and tonic. This didn't surprise me because she normally does this when we get tacos. However her reasoning this night was that she didn't want it to look like she drinks a lot. She thought if she got a double she wouldn't have to get up as quickly to get another drink in front of these people who might think she has a problem. I found her rationale funny and we proceeded back in where our friends had gotten the bill and had a confused look on their face. They looked up and said: "why do we have two shots of Stoli on our bill?" They couldn't figure it out and I busted out laughing. Apparently the waitress put Liz's drink on their bill. The one girl looked at her margarita and wondered out loud if they put Stoli in there (this was a good indication of how little they drink), and I began to laugh even more. Liz came clean about her double and they looked astonished. As a matter of fact, they said: "who drinks a double on a weekday?" I decided to take the onus off of Liz and tell them I did a shot at the bar while getting my beer. They looked at us like we were from outer space, and left soon after. We stayed and got more drinks. It was Fat Tuesday afterall.

CARma

I had to take my car, Ruby, to the mechanic yesterday. Now that she has turned ten, she seems to be having more and more problems. While my car is being looked at, my father is letting me borrow his car that seems to also have some problems, which can best be described from our phone conversation yesterday:

Dad: Ok the keys will be in the car
Me: Great. Thanks! Anything I should know?
Dad: Well don't worry about all the weird alarms as you drive.
Me: Ok
Dad: There is actually nothing wrong with the airbags or brakes, so don't worry when the car tries to tell you there is something wrong with those.
Me: Ok
Dad: Oh and also, there is no cruise control.
Me: Ok
Dad: Also if you want to move the mirrors, you have to do it manually.
Me (At this point laughing): Dad, after we get my car back, you may want to take yours in to get looked at as well.

I Feel Like A Little Kid

We got word today that school has been cancelled due to the snow, therefore I have the day off. Yeah for snow days. Hmmm...maybe I will have lunch with Liz again tomorrow.

Lunch With Liz

I took the day off today and went out to lunch with Liz to a little hole in the wall. I had the veal-Roz will appreciate that-and she had a BLT. Just a normal lunch, nothing too crazy to mention...

For Scorned Women Only

I found this advertisement online and I laughed out loud. There is a group of scorned women out there who have had enough of felons and married men!

Happy Birthday Blog

Two years ago, the day after the Super Bowl, I started this blog when I did THIS ENTRY. Today I feel the same way, I felt on that day: So Now What? Now I have to wait five weeks until Selection Sunday when the NCAA tournament starts, and I have no idea what I am going to do without football. Last night when Peyton Manning held up that championship trophy, I shed a tear. Sure I was glad he finally won the big game, but my sadness was more for the end of the football season and losing my only justifiable reason to drink beer on Sunday afternoons. I do have to say the season went out with a bang thanks to my sister, Julie and Rozzy. I may want to stay away from Sunday drinking for a little while anyway after this weekend.

There Is A God And He Eats Wings

I am happy to announce there is now officially a wing night in Ohio City. The gods have smiled down upon my brother and I, and now the Old Angle will be serving their wings for only 25 cents apiece on Monday nights, along with $2 domestic beers. These are the same wings that cost almost a dollar apiece any other night of the week there, so it really is a deal. Last night as we left with a bill of only $24, we started laughing because that is usually the tip we have to leave when we normally go there.

Why We REALLY Got The Internet

I walked into the annex today and saw my computer was on a page with a history of NBA basketball MVPS. If you were to flash back three hours earlier at The Old Angle, my brother and I got into a small argument about how many MVP awards Larry Bird won in a row. I swore he didn't win three in a row and my brother swore otherwise. He did win three in a row. This is why the page was still up for me to see as I walked in the door, and this is the real reason we got internet access at the annex. Is there anything more satisfying than settling sports debates? I think not.

Get A Life*

Even after I had the audacity to say I would blog more with Wi-Fi, I still have been lazy. In my lame defense, it has been cold out, and we don't get our actual internet connection until Thursday. I made the appointment to get cable installed, and they gave me an all-day window from 8-5 to be ready for them. Perhaps they thought because I now will have both internet and cable connections, that I must also not have a life. Surely they are assuming I will put my life on hold for them. This could be true, because the first time I got cable at my place, I just missed the guy and chased him down the road like a crazy person until he stopped. I have an interesting relationship with my cable company, and I am sure there is a little asterisk next to my name whenever I call.

Watch Out World I Have Wi-Fi

I am sitting at the Old Angle watching playoff football using my wireless internet for the first time. Could things be better? Our parents got us an incredible laptop for the holidays and I plan on putting it to use. Luckily for me, The Old Angle makes it easier to do that. Hopefully this will help me update my blog more often. Who knew I could increase my productivity at the Angle?

Even In Loss, We Still Have Fun

This picture was taken right before kickoff, which is why we are both still smiling. Can you tell we are related? Our mother has been dressing us alike for years.

I'm Still Alive: The Holiday Version

It has been way too long since my last post, but there has been so much going on in such a short time. The holidays are so distracting, or perhaps I am just easily distracted. If you know me personally you can answer that last one on your own.

As always, Christmas was incredible thanks to my parents. The time and effort they put into that one day never ceases to amaze me. (The amount of champagne we drink on that morning also never really ceases to amaze me as well.) What I noticed this year is the amount of trash talking that goes on around the holiday season. While it is the season to be giving and jolly we tend to cut one another down in the process so that our new gifts seem better. For example, my brother got my mom a new throw blanket for her couch. The night before Christmas he went off about how her old throw blanket isn't big enough anymore and then he went on to point out it doesn't look that warm. All of this to make the new blanket seem that much better. Another example was the day before Christmas my father, my brother and I got into a little debate regarding football history. At the end of the debate, my father, in a tone I have never heard from him before said: "What? You think you know NFL trivia or something?" I couldn't believe the trash talk until the next day when I opened my new game of NFL trivia. Next year keep an ear out for the Christmas trash talk. I promise you, it's there.

As for New Years...you may want to sit down for this one. I just wasn't in the mood to deal with all the crazy people, so I stayed in and watched Seinfeld until 1 am. It was a great night. I could hear all the people yellling outside, but I didn't have to see them. I did go to The Old Angle at 1 am to meet some people, but I was glad to be back home soon after that. People make such a big deal out of New Years, but as I watched the ball drop that night during a commercial break, I thought to myself: What the hell is the big deal? Chances are I am going to have more fun going out any other night of the year, though I guess unlike most people, I do go out almost every other night of the year. Have a Happy New Year!