Stuff

Wow, it has been ages since I last wrote. Not sure what is new or what is to say, but what the hell, I will give it a try. First off, Congrats to the Celtics!!! I did not expect them to win it all at any point except after game 2 against the Lakers. Even when they traded for Garnett and Allen, I thought they were a top 2 or 3 team in the East, not the best team in the league. I thought they were only three players with a bunch of stiffs and a crappy coach. I was very wrong. They had some solid role players (Rowe, Brown, Posey) and an up and coming point guard (Rondo). Their coach also decided to become a solid coach when it mattered (in the Detroit and Lakers series).

In the playoffs, I always thought they would make it to Detroit and then get knocked out. I was convinced they would after they stumbled by Atlanta and Cleveland who they should have beat up on. Up until the Detroit series, they had not won on the road (though they were un-defeated at home) which is something you have to do in order to win it all. I was so annoyed that they could not beat up on Atlanta and Cleveland and Rivers seemed like he was trying to lose (keeping Garnett and Pierce on the bench during critical times even though the commercial time outs last forever in the NBA). Plus he kept feeling the need to play Sam Cassell who single handedly made me get the urge to try out for the NBA. Naturally, when the Pistons won one in Boston, I thought it was over. Then the Celtics kick the snot out of the Pistons in Detroit and I had hope. But I felt that the hope would be short lived because even if they could get past the Pistons, the Lakers or Spurs would beat them. Didn’t happen! The Celtics went on to win the 1st two at home (even though they almost blew game two) and then stole one in Los Angeles (probably one of the greatest comebacks in sports history being down by more than 20 in the first quarter. By the time they went back to Boston, you were pretty sure they would win, even though I was a little nervous about them blowing it. Not only did they win game 6, they DESTROYED the Lakers in that game. It was embarrassing. They ended up winning by almost 40 points which is insane considering the other team had the “best player in the NBA” on its team. (On a side note, any talk of Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan went right out the window in this series. He never truly took any game over and carried the team on his back, as Jordan would. He’s a great player, but he is not Jordan and he is ESPECIALLY not Bird……..but honestly, who is?).

As for the other Boston sports teams, the Bruins are sill not interesting. Football is quiet, especially with the (apparent) end to the Spygate saga. Although the Patriots will be interesting on defense after drafting a linebacker high in the draft (10) for the first time in Belichick’s tenure with the Patriots. I think it was even the first time he picked one in the 1st 3 rounds. They should still be contenders for the championship (which they should have won this year to complete the trifecta). The Red Sox are in first place despite a bunch of injuries (Schilling, Ortiz, Dice-K), but there is still so much left in the season, it is too early to get excited. I did get to see the Sox get beat up by the Twins (ugh) this year.

Quinlan

Quinlan is now 14 months old and he is an absolute blast! He is walking and babbling like a maniac. We got worried because it took him so long to start crawling and walking. But when he learned to do both, he took right off. Now he can walk all around the house without too much falling or needing helps with the walls. Sometimes if he wants to get somewhere quick, he just drops down and crawls like a crazy spider-monkey.

He is a rock star with the eating. There are only a few things he won’t eat (eggs and chicken), other than that he will eat most things. He loves sweet potato fries, spinach and salmon (yes, I said Salmon. Holly introduced it to him and he crams it down. Quite the expensive meal for your one year old). He has not been eating a ton of sweets which is good. I don’t want him to become one of those kids that only eats sweets while never eating anything half decent.

He is also getting quite the personality. Ever since he started sleeping better (after the whole crying it out weekend), he is a much happier livelier baby. He babbles a ton, even though he isn’t saying any words. He has his own little language. He gets very giggly, especially for Daddy. He likes to act like he is chasing me which is really cute. We are so obnoxious with the camera, we have so many pictures of him it is ridiculous, but it is fun. I even bought a new camcorder for comedy, which I am sure we will use more on Quinlan.

Travel

Last month I traveled for work quite often (3 times). I went to Penn State, Boston and San Diego. Penn State was for training in Fermentation. For the most part, it was a waste of time and money because the lab equipment did not work. Our company paid $2,000 for the training and the equipment doesn’t work??? Fortunately, some of the in-class stuff was interesting and educational. I definitely did learn a bit. I met some fun people at the class from all over the east coast (NJ, MA, Philly) and we hung out a lot. The last night we decided to stay out late and I was hurting for the last half day of training. We found a place that had $1 pitchers of beer. Not cups…..PITCHERS!!!!! Not a good idea. Fortunately, the people I hung out with were a blast and we had a lot of laughs.

San Deigo was cool but we did not really have a ton of time (or energy) to site see. We did get to see the ocean and eat good (Mexican food in SD is great!). Our hotel was right on the a bay near the ocean, it was beautiful. Holly wanted to go, but I wasn’t sure if it was a hot idea or not. I was wrong and now I am promising her to allow her to go next year (same show in San Diego). She will be able to site see and spend my money while I stand in a trade show booth all day.

I did get to sneak in a trip to Boston for work and for play. I had some excellent business visits that more than paid for the trip out there. While out there, I went golfing with the guys in NH for the 1st time in probably 5 years. It was fun to get out for the first time and swing the clubs (even though I was painfully inconsistent) and we played a ton of poker (I think I won a total of $80). I tried to have some beer, but I was finding it to make me full and tired. I guess I do not drink enough Sam Adams anymore and I guess I am getting old. So sad.

The one odd thing from the weekend was when we needed to drive back to the cabin on Saturday. Some people wanted to continue while others wanted to go back. I was one of the ones to go back. There were going to be 5 of us in the car, so three of us would e stuck crammed in the back. I mentioned to one of our friends that it looked like we would all have to flip for the front seat. He proceeded to announce that he called the front seat when they were in the clubhouse and he had the front seat. He then went out to the car to sit in it to make sure he got the front seat. Yep, this is a 35 year old guy who did the stuff we used to do when we were 13. Nice.