Summer of Dan

Awesome Random Picture Friday - Part XIII

Awesome Random Picture Friday - Part XII

Letter to the douchebag at the gym

Dear guy at the gym that always wears a plain white t-shirt and huge ass ugly glasses,

I hate you. I will list the reasons why I hate you so damn much below. Please stop coming to the gym until you can remedy these.
 

1. Stop bringin a magazine to the gym every fucking day. You know why? Because you read the entire fucking thing. Whether you are on the treadmill going .5 miles an hour or "lifting" and sitting on the machine you are at for 40 minutes while other people wait. It's rude and fucking stupid. It's not a library, it's a goddamn gym. Use it for what it is.
   
   
2. When you ditch the magazine you might want to think about wearing another kind of shirt because you know, when you perspire you can see right through the shirt. Not that you would know that because the most sweat you work up is flipping those pages.
   
   
3. Cut your fucking hair. You look like you idolize Brandon Walsh or Dylan McKay for Christs sake. That was cool about 15 years ago assmonkey. It's not cool if you are flipping your hair to the side every 10 seconds. It just adds to your douchebaggery.
   
   
4. Along the same vein of coming into this decade, get some new rims on your glasses. You look like that Old Navy lady that died a few years ago. Fucking terrible. They make me want to kick the shit out of you even more.
   

I don't think that's a lot to ask. You go to the gym, workout, maybe strike up a short conversation with someone and get the hell out of there. It's not fucking Panera or Borders. People want to get in and out of there and when it's packed and you are taking up a treadmill someone really wants to use or sitting on a bench with no weight on the bar people get a little testy. Time is valuable so don't waste ours.

Signed,

Me

One down, seven to go

The best thing about driving over 3 hours to a game is coming back with a victory.

It's even better when you beat the living hell out of them in the process. I'll take a 48-18 win any day of the week.

Our offense was obscene putting up points at will, spreading the ball around and gearing up for our tough second half of the season schedule. Sanford was the man going for 14/17 with 300+ yards passing and 6 total TDs. I still feel bad for Zap's missed halfback pass to Josh. It was a beautiful throw and Josh was just too wide open and dropped it. He made much tougher catches during the day and misses the one where he is wide open. Eh, it happens.

Defensively we had as good a day as you can hope for really when there is a 6'2", 280lb. running back that has some speed and takes 5 guys to bring down. He scored all 3 of their TDs and left a lot of us with bruises. We have a lot of away games at first but our homestand will be packed with the best of our division so it's good to learn from our mistakes.

Until Jim Levesque took him out with a flying ninja tackle when he left his feet. That made the rest of the day a lot better.

Rick leads the team in sacks right now, he had an awesome game containing the QB and forcing bad mistakes on their part. We needed someone to pressure the backfield and QB and he did just that.

I'm proud of our defense even though we gave up 18 points. We had that "Bend, don't break" mentality all day and it showed in our play. We will only get better and now that we have 2 weeks off in the form of back to back Bye weeks we have time to correct our mistakes.

We were so stoked because of the beatdown I offered to drive us (Rick, the Niff, and myself) back home. We stopped in Keene for a bite to eat and it was the best food I think I've ever had. We hadn't had a real meal since around 10am and it was 8pm by the time we got some food. Subsisting on 4 32oz. Gatorades, a bag of Fritos, some peanuts, and a granola bar just doesn't cut it.

Our next game is a night game down in Chicopee Mass. Can't come soon enough.

Awesome Random Picture Friday - Part XI

48 Hours

Is a little more than 48 hours I begin my 7th season of playing semi-pro football. When I first started I can honestly say I had no idea how long I would play; I had no idea what was normal and there are a lot of things I can honestly say I had no idea about:

1. That I would make so many good friends, some lifelong ones as well (Flack) and get to play ball with one of my childhood BFFs (Mark) and high school buddies.
   
2. That I would have get to see more of New England as we travel to all sorts of town fields, high schools, colleges, and wherever you could fit a set of goalposts. 
3. That I would ever begin to know what it feels to be a pro football player (ie: I sympathesize with guys like Brett Favre as far as not knowing when it hang them up and not want to have to go through all the preseason bumps and bruises to get to the games).
4. That I would be able to fill a hole inside of me that's always been there since I was a kid.
5. That I would lose a lot more than I would win, and still love the game just as much.
6. That I would get to play in front of my friends and family, including my grandparents.
7. That I would continue learning even little things about football this many years into playing.
8. That I would surprise myself over and over again.
9. That the quote, "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard" would actually be true.
10. That I would be undersized for my position and still be able to hold my own.

Another season, another chance to have a winning record, another chance for a championship. Baby steps. One game at a time. Before we know it the season will be over and we'll be pissed that we have to wait all over again for another.

But I guarantee no one will be pissed about missing those 3+ hour trips each way in the car like this weekend.

Here's to a successful, injury-free 2009 season.

We're like ball brothers - we hang together

As my dad always says, "Be good"

•  I had lunch with Steve and Kraig today. It's been way too long since we did that. I got to the restaurant before them and sat and listened to music while I waited. Because of the awkward entrance from where Steve was coming he would need to hit the light, take a right, turn around, wait at the light and then come back up the street. The median was needlessly there. Apparently Steve thought the same thing I did - in typical Steve fashion, rather than doing things legally he jumped into the oncoming lane for about 50 feet and zoomed into the lot. I'll never forget the look on Kraig's face. Classic Steve.
  
  
• My season fast approaches. My eighth season in the league and I'm lucky to still be playing. Next Saturday we kick off the season in the Berkshires (hello NewYorkVermontExtremeWesternMassachusetts) followed by back to back Bye Weeks. I know, don't get me started.
  
  
• I've been rocking out to The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and Kings of Leon a lot lately. KoL has been around for a while and I knew of them but never got into them right away but I like the music a lot. RJA is fantastic I think personally. Check them out. While you are at it, jump into iTunes and listen to samples of Forget The Girl. It's my buddies band and seriously is fantastic. Don't take my word for it, listen to them.
  
  
• Maybe it's me getting older but I am appreciating the little things more - writing, reading, the looks that Ray and Lola give me, the walks with the Niff, having my sister visit for the day, random emails/texts from friends, hearing good new music.
  
  
• The MRP (Mantown Reclaimation Project) is about 95% complete. Once it's done I'll post pics. I promise.
  
  
• Favorite lyrics from RJA's Guardian Angel:
  
  

  It's ok. It's ok. It's ok.
  Seasons are changing
  And waves are crashing
  And stars are falling all for us
  Days grow longer and nights grow shorter
  I can show you I'll be the one
  
  

• Pandora is simply amazing. People are bitching that they have to curb listening to 40 hours per month and if you go over you can go for unlimited for a whopping 99 cents. Shut the fuck up you cheap motherfuckers, they have costs to cover (ever hear of royalty fees?) and the service is amazing. I'd pay $5 a month for it. I hate people that are so cheap that they want everything for free.
  
  
• I'm beyond excited it's sunny out and gorgeous. It's pretty sad it is this far into the summer and Water Country has been open only 5 days. That's insane.
  
  
• In a non-cheesy way I've been wanting to really get in touch with my artistic side. Not just through writing, but I've been reading a lot about photography and I've always wanted to get into that. I also texted my dad to see if he still had his old acoustic guitar. I'm sure I'll just play around with it, but who knows, maybe I'll surprise myself. I guess you never do stop growing and changing.
  
  
• Going out tonight with the homies for some extreme batting cage action, a bite to eat and then going to see Bruno. I can't fucking wait. 
  
  
• I feel blessed that my Papa turned 82 yesterday. He's the coolest old dude I know and I hope I'm half as hip as he is when I get older.
  
  
• 
  
  

Enjoy the weekend everyone :)

Awesome Random Picture Friday - Part X

Date Night

Date Night is something the Niff and I came up with as a way to keep our relationship fun and interesting. They aren't always extravagent - sometimes it's just spending time together and hanging out, sometimes it is going to dinner and a movie, sometimes it's walking down to the ice cream place a few miles from our place and back and enjoying our time together. Sometimes it's renting 3 movies from RedBox and chugging through them with some popcorn on the living room floor. Sometimes it's video games and sushi. 

It's a great way to reconnect and have something to look forward to every week. We don't really know what day Date Night is going to be. Our schedules always revolve around work and working out - everything else needs to fit into the cracks.

We've done our best to try to not stray from the reason behind Date Night - to spend time together and enjoy each other. In the past sometimes we've used it to catch up on errands and we've both agreed to scrap anything like that whenever possible. Life gets in the way sometimes and it's unavoidable once in a while.

We're going on vacation the last week in July and doing some day trips again and the whole planning of it feels like one giant Date Night Week, I'm stoked. We're spending two nights up in a cabin in Crawford Notch near the Saco River. We're already planning on watching Blair Witch at 3am one of the nights because that's how we roll. Patriots Training Camp is on the agenda as is meeting with a potential destination wedding planner. 

Yes - after almost 3 years we're actually in the beginning stages of planning something.

Depending how our week goes we might go on a whale watch or a hike.

I'm not entirely sure how we'll spend the rest of the time, I just know if it does turn out to be like one giant Date Night we'll have a blast.

Deflated like a beachball at Fenway

Last night as I was getting ready for the gym I asked the Niff if she's seen my workout notebook. I keep track of all the cardio, cross training, and lifting I do. I have gotten out of the groove of doing that and was looking to get back into it and needed my notebook. The exchange went like this, verbatim.

Me: "Hey, do you know where my workout notebook is?"

Niff: "Why do you need it?"

Me: "To keep track of my progress"

Niff: "Hold on a sec, I can help you with that, I just need to find any old blank notebook"

Goddamnit. She's good. Too good.