Tuesday, October 26, 2010

NBA Season Tips Off Tonight!!!

It's no secret that I love sports, but when it comes to favorites, basketball is the one. I have been anxiously waiting the start of the 2010-2011 NBA season and tip off is just moments away from the time that I'm writing this entry.


The season opener features the Miami Heat @ the Boston Celtics and it should be a good one. I have LBJ drafted on both my $$$ fantasy leagues and am so excited to see what the Heat will look like this season. I know there are a lot of haters out there thinking they "stacked" them team or that LBJ left for the wrong reasons (maybe only Cleveland thanks that actually) and Bosh shouldn't be playing 3rd fiddle on any team, but hey, we've seen these superstar assimilations before: Garnett and Allen joining Pierce happened most recently but not as many critics complained. Maybe the talent of LBJ, Wade, and Bosh is so great that people just can't help but talk about it. I know I can't!
[picture courtesy of ESPN.com]

Watching basketball actually has another effect for me: it makes me want to play more as well. It's not like I've dropped basketball in the last few months, but with all the travel I haven't been able to get in there as often as I'd like. There'd be weeks were I didn't even pick up a ball and it sucked. Now that the vacations have subsided and I've more free time on my hands, I'm trying to go to the rec for pickup 2-3 times a week and so far I've been doing that and it's felt great!

So yep, totally ECSTATIC for this season! Now if we could only get some consistency from Gil' this year...

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Mass Update

It's becoming more difficult for me to be updating my blog as regularly as I used to. When I started this thing back in January, it was like a hip new fad that I wanted to update every week. These days, I've been pretty busy with traveling, work, StarCraft II, and just life in general, so I guess I'll just have to do my best and write on my blog whenever I get a chance. So my apologies in advance to all my loyal fans! With that said, let's have a nice Mass Update Blog Entry! Although I'm probably gonna try and write this in 30 minutes or less, so I might just blast through the last 2 weeks of my life.

Last month I went on several trips out of town: Vegas, Scottsdale, and Michigan. At the beginning of October I went to Cabo with Matt and Pamela who invited me to stay at their cousin's timeshare suite and for this trip I brought Maddie with me! :)
This was the second time I've been to Cabo. The first time was 2 years ago with Peyman and Kyle. That time was pretty awesome because we stayed at an all-inclusive resort and definitely took advantage. But this traveler is never one to complain! The suite we had this time in Cabo - Playa Grande - was very nice as well!
Playa Grande is towards the southern area of the touristy area of Cabo. I went to San Carlos earlier this year and Cabo is WAAAY more touristy in my opinion. Anyway, we had to take the water taxi to get to the popular beaches each time, but the fare was cheap at like $3 a person and it was the only time during the trip that we were really on a boat anywhere.
I can imagine Cabo being a huge destination spot for Spring Breakers. You can easily drink your ass off silly here. Shown below is me somehow getting convinced to join a break-dancing contest where we had to do our best to copy a b-boy dancer's moves and he was actually pretty damn good. The winner by audience decision received a bucket of beers. I didn't win the contest, but I didn't lose either...my opponent and I ended up splitting the bucket 'cause it was a tie, lol.Sand bars are quite common along the beaches of Cabo. It was funny because every time we were at one, Maddie would always get involved in a drinking contest or have access to some kind of open bar. Girls get sooooo many free drinks in this city, it's kinda ridiculous. Haha. And I might add that Maddie destroyed the competition each time, but there's nary a girl out there who can outdrink her. :) Below is a video off Facebook showing the utter domination.
The nightlife in Cabo is about the same anywhere else, probably due to the large number of Americans visiting the city. I had been to most of the popular bars before the first time with Peyman and Kyle. And this trip around, there was so much laying out in the sun and day-drinking going on that we didn't always have the energy to stay out late each night. Wow, did I just say that? Am I getting old? Haha.
The popular beaches are nice, but there are a ton of vendors and it gets annoying after a while always trying to shoo them away. So one of these days we made our way out to Pelican Lover's Beach, which had zero vendors and a ton of beautiful rock formations.
Another highlight of the trip was the all-you-can-eat-and-drink beach party at our resort. What can I say, I just like when there's not a limit to how much your heart can consume! :) I think if I were to ever go back to Cabo, it would be back at an all-inclusive resort. Whether you actually save more money in the end is a another question. It's a little on the unlikely side that I'll go back here though because I've been there twice already and think there are more entertaining places to see in Mexico.
It's no secret to anyone that I LOVE Mexican food. Actually, I just love food in general! But anyway, I definitely enjoyed eating at little Mexican fast-food trucks like the one shown below. I'll have what the locals are having please! :P Cabo was fun for me and Maddie's presence probably was key in making it an enjoyable trip. Always nice to get away and experience another country whenever you get a chance!Shortly after I got back to Tucson, it was time to get ready for the next big events...Mike coming home to Arizona with his girlfriend Keri to show her the area and then a bachelor party for Matt in Glendale.
Mike and Keri actually drove down to Tucson a night to visit me and so we showed her the various nightlife along 4th ave and took her to Lindy's the next day for lunch. The rest of the weekend was spent in Scottsdale. Such outings included hanging out at the Hyatt Gainey-Ranch resort (a place I am all too familiar with now) with Nate and Elizabeth, shopping at Fashion Square, and hitting up Old-Town Scottsdale with Kevin, Sam, Jeff and Ashley.
We eventually made our way to the Lodge, where I played a round of Buckhunter - woot woot! - and Keri and Mike engaged in an intense game of over-sized Jenga. It was more hilarious just watching how loooooong it took Mike to make his moves. But I suppose all that extra time helped as Mike and Keri came out victorious!
Sunday was Matt's bachelor party in Glendale. We started by attending the Cardinals-Saints game and this was the first time I've ever been to our new stadium! To say the least, I was quite impressed (the only other NFL stadium I've been to is Arrowhead in KC). Lucky's seats are on the 4th row behind the endzone, so we had a pretty good view of the action, especially when the teams were in the redzone on our end of the field.
If you ever decide to eat here, I strongly recommend the AZ Big Chili Dog. It's a hot dog topped with cheese and chili, but did I mention that it's like a foot long!?!? Haha, that's what she said...and then she ran away. ;) Anyway, shown below is a picture of me about to eat this monstrosity, which I finished completely I might add. :P
Another highlight with our seats was that Kid Rock was sitting in the front row...or at least that's what everyone calls him. Definitely a "superfan", he did his best to get the crowd involved and always displayed humorous poses when the Cardinals either got a first down or scored a touchdown.
After the game, the 4 of us went to Pink Cabaret in Glendale. You know, bachelor party business as usual. So I'll skip that story and head straight to the rest of the night, which we spent at Westgate by the stadium. I really wish Tucson had places like this and Tempe Marketplace...they make for great spots to take dates. :( At the Yardhouse, we each polished off a "yard" of Sunshine Wheat before we eventually hit the road back to Tucson at about midnight. I was definitely happy to be a part of another bachelor party...you can never be involved in enough. ;) We got home around 2am, and I literally made it to the gas station by my house running on fumes. I think this is pretty much the closest I've ever gotten to 0 miles of approximate mileage left in my tank.
So there are my updates for the last two weeks. Life has been great and I'm really enjoying myself! Now I gotta bounce to bowling league, which I wish I could say is going well, but we're getting our asses kicked right now, probably 'cause our teammates have missed several games this year already...whoops! Oh well, we can still get that 3-peat, just need to DO WORK SON!