Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
Vegas Odds
Sunday
March 2, 2003
"Las Vegas, now that's a Lou Pickney city. If you thought you liked Mardi Gras in New Orleans, just wait until you get to Vegas."
-Gary Graham, on the phone with me (as I shopped at Publix), last night
"You should write two of them a day."
-Todd Martin, talking about the commentaries here on LouPickney.com
"Don't disrespect the pizza shop!"
-Christopher Moltisanti in The Sopranos
Tentative plans are in the works to take a trip to Las Vegas in August. It'd be a long weekend type trip -- arrive on a Thursday, leave on a Sunday. But from what Gary, and others, tell me, it'd be a really fun time. Me, him and his friend Rod (who I've met a couple of times) chasing women, playing blackjack and pounding beers -- sounds like my kind of weekend. A wide variety of friends, from Neal Boling to Brook Gardiner, have told me that Vegas is a wonderful city and that I need to check it out. Well, now's here my chance.
Regarding Publix, I like shopping there. But one major peeve is that there's not anywhere in the parking lot for returning shopping carts. It's very strange. So you get this awkward dynamic of carts haphazardly left in the lot, and store workers constantly scurrying out there to retrieve them.
One fun thing about the first of the month is that you get to see some of the unusual search entries that come across on search strings (normally by a couple of days in, the big searches knock out most of the single search strings). Anyway, this month's interesting tidbit came in the countries section -- with three hits inexplicably from "Gibraltar". Which, it turns out, is a real country. You'd think I could pick up on things like this after years of "Model U.N." in high school. I did an internet search, and the top entry I found was from a CIA website. The Gibraltar flag is interesting to look at.
Speaking of Model United Nations, I remember being Iraq one year. Which is the perfect built-in role for acting like a prick, if you so choose. My memory about our bill (proposal) for that year is fuzzy, but I remember it getting voted down -- not because of the validity of the plan as much as because we were representing Iraq in an American-participatory Model U.N. event. The Gulf War had only happened 3-4 years prior at that point.
Another interesting tidbit from the website info section was seeing two hits from WTSP's server -- on a Saturday, no less. Slow news day? And of course it was fun seeing some of the guys from the FFL hitting the site like mad trying to figure out who to cut, etc. (yesterday was roster cutting day).
Last night was a fun time. Todd, Riley and I ended up at the Market on 7th pizza shop. We had fun being rowdy and spitting game and what not. Riley nearly got into a fight with a guy at the bar when Riley was trying to throw ice at one of the bartenders and hit the guy by accident. He was some redneck who was trying to impress his skank girlfriend. The idiot nearly found himself being "dealt with". Though a brawl in our favorite hang-out probably wouldn't be the best thing to do on a Saturday night.
Funniest line of the night had to be Riley saying that he has a small dick, and then the new blonde waitress (Beth) walking up and giving him a thumbs-up (he didn't know she was in listening distance). Hahahaha. It was hilarious in the moment. Only thing that could've topped that would've been if she had told him: "That's not an MP, it's a YP!"
We met some guys in Mardi Gras jester hats, including this guy named Gus who's originally from the U.K. It was great hearing him spit game at chicks with the British accent. Almost like being back in England again.
There were some really good college basketball games on TV yesterday... Georgia Tech/North Carolina and Syracuse/Georgetown were both excellent. As Riley pointed out to me last night, March Madness is here.
Both Riley and Todd called me out for saying on here that the Big XII and SEC are the two best conferences in the country. They both went to WVU, but their allegiance falls with the ACC. And they had no trouble letting me know it. Riley is convinced that Maryland is going to repeat as champs. Forgettaboutit. Look, the ACC is an excellent conference, but I just don't believe it's the best conference this year. Of course, I suppose this will be settled come tournament time...
I said yesterday that
Sarah Silverman is the celebrity I'd most like to sleep with. Maybe second-most -- Jennifer Garner from Alias (and Dude, Where's My Car?) might have the edge on her. Or what if I call it a tie and get to take them both? Double showcase showdown, if you know what I mean.
Now for those of you who know me well, you probably know that I'm not much for fixing big elaborate meals. But I decided that paying $3.50 for a smoothie from Smoothie Island was a bit exorbitant, especially when I saw how simple the process was. So last night I got creative. I bought some fat-free Vanilla yogurt from Publix and made a homemade smoothie (no crude jokes, please). And you know what... it was actually really really good, if I do say so myself. Here's what went into it:
Two cups of ice
One banana
Several strawberries
One container of Vanilla yogurt
My blender had a tough time with some of the big ice chunks, but it finally did the job. And wow... it was delicious. Maybe a half container of yogurt instead of a full one might be more in order. I'll give it a try today.
As I write this at 10:45 AM, the full list of cuts from my fantasy football league isn't in yet. But I can reveal that I've cut Terrell Davis, Ricky Watters, Michael Westbrook and Troy Edwards. Watters and Westbrook were two guys who I'd had since the 1999 Lifetime Draft. But time moves on, and neither guy did much of anything last year to help me earn the championship (especially Watters, who went into retirement).
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