Recently in Sports Category
I visited the new Nationals Stadium in DC for the second time this season on Thursday. The Nats hosted St. Louis for what turned out to be an exciting, hit-filled game that ended with a walk-off two-run homer in the bottom of the 10th. I was pretty underwhelmed by the new stadium when I first visited it in April, but I liked it more this time. It's very open and the food was better this time. And, I have to agree with the owner that there doesn't appear to be a bad seat in the house. These images are from the game in April against the Mets. I sat just behind the left field wall on Thursday, which was a lot of fun.
Judd Apatow comedies are hit or miss for me, but Walk Hard definitely hit and hit hard. I'm at a disadvantage for reviewing it as a musician biopic parody because I haven't seen Walk the Line, which is its model, but I can tell you that it made me laugh. Hard. Parody jokes are often predictable and quickly grow old, but Walk Hard managed to land enough great jokes to keep it afloat. John C. Reilly was great as Dewey Cox, especially because he did all his own singing. There were some great cameos and bit parts by recognizable faces from SNL and The Office. Thankfully there wasn't as much over-the-top base humor as in Superbad, which exceeded my sensibilities (and that officially makes me old). To be sure, there were plenty of Apatow moments, but they were funnier than they were gross. I would see it again, though probably not for $10. It did appear that my compatriots and I were the oldest folks in the theater. Does that make the movie a guilty pleasure? Then again, we went during the second half of the Pats-Giants game so most men were firmly planted in front of their HDTV's. We almost skipped the movie because the game turned out to be so good, but we compromised and watched the rest of the game on TiVo after the movie. I was happy to see the Patriots win. It's not every season that we have a chance to witness greatness at the team level.
Daisy is doing quite well in her first full day with us. She's very quiet and sweet, but she seems to yearn for the outdoors quite a lot. I took her on three walks today, including a pretty long one in the afternoon. We discovered she loves to play and race around in our basement where there's carpet (we have hardwood floors throughout our main level). She's all nose on our walks, as expected with a scent hound.
Our friends Steve and Erin also welcomed a new dog into their home this weekend. I helped Steve pick up a beautiful Chocolate Lab from Dulles Airport this morning. The dog came from a family member in California that could no longer keep her. So, Steve and Erin's kids got an early Christmas present, and let me tell you they were thrilled. Fortunately, the dog handled everything remarkably well. After a 12-hour trip on two planes, she was as happy as could be when we picked her up. She even handled the shrieking children with tremendous poise and playfulness that's so characteristic of Labs. Steve was a bit concerned about the much-less-than-ideal conditions for the dog's arrival, but she quickly allayed his concerns. Congratulations to the Bennett family.
Meanwhile, the Redskins are currently handling the Vikings. But, as a Skins fan I'm always leery of the 4th quarter. Now that Dallas secured home field advantage with the Packers' loss today, we can anticipate mostly second-stringers playing for Dallas next week. If the Skins win tonight and next week, they're in the play-offs. Remarkable.
Sports Illustrated reports that, "Barry Bonds thinks Mark McGwire and Pete Rose belong in the Hall of Fame." Now why would Barry think that?
