Dancing With The Stars

Ok...I have to admit that I actually enjoy watching this. I never thought I would be into ballroom dancing, but I got hooked on it last year when I was watching a program on PBS and saw how amazing the girls look. Wow...bite my tongue and hold me down cuz they are hot in those tight outfits of theirs. The amazing body doesn't hurt either.
Anyhow...just caught the season finally of Dancing With The Stars tonight and I'm so glad Apolo won the competition and not Joey. I really thought Joey would win only cuz of his fan-base. But Apolo was truely the better dancer. Having Julianne as his partner certainly didn't hurt. Good god that girl if fine. So sweet looking too. She looks like I girl that I could definitely get along with. Anyhow...the final was amazing. I think everybody did rather well, but Apolo and Julianne blew away the competition of all years' final combined when they did that blind-fold act of theirs. That was sick! And how great was that when they pulled it off. That was great! That was worth the trophy by itself. I'm into sports so I've seen a lot of "wow...did you see that?" moments, and I never thought I'd ever say that in a ballroom competition, but that blind-fold act was even better than seeing Tracy McGrady dunk over Bradley....and that was one sick slam.
Anyhow...Apolo and Julianne deserved the win. Their routines throughout the season really separated them from the crowd. They were unique and fresh in every sense. I would love to see Julianne back next season. I love her smile :)

Spider-Man 3 IMAX

Geez...I can't say enough good things about Spider-Man 3. Especially on the IMAX. Wow...what an experience that was. It was absolutely mind-blowing. Only 3D would have made it better. But I wish they gave Venom more screen time. I felt a lil jipped about that since they spent so much time with Sandman. The graphics were crazy. It must be seen on the IMAX. There were some cheesy moments, but it was just like the comics. That's what I liked so much about this movie...they didn't try to make so real and intense. They kept with the comic feel and realistic feel...just like the last two movies.
Well, I'm going again for the 3rd time tomorrow to catch it on the IMAX again. I can't wait!

1st Game of the New Season

This week is the beginning of our company softball season. The first games started yesterday, but those games got canceled cuz the field was still wet from the rain from the day before. Lucky for us, the field was dry enough for us to play today. There are 12 teams this year so the games are spread out on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
Anyhow...the team remained intact as from last year, but there were a couple of new faces. There were 2 new players, 1 guy and 1 girl who are both interns and had just started with the company a couple of days ago. We needed them too cuz 2 of our starters couldn't make it today. I almost didn't make it cuz of a testing that was going on today, but come 4pm and they still couldn't get the tool to work, my boss sent me back to the office and agreed to let me off early to play softball. But the 1 girl was definitely a hottie. Well...cute. Her eyes though...they were so nice. I didn't see them before cuz she was wearing glasses, but once she took them off...it was like...wow!
Needless to say...we went on to win like 15-0 against the CoilTool team. This year we are known as Blue Steel. I think I like last years' team name better...the Authorities. But nevertheless...I don't care what name we are as long as we do good and get back to that final and hopefully win it all.
I thought I did pretty good today. I was 2 for 2...a single and a double. Nothing spectacular, but nevertheless contributing to the team in a positive way.
Look out for Week 3. That's when we play the defending champs...a team we have been able to beat in the regular season, but not able to in the playoffs. Win or lose...it should be a great game.

TX Children's Hospital Charity Softball Tournament

It’s been a busy 2 weeks for me. First it was the MS150 and then just last week was the TX Children’s Hospital Charity Softball Tournament sponsored by my company and a couple of other big companies. There were 30+ teams that participated in this 2 day tournament. Every team was required to play 3 games on Saturday and those with winning records would play in an elimination game. The winning team would then be invited back to play in a double-elimination style tournament on Sunday.
Needless to say, my team was invited back to play on Sunday. But it wasn’t an easy road that we traveled on day one. We played at the Big League Field of Dreams near NASA. The park had 6 replica NBL stadiums. There was Yankees Stadium, Fenway Park, Crosley Field, Wrigley Field and two others that I didn’t know. I was excited when I learned that our first game would be on Yankees Stadium. But the excitement was short-live cuz we lost the game in extra innings by 3 runs to the Pappas team. I don’t remember the team we played next, but we got redemption in our second game in Fenway Park. We played a shutout game, winning 22-0. That poor team that had to play us…
Our third game was a bit more challenging, but we managed to win (I think) 18-11. The umpire was a bitch though. He made so many bad calls against our team. The same umpire reffed our next game…the elimination round. It was quite a nailbitter as this game went into extra innings. Mary and I almost had a collision out there on right field. It was my fault but the ball was coming her way and I thought that she would back out but she didn’t and by the time I saw her…I was so worried that the ball would fall on her head that I reached out with my glove to protect her head then to go for the ball. The cost us a lil, but I didn’t care as long as she didn’t get hurt. It would be quite a stinger if that ball had landed on her head. Well…back to the game…we won the game when Eric popped fly to the outfield and as soon as the catch was made, I came storming in from 3rd base to win the game. That was awesome!
So this brings us to day 2…Sunday. It was quite an experience. We played 4 games straight in a row without a break. It was one game right after another. It certainly took a toll on us since we were all so sore from the day earlier. Well, we won our first game pretty easily. Lost the second one pretty bad. Then we moved to Yankees Stadium for game 3 and 4. Well, we won game 3, but it wasn’t without controversy. Eric hit a ball towards first base and as he was approaching the bag, their first base girl decided that she was going to try to tag him out and when that happened, they ended up colliding with each other. It was inevitable. It was like head on collision. Both players were going at full speed so nobody could have stopped on a dime, but the girl overstepped the bag and put herself in harms way. Well...she took a pretty bad hit to the jaw. Medics were called in to check her out. During that…their 3rd base player said something to my coach and a confrontation started. He accused Eric of running into the girl on purpose. That was just the most ridiculous thing. We would purposely do that. After all…it was a charity game. So with that confrontation, the entire bench for both teams came onto the field. There was more nasty accusation by the other team believing that Eric ran her over on purpose. Well…after that dispute was over…another one occurred when Paul, my teammate, was going from 1st to 2nd and their 2nd baseman stepped in front of his line of path (which is illegal to do in softball…by the way) so Paul slide into second knocking the ball from the guy. Paul was safe, but as they both got up…the other guy got into Paul’s face…said some stuff (probably cuz he was made that Paul knocked the ball out from his glove)…and that started another confrontation when Paul quickly retaliated with some words of his own. Again…both benches came out and the umpire quickly called for both coaches. Another word from either team would be ejected. I quickly ran over to Paul to calm him down cuz his mouth was still going. He settled down and the game continued…but by this time…it was more than just a charity game. It was for bragging rights cuz the loser of this game was done for the tournament. Well, it went into extra innings once again and bases were loaded when I came up to bat. It was 1 pitch…a strike and I’m out…a ball and I walk. So I had to play it smart. I saw the pitch and it didn’t look good so I let it go and it fell just short of the home plate so I walked allowing the winning run to come in for our team…winning the game. How awesome was that…winning bat at Yankees Stadium! That was awesome! Our 4th game continued there but the results were different. Again we met the Pappas team and again we lost, but this time it was bad. I think the team was just so dead by this time cuz we made too many mental errors. We couldn’t catch the ball if it were handed to us. And we couldn’t hit the ball if it were still. We still made a valiant effort and came as close as 3 runs, but that was it. They blew us away. So we were now done for the tournament as we lost our 2nd game. To our surprise…we still managed to come in 4th and got a trophy presentation from the manager of our product center. That was pretty cool. We were the only team to rank from the many that represented our company. So now we have bragging rights…hahaha.
The tournament gave us a pretty good insight to the team we will have for the season coming up. I can’t wait. I think this will be the year we finally win that eluding championship in the company’s tournament that we have been chasing for several years now.

BPMS150 Completed!

I know it's been a while since I've last kept in touch, but what can I say....it's been a busy last 2 weeks for me. First it was the MS150 and then just this past weekend I participated in the TX Children's Hospital Charity Softball Tournament that went on all weekend. I'll talk about this tournament in a separate log. I want to use this one to talk about my MS150 experience.
It was a wonderful one! The experience was one that I had never experienced before in my life and I don't think I will ever again. It's just mind blowing knowing how large the event was and how well organized it was. The ppl that I met were great. The ride itself was beautiful and absolutely breathtaking. Again...nothing that I have ever experienced.
Day 1: The ride started off at Dairy Ashford and I-10 at around 7am and I made it to LaGrange at around 6:30pm. I can't believe it took me that long to get in, but I think it's because I spent a lil too much time at the rest stops. There were about 8 rest stops from Houston to LaGrange. I didn't feel too bad when I made it in. I was a lil sore, but nothing more than as if I just played a few games of basketball. Yes my ass was hurting, but whose wouldn't sitting on that tiny bike seat for 11 hours?! But I was sure tired. I had lil to eat and by the time I finished showering and getting ready for bed...it was time for bed. I didn't get to enjoy too much of LaGrange.
Day 2: The ride began around 7:30am, but we were in line for about 1 hour cuz it was so backed up. They were letting rides out in groups to avoid any jams. I arrived in Austin just before 4pm. That finish was absolutely beautiful. You come around a corner and you all of a sudden you see the Finish Line banner with the capital building in the background...and then add ppl standing all along the side railing cheering you on...it just left me speechless. It was great! I was lucky enough to have arrived at the finish line all by myself. There were a few ppl in front of me, but nobody behind me for quite some time, so I let myself fall back a lil so that I could come across that finish line all by myself. It's so awesome to see ppl who don't even know you scream and cheer for you. It was so energizing.
It was a lil sad that none of my friends came out to cheer for me, but my uncle who lives in Austin make it out to cheer me on. That was so awesome of him. My friends who I was riding with weren't at the finish line cheering me on cuz both sides failed to communicate. I forgot to call them to tell them that I was close and they didn't call me in time to find out where I was. They had finish about 2 hours ahead of me. But when I finally made it in to Austin, we had a great lil celebration.
Before leaving back to Houston, we stopped in Spaghetti Warehouse for dinner...a new tradition we are starting. But to my surprise...I was actually feeling fine after completing the ride. No real pain besides my ass, but nothing I couldn't deal with. From how everyone was scaring me, I thought I would have been dead after the ride, but nope!...I almost want to say it was rather easy. But don't get me wrong...it was a lot of effort!
I don't think I'll ever do this again cuz I don't want to ruin my wonderful memory of this event. Now I can say that I've done the MS150!