Time for a Trip

Posted inColumns, Football, Sports, Travel, Vegas

I approached my wife with a little trepidation. I don’t know why.

I should have no worries asking her about the fun things I want to do. We understand that parts of our personality differ so we might each want to strike out on our own at times.

This works out for me both ways. I get to run off and have my fun, and I don’t have to go see “Les Miserables” and things like that.

But, this time, I had some concerns. So I just asked the question and hoped nothing bad would happen.

“Do you mind if I plan a trip to Vegas for myself to cash in my winning ticket?”

She looked at me funny for a second before saying something I never expected to hear.

“What winning ticket?”

Save Olympic Wrestling

Posted inAmerica, Columns, Olympics, Sports, Wrestling

I have had the good fortune to take some really cool trips in my life. When I think back over them, one stands out in particular.

In 1984, I went to Los Angeles with two of my brothers to see the Olympics. Back then, a 16-year-old had a chance to get pretty good Olympic tickets with his two older brothers without breaking the bank.

We found lodging with a sibling of a family friend, managed to get tickets to three of the six freestyle wrestling sessions in the ticket lottery and figured we would just wing it for the rest of our time at the Games.

I will never forget seeing Randy Lewis execute some wacky reach-back throw in his gold medal match or hearing the scream of the Turkish competitor as American Mark Schultz used what was later ruled an illegal hold to break the Turk’s arm. As a young wrestler, I thought I had found heaven even though the Russians and many other top wrestling nations boycotted the Games.

Now we have to wonder if future generations of wrestlers will get a chance to experience the same thing, either in person or on television. The executive board of the International Olympic Committee decided to drop wrestling as a “core sport” starting in 2020.

Blergh! ’30 Rock’ Is Ending

Posted inTV
Tonight, I will lose some friends. "30 Rock" airs its final episode, an hour-long finale. I have had my ups and downs with the NBC comedy over the years, but…

Oriole Memories

Posted inBaltimore, Baseball, Columns

Like with most things, I discovered the news from my friends online. I don’t know whether I first saw the announcement on Twitter or Facebook, but I learned Earl Weaver had died when I checked in to see if anyone had posted any funny pictures while I was busy.

I try not to get caught up in hero worship so I didn’t have an immediate visceral reaction to the news. Weaver was 82 years old. He lived a good, long life. I couldn’t get too sad over the death of someone I never met, but one other emotion did take over.

Nostalgia.

New Wheels Coming

Posted inColumns, Driving

Within the first week or so of buying my car, I had to fly to Ohio for a friend’s wedding. I drove to the Harrisburg airport for my departing flight, gripping my steering wheel as if my life depended on it as tractor-trailers moved by me in a pouring rain.

I wanted that car to last for ever. Not just because it cost me a bunch of money, but because I really liked it. I planned on taking care of it and making sure that it lasted for a long, long time.

That was almost six and a half years ago. I found out last week that some of the problems which I just considered a minor annoyance of having an older car had turned into serious issues that force me to do something I really dread.

I have to get a new car.

Wardrobe Malfunction

Posted inClothing, Columns, Sports, Wrestling

I knew the sound the moment I heard it. Unfortunately, I have experience in this area and started to think about the potential fallout.

The problem was, this all happened while I was in the midst of officiating a youth wrestling event, and I really had no chance to react or even fully assess the situation for a while. Finally, one of the young wrestlers watching the action from the sidelines alerted me to my plight.

“Hey, ref. You have a hole in your pants.”

From the mouths of babes. He was right. As I squatted down to start two little guys for one period, I heard the unmistakable sound of fabric ripping. I hoped I had not ripped too big a hole and pretty much put the problem out of my mind until the kid brought it to my attention.

Intelligence Test

Posted inColumns

Growing up. I had a conflicted vision of my own intelligence. I placed into the higher levels of classes in school, but felt really intimidated by my siblings’ academic accomplishments.

I guess that’s natural for the youngest in a big family. As I got older, I managed to feel comfortable with my smarts and realized I had a pretty good head on my shoulders.

One thing, however, continually makes me question that belief. Sudoku.

Hidden Presents

Posted inColumns, Family, Holidays

On Christmas morning, I tried to keep everything as normal as possible.

We get up, open presents and enjoy our annual treat of mini powdered donuts. But, at some point, I may have wanted to sneak off to each room in the house to see if I missed a special present.

My wife would never keep a present from me. But, as she knows all too well, I carry many scars from my younger days. One Christmas, my family tried to hide an awesome present from me.

Temp Check

Posted inColumns

Normally I don’t like to turn down a reason to spend a couple of days in my sweatpants watching television, but I could have done without the fever.

I needed to take a couple of days off from work recently when some virus knocked me down. The whole thing started as an annoying cough with sinus congestion. I never saw the fever and lethargy coming.

I hopped in the car to head for work one morning and realized I had made a tragic mistake about 15 minutes into my commute. Unfortunately, I had a project due that day and had no way of accessing the information from home.

Nobody like the person who comes into work when they should be resting at home, so I got in and out of the office as fast as I could. I really needed to just tie up a few loose ends, which made it possible for me to be home watching television in bed by noon.

Music in 2012

Posted inMusic
So all kinds of people have started to come out with their end-of-the-year lists. I took a look at a couple of ones related to music and realized just how…