My Night Last Night

Last night a lot of TV watching ensued after dinner.

Dinner - Kim made some kind of pork awesomeness smothered with garlic and garlic coated potatos. She is always putting down her own cooking but it is tremendous. I am very much looking forward to lunch this afternoon with leftover greatness. Her best meals so far have come from pork. Rocco and I are lucky guys.

American Idol - Yeah. I have watched almost the entire season. The auditions can be entertaining, but I tended to not like the type of slow loud soft ballad voices that come out of the contest. The past couple years though they have given some rock-type guys a break. Actually, that Adam Lambert fella seemed like the most original guy on the show during his season. Kim is a big fan of the show, and I always hoped they would have somebody more unique than the type of song you would hear on the crap pop stations. Sure enough, a guy named Philip Philips won, with his original take on songs and a decent original song. It is not my cup of tea of music, but I can listen to that type of music as opposed to the other finalist's brand of said soft ballad loud slow songs. I am glad this kid won. Kim and I debated who said Philip would win first. I think I said it during his audition, but she claims it was her and I eventually came around before the competition started. Either way, it felt good to see a guy win who just loves music and what he does with music. However, the 2 hour spectacle leading up to the big announcement was horrible. I did like Philip with John Fogerty and that black kid Joshua is kind of entertaining - especially when he just sings like a wildman. Jessica, the other finalist, sang a song with some grammy winner who looked like the cowardly lion. Her screaming and facial expressions had me laughing out loud (that's "lol" for you lazy, younger generations). And when he won, and he was singing his song, during the break of the song, he tried playing his guitar, tried to sing, but the band kept going and the background vocals kept going. See, Philip rarely let the weight of the show impact him, at least on the TV. He always let the criticism, fan reaction, and praise roll off his back. However, to see him breakdown on TV, finally taking in the enormity of it all, he took off his guitar, holding back tears, and embraced his family. Finally, a refreshingly good moment on TV.

Sixers force a Game 7 at Boston - It has been years since my last major interest in basketball. However, I have been following the Sixers almost all year. I do not really watch the games, but I track them, watch the score, and read the recaps. They have flown under the radar most of the year despite the big jump they had on the season. It was like the media knew they would fizzle out, and they did for a while. They lost a potentially top 3 seed in the championship tournament and dropped down to the 8th and final spot for the playoffs. They have a bunch of young kids and not one real superstar. So, they make the playoffs and catch a break with the number 1 seed's best player going down harder than a Russian Mail Order Bride on delivery day. They seized the moment and took the Bulls past their limit. They are facing one of the oldest yet well balanced teams in the NBA in the Boston Celtics. So I turned on the game after Kim went to bed and saw the Sixers hold onto the lead and beat the Celtics by like 7 or 8 points. The last 2 minutes can be nerve racking, especially when the announcers talk like the Celtics would come back. Yet some out of bounds calls and again another last minute clutch set of free throws by Andre Iguodola sealed the deal. The Sixers, one of only a handful of 8 seeds to knock off a 1 seed in the NBA history, are now playing with house money and stand to go into a rematch with potentially the Miami Heat for the right to play in the finals. Nobody expects anything out of this team past the first round, but screw that. Win the championship. Or at least do your best and give it all for your chance at it.

NFL Network's Top 10 Kick Return Aces - I got to relive the boxing of the Giants' goal post by Vai all over again. I got to appreciate Brian Mitchell's awesomeness. I do, however, agree with the rankings of Devin Hester #1. As a football fan of mostly just the past 10 years or so, I have never seen somebody do what everybody expects him to do (the analysts on this show said the same thing, which I more agree with than came up with myself). I remember the Bears getting obliterated by the Colts in the Superbowl a few years ago, but I also remember that the game was better than it really was because of the opening kickoff return by Hester. Whether he has played 4 or 5 years as opposed to a body of work Mitchell did over 13 years, whoever holds records should be #1. Field position is great and all, but when you have an inept offense (at the time), and you could have your special teams deliver more than good position, that certainly should rank you higher than most.

Family Guy: Peter learns he is retarded - He calls his ex girlfriend from high school, tells her that he is retarded and she better get herself checked.

Sleep - Rocco comes in at about 3 in the morning, scared out of his mind. He saw some monster with red eyes. We let him sleep with us. I really have never seen him so scared of anything before. His bedroom light was on. I turned the lights off to see what may be red that freaked him out. I do take some blame for this as the other day, while watching Monster Week on Animal Planet, we started looking up "cryptozoology" things we saw on their website. There was one demon-like looking figure that had glowing yellow eyes that I think rattled him. I tried convincing him it was fake, but I do not think he can get that image out of his head. I used to have a recurring nightmare when I was a kid, and eventually a couple times as an adult. This man, looking like a frozen Frankenstein monster, would slowly open up the closet door and come out just to strangle me. I would have trouble yelling for help and often would wake up yelling "Help!" very loudly. One time I remember my mom coming into my room after one such dream, but I pretended to be asleep because I was embarrassed. Regardless, I hope that whatever he thinks he saw was just part of a bad dream. I am pretty tired by the end of the day to be fighting off red-eyed night creatures.