Marbury era: 1-0

So far so good. Steph said good things yesterday and appeared to have good chemistry with his team. Please, please, please, please, please keep this up.

I'm all by myself this wonderful looking Saturday. Thank you roommates for leaving.

I'll find some hopefully entertaining for 5 minute posts later on today.

Celtics/Bruins on the record...

Bruins hit a little rough patch recently but including tonight they have won 2 straight by a combined score of 12-1. There isn't much else I can say on this team because I still can only name 1 player on the starting 5 plus the goalie. Whatever...

Celtics, banged up in the worst of ways. Older version of "The Guy", thinks that the C's are not in trouble. I, however am not so free-wheeling. Last season, the C's got real lucky with the KG injury. If the C's can stay afloat without KG then I think we can be ok in that department. The Turth has a injury to one of his fingers. Hopefully that doesn't suck for us, so far x-rays are negative.

The C's are getting Steph Marbury. Most people are concerned over how this guy will mesh with the current team. I don't see how he doesn't get put in his place by such guys as KG, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. These guys have something that Steph does not, an NBA championship. They know what it takes, he's going to shut up and play. He's going to be a big offensive addition to the second team as not only he will be able to make plays but with Eddie House at the 2 spot, he'll be able to just set himself behind the 3 point line and just fire at will.

I am more than confident that this team will be in the Eastern conference finals. How they match up against the Cavs in a best of 7 game series remains to be seen. Another game 7 between these teams? Hard to see how it doesn't. The end of the season should be exciting.

This post really sucks. Shutup Dan.

Instrument of the week

Rainstick

A rainstick is a long, hollow tube which is filled with small baubles such as beads or beans and has small pins or thorns arranged helicaly on its inside surface. When the stick is upended, the beads fall to the other end of the tube, making a sound reminiscent of a rainstorm as they bounce off the pins. They have become very popular in the last 30 years, and are often sold to tourists.

The rainstick is generally considered to have been invented in Chile, and was played in the belief that it could bring about rainstorms. Rainsticks are usually made from any of several species of cactus. The cacti, which are hollow, are dried by the sun. The spines are removed, and driven back into the cactus, like nails. Pebbles or other small objects are placed inside the rainstick, and the ends are sealed off. A sound like falling water is made when the rainstick is inverted.

Rainsticks may be made with other common materials like paper towel rolls instead of cactus, and nails or toothpicks instead of thorns. The rainstick can be held at a 45 degrees angle, allowing the beads to fall gradually, and creating an atmospheric effect like the sound of rainfall. It can also be tapped to make a more controlled sound, or it can be used to create percussive rhythms as a shaker. If the rainstick is turned upside down slowly it will last longer and make a better sound.

2 weeks later...

I shall not give up.

New York and the girlfriend take priority over my blog, sorry ya'll.

Speaking of NY, my buddy Dan just got into NYU. I'm kinda inspired to go to graduate school for music education now. Maybe I'll wait a year or two.

Sox are off and running in spring training. It's spring training though so only the bright spots really matter. If somebody like Papi or Beckett suck, I could care less but if some invitee hits 3 homeruns, that's awesome. But honestly, spring training is a whole lotta nothing.

A wise man once said regarding baseball, "every team is going to win at least 54 games, every team will lose 54, it's what you do with the other 54 that really matters."

My roommate situation has not improved, I continue to count down the days until I move out.

School is a whole lotta fun, my kids are great.

That's all I've got for now.

Oh yeah...

Swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated came a couple days ago...not bad

Kids don't wash their hands...

kids...

WASH YOUR HANDS!!!

So I've basically been fighting myself for the entire week. I've gone through several packages of those tissues on the go things. I am still very stuffed up as well as having a sore throat. I'm going to buy a life-size bottle of Purell for my classroom.

On to more exciting things...

Ray Allen will not miss any significant time from the team, however, I think he will miss some time.

Valentine's day is Saturday so I'm off to NY. I will try and pre-write my entries so you can view them. I'm sure you were all worried about that. Erica and I decided against gifts and we are buying each others meal at this nice restaurant downtown. Works for me.

Also, I love having a real job. In my most recent paycheck I worked a total of 6 days. My check was just below 600 bucks. Nice. Can't wait to see what a regular 10 day paycheck will look like.

Pitchers and catchers are in Ft. Myers unofficially working out. First official workout is on Saturday. The first spring training game is about 13 days away. I'm really excited about this season. As well as our boys did last year it ended too early. Could we have beaten the Phillies, maybe. Remember back in 2003 after that heartbreaking 7th game, how did the Yankees fare in that World Series against that young kid named Josh Beckett? I think the sox were really emotionally drained after the ALCS against the Rays. This year will be different.

K. That's all I've got.

I am a follower...

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

#1 I officially graduated from The Catholic University of America

#2 I officially go to elementary school now in Centreville, VA

#3 I teach general music with two other women who have been very kind and helpful in getting me settled in.

#4 I never want to go back to CUA ever again

#5 I never want to come down to the SOUTH ever again

#6 I hate my apartment in Chevy Chase, MD

#7 I am a coffee addict thanks to a semester of having to get up butt-ass early, and my career choice will keep me a coffee addict

#8 I can't live without Netflix

#9 I can't live without video games

#10 I have a great family plus a fantastic group of friends

#11 I love my gf

#12 As much as I hate the Yankees I will most likely be moving to NY next fall and finding an apartment

#13 I miss being in a show choir, I plan to have one wherever I teach

#14 Pandora.com is my favorite website, it's on right now

#15 My favorite place that I have visited will always be Prague

#16I would most like to visit Japan

#17 I am eating chocolate pudding

#18 I have 2 computers, one is primarily for blogging

#19 I am not good at playing sports but I love watching/listening/analyzing them

#20 I wish I could play the cello and bass better

#21 When I am REALLY bored, I go into sport chat rooms on ESPN.com and say random, non-relevant things to piss people off

#22 I'd like to visit spring training at some point in my life

#23 I had a student 2 days ago tell me I look like I'm 55

#24 I have business cards that are only going to be up tp date for another 4.5 months

#25 These 25 things about me really suck, so does boysbeinboys.blogspot.com

back from hiatus...

I promise you I am not giving up on this blog...

yet.

Unless you live under a rock that is the size of house you already know that our beloeved C's have dropped 2 out of 3, the B's got shock up by the top team in the West, the never ending A-rod saga has taken never ending turn after turn, Brett Favre decided that for now he's going to retire and the Sox are only a couple of days away from their first formal workout in Ft. Myers.

As for me, I continue to have a simple yet boring life in Chevy Chase, Md. Yesterday, I got to listen to my roommates do "it" a total of 3 times while having a very intense screaming match in between time 2 and 3. I hate this apartment, and my roommate just told me that our contract runs through June (I thought it was only through May).

I am addicted to the show Heroes. I've caught myself up through the current episode. It's taken some weird turns and some story plots are not what they used to be but its still a great show. All the episodes are on Netflix to watch instantly if you pay for that. I've completely given up on cable, in fact, I'm going to call them as soon as I'm done with this post.

Uh...that's all I've got for now

Broken hearted...

Say it ain't so...

For those of you who don't know me, I love baseball. More than life itself. I live and die each summer with the hometown boys. All in all though, I love baseball. I love the stats and the feeling of something special happening at any moment. One of the reason I watch baseball is because at any given moment someone could do something that no one else has done.

However, I grew up loving baseball during the dark ages, or at least that's what they will be remembered for. Today, Alex Rodriguez is an asterisk. In 2003, he took sterioids. He won an MVP award with the Texas Rangers that year. The Rangers also finished dead last that year so as good as his numbers were they didn't carry over for the rest of the team.

I love the Red Sox, everyone knows that. With loving the Red Sox I hate the Yankees and in turn I hate A-rod. However, the whole steroids thing is bigger than a rivalry. This is about the integrity of the sport. Whether or not A-rod cleaned up after 2003 does not matter. He did something he wasn't supposed to. In fact, a lot of people did things they weren't supposed to.

I was 17 going on 18 the summer of 2003. Everything I thought about revolved around baseball. I believed that these "heroes of sport" were people who I wanted to grow up to be like. It breaks my heart that somebody made a decision to hurt the sport that I loved so much.

Say it ain't so A-rod, say it ain't so...

Blog #10!!!111one!!!

Alright, so 10 blogs down and I've written about Celtics, Bruins, Red Sox, music, instruments, food, and a rant. I think this is about 8 more blogs than I've ever written in any of my other blogs combined.

Let me know what you think, if you think I suck I'd rather know now.

If you want me to write on something completely out of the ordinary let me know and I'll write about it.

Cheese everyone.

Saturday night dinner time

So another random idea that I had, every Saturday (?) I will bring you a new recipe that I think you should make for me. Today's recipe is courtesy of Foodnetwork.com. Thank you food network!


Cheese Lovers 5 Cheese Mac and Cheese

Cook Time: 1 hour
Yield: 6 servings
Times:
Prep: 35 min
Inactive Prep: 5 min
Cook: 1 hr 0 min
Total: 1 hr 40 min

Ingredients
Kosher salt
1 (16-ounce) package macaroni (cellentani or other curly noodle)
1/4 pound bacon, diced
1 medium onion, diced
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more to butter baking dish
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 1/2 cups whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups grated fontina
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
3/4 cup grated Gruyere
3/4 cup grated white Cheddar (Australian)
3/4 cup grated Parmesan
3 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley
1/4 cup bread crumbs

Directions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F and butter a 9 by 13-inch glass baking dish.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add salt. Cook macaroni according to package directions. Drain.

In a large Dutch oven or other heavy pot, saute the bacon until crisp. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon and reserve. Saute the onion in the bacon drippings until soft. Add the 5 tablespoons butter to the onion mixture and melt the butter stirring with a wooden spoon.

Using a whisk, add the flour, and stir constantly until well mixed with the fat making a roux. Whisk in the mustard. Gradually add the milk and cream whisking constantly.

Add the thyme, bay leaf, and salt. Let come to a simmer and stir frequently for 15 minutes.
Strain the hot milk mixture into a metal bowl and discard the solids. Working quickly, mix in 1 cup fontina, blue cheese, 1/2 cup Gruyere, 1/2 cup white Cheddar, 1/2 cup Parmesan, the reserved bacon, and parsley. Continue to stir until all cheese is melted.

Add the cooked noodles to the cheese mixture to coat. Add the noodle mixture to the prepared baking dish. Mix the remaining cheese and bread crumbs together and sprinkle on top of the noodles. Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes or until bubbling and golden brown. Remove from oven when done and rest for 5 minutes.

Back on track

After a tough 1-point loss to the #1 team in the west, the Celtics traveled over to NY and took on the Knicks. The C's were obviously emotionally drained from the night before and did not come out with the intensity that we are used to seeing.

Celtics let the Knicks hang around for 3 quarters before pulling away in the 4th. The big 3 combined for 63 points/18 rebounds/11 assists and took the game 110-100. All in all, a tough week for the Knicks who brought their A game to each matchup against the team from LA, Cleveland and our C's. They only lost to LA by 9, Cle by 5 and double digits to Boston. Kobe had individual records on his mind when he was in NY, as well as Lebron who had a triple-double taken away.

Am I concerned that the C's have gone 1-3 against Cleveland and LA this year? No. Do I think the C's need to wrap up a #1 seed in order to beat Cleveland? Yes. Do I think LA will return to the finals? To be determined, the Bynum injury could really kill them, stress the word could.

Celtics will probably go on another long streak this season, they will finish with 60 wins, they will at the very least be playing in the Eastern Conference Finals (likely win as well). Bottom line, the NBA Championship goes through Boston, we won last year giving us the right to be "The Team to Beat".

Big test Sunday in San Antonio, I think they are more than ready for this one.

When you score more goals than the other team...

I'm not going to lie, I'm not that big of a Boston Bruins fan. I'm not a bandwagon fan by any means but I also can't name the starting 5...

I grew up in a time when the B's were good but never good enough. The dynamic duo of Ray Bourque and Cam Neely was exciting and they went all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1988 and 1990. They lost both times to the Edmonton Oilers, winning 1 game between the two series.

During the 90's the B's had a run of making the postseason but always falling short of a finals appearance.

Before 2000 our run came to an end. Bourque was traded, Neely retired, B's couldn't get past the quarterfinals. It was tough. I sort of gave away most of the yellow and black blood that was inside of me, more room for Red, white and blue.

The B's were still exciting and competed at a high level but they would always end their season too soon. Joe Thorton, Sergei Samsonov, Nick Boynton, Glen Murry, Hal Gill, Byron Dafoe, Brian Rolston and Kyle McLaren have all come and gone.

However, this season is different. This season, Tim Thomas has matured to the point where he was the winning goalie of the all-star game. Zdeno Chara could be the MVP. All the pieces are there, the signs point to a run at the cup.

I never said I lost all of the yellow and black blood in me, it's still there and it seems to be spreading throughout me.

Instrument of the week

So I'm going to try and enlighten you all on the wonders of the music world. Every day (?) or week, or bi-weekly I will bring you a new instrument that you may or may not have seen/heard/heard of but it will give you a better understanding of it.

So here goes...

Cabasa (CAH-BAH-SAH)

The cabasa, similar to the shekere, is a percussion instrument that is constructed with loops of steel ball chain wrapped around a wide cylinder. The cylinder is fixed to a long, narrow wooden or plastic handle. It was originally of African origin, and constructed from dried oval- or pear-shaped gourds with beads strung on the outer surface. Modern manufacturers have built a more durable cabasa that they call an afuche-cabasa. It provides a metallic, rattling sound when shaken or twisted, similar to the sound of a rattlesnake. It is often used in Latin jazz, especially in bossa nova pieces. Precise rhythmic effects can be gained by the advanced player.

The player places his non-dominant hand on the metal chain, to provide pressure, while holding the wooden handle with the other hand and twisting the instrument back and forth as per the rhythmic pattern desired. In addition to Latin music, many band and orchestra pieces call for the cabasa.

The instrument is frequently used in music therapy, particularly with individuals who have physical/neurological disabilities as it requires minimal hand movement to produce a sound. The sound produced by the individual can then be reinforced by the music therapist, which builds neurological connections between hand movement and hearing the sound, in turn encouraging more fluent hand movements.

Ugh...

Today was one of those days you just want to forget even happened...

Thank goodness it's Friday and I don't have to take that long ride back down to Virginia tomorrow or the day after that. I plan on doing absolutely nothing tomorrow.

My roommates like to slam their door, I don't know why. It's like they want me to know they want privacy. You honestly think I give a whoot? No.

I need to heavily drink tonight.

I hate Kobe Bryant with a passion. He's a selfish punk who thinks the world owes him something. You know what pal, your better days are behind you.

That's all I've got for now...

I play the piano

Alright, so I'm still new at the blogging stuff and I haven't quite figured out how to copy a video into my computer so I can post it but here's a link of myself, Megan French and Michael Carr (both former Catholic University students) playing piano and looking good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsLbh9_utOA

Enjoy.

Rite of Spring

It seems silly if you are not from Boston but before Bston sports teams hit their stride, fans would look forward to this Rite of Spring as if it were Christmas. It's the equipment truck leaving Fenway Park heading to Fort Myers, Fl. Hundreds, maybe even a thousand people would show up at Gate D to wave goodbye to a truck. No players would be anywhere near this event, just a fat guy and some other random dudes loading a truck. Gathering fans would send prayers on this truck that the beloved Sox would finally win the World Series that year. Oh course we all know that in October of 2004 our prayers were finally answered. Still, people will come out and see this truck that has not only carried bats, balls, cages, ect. but the dreams and wishes of another warm October night in which all Bostonians can rejoice another championship.

Tomorrow at 1 pm, all those other diehard fans will gather at Gate D and wave goodbye to a fat guy driving a truck. The funny thing is, I'd be there if I wasn't down in Maryland. Maybe I can track it down as it passes my area.

Celtics

Believe it or not, I am a big Celtics fan. Ok, go ahead, call me a bandwagon fan all you want but I swear on everything that is holy that during the 2006-2007 regular season, the season prior to KG and Ray "Big Shot" Allen, I had a newspaper cutout of the Celtics schedule. I cut it out because it was a colored, full page ad promoting season tickets. I hung it up right next to my dorm room desk before the season began so I could quickly look over to see when their next game was. KGC was my roommate at the time and will vouch for me, it was there.

When the season started, I would circle every win and cross out every loss. In the middle of that season, I had to put 18 straight X's on that calendar. The only thing the kept from jumping in the Anacostia River was the possibility of a couple of young kids named Kevin Durant and Greg Oden landing in our laps.

The Celtics have been down this road before, they went 15-67, a francise worst record. They were supposed to land the number 1 pick, Tim Duncan. Lottery day comes, #3. Not the end of the world, we draft a kid named Chauncy Billups who we gave up way too quickly and Ron Mercer who never really played like a number 6 pick.

Back to present day, lottery day comes, we have the second best chance of getting the number 1 pick. I'm sitting at home, sitting next to my father, "Hey Dad, if they can get 1 or 2 either one of those kids would mix real well with Al Jefferson and Pierce, we'll be a contender againn!"...5. We got the 5th pick.

Awesome. After that, Draft Day arrive and Danny Ainge, who probably would have been thrown in the Charles River had he sat and done nothing puled off a trade that put the C's on the path to banner #17. Ray Allen comes on board as well as Kevin "Freak/beast/non-human/Basketball God" Garnett. The rest is history.

I can finally forgive Larry Bird for never really playing during my lifetime. I can forgive Antoine Walker for all those unnecessary 3 point attempts. I can forgive Rick Pitino for...well...a lot. I can go on but I won't. The Celtics were a dynasty long before I was born and had a lot of great history but nothing when I was around.

Finally, I can proudly and publicly say "I am a Celtics fan, and I always have been"

As far as you know this is attempt number one...

Dear fellow readers/bloggers/friends/family/others...

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm blogging. Again. This time will be different. I intend to routinely write about music, sports, teaching or whatever sparks an opinion from me. It may be Mom's calzone or Dan's whittyness, I will write about it.

If you like what I have to say, check back often. If you don't, my feelings won't be hurt.

God speed.