She had us all meet at Bellevue State Park in Delaware and had set up a circle with 16 starting points around a Cornucopia of supplies in the center. When she ... [ more ]]]> For my birthday this year, Selena put together a most fun event modeled after the book series The Hunger Games.

She had us all meet at Bellevue State Park in Delaware and had set up a circle with 16 starting points around a Cornucopia of supplies in the center. When she said “Go” everyone either ran in to grab supplies or ran away because they were trying to stay alive, which meant keeping on their flag football flags on.

From the start, like in the Hunger Games books, a few died quickly, many scattered and some came away with the supplies. But you were never quite sure why or when the supplies would matter, that would come later as the Gamemakers (Selena and crew) changed the game. As the game progressed, we received text messages from the Gamemakers telling us if they were entertained new rules.

One memorable rule change, at some point when the deaths were not stacking up quickly enough, was all participants had to gather in the center of the Cornucopia ring, link arms with a fellow player, and then the Gamemakers unleashed the kids to pull away as many flags as they could in a minute.

It was intense and exhausting, since the way to win was to get everyone else’s flags and that meant a lot of running and chasing, or being chased. I found myself being chased a lot, and one time, when Selena changed the rules to make my specific flags worth triple points. I’m pretty sure all the players in the game were running after me at top speed at once.

In the end there was a winner, our friend Jason, and a tie for second between our friend Joe and my brother Jeff.

Thanks to everyone who came out to play today in the cold and the mud, and special thanks to Selena and Beth for putting this fun event together.

Here are photos from the event:

Gathering supplies from the Cornucopia

You have to watch your back when organizing your supplies

Attack of the Kids

Tired from the chase but having a blast

The winners of Hunger Games

The participants in the Hunger Games

Everyone dies in Hunger Games

A little late on the post, but here’s to another successful race at the Rockville Twilight 8K, so named for the time of day it is run, not because we were chased by sparkly vampires. Although, I definitely still had the monster complex going on.

But let’s face it, here’s the ... [ more ]]]>

A little late on the post, but here’s to another successful race at the Rockville Twilight 8K, so named for the time of day it is run, not because we were chased by sparkly vampires. Although, I definitely still had the monster complex going on.

But let’s face it, here’s the real reason this race is awesome:

And the drinks were free with registration.

For more images, find us on flickr! And race/drink with us next year!

I never knew a soccer game involved so much singing and dancing. As I stood in the rain among the Barra Brava crowd at my first DC United game, I found myself less able to pay attention to the on-field action because I was getting more swept ... [ more ]]]>

DC United

I never knew a soccer game involved so much singing and dancing. As I stood in the rain among the Barra Brava crowd at my first DC United game, I found myself less able to pay attention to the on-field action because I was getting more swept up in chanting along in broken Spanish and bouncing up and down on the unstable cantilevered stands.

In front of me peering over a sea of black jerseys are three or four leaders of the cheering, waving their arms feverishly to make the chanting louder. They stood on chairs with their back to the game the entire duration. (I learned that they TiVo the game and watch it at home later, while live they are bringing the noise). These are true cheerleaders and the cheering does not stop the entire game. I almost pity the mascot eagle that came out at one point. In most other sports the mascot rallies the crowd, at DC United it was completely unnecessary because the crowd was rallying the rest of the crowd.

Barra Brava was crazy

Another contrast, from any other sporting event I’ve been to, was how lax the security was. They were visible, and I am sure if there were any real disturbances they would have been right there. But they led the Barra Brava crowd bring in drums and beat them through the game. They accepted people standing in seats not their own, in aisles, on the stairs and on chairs shouting to the rest of the crowd for the entire game. They were okay with setting off what were either fireworks or road flares that set plumes of colored smoke over the crowd. And they appeared to have no problem, when a goal was scored, at the amount of full cups of beer that were flying in the air like caps at a graduation.

It was such a remarkable and unique experience. When I got home after the United’s 2-0 victory, I told Selena how much I enjoyed it and that I want to go back with her (this trip was a Foolish outing,). I told her that I think she’d love it. She responded “I KNOW!” and then reminded me that she suggested two years ago that we go to a DC United game and experience the whole Barra Brava club section. I guess I had forgotten that she wanted to do that. Well, I’m on board now, so hopefully, we will both get out to experience another game later this season.

Any blog readers here big DC United fans? Share your thoughts or stories of the game experience in the comments below.

I was ... [ more ]]]> Super Bowl Sunday provided as good a game as can be played without the Eagles, and that in-game excitement helped to bail out the very lackluster crop of ads.  Here I give out awards to the ones that were notable IMHO:

We’re Crashing the Party Award – Cash 4 Gold

I was thinking this was going to be a spoof, but no it was a legitimate ad to take your valuables, put them in an envelope and trust someone on the other side of the Postal Service will send you back a check.  That’s one shady outfit that should not have been there.

Why Are We Here? Award – GoDaddy

Different than the crashing the party award because they make sense having Super Bowl ad space, they just weren’t at all interesting in utilizing it, instead using lurid poses and choppy edits to get to you to their website. I didn’t bother.

WTF Award – Sobe

Ballerina football players, dancing lizards, 3D.  I have no idea WTF Sobe is trying to say.

USA! USA! Award – Budweiser

Budweiser may be the King of Beers but it appears to have even higher aspirations, as being the epitome of Americana with apple pie, baseball and Coca-Cola. That’s at least my interpretation of the goal behind these Norman Rockwell-esque Clydesdale series of ads, including this one that tackled immigration.

Funniest Ad Award – Doritos

This had some tough competition, but the Doritos fortune telling ad had a 30 Rock quality to the humor that did make me laugh out loud.

Artsiest Ad Award – Coca-Cola

We didn’t see much of Coke this year (and not until after halftime, cheapskates), but when we did one ad was a beautifully designed and animated ad of bugs heist a picnicke’rs bottle of soda that could easily be a submission for the next Fantasia, it was that well done.

Best Ad Award – Hulu

Their first big exposure (that I know of) was taking the most obvious criticism of their service, that people watch too much TV already, and turned it into a premise for their ad in a very out-of-the-box sort of way.  Brilliant.

Apparently all those end-of-days blockbusters like ... [ more ]]]> Here’s how I know that Selena is a first-time runner – because while Dean and I and surely about everyone thought there are a lot of people running right now because we are running a race, Selena’s mind went a different place on Saturday night.

Apparently all those end-of-days blockbusters like “Day After Tomorrow” and “Cloverfield” have etched a permanent impression on Selena, because at the beginning of the race, the first couple miles or so, she got rather panicked and began looking around to the left and right to try to catch a glimpse of what she was running FROM.

Selena explained that she’s never been in a crowd of running people before and in her mind the only reason for a large group of people to be running in the same direction as fast as they can is to get away from something – like a natural disaster or an oversize monster.

Fortunately, no monsters materialized, and this irrational fear left her somewhere after the second mile. After she was able to accept she was in no imminent danger, the panic subsided and Selena was able to relax and enjoy the rest of the run.

Greg loves running. He likes races. He was ecstatic that I was ... [ more ]]]> I hate running. Running for “fun” breaks my cardinal rule of “never run unless you are being chased.” So when I was forced to do it for Tae Kwon Do training, I naturally had a hard time with it.

Greg loves running. He likes races. He was ecstatic that I was starting to run with my team. He constantly came out to run with me. I signed up for an 8K race, because it gave me a goal to work towards, and it’s something that I knew would make Greg happy. It did, and he promised to help me train.

Little did he know what he was getting into. The training process with Selena is not fun. I am prone to temper tantrums. I look just about the worst out there as you could ever imagine me. A few runs ago, I stopped at the two mile mark and threw a fit because Greg (Damn Greg!) was being TOO supportive. I jumped up and down. I punched my fists at the air. I screamed out things like “I’m never running again!” and “I’m going home and UN-signing up for this race!” All of this in the manner of a six-year-old being told to brush their teeth. Except on a city street. And I’m 30.

(Side note here: There is also an embarrassing incident of this happening one time on a frisbee golf course.)

Come Saturday night, the Rockville Twilight 8K. A delayed start to try to get over 90 degree weather and the heat advisory. I did it!

Below is a photo documentation of one of my proudest accomplishments! And to see how proud Greg and my family were, I hope he felt like it was worth it.

Before the race.

How I was feeling.

A kid at the race. I think this kid practices Falun Gong or something. Although later, I felt like he was onto something.

If you’ve ever wondered what I look like when I am hating life but aware that someone might be taking a picture.

This is after the race and after I went through the fruit, donut and granola bar buffet. The first time.

This is the reason I would sign up for another race: Four free beers per runner!

Go Dean: 38 minutes! Go Greg: 44 minutes! and Selena: 55 minutes.

I remember watching the Sawx win it all in 2004. I was over at Cahill Manor where the tension could be cut with a knife. Duke was pacing endlessly, Ken had just yelled at our host Judith for having ... [ more ]]]> It sure was different this time around, wasn’t it Red Sox Nation?

I remember watching the Sawx win it all in 2004. I was over at Cahill Manor where the tension could be cut with a knife. Duke was pacing endlessly, Ken had just yelled at our host Judith for having the audacity to verbalize her projection that the Sawx might win, and Robert was in a panic state in the other room, unable to watch, but yelling for updates because he was unable to pull away. As the final out was tallied, everyone hugged, cheered and then called or texted everyone and their brother, including me texting my brother, Jeff, who somehow has always been on the Boston bandwagon.

[Sidenote: I still don't understand how Jeff and I grew up in the same home, watching the same local sports, but he somehow drifted away from the local teams (Phillies, Eagles) and instead became fan of the Red Sox, Rockies, Patriots and Cowboys. Is this bad parenting? Was this one of those rebellious teenager actions that never was disciplined? Something went very wrong. I mean… the Cowboys! ]

This year was a totally different Red Sox World Series. There was no feeling of dread, or fear of jinxing the game. On the flip side, after the final out, there were no text messages or phone calls. It was quiet, it was expected.

Still, it was important, because it was the World Series. So I made Selena stop not putting a photo up on Facebook and come join me on the couch to watch the final half inning. Here are some of Selena’s color commentary of the 2007 Red Sox team:

• Jacoby Ellsbury: “He’s cute, oh wait, no he’s twelve [years old].”
• Mike Lowell: “He looks like Sucre from Prison Break, I’m going to call him L’il Papi”
• David Ortiz: “Look at Jo-boo, he’s huge, that’s why our kids can’t play baseball, they’ll all become fat.”
• Jonathan Papelbon: “Mmmm, Applebon, that’s like a Cinnabon Pecanbon, but made with apples, that sounds delicious. I want an Applebon.”
• Manny Rameriz: “Man Ram, that’s his name?!? Heehehehe”

Congratulations Red Sox and Red Sox Nation, it was an enjoyable ride.