He's heating up...He's on fire!

So I feel a bit arrogant/cocky when I write about my steller sports performances, but I've gotta share my excitement! Last night was my weekly basketball night and I played out of my mind! I was like 12/18 from three point land! I mean, I've never been the guy who people are trying to set picks for to get open, but last night...that was me! Off the dribble, around the screen..."Boom goes the dynamite!" (to quote an amateur sportscaster on UTube last year) I always knew I had it in me...it happened to me once in an AAU basketball game in 7th grade, it's just taken until now for it to resurface! Alright...I'm done now :) BTW, whoever recognized the NBA Jam quote gets a gold star!

BBQ Cook-Off...Californiaized

This weekend was a more fun one than usual. My friend, Steven, hosted a BBQ ribs cook-off. Now I'm a big fan of some good BBQ, so I was pretty excited to take part! I think I've come to like BBQ more since I've moved to California, because there's really not much of it around. So when I run into some good BBQ sauce it's really tantalizing to my taste buds. I chose to use the crock pot with my ribs in order to make them more tender and since it'd take less hassle. I chose beef ribs, knowing that they wouldn't be as tender as pork, but I just couldn't get myself to buy pork over beef :) I used a recipe that my sister gave me from one of her Southern Missoura friends (yes I replaced the "i" with the an "a")...so it's authentic BBQ. I also made my mom's famous corn casserole as a side (between White House Thanksgiving and house dinners, I'm sure most of you have tried it at some point!)

There were 4 judges who judged about 7 different rib dishes. We all were tasting eachother's ribs while the judging was going on...and people were really liking my ribs. I was tasting other people's too and they were pretty good. One thing that concerned me was that mine were the only beef ribs...I began to second guess my snub of the pig. Other people had definitely "Californiaized" their BBQ sauces. "Californiaize" is a phenomenon I've noticed here...people take normal simple food and add California twists to it...for example adding cilantro, citrus flavor, jalepeno, etc. to the BBQ sauce. Even classic dishes like potato salad, coleslaw, and baked beans in restaurants around here have different herbs and spices added to them. Not that it's bad...it's just different!

Well, I didn't end up winning :( But my ribs and corn casserole were very popular! I think if I'd have used pork, and done some Californiazing I may have had a better shot. But I'm gonna stick to my Midwestern roots and stay simple...all you need for good BBQ is KC Masterpiece and liquid smoke! There's no place for cilantro and citrus in my sauce! Either way it was a beautiful sunny afternoon and Steven's parents' house has a nice backyard and pool. Friends, pool, sun, a keg of home brewed ESB, and BBQ...Saturday's don't get much better!

Spring Softball

So I'm on a men's softball team with some friends and we had our first game tonight. I was pretty nervous because I haven't played since college intramurals (who remembers the days of the Radicals dominating UNL?!) (Zach, you probably have a more vivid memory of being dominated BY the Radicals in softball :)) And the last time I played, I think I struck out (even though we almost won the All-U tourney)...so needless to say I was a bit concerned that my California debut could be a bit under par. Well, I must say, tonight this Husker showed up in true Big Red form! I was a perfect 5 for 5 with 2 RBI's with the bat and was a freakin' maniac in outfield! :) I had the best catch I've ever had in my life...it was hit deep over my head, so I was sprinting and caught it Willie Mayes style over my shoulder on a dead sprint with my arm stretch out! It was a thing of beauty....even the other team congratulated me on the catch. My teammate overhead their third base coach say "there's no way he's gonna catch that." Oh ya baby...he did, he did! I'll admit I'm a bit worried now is that I pulled the best game of my life out of my ass and now I have nowhere to go but down from here :) Or maybe my days as a Radical have prepared me now for days of glory as a member of the Jerkstore (our team name). By the way...the Jerk store called, they're all out of you!

Tanner's Movie Review

I've seen a couple flicks recently and thought I'd give my two cents (or more like three cents since my opinion carries so much weight :)) on them. First off is Ben Stein's Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. This movie was great! I really don't know much about Intelligent Design (I.D.) other than the Young Earth theory, so I didn't go into it with much expectation or previous knowledge. But the point of the movie isn't to teach you about I.D., but to set it up as a plausible explanation of life that should be given equal weight to evolution in research and teaching institutions. I will warn you that the injustice displayed will at times make you pretty pissed off. The only qualm I have is the extent to which Ben Stein correlates evolution and Nazism. (Not that I disagree with it, just that I thought it was a bit much). The final scene (an interview with Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion) is a truly heartbreaking picture of blind pride and arrogance.

The second movie is Under the Same Moon. This movie is a social commentary on illegal immigration. It's a story about a mother who leaves her 9 year-old son in Mexico with his sick Grandma and illegally goes to America to work up enough money to bring him legally there. The son then spends three-fourths the movie trying to make his way to his mom himself as an illegal immigrant. Overall, it's a good movie...a bit corny at times, but good. The entire movie is in subtitles, which irked me initially (as those of you who have watched Italian movies with me know...ahem Levi and Courtney), but then I got used to it. An interesting aspect to the movie was that the songs in the movie were satirical (the lyrics were subtitled) towards America's immigration policies (talking about kicking Superman out of the US as an illegal alien...kinda clever actually). I wonder if they play those songs on Mexican radio here in the US? It's good for me to get a perspective other than that of the great Dr. Michael Savage on immigration policies :)

Well, those are my critiques. Take it or leave it!

No Place like...CO!

Last weekend I flew to Colorado to catch the last weekend that Vail was open for skiing. Two words: Top Five! That is, this was definitely in the top five ski outings of my life! We were skiing in 2 feet of fresh powder...and it was freaking April! And the base was higher than I've ever seen. Some of the trail signs had to be dug out of the snow to be seen...crazy!

On Friday, Brandon and I skied, and the conditions were a bit chilly. It was snowing pretty much all day and was 20 degrees at the warmest. Definitely NOT the California spring skiing! But I must say, it was kind of nice actually sinking down in the light fluffy powder, instead of hardly even making a dent in it like the Sierra Cement. On most the runs we were in deeper than our ski boots!

On Saturday, Zach and I skied with our personal ski instructor (my uncle!). The conditions were better because it wasn't snowing and it was probably 25-30 degrees. For those of you Vail fans, you can appreciate the fact that we skied all day and never skied the same run! We did the famed Lover's Leap of course (my stomach never seems to get less queezy looking down from the edge!). At the end of the day, we watched something I've never seen before...Pond Skimming. This was pretty sweet. Skiers get dressed up in costumes, and ski down a short run to get speed, and at the bottom is a pond of water which they skim across. Only about 25% of them make it all the way across! On a more typical spring day where the snow's crappy and it's 45 degrees, it'd be great to grab a beer and sit down and watch it. After an entire ski season in CA, I've decided that the skiing in CO trumps that in CA (except for the weather)...powdery snow, bigger mountains, ritzy resorts.

Saturday night me, Zach, and one of Zach's friends hit downtown Denver. Pretty crazy night. I'll leave you with a few words and you can piece the rest together: 1 hr of free drinks, 5 clubs, 4AM.

Brandon has definitely become a loco...I mean local!

These signs are on 10 ft poles! Anyone remember normally skiing UNDER these?!

Pond skimming...I may have to try this next year...NOT!

Friends and Fam! (Days 3 & 4 of 4)

So I've decided that it's kinda lame blogging about something that happened three weeks ago now, so I'm gonna cram the last two days of the festivities into one last blog here...so enjoy!

After our day in San Fran, we drove south on the Coastal Highway (Hwy 1) that runs along Pacific, through Santa Cruz and spent the night in Monterey. The girls had it in their heads that they were going to lay out on the beach, so this was the best chance we had. In the morning, we drove to Carmel Beach via 17 Mile Drive. 17 Mile Drive is a beautiful, windy road along the ocean (not quite 17 miles long) that connects Monterey to Carmel. Some of the points of interest along 17 Mile Drive is the Lone Cypress Tree, Ghost Tree, Spyglass Golf Course, and Pebble Beach Golf Course. Once in Carmel Beach, we found our spot far away from the water in a nook between bushes to get out of the wind! (It was 60 degrees and a bit breezy). Never-the-less, swimsuits were worn and sunburns were obtained!

The last day was a relaxing day in Santa Rosa...golfing, shopping, laying out at the pool, In 'n Out Burger etc. It seems like that was months ago, and it was only three weeks! And the 4 days flew by...it seems like I blinked and then the weekend was over. Jeff had a great idea for next time: we should just sit around and stare at the wall, that way the time will go by slower! Part of me would actually be in favor of that (so whoever comes out to visit me next knows what to expect :)

Tossin' the football at Carmel Beach

Mmmmm......(refer to several previous blogs about this amazing fast food restaurant)

The famed look-away at Lone Cypress...it never gets old!

I wish that was us golfing at Pebble Beach!

The last night in Napa Valley

Friends and Fam! (Day 2 of 4)

After dominating the Sonoma wine valley, it was time to make our Nebraska footprint in "the City" (San Francisco). Aside from the crazy liberalness, I really enjoy San Fran! Not only is it the home city of Michael Savage (genious radio-host who wrote the book 'Liberalism is a Mental Disorder'), but it's really a neat city with a lot of character. And we had a great day for it...60's and sunny. Overall, we did the usual...Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf, Alta Plaza overlook of the city...but then we added a pretty darn sweet twist: GoCars!!!

Every time I had been to the City before, I had seen these little three-wheeled, two-seater yellow go-cart things zooming around on the streets. After searching on Google for a half hour (ya, kinda long for a google search, but that's Al Gore for ya!) I found it...GoCars! And we were all in agreement that they are a must do! And I must admit, I really don't know how these things are legal on the streets. They have a GPS guided system that take you all over the City...Golden Gate National Park, Cliffhouse, Robin William's house (I guess he lives in San Fran), Alamo Square, Lombard Street...but then we also took them off the course and went our own ways too. We spent 3 hours racing around the city and after getting multiple weird looks and waves, and water balloons thrown at us, we ended our rampage! Oh my, I don't think San Francisco saw this coming...they can handle the Purple Hand of the Gay Agenda, and the crazy protests of CodePink against the Marine recruiters (see http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/07/berkeley.protests/index.html), but they definitely couldn't handle these five Nebraskans (well, I guess 4 nebraskans and 1 minnesotan...emphasis on the "o") tearin' up their streets!

In front of GGB at Crissy Park

These things rock! There's Jeff struggling along behind!

Driving down Lombard Street...we were definitely the shiznit...lots of foreigners waving and taking pics!

Recognize these houses? Here's a hint:
What ever happend to predictability?
The milk man, the paper boy, evening T.V
You miss your old familar friends, but
waiting just around the bend.
Everywhere you look...
Chity Chi bob botta!