The next time I shoot you, it won't be digitally. Unless I hit you in the finger and then we'll have a big laugh about it

M is for Mustard, that’s good enough for me.

Happy week after turkey day. Hope everyone went out and ate much more than was healthy for them. I know I did. It was good to see the family and Erin was introduced to our family tradition of yard football on Thanksgiving day. It used to be so much more fun to cover my brother before he grew 5 inches taller than me. Now it just causes me to be in extreme pain the next day. Our team was triumphantly taking down Erin’s when my little cousin going out for the game winning touchdown pass was chop blocked by a flower pot and ended up taking a nasty spill on the porch steps. That kinda killed the game quickly. But at least he’ll have a good story to tell.

So my blood pressure is still slowly settling from that ND game. Fiesta bowl here we come. Let all the ND bashing commence for them “not deserving” to get a bowl game. Life’s a bitch until the BCS works for you.

Good freakin’ gravy this was not my week for kickers. First Fitzpatrick misses an extra point and two field goals forcing Quinn to show his stuff and take the team down the field for a touchdown with under two minutes to go. Then the Giants lose in overtime to the Seahawks after Feely misses three freakin’ field goals at the end of regulation and overtime. What the hell man?

Well the Mets are making some hardcore moves. Piazza and Looper gone. Delgado and Wagner in. Bring in Molina as catcher and this team should suddenly jump to one of the favorites in the NL East.

Caught Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (midnight shows are all sorts of fun until work the next morning). I enjoyed it, probably more than the first 2 as far as the movies go. Yeah, there are a lot of glaring omissions from the book but then that’s how things are going to be for all the future movies. You just can’t fully adapt 700 page books to 2 hour movies without cutting a lot. The positive points though were the actors are really getting good at what they do. Daniel Radcliffe most especially had several scenes where I just noticed his acting ability has grown from kid trying his best to real full blown actor. Ray Fiennes, holy crap did he nail Voldemort. He plays him as subdued and menacing rather than over the top villainy and it’s excellent. The style of the movie falls somewhere in between the first 2nd and the 3^rd one. Not quite as stylized as Prisoner of Azkaban but also not as playing it safe as the first two. The more I watch the first two and then can compare them to the later ones, the less they hold up. I’m not saying I don’t like them, I’m just saying they don’t age as well. Sorcerer’s Stone has that magic of wow, they didn’t screw this up and Chamber of Secrets was made more interesting than the book. But as you watch them they just seem a little vanilla compared to the 2^nd two (and yes, the books are better but that’s just about always the case). I’m very interested to see how things go in the next one with relatively unknown (at least in the States) David Yates at the helm.

Slooooowly catching up with TV shows. Almost done with Prison Break which I just can’t help but get sucked into. It’s very 24-esque in that it’s completely preposterous that so many things could just fall so perfectly into place but damn if it’s not entertaining. Also need to catch the final episode of Rome. I love that whole period of ancient Roman history and they really do a great job of bringing it to life while adding a little soapiness to it all. Hell, it’s better than Gladiator (someone still wanna tell me how that won best picture?).

Also on DVD I’m plunging through OC Season 1 and Scrubs Season 2 while managing to add Entourage and Arrested Development Seasons 1 to the queue. And while I do all this, I like to whistle a jaunty tune.

News and notes:

New Years weekend begins one month from now. Get ready for some insanity.

Strip updates back on track.

Producers on Broadway was a great time though I personally still prefer the original Zero Mostel/Gene Wilder movie. But I can’t help but be intrigued by Will Ferrell playing Franz Liebkind in the new movie.

No I didn’t not go buy an Xbox 360. I’m not the kind of guy who rushes out and buys every new technology the second it comes out… especially when the price will drop a good hundred dollars in a few months when PS3 comes out.

Until next time:

“They never invited their priest over to try to talk you out of having sex.”

”Five times! And on the last one they triple teamed me with a Priest, a Rabbi, and a Morman Missionary. I made so many jokes that night I should have had a microphone and a brick wall behind me.”

Honey, animals don't feel death. That was proven by the scientists at Black Angus.

Mustard: the other burger condiment.

So I know I know, let the screaming begin. Dude, you took two months off, started the strip and now you haven’t updated in forever! What the hell man!? Well the hell man involves my laptop dying due to unforeseeable circumstances this weekend. Luckily I managed to grab all the strip stuff off the dead hard drive but I’ve been without my means to properly work the strip. I should be getting a new laptop today so I can continue the strip back up soon. Really, I will. I promise.

In totally BS news, it looks like Arrested Development is done. This is total crap and just destroys all my faith in humanity. Well at least their choice in television. 7^th *&%^#@ing Heaven!!!!! More of these nimrods are watching 7^th oops, the cute kid got too old so let’s replace them with another cute bleeping kid Heaven than Arrested Development?! And don’t even get me started that these morons made Wife Swap the highest rated show of the time slot. Honestly, anyone who watched Wife Swap over Arrested Development needs to be ejected from society and force to live a Gollum-like existence underground away from sunlight and electricity. And that’s my rant of the day. Thank you.

Honestly, I just hope that HBO picks it up as rumors are pointing to. That would be fantastic. Put Arrested Development and Curb Your Enthusiasm together? Funniest hour on TV by far.

In good news, Martha Stewarts Apprentice cash-in, oh sorry, “spin-off”, has not been renewed. Honestly, who the hell actually wanted to work for Martha Stewart in the first place? But the reason this is good news is that the more NBC shows that get canceled, the more spots open up for Scrubs to come back. C’mon NBC. Bring back your only comedy that was nominated for an Emmy. Will & Grace doesn’t count. It’s not funny.

Yeah, I still haven’t seen a movie in 2 months but that changes tomorrow when I’ll be at the midnight showing of Harry Potter and Goblet of Fire. Which will lead directly into Friday morning and my inability to function.

A funny thing I’ve started to notice is just how few people have actually seen the original King Kong. Oh, sure everyone knows who King Kong is and that he falls off the Empire State building, but it seems like very few have actually seen the movie. I noticed this when people starting talking about how the trailers for the new King Kong movie make it look like the movie is ripping off Jurassic Park cause there are dinosaurs in it. People, Jurassic Park ripped off King Kong. King Kong had dinosaurs surviving isolated on an island in modern times long before Michael Crichton was even born, let alone made a bazillion dollars on his novels/movies/toys/video games/breakfast cereals/etc. So I’m starting to think that with the upcoming release of the original Kong on DVD, I might have to catch people up and make a night of it. Yeah, the special effects are ridiculously primitive compared to even the most low budget special effects of today but back then it was a revolution. Plus the movie is pretty darn good too.

New and notes:

Really, the strip will be back up soon. I promise.

The Greece blog will also be updated with day 2 shortly.

Caught the Lighnting/Caps game last night. It’s amazing when the beer costs more than what I paid for the ticket.

Go Irish.

Until next time:

“I can't even go in my own kitchen. Bart's in there right now eating frosting off my egg beaters.”
”Don't worry dad, I'm saving one for you. I'll just leave it here in the dog's mouth.”
”No, Bart! That's a really bad storage area!”

Wow, Oliver Twist just asked for more gruel and you just kicked him right in the junk.

This Mustard is brought to you the by the letter “S” and may contain adult situations.

Do you hear that sound? It’s the sound of things calming down. It’s a beautiful sound. True, there’s still lots of things to be gotten for the apartment but this is the fun part. Spending money. And catching up on all those shows I’ve missed.

First off I can’t even remember when the last time this happened but all of my sports teams are doing well! The Giants are rocking as Eli is coming into his own. The Rangers are actually somehow in first place in the East. And Notre Dame continues to look like it may have something good going here. Now knowing I’ve just jinxed all three of these teams I plan on spending the next 3 minutes knocking on wood…………..done.

So I haven’t seen a movie in like 2 months and I’m starting to get antsy. There’s tons of them out right now I want to see (yes, I want to bloody see Chicken Little but only in the 3-D version. It’s supposed to be amazing new 3-D technology that we’ll be seeing a lot more of in the future) but I just never seem to find the time.

I have been catching up on my TV shows however. As we enjoy this month of sweeps I have a few thoughts:

Gilmore Girls has truly owned this season. I mean the last time I was laughing this hard at a show (see the title of this entry) that’s not really a comedy was during the Buffy/Angel heydays. That’s really the best compliment I can give.

Arrested Development just had one of the greatest shows ever where through the most ridiculously convoluted turn of events the family managed to piss off Japanese investors being mistakenly re-enacting a bad Godzilla movie complete with miniature city. You have to see it to believe it. Seriously, the writing on this show is pure genius.

I’m slowly catching up on Veronica Mars but this season is just getting even better than last years. Consider how highly I regard last season. Well the jump in quality this year is akin to the jump between season one and season two of Buffy. It’s that good.

Lost is just ridiculous now. I mean I seriously have no idea how the hell these writers are gonna keep pulling it off but this is either going to be the most ingenious show ever or the most spectacular trainwreck in the history of television. Either way, I can’t wait.

Then there’s the O.C. Wow. I mean, it’s just been painful. Thank God they’ve finished with that crust old Dean Bitterman bit. Seriously, I was just waiting for the damn bra bomb to go off and Seth to be made Secretary of Partying Down (nothing like an obscure Simpsons reference to confuse the crap out of everyone but Crowley. I’m proud of you Crowley).

Music You Should Be Listening To:

Eels – Shootenanny!

Great album that pretty much runs the gamut of musical styles. Saturday Morning is the big rocking out, windows down song of the album. The Good Old Days slow things down with a Pearl Jam-esque ballad. Love of the Loveless has this light-hearted funk beat to it that’ll get your head bobbing in time. And Lone Wolf just has a great, catchy, low tempo that just builds throughout the song.

Phantom Planet – The Guest

Good ol’ California rock. California naturally is the O.C. theme song and the big number on this album as well. Check out Lonely Day and Anthem. If you like sound of Rhett Miller or the Old 97’s less countrified albums, check this one out. Uptempo, good music.

News and Notes:

Since I realized it would be pretty big, I’ve created an entirely new Greece blog to detail all the events and craziness that happened through the week.

Well you asked for it and here it is. The Strip: Episode VI. The end is near. Sorry it took so long to get out but I think you’ll enjoy it.

New Years plans are set. Let’s get ready to party.

Alright people until next time:

“So, who's your favorite player?”
“Ummm..”.
“Tell him. Be honest.”
“It's Johnny Damon, isn't it?”
“He's so pretty.”

Glowing like the metal on the edge of knife

The Greek word for mustard is: μουστάρδα. And no, I have no idea how to prounouce it.

So holy cow, it’s been a while an in the meanwhile I managed to get married and spend a week in Greece and move into a new apartment and buy a new car battery. One of these things is not like the other.

Alright, well I’m going to be doing some different format here for the next few entries. To start with I’m tackling the wedding weekend with this one and then after that I think I’ll do a series of quick entries detailing the days in Greece. Cause there’s just a whole lot write about and if people ask how everything was I can just say, why don’t you check out the Mustard? Course people might look at me funny if they ask how Greece was and I say read the Mustard. Ah well.

Anyways:

THE BIG WEEKEND:

So I owe so many people for coming through for me for the wedding. The whole thing was absolutely fantastic and I hope everyone had as good a time as I did.

My Groomsman: You guys ruled. Great job keeping me all calm and collected. Crowley breaking out a bottle of whiskey at midnight the night before was almost as classic as Tom drinking it out of the mini coffee pot from the hotel room. Booter and Crowley did great getting me the flower petals even if they got back from McDonalds about 10 minutes before we needed to leave for the church. But then they wouldn’t be Booter and Crowley if they weren’t running in at the last minute.

Best Man: Tom you saved my ass. I would’ve probably had an aneurysm in the back room waiting for the wedding to start. But you got me through it while managing to take care of everything else that needed to be done.

Family/Friends: You all know how to party. And it’s amazing having such good family and friends to celebrate with.

So highlights of the night:

ND destroying BYU (oh, come on, if they had lost it would’ve been a bit of a bummer).

Borden grabbing a waiter’s tray and carrying the entire wedding parties drinks into the main room (and there were a helluva lot of drinks on that tray).

Me being right about Postal Service’s Such Great Heights being the perfect introduction music.

The fact that upon the introduction of Sean Griffin my entire family screamed out “Booter!”

The choice of Billy Joel’s To Make You Feel My Love setting off a huge debate over who’s song it was and my cousin Joey’s triumph in knowing.

Two amazing toasts by Ashley and Tom.

The food being amazing and Booter being able to eat it (seriously, watching people run around to be sure that he wasn’t allergic to it was pretty funny).

The total klutz that is me stepping on and ripping off Erin’s train.

The total klutz that is one of my uncles doing the exact same thing moments later.

Meatloaf’s Paradise By Dashboard Light being one of the best renditions ever.

Erin’s family not running screaming out of the room after my family’s rendition of said Meatloaf song.

An awesome Conga line through the hotel lobby and back through the kitchen.

One word: Journey.

Watching certain people get very very wasted.

Eerily hearing about how hot my brother was all night.

Leaving to room to the ND fight song.

Highlights of the morning:

Crowley’s voicemail on my wedding night asking for Lauren and Anne’s number as they got into a taxi with a sketchy blonde (who later turned out to be Chris Myers. That’s funny).

Borden naturally doing a knock knock run run at 2 am.

The next morning looking more awake and refreshed than anyone else.

Hearing who was passed out while watching Chris Rock and the noticable omissions therein.

Hearing who was “asked to leave” by the hotel bar.

The fact that Crowley spent the night telling my sister how I was up in the room doing “naughty naughty things”.

(See here for more quotes this weekend)

What a weekend folks. Thank you to everyone who was involved. I couldn’t have asked for a better wedding and reception.

Yes, and to my bride: I love you. You’re wonderful and I could not be happier being married to you.

And yes I fully plan on hearing it for the rest of my life for losing it during the ceremony. So all of you can just shut up.