Fire Them Cannons!

Last weekend, Ken and I took the red-eye flight to Tampa, FL for our annual Buccanners home game. We were playing the awful Seattle Seahawks who did not even put up a fight. They just kinda laid down, and... died. Oh wells, we're not gonna complain, we'll just take the win. 5-2 baby! Going into this weekend's game against the Romo-less Dallas Cowboys. Hopefully we pull out another win and get to 6-2. No team has not made the playoffs with that record at the season's halfway mark. Go Bucs!

Home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Ken and I with Captain Fear.

Skull on the front of the buccaneer ship

Inside the stadium

Goal line play, Fullback dive, Ernest Graham for the TD!

Touchdown, Tampa Bay! Fire them cannons!

For more pictures and videos from this weekend, check out Ken's flickr page - http://www.flickr.com/photos/bdfm/

One More Time!

This past weekend, I was in beautiful Irwindale, CA. at the Toyota Speedway for the Formula Drift Finals. And what a weekend it was. Congrats to Tanner Foust for winning the Formula Drift Championship once again. This championship marks the first time anyone has won the championship in back to back seasons. Way to make history, Tanner and thanks for giving Toyo Tires a back to back championship. Many thanks for fellow Toyo Tires driver, Takatori for knocking out Sam Hubinette in the great 8 round handing Tanner the championship. 

Tanner on The Podium

Tanner in action

Team Toyo members who won awards at the Formula Drift awards banquet at V20 in Long Beach, 10/12. (Congrats to all) - 

2008 Champion - Tanner Foust

Superstar Of The Year - Tanner Foust

Best Tandem Battle Of The Year - Tanner Foust vs. Robbie Nishida

Rookie Of The Year - Michihiro Takatori

Mechanic OF The Year - Shawn Hillier (Team AEM/Rockstar/Toyo)

Although Stephan Papadakis did not win the Team Owner/Manager Of The Year award, I think he was a close second and that he deserved it. Next year, buddy, next year.

For pictures from the awards banquet, visit the link below.

http://www.formulad.com/blog/?p=713#more-713

LA Angels killing trees!

As you might already know, the LA Angels lost to the Boston Red Soxs (Again!) last night and officially ended their season. I say it was a disappointing season considering that we were predicted to win the World Series. We have all these regular season accolades like, KRod's save record, first team to clinch a playoff berth and so on... and for what? The boys are probably planning their vacations as we speak and the rally monkey will be locked away for the season. (Lets hope they lock him up forever) Well, now all we can do is plan for next season. I say let Francisco Rodriguez walk and resign Mark Teixeira at all cost. I was all pumped up when I saw these Angels World Series tickets but I guess its not meant to be. They're just scrap paper now, maybe we can do our part to save the environment by putting them to good use to jot down some hot girl's phone number or something. Better luck next year, boys. Go Angels!

Scrap paper.

My friend was going to sell these tickets for mad money. Sorry Jose, we won't be making it rain in Vegas!

Oktoberfest

Last Saturday, me and a few friends decided to check out Oktoberfest in Huntington Beach and it was pretty lame. As if the $15 cover charge and the $10 beers were not bad enough, the band played cover songs that had nothing to do with Oktoberfest or Germany. If it wasn't for my friends being there and meeting some of their fraternity brothers and their friends, the night would have been a complete waste of time. Even the eye candy was disappointing. I did, however, find my new favorite hefeweizen beer, Franziskaner Hefe-Weissbier. Definately try it out.

The band played "Sweet Home Alabama" WTF?

Soulmate?

A while back, my friends that went to Hootenanny '08, came back with this picture of what they said was my soulmate. I say not so much because the "Truth" tattoo was on her right wrist and the "Faith" tattoo was on her left wrist. Mine are on the opposite wrists plus the fonts are different as well. Still interesting though.

Nice boobs!

My wrist.

Tanner Foust wins again!

This past Saturday, Tanner Foust piloted the Toyo Tires sponsored Rockstar Energy/AEM 350z into the winner's circle with an impressive win in the finals over good friend, Rhys Millen in the Red Bull Energy Pontiac Solstice. With this win, Tanner reclaimed the overall points lead heading into the final race of the season at Irwindale Speedway on October 11th.

Tanner at the starting line.

I was so pumped up about Tanner's win the next day that I did not even care that my flight back to John Wayne Airport was delayed for an hour and a half. At least they had the Redskins and Saints game on at the terminal. Speaking of the NFL, it was a good weekend for me since my Bucs won their first game of this season and so did I, in my fantasy football league. I played Ken and his last remaining player, Tony Romo on Monday night gave me a scare but in the end, my 44 points lead held up and I won 169.20 to 159.75. This week I play Stefan and I look pretty good right now considering that he has no QB. (I think he is going to pick up softy, Chad Pennington)

Last night, I went over the Stef and Jose's place for dinner. We had shrimp with some type of garlic sauce over rice. Props to Stef because it actually tasted pretty good. After dinner we tried watching TV but there was absolutely nothing on. We thought we had the Angels game to fall back on but they were getting blown out and we were over it. Bored, so I went back home and watched National Geographic channel until I fell asleep on the couch.

Tonight, I am going to Hermosa Beach for dinner because my friend, Meredith is in town visiting from Boston. Should be a good time so I can't wait. Only eight more hours to go.

Freezing cold in San Francisco

Today was spent setting up for this weekend's Formula Drift race in Sonoma. Later that evening, Stephan, Shawn and Carlos from Team Rockstar/AEM stopped by my hotel and we carpooled into the city for dinner. We decided to go sight seeing around the fisherman wharf area and ended up in Pier 39. It was freezing cold down there and Carlos forgot his jacket and had to buy a $20 Alcatraz hoodie. LOL.  I recommended eating at Pier Market Seafood Restaurant because I remembered that they had really good clam chowder from the last time I had dinner there with Calvin Wan. We all had the swordfish and tuna special with our clam chowder and it was pretty good. Later on, Al Lagara and two of his other friends came and joined us for dinner. Throughout dinner, Shawn was tripping on the sea lions chillin' on the pier like he never seen a sea lion before.

After dinner, we drove around the city some more to find some landmarks that Shawn had to see for himself. We then ended up at a urban clothing boutique, Fatlace (www.fatlace.com) where Formula Drift was throwing a release party. We socialized with the peeps there for a bit and watched Ross Petty do wheelies on a borrowed fixed gear bike up and down the street in front of the store. I'm glad he did not eat it because he would be in some shit with Nick from Falken Tire since he has to qualify tomorrow for the race. We did not stay too long and decided to head back to the hotel to get some rest for qualifying day tomorrow. Plus, Stephan was sick and we don't want him coughing in his helmet all day tomorrow.

Picture of the Golden Gate Bridge on the way into the city. Love the cloud cover over the bridge.

What I'm thinking right now:

- Angels clinching the AL West yesterday and K-Rod tying Bobby Thigpen's single season save record at 57 today.

- Who do I need to pick up in my fantasy football league so I won't lose to Ken this week. (I would not hear the end of it if I did)

- Its 9/11 today. Fucking terrorists!

- Tired of hearing Tom Brady being out for the season. Get over it already!

This past weekend.

My first weekend off in over a month and I spent it catching up with all my good friends.

Friday 9/5 - Ken rolled through my pad and we met up with Chris at Crabby's on Main St. Huntington Beach for dinner and drinks. One of the Chris' patients is the bar manager at Crabby's so we decided to check it out. (BTW - Chris is also my dentist) I had the surf & turf and its pretty damn good. The steak was the cook just right and the snow crab legs are the bomb. I highly recommend this spot. The only low point was our waitress who was totally high and made us repeat our food and drink order like three times. Lucky for her, she was hot and has a nice ass so her tip was not compromised. After dinner, we walked over to CeFiore for some Italian yogurt. Loved their fat free acaiberry yogurt. We then headed back to my place for some Madden '09 action. Chris and I had the closest game of the night where I had to put together a drive resulting in a touchdown to tie the game up with two minutes left in the game. (Play action TE option was the play I used to tie the game) I won the coin toss in overtime and chose to receive the ball first. I was so pumped up from my comeback that I threw an interception on the first play and Chris ran it in for a 80 yard game winning TD. That was the end of that.

Saturday 9/6 - I went over to Stef and Jose's to watch the UFC fight. I was a pretty boring pay per view but the knock out of Chuck Liddell made it all worth while. Its probably one of the best knockout in UFC history. It was so good that Telly and Amanda had to come over after having dinner with Lindo and Suehyun to watch the fight on DVR. Props to Rashard Evans and now he and Forrest Griffin will face each other on new year's eve for the light heavyweight title.

Sunday 9/7 - Most of the day was spent in front of the TV watching the opening week of the NFL. They actually televised the Tampa Bay Buccaneers game but too back my Bucs lost. I was bummed out after that. I was also getting my ass handed to me in fantasy football so that did not make it any better. Later that evening Stef, Jose and me headed to Steve's house in Redondo Beach for a BBQ and some Rock Band. You have not experienced Rock Band until you play the drums on expert mode to "Run to the hills" by Iron Maiden, trust me! It was a perfect end to my first weekend off in while spending it with good friends having fun. 

Jose, Natalee, Stephan, Steve, Stef, Georgina, Ian and Dennis rocking out.

Where have you been? I haven't seen you in a while!

If only I get a nickel every time someone ask me that question. (I'll be rolling in my M6 by now)

Two days ago after my of my best friend, Ken, ask me the very same question, I decided to join the millions of people in this world and start a blog documenting my journeys and thoughts. As some of you might know, I travel quite a bit for my job to some pretty interesting places. This blog now gives me a reason to use the camera on my iphone to snap some pictures to share with you.

I intent to update my blog often so you will be up to date with all my shenanigans.