HARD EIGHTS, MOTHER'S DAY, TV SHOWS AND 225 LBS

Another injury-free weekend.

On Saturday, I went with my Aspen pals to an annual Casino Night fund raiser for the North Venice Little League. It was my second year going and I was hoping to win a whole bunch of fake money at the craps table like I did last year. It's not that I have an affinity for fake cash, but the fact that at the end of the evening the fake money turns into very real raffle tickets. Last year I won an iPod for Paris, so I went into the night armed with some major greed.

Frank Mastromauro and I both built up nice stacks of chips thanks to our own dice-throwing prowess. Between the two of us, we rolled for a good half hour. Sadly, before the dice could come back around to us a third time (which everyone knows "is the charm"), the peeps in charge ended the gambling portion of the evening. It was over an hour earlier than the previous year, which was more than a little annoying since after the gambling we had to wait FOREVER for the raffle to occur.

The results? Frank won TWO different raffles for California Pizza Kitchen gift certificates. Kelly (Frank's wife) won BOTH things she really wanted (something Burke Williams related and a gift card to Bloomingdales). Sadly, I was shut out of the thirty something prizes they had.

But at least I had company to my misery... Mark Roslan didn't win shit, either.

I spent mother's day with my mother, and we went to see IRON MAN 2. It was my second time seeing it and I actually liked it more this time around. I think the first time I watched it with a more critical eye and I was disappointed by several missed opportunities to maximize the drama/conflict in the plot. This time I just allowed myself to get Robert Downeyfied. Mom also liked the movie, but that's because she's an awesome Mom who likes comic movies, Lost and Sons of Anarchy.

This leads me to the third leg of this post... TV SHOWS. Last night I caught the latest episode of LOST online (as I am wont to do while coloring). Now I'm not going to talk specifics about the episode, so as not to eff it up for anyone who isn't up to date. I will say that it was a REALLY GOOD episode and I did get a little teary-eyed near the end. Anyway, I what I really wanted to say is that I am bordering on distraught that Lost is ending... one more favorite show bites the dust.

I'm more than a little bitter that in 2010 I find myself without the usual stockpile of "MY" shows to look forward to. In the last few years I have lost my all-time favorites... Galactica, The Wire, The Shield, Deadwood, and now Lost. In addition, once-dear-to-me shows like Smallville, The Closer, Heroes, Gray's Anatomy, Rescue Me, Nip Tuck, Entourage and Weeds have all outlived their awesomeness. Now I am left with only a few shows that are must watches... Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Sons of Anarchy, and In Treatment. That's it. That's all I have left. Hung and Nurse Jackie are pretty good shows, but I'm not going ape-shit over them like I do with all my faves. This sucks. Yo, where are all my awesome new joints at?

Okay, one last thing...

225 lbs -- it's no secret that among my workout pals Frank, Mark and Vince... I am the lightest in the ass AND the weakest (not counting Chaz who is a newbie and will be surpassing me by the end of the year). So 225 pounds on the bench press isn't that significant a number to them, because they're way past that. But to me, it's a milestone. Two plates on each side represents my own personal idea of what "a man" should be bench pressing. Put it it this way... at the NFL combine they test draft picks by how many times they can bench 225. And bench it they do, to the tune of 15-35 times. So being able to bench 225 lbs JUST ONE TIME would make me at the very worst 1/35th the man that a football player is.

I can live with 1/35th...

But today, despite the fact that it was one of those low-energy mondays, I managed to bench 225 lbs 1 and 1/2 times. That means on a good day I can be approximately 1/20th the man an NFL football player is.

Hurray for me!