Viva La Grinch

Am I happy??? A buddy called me before the race and wanted to bet on Big Brown. Since I had to make a bet for him, I watched the pre-show coverage and caught the fact that Desormeaux was told to take the early lead and he was a Nick Zito horse. I put a wager on him at 35-1. Its the very first bet I have ever put on a horse. I think I am going to roll some of this into the Brewers taking the Central this year at 8-1.

I have Mario Kart, and its a blast to play online. You can play with regional people, or worldwide. Choosing the worldwide mode was a bit weird at first, as it seemed all the Germany people created Hitler Miis to play with. Nintendo has since banned Hitler, so you now see a bunch of Harry Potter Miis out there. As for the game, no lag at all online. You start at a 5000 score level, and based on finishing in the top half, your score moves up. The game also has tournaments weekly, to see how you rank against the rest of the community. Overall, the online Wii service is good, but not great yet. Smash Brothers still lags from what I hear. Also, lack of voice communication is a big loss. One way that I have gotten around it with friends, is we connect in a chat room via Xbox Live, and then play Mario with our Xbox headsets still on.

This version of Mario Kart is great, and kinda feels like a greatest hits album, which a bunch of favorites with a couple new songs to make you buy the album. I do miss the individual weapons of each character that was in Dash. I also am having some problems with the Wii getting an error trying to connect sometimes, not quite as dependable as Xbox Live. However, once your on, you guys are correct thats its lag free. I am kinda shocked how bad most people are online, but that could be from playing last night around bar time.

You will not laugh out loud in any other online game as this. I love Call of Duty 4 for the skill level, but for pure fun, GTA4 takes the multiplayer to a totally different area. GTA has so many unique game types that its hard not to justify the $60 purchase.

Well, I just finished a five hour marathon session of GTA, and the reviews are spot on....run out and get this game. The game had me cracking up several times, and the script is really well written. Gameplay is more like the Vice City in regards to not having to work out or do the daily chores. Lots of mini games to do when you hit the bars, like bowling or darts. A cell phone is introduced into the play of the game, which pops up when friends want to play some multiplayer, and its a hoot just to sit on that and tweek the phone settings like you would your own personal phone. As for the multiplayer, it really does shine on this game. Team Deathmatch is vastly different then other games with this mode, as running over your opponents never gets old. You are grouped into small teams of two, which forces you to team up with your partner to survive. For instance, if you want to do a drive by, one guy hops in the car to drive, while your partner blasts the window out and leans out to shoot your opposition. Another fun game mode is Cops and Robbers. One team starts as the cops, and the other the robbers. The Cops all start with good guns and police squad cars. The robbers all start on foot with the basic weapons. The goal is for the robbers to escort the "boss" to a goal on the other side of the map before the cops eliminate them.. My favorite mode so far with multiplayer is the free for all mode. This simply is a no rules, just go out and roam the map with a buddy. Want to go race a helicopter against a friend around the map or take the scooters down the subway? We laughed more just taking the bazooka out and blowing each other up and seeing the dead body blown fifty feet into the air. I haven't even touched the car racing on the multiplayer yet, but with all this to see in the game, I can't see taking this game out of the Xbox anytime soon.

I just got back from Best Buy, after buying this game and Mario Kart. I was not too excited for this release either, but after the reviews started coming in, I felt that I had to own it. I am really curious on how well they will be able to pull off the multiplayer matches, as its hard for me to envision a team deathmatch in a GTA game. I will make sure to give a review after I play for a few hours. I also heard that Mario Kart has the best online experience on the Wii too. By the way jwill, how is the turnaround time for Gamefly been? When I was a member years ago, it was still pretty slow as it had to go out to California for returns. If its any quicker, I might have to bite again.http://jwill535.u.yuku.com

Gotcha Gorman, I was wondering since I manage another bar in town. If you ever get over to the other side of town to Tailgates, look me up. I am the only dude behind the bar, and just mention brewerfan, and I will gladly buy you a drink. By the way, we also have the baseball package.

Just curious gorman, what bar did you try in Eau Claire?

If you are watching the game today, there is a guy wearing the racing sausages hat right behind the right handed batters. Its the same hat, but with the barrel man logo.

I have a barrel man fitted hat as well. They have a ton of them in town here for sale. It is all blue with a white front with the barrel man logo stitched and raised on it. On the back it says 1970. Its part of the Cooperstown Collection and made by Twins Enterprise. I can't take a pic right now, as my camera is acting all strange right now. They sell here for $20 if anybody is interested, I would have no problem swinging by and picking some up to send out for people.

How long would it have taken Estrada to run out and tag F-Dome?

If you still need some people for the league, I would be interested in coming and and winning first place.

To clarify the situation, my room does have all white walls. Since I work late nights, I have made it a point to make sure that the windows are covered and little light gets in so I can sleep in during the mornings. Here are a couple more questions. First, I have about 9-10 foot ceilings. Will this allow enough room to see the whole screen from my position laying on a bed(I am thinking of the bottom scroll on ESPN). Also, the projector screens that I have looked at are around $200ish, but some come in a widescreen format..is that necessary? Finally, since I am looking at $400-500 for bulb and screen, would I just be better of getting a 50 inch HDTV for the bedroom in the long run?

The other day at work, I noticed that my boss was throwing out our old projector since he bought a new one. It is a Sharp XR-30X and all that it needs is a new bulb. He went and bought a new one rather then pay the $200ish for a new bulb. I quickly snagged it, and am now confused on what to do with it. My current home theater setup uses a 60 inch Pioneer plasma TV, so I am not looking to replace that. My thoughts are to use this projector in the bedroom. I have never been a huge fan of the picture quality of projectors, so I am not sure if this is a wise investment. My bedroom is 18 feet in length, so is that enough space for a good size screen? Also, any tips of what kind of screen to purchase? The bedroom is very dark, so watching it during the day should not be a problem.

My favorite celeb meeting happened at the Mall of America years ago. My buddy and I arrived at the mall to see lines of people filling up the whole bottom floor of the mall. Turns out that Mariah Carey was doing a signing later that afternoon. Shopping stunk that day, as kids were screaming and it was way too crowded in the mall. We decide to get out of there, but ran into Mariah's limo driver. Turns out he was a local guy from Wisconsin that used to drive the Packer guys over to a bar I worked at for appearances. We talked about his latest gig and found out that Mariah lived up to her diva image. At that moment, all these people suddenly rushed right at us. Mall security yelled at us to get into this bookstore and stay put. The rest of the area around the front of the bookstore was all filled up now, and the doors were closed, locking us in. So now my frustration is even higher, as we were just about to leave the mall, and now forced to sit in this bookstore and wait for something. Turns out, that the back exit out of the mall was through the back of this bookstore. As I am steaming and pacing around the bookstore, I fail to notice the doors open and Mariah and her security enter the store. My blind pacing put me right in the path of her, and made her stop with her face to face with me. My one moment with Mariah.........I looked at her and blurted out the first thing in my head...."nice rack Mariah." She looked startled, then laughed and patted me on the head before security tossed me like a rag doll out of her way.

I picked up this game yesterday, and stayed up till six this morning playing it. If you are on the fence about getting this game, don't worry and run out and get this game. I always found the 2K series a more realistic game then Madden, and this game stays true that history. One thing that stands out to me is how they handled the mobile QB. My gripe with Madden is how Vick can run around for thirty yards in the backfield and throw a seventy yard strike off his back foot to a streaking wideout. In 2K8, you actually have to plant your feet and take the time to wind up your pass in order to get major distance and accuracy on the bomb....imagine that. As for the legends, they are a blast to play with and add a ton of replay to this game. If you are a fan of fantasy football, then this is a must own. By only being able to select ten players and with gold/silver/bronze rankings, you need to balance your team just right just like fantasy football. As I found out, while its fun to play with Sanders and Rice, if you don't have a Reggie White or a Jack Tatum on defense, you are going to get beat all day online. I will admit there is some problems with the game. It could use more plays and players. The developers have said that they had a hard time even finding some of these guys to sign them up. Hopefully, the game does well and with another year under their belt they can put out a deeper game. If you want a big franchise mode, then this isn't for you. For somebody that just wants to play some football, this is the game to pick up.

I got a chuckle by seeing a light green VW bug with the the license plate saying Frogger.

I am actually a descendant of Roger Sherman who signed for Connecticut. By the way, also related to General Sherman too. I just remember as a kid, being told we could be buried in some special cemetery and thinking that would be so cool.

I will try to be as spoiler free as I can. I went to the early preview, along with all sorts of nerdy guys without any girlfriends. Anyway, after watching the movie...I have mixed thoughts. First of all....I expected far worse. The movie actually had some adult humor, and far better screenplay then I would imagine. However, I could do without all the "cute" references like Ebay and such. Also, while the special effects are great....at the end I felt that I had no real connection to any of the robots. Why would I care about a sequel? I totally agree with most of Eberts review here... Ebert Review

My very first bartending gig was being the sample bartender/tour guide at the leinies brewery. At the time, they had just come out with the seasonal brews and the two summer ones were the honey and berry. People started mixing the two and hence the name "honey bear". Well, the tour is all scripted out, but after giving one day after day every half hour, it gets old. I decided to add my own twist to make the tour more entertaining. I had many stories that I added from talking to the brewmaster and other workers, but my favorite was my one leinie joke. If people would take it one step further and mix the honey weis, berry weis, and big butt beers, instead of a honey bear.....you would get a hairy butt. I killed with that on the tour, but Jake would always scold me for that one.

I have never liked when people call a coke/pepsi a soda. To me, its always supposed to be a pop. When I think soda, I think a dry, colorless, fizzy drink to put in your booze.

Towards the end of the game, it did show a wild section all wearing yellow shirts. I caught it out of the corner of my eye, but that must have been the boys there.

Is Chuckie Carr the hitting coach for Tacoma?

Looking at that pic with the bib on, I can see that you named him after the brewer Doug Henry. He had the same look of confusion when he went to the mound later in his career....although Doug was a righty.

Instead of Green Eggs and Ham, start them out, on the by that time, 190 page drunk thread of reading. By the way some here spell on the drunk thread, they should be able to sound out most of the words.....