I Like Girls That Wear Abercrombie & Fitch

You’ll have to excuse me if some of these links are a week or so old. I’ve had them up and ready to go, but alas, things have been rather busy/tired around here. Shall we dance?

Summertime is at an end: Wow, did that go fast. I know, I know, time in general – and especially summer – always goes fast, but it didn’t even feel like this one existed. I literally did not unpack half of my stuff from school, and now find myself sifting through boxes and Rubbermaid containers trying to deem what is necessary to return to my desk and what is not. Loads of clothes are stacked in the living room waiting to be packed, and despite my vow to always cut down on the number of t-shirts I take, how do I choose between my Freddy Sanchez 2006 All-Star t-shirt and my Dillon Hall Stache Bash t-shirt? I can’t, obviously, so they both have to go. I’m sure I’ll make room somewhere, even if that includes on my bed so I’m sleeping on the love seat every night. Life is all about trade-offs.

Am I ready to go back? Absolutely. Since summer never really felt like it started, I’m not getting too upset about it passing by. I read some good books, watched some good movies and enjoyed some quality trips, so all-in-all, I can’t complain too much. As excited as I am to get back to school, I’m equally angry with the loads of work about to be laid upon me as both the football and fall television seasons start. If it wasn’t for my amazing ability to manage my time/get things done at the last minute, I’d be struggling.

Dear Houston, Just Incase You Thought We Forgot About You, We Still Know You’re Retarded: Remember back to the good ol’ days of April, when the NFL Draft was about to happen and all of the Texans faithful were excited for the arrival of Reggie Bush. Houston could have taken Bush, Vince Young or traded the pick and nobody would have really questioned the decision. Instead, they took Mario Williams. Sadly for everyone in the Houston organization, Reggie Bush went out and looked like, well, Reggie Bush in his debut for the Saints. Here’s the highlight run that makes you think he just might be able to make it with the big boys. And here’s the highlights from Williams’ debut with the Texans. No link there, you say? Yep.

(Speaking of NFL running backs, I know it’s the preseason, but Ronnie Brown was finishing off runs like a man possessed for the Dolphins on Saturday night against the Jaguars. Three months from now when all of the NFL writers are putting up “Where did Miami get all of this offensive talent from?” columns, remember that I told you the teal and orange would be sweet this year.)

Perhaps I Shouldn’t Make Fun of Hockey So Much: Especially if the Kentucky Wildcat hockey team got Ashley Judd to do this. Go Big Blue, indeed.

Heartbreak in Laguna Universe: Managing to magically coincide with the Laguna Beach Season Two DVD release – please see the front of the box for a hilarious looking, high school-dropout Talan – and the Season Three premiere, word has come out that LC and Jason have broken up, as well as Kristin and whoever the hell she was cheating on at the time. My favorite part of the story? LC had to have a “Jason” tattoo removed. It’s probably for the best, as Jason is still recovering from that terrible motorcycle accident and needs to be focused for the upcoming Steelers season. Does Liz Gateley’s power have no end?

So Yeah, This Summer Sucked for Movies, but You Can’t Win Every Year: Next summer, however, buckle up and enjoy the ride. Spiderman 3, Pirates 3, Shrek 3, Transformers, Die Hard 4, Harry Potter, Ocean’s Thirteen, Bourne 3, Evan Almighty (Bruce Almighty, but with Steve Carrell) and Rush Hour 3 (if that’s your thing). Wooo. I’m getting tingly just thinking about it. Even if half of those are absolute crap, there’s still more than enough blockbuster goodness to have you swashbuckling with a computer-generated ogre while webslinging through a sweet heist plot at Hogwarts along with Optimus Prime, Morgan Freeman and Preseason Summer MVP Matt Damon. And yeah, I wrote that sentence in about 7 seconds, so you could say I’m ready to cleanse my palette of the slop heaped into the box office this season.

Incase you were unaware of how freaking sweet Freddy Sanchez is: Freddy is 2 for 3 as we speak, bumping his average up to .347 and extending his lead over Florida wunderkind Miguel Cabrera to 14 points. The Stats Geek at the Post Gazette points out that Freddy should probably be winning a Gold Glove, too, while ESPN.com gives a nice look into the guy Dave Littlefield and Jim Tracy tried everything to sit on the bench this season. I’d like to officially start the “Get the hell rid of Jack Wilson and Jose Castillo, throw a ton of money at Alfonso Soriano and attempt to start a Sanchez/Soriano double-play combo” campaign for the 2007 Pittsburgh Pirates. Considering that would never happen in a million katrillion years, this will not be an effectively ran campaign.

Another weekend at a casino, another successful blackjack sitting: If you eliminate the utter disgrace that was the Indian casino in California, I’m 3-1 this summer for weekends playing blackjack, with the lone loss being a measly twenty bucks Memorial Day weekend after I was down over two hundred the first night. I probably won’t be playing for a few months, but at least I can leave this summer knowing that we got Dill over the hump – he now realizes that there are a basic set of rules to follow - and that Pete, Shane, Kody and Ashley are now properly addicted to the game.

Dancing With The Stars 3, or Reason #345 to Waste Time This Semester: The cast for the newest soft-shoeing contest is out, and frankly, it seems a little less starry then I thought it would be after last year’s highly-rated, highly-accoladed contest was. See for yourself, but when Joey Lawrence, Jerry Springer and Vivica A Fox are your top draws, you haven’t really improved on last year’s situation. Of course, considering how well that went, do you really need to? Regardless of all that, we’ll be watching, George Hamilton, Drew Lachey and Stacy Keibler or no George, Drew and Stacy.

And again, back to school: Before I depart early Friday morning for beautiful South Bend, Indiana, I still need to watch the Tivoed Real World finale, finish my NCAA 2007 dynasty and, oh yeah, pack. Things are going pretty well so far over Rakes, and look, I still had time to get an update up here. I’m going to retire to the couch, maybe arrange some containers and make fun of some Penn State fans, but before I go, I’d like to wish a happy 21^st birthday to the divine Ms. AP, one of the many early arrivers to the ND campus this week. I’ll be joining you all oh-so-shortly, so fear not.