A Rambler's Rambling: Pumpkins, Presents, and Proclaimed Ex-Prisoners

Hey everyone - - -

It's Wednesday afternoon and I work at 1600 tonight, so I'm not all that interested in doing anything productive before I head in. I have to work til close so it's going to be a long night. I might be somewhat bummed about that (read: Heather will be home tonight to begin her 11-day Christmas vacation), but I just began my Christmas shopping yesterday and I already have spent $200. I would say I'm about halfway done with my shopping. Yeah. I need to work. . .

Yesterday (Tuesday) was dedicated to Christmas shopping, my Suns, and R&B. Aimee accompanied me to Palmdale for my shopping. We went to Best Buy (where I got a lot of the presents) and then braved the Mall to get a few more things. We had a lot of fun, too. Aimee and I get along really well and I don't think there is another person who laughs more at the things I say. No one is going to take my moving out harder (yes, even my parents) and it does suck that I won't be around the familia as much as we are used to. But, back to the point. Aimee and I had fun shopping. We now have been blessed with several inside jokes ("It's coming," Hallmark and its stuffed animals, and those uncomfortable leather chairs our Mall has) and I also got some of my Christmas shopping done. . . Good times.

My Suns went for their franchise-record 15th straight win last night at home against Toronto. . . And got it! I said before the game that if we didn't win by at least 15, then we should be embarassed. We won by 17. I was happy, to say the least. I watched the entire game, and this team is fun to watch. Period. Not only that, we're starting to come together and it's awesome! Amare was fantastic last night (nearly with a double-double at halftime), Steve Nash had 13 assists (at halftime! - he finished with 15 in three quarters played), and I was happy to finally watch Boris Diaw play like he did last year. He shot his 17-footer last night and it looked nice and it went in! He made a couple passes that only him or Nash could have made. I am excited about my boys. We should easily get to 18 straight (we have Denver tonight - no AI yet and no Carmelo cuz of the suspension - followed by Washington and Portland) and then have a tough road game at Dallas. We then play at home against the Knicks (another win) and then another tough roadie at Detroit. After that, January looks like a late Christmas present! We have 16 games in January and all of them are very winnable. If we did anything less than 13-3, we should be embarassed. That would put us (giving us a 1-1 in those tough games at the end of December) at 36-10 going into February. After a 1-5 start, that's an incredible job by my favorite team and I can't wait for the postseason. This is our year!

I watched two movies last night: IDLEWILD, the Outkast film from August that sorta skipped in and directly out of theatres, and HUSTLE AND FLOW, one of the best films of 2005. IDLEWILD was pretty good. I did not expect much, seeing that it starred the two-man R&B group Outkast. Terrence Howard, the star of H&F, also plays a big part in IDLEWILD. That guy is going to be HUGE in Hollywood in the coming years! Anyway, the music was pretty good, although I thought there would be more songs from the accompanying album in the film. Either way, it was entertaining, and you can't ask much more than that. (Grade: B-)

Monday night was a lot of fun. Chels, Kimmy, and I met Heather and Chels' friends Joe and Melissa (a very cool couple who I have met several times) at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood to see TIM BURTON'S NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS in 3-D. I was kinda skeptical going in (my experiences with 3-D have been limited, but never incredible) but I was pleasantly surprised. The film was beautiful to watch on the big screen, and the 3-D worked surprisingly well. We went to Johnny Rocket's before the movie (I like that place!) but before that, Chels, Kimmy, and I had been waiting for the others to get there outside of the famed Kodak Theatre (it's where the Oscars take place!). While standing, we were approached by a scraggly, unkempt man. His opening line was a doozy: "I just got out of prison. Would you have a dollar for me so I could get on a bus." Yeah, I know, crazy! I said sorry and walked away. He then went into a nearby Virgin Records store and on to the next person. Who does that!?!? It was pretty weird, but ended up being funny, because when we went to Johnny Rocket's (then all six of us) he came in to ask our group the same question. When he saw me, he turned around, saying "Never mind" and walked out disgusted. I laughed :D O how odd people are!

O yeah, I have a couple of quick things for you:

- Late Christmas gift ideas for me: SEINFELD Season 7; gift cards (Finish Line - I know it's my work, but that is more reason, I think; American Eagle; Best Buy); anything SUNS.

- I'm picking Green Bay over Minnesota (Nailbiter) in the Thursday night game and Kansas City over Oakland (Walk in the Park) in the Saturday night game. The rest of my picks are still to come. . .

- I want to recommend the following CDs to rock fans everywheres: 30 Seconds to Mars (A Beautiful Lie); The Red Hot Chili Peppers (Stadium Arcadium); Audioslave (Revelations)

- And let me distribute a couple of videos for you courtesy of everyone's favorite video superstore, YOUTUBE:

- The cast of SCRUBS does an old holiday favorite