November 2007 Blog

Howdy Howdy….

Where to start. Good for the Boston Red Sox! They have some of the most passionate fans in the world and all of their years of loyalty are being rewarded.

I got to sit with Tom Osbourne for the Texas-Nebraska football game! This was amazing… a lot of you are aware that I am a lifelong Nebraska football fan. Coach Osbourne was an idol of mine and I was actually at the last game he coached against Tennessee ten years ago. It was very surreal sitting next to him as he was dissecting the game and giving his opinions… it was just awesome for me!!!

What is it about young people in the states who use the world “like” every 4 words? Something really needs to be done about this…haha

Happy retirement to Justin Gimelstob! One of the funniest guys you will ever meet… always entertaining and will be missed.

Really happy to be in Shanghai. its always an honor to be a part of the masters and its great being around the best for ten days

So I have a little bit of a problem that has been bothering me… interested to know other people’s thoughts…. so during my match in Lyon I was feeling the effects of a previous injury a bit and also tweaked my right ankle a bit… I pulled out of Paris knowing that I needed to get back to heal and spend the next eight days putting a bunch of work into leg fitness training in Austin to make sure i was healthy for Shanghai and Davis Cup…I felt like I was getting some of these annoying injuries because I had not had a window to really work on my fitness…. anyways, I got fined 20 grand for not going to Paris. In order to avoid the fine I would have had to stay in France for 4 or 5 days to fulfill media obligations for the tourney. To stay there for an extra 4 days when I only had a ten day window to train/recover did not seem like the right thing to do before Shanghai.. I thought it was a smarter play to be at home with my doctors and trainers preparing to make sure I
was healthy for masters which by the way is an ATP run event….. so I get fined 20 large which is a flawed system but I have gotten used to it….. fine…put it on my tab…..I read 3 days later that Nikolay Davydenko has been fined 2 grand for not trying in a match… I AM NOT here to say he did or did not try in that match…. I didn’t see it .. just heard about it… the thing that got me was the 2 grand fine…. in essence they are setting the precedent that preparing and getting healthy for their year end event is worth a 20 grand fine, but tanking (again I have no opinion on guilt or innocence here) only warrants 2 grand….taking care of injuries and health to be prepared for their event= 20 grand……….. not trying= 2 grand…anyone else see a problem with this??

anyways, onto funnier things….. check out Stephen Colbert’s book I am America and so can you! Had me laughing pretty hard.

So I am hoping the humor of this does not get lost in print…I was walking down the street in New York a couple of weeks ago and there was a pigeon cruising around on the sidewalk…as normal the pigeon decided to fly away when we were walking a bit closer…the pigeon took off quickly and flew straight into a door next to the sidewalk… it made a huge thud, and it turned around flew off in the other direction as if it had 6 beers in it… swerving everywhere… I was dying laughing.. again I am sure you had to be there. I wish I could articulate it better…

Halloween was a bunch of fun.. we had a blast… my whole group of friends really gets into their costumes so its always hilarious…. John took the cake for best costume as usual. He was Oscar The Grouch from sesame street. He had a fur body suit that he spay painted green. he painted his face green too and wore a trash can. He cut out the bottom of it and made suspenders…wore the trash can lid on top of his head as well….will try to get a picture up in the next couple of weeks when I get back from Shanghai… only a pic will do it justice

have been listening to Amos Lee non-stop… great mellow music

And the awards go to-

Youtube johnny- type in fainting goats…..hilarious

Gingerisms- our friend David who is the drummer for Meridian West took a nasty spill on his bike and flew over the handle bars… he calls Ginger to take him to the doctor. Ginger drives to the airport out of habit and only realizes when David asks why they are at the airport that she should have been going to the doctors…. guess that’s what happens when you are married to someone who is on the road….

Fine of the week- Doug and Ron angle take it this time… we are leaving the airport in Bangkok and the service was amazing. We checked in at the first class counter and they were just so nice to us. Doug and Ron each had one small carry on bag….. these two younger gentlemen assisted us to our gate which was about a twenty minute walk away. about ten minutes in I realized these two guys were carrying Doug and Ron’s carry-ons while Doug/Ron walked ahead about ten steps…. are you kidding me?????? these two wouldn’t even carry their own bags???? ridiculous!!

Butthead of the week- people who drive slow in the fast lane of a highway… just move over!!!

Self chuck- saw a lady walking her dog in NYC… the dog had pink toenails… it had actually had a pedicure…. you have to be really bored to either paint or have someone else give your dog a pedicure…. wall!