Oh my god....Its Everywhere....It's even in my Raccoon Wounds!!

Today's Toastedblog title comes straight to us from Army Matt, one of the guys on my rugby team. (the guy in yellow jersey putting the headlock on, over the top a tackled Toast) You see, Matt went down with me to Giants Stadium on Saturday to watch the Giants take on the Steelers. A rather large American from just outside Harrisburg, PA, Army Matt grew up a Steelers fan, so there was definitely a lot to discuss on our way down to the Meadowlands in New Jersey; including Family Guy quotes. (See Toastedblog Title) You Change O' Pacers know Matt as one of our "Big Men" inside. Anywho, we went down early on Saturday morning to see what Eli had to offer. Army Matt was decked to the nines in Steeler garb. The Toast, you knew what he had up his sleeve, SHOCK-EY!!! I got to see him catch a touchdown live. That's livin' right there my friends. L-I-V-I-N! For a good portion of the afternoon it looked like the Giants had a good shot of winning. Giants, beating the 11-1 Steelers. What?? I started to get a drunken chant going to rattle the young Steelers quarterback: "HEY STEELERS, HOW'S YOUR BURGER??!! (Chant deliberately taken from line in Dumb and Dumber) Apparently their burger was damn tasty because he threw for 316 yards and Antwon Randle El apparently cannot be covered, at all. But what was more important, the future of the Giants franchise looked like a NFL equivalent quarterback, he didn't look shell shocked out there. Manning was making reads, making good throws, running when he needed, and managing the game quite well. For a while, he had a 137 quarterback rating as he was 12 of 16 for 137 yards and 2 touchdowns. He ended up throwing for 187, 2 touchdowns, and a pick that wasn't his fault as Toomer's feet got caught up with the cornerback and he fell, giving the defense an unchallenged interception (an inner for you Pats Pub fans). Hopefully this was the game where the NFL started to make sense to him. I must say, at first, the Giants decision to not sign Kerry Collins to a new deal and instead draft Eli Manning did not make for a lovable Toast. I anything, I resented the fact that the Giants got rid of a quarterback with so much to offer in the unintentional comedy scale. I mean, Kerry was a alcoholic racist at one time in his career, an alcoholic racist that fumbles the ball a lot. How do you throw that away? But Eli has grown on my more and more as the season has gone on and I found myself really pulling for him the last few weeks. Now, I consider myself a real supporter of young Eli. Is there room in the closet for another jersey, besides Shockey and the piece de' resistance, a disfigured Charlie Batch jersey. I think that there might be. Now Eli just needs a chant for Giants fans to get into, just like Shockey has. SHOCK-EY!!!! Shockey indeed. Even though the Giants lost, the game was awful enjoyable. I had the ultimate goal of trying to head out to Schenectady to see Tommy O'Connor and Reyn who were visiting Javen for his birthday from Boston and let me tell you it would have been great to get out there. But I was wiped after the early morning drive down to NYC, then enjoying the game the only way I know how, with plenty a beers. Top that afternoon off with leaving the stadium at 6pm and not getting home till 10pm, it just wasn't going to work. I instead spent the evening watching Lord of the Rings, the Return of the King, eating a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, and enjoying more than my fair share of sodas. Throw in a viewing of Dodgeball afterwards and I was up until 4am watching movies. I haven't had a Saturday night like that since High School. Alchohol has been a major influence on my weekends since then.

The Toast followed Saturday up with what had to be one of the more fun nights I have had in recent memory. On Sunday I headed over to the Change of Pace to meet up with Billy, Chumps, and Rage Kage for some friendly banter and chicken wings while full on enjoying the Indianapolis v. Baltimore game. However, this trip to one of the greatest places on earth came complete with a rendezvous with Big Marky Badass and his brother Streamlined Badass. (You can call him Drew if you like, Streamlined Badass is a more rugged and handsome version of BA) We spent the rest of the evening reliving stories from random adventures, talking about what we do now, Europe craziness, and beautiful drunk talk. He is going to be in Syracuse for a few weeks so there will be some updates on what the haps are. For example, we have been informed that Moe and Mags may be planning a night out with us where the four of us go to dinner, the ladies can discuss womanly things while Badass and I will go through a good amount of drinks and talk finance, or something else that sophisticated men discuss, like routes to the office. We definitely won't bring up Gary Busey film festivals, goofy humor with LeMoyne Physical Plant Employers, poop stories, or nights on Lancaster Ave. By the way, he remembers the night that Javen, Willie Moe and myself performed a drunken rendition of "House on Pooh Corner" and drove away party guests, just in case anyone was wondering. Good times, good times.

What else has been going on, I forgot that it has almost been a week since I helped you out toastedblog fans. Well, for starters, Team Bo Hall has been on a tear lately with another first place finish for Clarkes Trivia, and we did this one without the Prime Supporter of all sports, no matter which ones they may be, wicked awesome teammate Jaime. Despite our best efforts to not do well, we lucked into victory. Oh, and go back one day to last Tuesday, the Change O' Pacers are in the win column. The Toast erupted for 18 points. They call me layup cause the kid's automatic, if automatic means you miss a good portion of makeable shots. Jitter would have been proud of the Pacers on that day my toastedblog pals. You should heve seen me running the court buddy, hair flowing complete with headband and high socks, smiling big and talking smack. With your help, they can only hope to contain me.

Now, to confuse my audience a little more, we go to Thursday night where the Toast plays in his first hockey game of the season. My team, we're not great and I found out the we are called the Underdogs. Well, we didn't play like it on Thursday holding the lead for the majority of the game, only to lose 7-5 to what I hear was supposed to be the best team in the league. I wasn't that impressed with them. Well, Toast didn't do too poorly scoring a goal and setting up another, but I found that for most the of the game I was trying to regain my skating legs as well as my stickhandling skills seeing as this was my first game since last March. I have another game tomorrow and I follow that up with one next Tuesday as well. I figure by then I will have a good idea of what I am doing out there again and will be able to wow my teammates by showing them how Toast's play. Good news is that I didn't not get a penalty for really putting a shoulder into some guy and taking him out. Maybe they are being more lenient on allowing checking. That makes me happy, cause the Toast doesn't believe in poke checking. What also puts a little hop in my step is that my brother will be in town that week and he is bringing his goalie equipment with him so he can skate with my team next Tuesday. All are invited to see two Cregg's tackle the 19 and over Men's hockey league in Cicero. Refreshments shall be provided as this rink comes complete with a bar, who gives us free pitchers following our games. YES!!! Game 2 is tomorrow night.