October 30, 2006

This weekend was pretty chill. I went to my dad’s and just kind of hung out. My brother brought his dog, Berry (pictures to come). She went crazy for Sonny, my chinchilla. Sonny was a little scared and started to have an asthma attack. Yikes!

NASCAR Update:
Atlanta Motor Speedway is known for its exciting finishes and it didn’t disappoint, well kind of. The big race was for third between Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Matt Kenseth. Junior was able to nose out Kenseth for third. Meanwhile, Tony Stewart had easily won over Jimmie Johnson, the highest finishing Chaser. Kasey Kahne made a mental error on lap 250 taking out himself and David Stremme and finished 38th. (Although the highlight for me was the post accident interview with Kahne.) Mark Martin was also involved in a late race accident and finished 36th. Jeff Gordon, who claims he is working on 2007, finished 6th and Denny Hamlin finished 8th.

Shout outs to Joe Nemechek and the #01 team for finishing ninth. This only the second top ten for the Army Team. Shout outs also go out to Greg Biffle and the #16 team who have had a pretty disappointing season. They were able to finish fifth.

Points after Bass Pro Shops 500
Chase for the Nextel Cup
1. Matt Kenseth Leader
2. Jimmie Johnson – 26
3. Denny Hamlin – 65
4. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. -84
5. Jeff Burton -84
6. Kevin Harvick -121
7. Jeff Gordon -146
8. Mark Martin -201
9. Kasey Kahne -210
10. Kyle Busch -249
Chase for 11th (Points behind 11th)
11. Tony Stewart –
12. Carl Edwards -285
13. Greg Biffle -527
14. Casey Mears -682
15. Brian Vickers -709
16. Kurt Busch -721
17. Ryan Newman -823
18. Clint Bowyer -823
19. Bobby Labonte -968
20. Scott Riggs -997
New Jersey’s Finest
21. Martin Truex, Jr. -1048

Congratulations go out to Jersey’s Finest, Martin Truex, Jr. for picking up his second career IROC win on Saturday at the Atlanta Motor Speedway and Tony Stewart for picking up the 2006 IROC Championship.

Giants Update:
While, the Philadelphia Eagles have lost three straight, the Giants have won four straight. They easily beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, 17-3. The Giants came out early, picking up two first half touchdowns, one a pass from Eli Manning to Plaxico Burress and the other a one yard rushing touchdown by Brandon Jacobs. The Giants were only able to pick up a field goal in the second half, but the defense made sure that wasn’t a problem. The Giants are now 5-2.

Around Sports:
Baseball
Alfonso Soriano, Jason Schmidt and Jon Wood have all filed for free agency. They join 86 other Major Leaguers who have filed for free agency in the first two days of eligibility.

Basketball
Sad news…One of the NBA’s most legendary coaches, Red Auerbach died on Saturday at the age of 89. With 938 wins, Auerbach had owned the title of the NBA’s most winningest coach until 1995 when Lenny Wilkins surpassed him. As a coach with the Boston Celtics, he won nine championships.

Football
Number 3, USC lost to Oregon State, 33-31 on Saturday and then fell to number 9 in the BSC poll. West Virginia moved up to number 3 while Ohio State and Michigan held onto the top two spots.

So maybe T.O. was right. Behind the arm of Tony Romo, the Dallas Cowboys beat the Carolina Panthers, 35-14 on Sunday Night.

Ocho Cinco, who put his new name on the back of his jersey prior to the start on Sunday's game, was unable to bring home a win for his Cincinnati Bengals as they lost to the Atlanta Falcons, 29-27. (Ocho Cinco is Chad Johsnon for those not in the know, but he will no longer respond to his given name, only his new name. I don't like to have crazy people mad at me, you never know what they'll do next, so from here on out I will only referer to him as ocho cinco.)

Hockey
The Sabres are no longer perfect, but really, who is? They lost to the Atlanta Thrashers 5-4 on Saturday.

Around the World:
Well at least they won the World Series. Otherwise, there’s little to cheer about in St. Louis after being named the most dangerous city in the country. It knocked off two time champ, Camden, NJ. Detroit, Flint, MI and Compton, CA joined in the most dangerous city fun. But if you’re more into living in a safe community, check out Brick, NJ ranked the safest “city” in the country. (How do you compare Brick, NJ population 78,000 with St. Louis?)

Celebrity Tid Bits:
BREAKING NEWS: According to tmz.com Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe have separated. I'm so in mourning right now!

The Dixie Chicks told Larry King that they have seen their audience shrink in half since 2003. Their current CD “Taking the Long Way” has sold just 1.7 million copies but did debut at number one on the Billboard chart. (via gactv.com)

Saw III took a hold on the box office on the weekend before Halloween. The sequel scared up $34.3 million. It was followed by The Departed, which brought in $9.8 million making more than $91 million since its box office debut. Last week’s champ, The Prestige fell to third with only $9.6 million with Flags of Our Fathers and Open Season rounding out the top five.

Happy Birthday wishes go out to Henry Winkler (61).

Random Quote: "It's her first big appearance since the breakup. I would love to sing with her, but unfortunately all eyes are on me." - Katharine McPhee on Whitney Houston at 17th Carousel of Hope Ball Seriously, you come in second on a reality tv show and you're ego is that big. Let me help you out on where are they now, runner up on AI addition...Justin Guarini, Diana Degarmo and Bo Bice. (via people.com)

It’s been fun blogging with you,

Kate