Monday, November 06, 2006

November 6, 2006

Saturday morning, I had to get up super early to help volunteer for the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital at Rahway’s annual fashion show at the Bridgewater Marriott. This year, thanks to an amazing committee and generous friends and family, they are projected to raise about $67,000. Congratulations!

NASCAR Update:
I must be having some sort of Déjà vu or something, because this weekend’s race ended a lot like last weeks, with Tony Stewart in Victory Lane. Since Mr. Stewart missed the chase in September, he has been on a roll winning three of the past eight races including Kansas, Atlanta and Texas this week. Maybe it’s the new diet. He did look noticeably skinny during an interview, at least his face did. Jeff Burton had another tough week when he blew a tire and hit the wall. Burton finished 38th. Kasey Kahne was the only car in the same zip code as Tony Stewart all day, but blew an engine in the closing laps and finished 33rd. Jimmie Johnson led the way for the Chasers coming in second and in the process picked up the points lead. Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon and Denny Hamlin round out the Chasers in the top ten.

Shout outs to Casey Mears who finished seventh. Mears will be heading over to Hendrick Motorsports next season but is looking to get a win for the #42 team before the year is over. His best shot is probably at Homestead where he was basically robbed last year.

Points after Dickies 500
Chase for the Nextel Cup
1. Jimmie Johnson LEADER
2. Matt Kenseth -17
3. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. -78
4. Denny Hamlin -803
5. Kevin Harvick -105
6. Jeff Gordon -157
7. Jeff Burton -184
8. Kyle Busch -223
9. Mark Martin -253
10. Kasey Kahne -290
Chase for 11th (Points behind 11th)
11. Tony Stewart –
12. Carl Edwards -357
13. Greg Biffle -659
14. Casey Mears -726
15. Kurt Busch -764
16. Brian Vickers -812
17. Clint Bowyer -853
18. Ryan Newman -952
19. Bobby Labonte -1043
20. Scott Riggs -1117
New Jersey’s Finest
21. Martin Truex, Jr. -1117

NASCAR Notes: Apparently, one of Scott Riggs’ crew members was not too happy with Kevin Harvick. He allegedly pushed Harvick, knocking down Kevin, his wife DeLana and a NASCAR official after the race on Sunday.

Giants Update:
Well, it was looking like an upset as the minutes wound down on Sunday in the Giants home game against the Houston Texans. Luckily, the Giants pulled out another phenomenal fourth quarter performance and were able to earn a 14-10 win over the Texans. The Giants were showing some holes as Osi Umenyiora missed his second straight game and Michael Straham left the game in the second quarter with a foot sprain. Plaxico Burress also watched the game from the sidelines. The Giants will be going up against a strong Chicago Bears team that was embarrassed by the Miami Dolphins on Sunday.

Random Quote: “Let’s not get into that…You gentlemen have a splendid night.” – Michael Straham to reporters after the game (via Metro)

Around Sports:
Baseball
On Friday, the National League Gold Glove winners were announced. Congratulations to Los Angeles’ Greg Maddux (P; 16), Houston’s Brad Ausmus (C; 3), St. Louis’ Albert Pujols (1B; 1) and Scott Rolen (3B; 7), Arizona’s Orlando Hudson (2B; 2), San Francisco’s Omar Vizquel (SS; 11), Atlanta’s Andruw Jones (OF; 9), New York’s Carlos Beltran (OF; 1) and San Diego’s Mike Cameron (OF; 3).

The MLB All-Stars remain unbeaten in their tour of Japan. On Sunday, the All-Stars won easily, 11-4. Ryan Howard, Andruw Jones, Joe Mauer, and David Wright hit homeruns during the game.

The Texas Rangers have hired Ron Washington as their manager replacing Buck Showalter. Washington had been with the Oakland A’s for 11 years as a coach.

Crazy Sammy Sosa told the AP that he wants to return to the Majors. Sosa is only 12 homeruns away from 600 but missed the entire 2006 season. Why can’t people just stay retired? I get it, it’s hard to stop doing something that you’ve focused on your entire life, but sometimes, you just have to find a new hobby. There should be some sort of no return clause when you retire!

Basketball
In other return news, Shawn Kemp, who hasn’t played in the NBA since 2003, is not ruling out a return. Kemp says he’s been practicing all summer and is going to play in Rome before attempting a stateside comeback.

Football
We’re down to one undefeated team in the NFL, the Indianapolis. They beat the New England Patriots, 27-20 on Sunday Night Football. This is the second consecutive year the Colts are the final team standing undefeated. As they know very, very well, it’s not what you do during the regular season that wins you the Super Bowl…The other undefeated team coming into Saturday’s game, the Chicago Bears, lost to the Miami Dolphins 31-13.

Running
Sunday was the New York City Marathon. Congratulations to Men’s winner, Marilson Gomes Dos Santos of Brazil who broke a ten year string of African winners, Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia who won for the second straight year and to all those who participated. Goodness knows it would be a miracle for me to run three miles I couldn’t imagine doing 26!

Popo in my crib News:
Prosecutors are ready to give their opening statements for the Michael Goodwin trial. Goodwin is accused of killing racing legend, Mickey Thompson and his wife, Trudy 18 years ago. If convicted, Goodwin would face life in prison. Watch out Michael, because the popo are on your tail!

Around the World:
The USS Intrepid, a floating museum, got stuck in mud in the Hudson River on Monday. It was being transported to Bayonne, NJ where it is scheduled to undergo a $60 million makeover.

REMINDER: Tomorrow’s Election Day… so finish up your research, make some choices and don’t forget to VOTE!

In other political news, first lady, Laura Bush celebrated her 60th birthday at the family ranch in Texas. President Bush gave her “a triple strand amber-colored necklace.” (via people.com)

Celebrity Tid Bits:
Borat was number one at the box office this weekend bringing in $26.4 million. Borat, shown on only 837 screens, had a per screen average of $31,511. In second was the Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause with $20 million followed by Flushed Away with $19.1 million. Last week’s champ, Saw III dropped to fourth bringing in $15.5 million, with the Departed coming in fifth with $8 million. The Departed has moved past the $100 million mark.

The OC will be moving to Wednesday nights at 9 PM/est starting next week. Thank goodness, because my Thursdays were just too crowded and my Wednesdays were totally empty…Fox has also dropped Happy Hour and The Rich List.

The whole gang got together in Beverly Hills for the DVD release of 90120. How excited am I for 90210 on DVD?!

TV REMINDER: Don’t miss the 2006 CMAs on ABC at 8 PM/est. Check out my August 30th post for a complete list of nominees or head over to cmt.com

Watch CMT at 6 PM/est to catch all of the red carpet arrivals. This year’s show will be hosted by Katie Cook, Lance Smith and Kellie Pickler. I wonder if she’ll be wearing her red high heels.

Congratulations to Toby Keith and Scott Emerick whose song “As Good As I Once Was” was named 2006 song of the year by BMI.

Happy Birthday wishes go out to Adam LaRoche (27), Rebecca Romjin (34) and Sally Field (60).

It’s been fun blogging with you,

Kate

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