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It's official Dennis' daily Rant is commercial free. I decided to remove the controversial advertisements after discovering an advertiser on my blog that I did not feel was appropriate for my blog. So please enjoy my commercial free blog.

So Long Monster House

About three years ago I was channel surfing one night and came across a show called "Monster House". It was a show in which build team was challenged to do some pretty outrageous remodels on people's homes. Among my favorite remodels were the Brittish Pub house, the Retro future house and the sports house. The show became a favorite of mine and of my roomates Aaron and Jared, many Monday nights at the old Vermont ST apartment were spent watching it. Our favorite episodes were always recorded and saved on our DVR. After I moved back to Eugene I pretty much stopped watching "Monster House", tonight I happened to be channel surfing and came across Monster House so I decided to watch. I was saddened to learn that it was the final episode, it brought back memories of sitting on that nasty couch that was once white eating top ramen and drinking a beer while watching "Monster House". I almost shed a tear when host Steve Watson said "DONE" for the final time. For a one year period "Monster House" was my favorite show not on ESPN, now it's gone and it will be missed

A Final Thought on the Winter Olympics

Now that the Winter Olympics are over I can get back to sports that actually matter to me. Soon March Madness will be here so instead of watching snowboard cross, short track speedskating and skeleton, my time will be spent watching Gonzaga make there annual early exit from the big dance. I'll admit that for two weeks I got sucked the hype, I got into into sports such as luge, skiing, ski jumping, speed skating and many other random sports. Sports that no one in the United States care about, but since the word "Olympics" is attached we're supposed to. Now don't get me wrong, I think competing for your country is the ultimate and I would love to win a gold medal because as snowboarder Shaun White put it "chicks dig gold medals" or something like that. But does anyone really care who took home gold in the Nordic Combined?

In countries like germany where kids ride their luge sled to school, the Winter Olympics are huge but Americans would rather watch a bunch no talent fools do karaoke in hopes of landing a record deal (I'll rant about that another time) than watch Johnny Weir complain about his biorhythms being off. Most people in this country probably think "Biathlete" refers to an athlete's sexual preference and not what sport they participate in.

I'm sure that for 16 days in 2010 I'll care about the above mentioned sports, in fact I'm probably going to make the drive up to Vancouver BC to take it all in but until then I'll stick with Football.

A Great Story

I found this story online today and loved it. This kid should be commended for what he did.

Halftime contest shows USC ducks fly together

USA, USA, USA!!!!

It is a great day to be an American, for the first time ever the United States won a medal in old Scottish sport of Curling. They beat Great Britain 8-6 in the Bronze medal game!

I am so proud to be an American today, this might be the sports moment of the year. This has inspired me to learn the sport in hopes of making the US team in 2010. I need three more people for my team, so if your with me let me know. With your help we can take over the curling world!

So congratulations to Pete Fenson and his team from Bemidji, Minnesota but watch out Pete because Team Dennis is coming to kick your butt.

A Mountain Top Experience

Skiing is probably my favorite winter hobby. Sometimes I think I may be the only person under the age of 40 that still prefers skiing to snowboarding. Having skied for over 20 years I've never had the desire to switch over snowboarding. I did try snowboarding once and I didn't really enjoy it, so I just stick to my old faithful skis. Unfortunatly skiing is an expensive hobby so I don't get to go very much..

One of the advantages of working in Banking is that I get every single federal holiday off. Today being Presidents Day, I decided to honor the dead presidents by hitting slopes. So along with my friends Justin and Aaron, I headed up to Timberline for a day on the slopes. The conditions were great in the morning and not so great in the afternoon. I got several good runs in today. It was definatly more enjoyable than my last time on skiis in which my actions the night before made for a miserable day on the mountain. All in all today was a great day and I hope to hit the slopes again soon.

Proud to be a Duck

As miserable as the last couple months have been for Duck Athletics, something happened last week that all Duck fans can take pride in. The Oregon Duck cheerleading team took second place in nationals last week! In addition to that our mascot took second place in the mascot portion of the competition. The Basketball team may stink but at least we have good cheerleaders! GO Ducks!

Valentines Day, What's the Point?

Today I celebrated my twenty ninth consecutive valentines day in which I wasn't dating anyone. That's every single Valentines Day that I've been alive for! This not something that I'm sad about, it's actually one of my greatest acomplishments. I 've dated plenty of gals over the years but come February 14, I never seem to be dating anyone. I like this because because while my friends are shelling out serious cash for fancy dinners, flowers and other gifts, I get to spend my cash on myself. It not that I don't like Valentines Day, I just don't see the point.

I know there's some story behind Valentine's Day and how it started, I remember reading about years ago, but just like any other Holiday it's been over comercialized. Come on ladies, you have birthdays, aniversaries and Christmas where us guys pull out our wallets and shower you with gifts. Do you you really need another day?

I'm sure next year when I'm dating someone on Valentines Day my opinion will change, I'll happilly shell out the cash for the flowers, fancy dinner and gifts. In fact I almost ordered some flowers for one of my lady friends this year but in the end I just didn't see the point.

Snow?

This morning I was shocked to discover snow on top of my car, it wasn't a lot but it was there. Then about two minutes ago I stepped out of my office to take a look outside and it's snowing again! This is crazy I'm ready for spring, I don't want snow!!!

Another Milestone

I Know you guys are probably getting tired of me blogging about my running but I reached another milestone tonight that I feel like talking about. For about the past two months I've been trying to run 6 miles in under 40 minutes. I've come close on several occassions, 40 minutes 13 seconds being my best time to date. Weather, injuries, illness and headphones falling out my ears have prevented me from acomplishing that goal. I had a good feeling before my run that tonight would be the night. The sky was clear, I was well rested, the nagging injuries were gone and I was totally healthy for the first time in over a week. I made the descission that I was going go for it tonight, I got stretched out and I taped my headphones in my ears tonight so they wouldn't fall out and I was off. I went out a little too fast, completing my first mile in 6 minutes and 6 seconds. My second mile was a little slower and I was at 12:23 through two miles. At my turnaround point at three miles I was at 18:59 and was starting to fade. At that point I didn't think it was my night, I had gone out too fast and I thought I was about to pay for it. I keep my focus and at four miles my time was 25:33. Maybe it was my night afterall. At five miles my time was 31:59 and I knew barring a total colapse I was going to do it. With about half mile left, I was gasping for air and my legs were killing but I wasn't about to give up. As I hit the last quarter "Helter Skelter " by the Beatles started playing on my Ipod and I kicked it up a notch. As I crossed the six mile point I hit the stop button on my watch and was amazed with what I saw 38:28! One minute forty five seconds better than my previous best!

KLCC Brewfest 2006
As most of you allready know, over the past year I have become a little more health concious. Gone are the days of the late night trips to Taco Bell, Carls JR and Jack in the Box or eating a half gallon of ice cream in one day. While I've given up a lot I still have three vices, they are coffee, chocolate and beer. To me it doesn't get better than sitting in a pub with group of friends enjoying a good microbrew. I am grateful that I live on the west coast and Oregon in particular because it is the home to so many great breweries. When I saw the advertisement for the annual KLCC Brewfest a couple of weeks ago, I knew that I had to go.

After work Friday night I went home changed from work clothes to my Beer tasting clothes and it was off to the Lane County Fairgrounds. I paid my $10.00 to get in the door, got my commerative tasting glass, spent another $10.00 for twenty tickets and then it was time to get to work. My plan going in was to only try beers that I've never tasted before. There were over forty breweries participating, so I didn't really know where to begin. I just started wandering around and if I saw something that looked interesting I would try it. In the end I sampled 19 different beers, they were only about four ounces so it wasn't really that much. Among my favorites Terminal Gravity Breakfast Porter, Young's Double Chocolate Stout and Biere De Mars by New Belgium Brewing (I happen to be drinking it as I blog).

It was $20.00 well spent, I got to spend some time with some friends and I go to taste some great beer. So if you're a beer connoisseur like me, I reccomend next time there's a brewfest in your area you attend. Oh by the way, I almost forgot to mention that after a night of Beer tasting that I was still able to roll out of bed at 7:00 AM and run twelve miles.

The Winter Olympics
I love the Winter Olympics, it's my once every four year chance to watch sports like skeleton, bobsled, ski jumping and speed skating. I'm not into figure skating but I am amzed by some of the things that that they can do on skates. There are two events that really bother me, they are; the biathalon and the two man luge.

The Biathalon combines cross country and shooting. Someone skis to certain point with a rifle on their back, stops and shoots a few targets and then skis away. I guess that I just don't see the point. Now maybe if they combined shooting and figure skating then I would watch. Could you imagine watching Michelle Kwan have to land a few jumps with a rifle strapped to her back and then have to stop an shoot a few targets? That might be interesting.

The luge is one of my favorite winter olympic sports, It's awesome watching someone fly down the track at 90 miles per hour. Now as cool as the luge is, the two man luge is just plain weird. Who came up with the idea of putting a second guy on the sled on top of the first one? It's totally pointless and it looks really bizarre watching two guys in tights laying on top of each other going down a hill.

The Speeding Sausage
The Winter Olympics are almost upon us. Soon we will entertained by sports such as curling, speed skating, bobsled, skeleton, luge and ski jumping. People like Daron Rahlves, Chad Hedrick, Gretchen Bleier, Hermann Meier and Cassie Johnson will become household names. Another name you will hear mentioned is Georg Hackl.

Most of you are probably wondering why would I waste my time writing about a German Luger. It's my blog and I'm going write about whatever I want.

Here in the United States kids dream of being the next Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant or Lebron James in Germany kids dream of being the next Georg Hackl. Nicknamed the “Speeding Sausage” for his ability to squeeze his stocky frame into a speed suit, Hackl is a German Luge legend. He has competed in every winter Olympics since 1988. He’s won the silver medal 1988 and 2002 and gold in 1992, 1994 and 1998. He’s also a three time world champion. It’s also worth mentioning that he’s a two time World Wok racing champion, a sport in which one rides a Chinese Wok down a bobsled track.

This Saturday and Sunday my television will be on NBC watching this legend compete. While I normally cheer for the Americans in the Olympics in the Luge I will be cheering for the “Speeding Sausage.” And if he wins, I will celebrate by having a German Beer!

The Biggest Fraud in College Basketball
March Madness may be a over a month but already we are hearing the so called experts talk up some of the programs that will go deep into the NCAA tournament. Teams like Duke, Connecticut and Gonazaga are getting a lot of early hype. I can understand Duke and Connecticut getting a lot of hype because they have proven over the years that they are legimate powers but Gonzaga is a different story. I have never understood the love affair with this middle of the road program. To even mention them in the same sentence as Duke or Connecticut is an insult to those programs. While they may be the fifth ranked team in the nation they are not a legimate power.

To be considered an elite program you need to have postseason success. The last time Gonzaga made it out of the Second round of the tournament was in 2001. That's five years if you're counting.

Gonzaga plays in the West Coast Conference, which features such powerhouses as Saint Mary's, Pepperdine, Santa Clara and the Portland Pilots. Now I know some of you smart allecks out there are saying "didn't Portland beat the Ducks?" But this isn't about the Oregon Ducks this about Gonzaga. Gonzaga's last loss came on December 27, while that may seem impressive it really isn't. During that streak they've beat teams like the Pilots, Saint Mary's twice, Pepperdine and I almost forgot to mention The University of San Fransisco Dons. That is not an impressive group of teams, heck the Ducks could probably manage a winning record playing those teams.

I'm also getting sick and tired of hearing how great this Adam Morrison kid is. The guy is a decent player but if he's so great why was he being rotated in and out during the final minutes of a close game against Saint Mary's on Monday night? The answer, he's a defensive liability. To be considered a great player I believe you need to be a complete player. I predict that Morrison will fade into obscurity at the next level much like Gonzaga stars Dan Dickau and Richie Frahm before him.

So come March when you sit down to fill out your tournament bracket, do not pick Gonzaga to make it out of the first weekend of the tournament. I can assure you by the end of the first weekend of the tournament Gonzaga will Gone-zaga.

26.2 Miles Am I Crazy?
Barring an Injury or serious Illness, I will be running the Newport Marathon on June 3, 2006. Last Saturday marked the official beginning of my marathon training. With a brand new pair of running shoes, I embarked on my first run as a part of my marathon training. Not that this is real significant because I've been running 36 miles a week for a few months now. I'll actually be running a little less than that some weeks but as I get closer to race day the mileage will increase. My training allready hit a slight snag due to my illness on Super Bowl Sunday. Sunday was a scheduled day off but I also had to take Monday off due to the lingering effects of the illness. Tonight I got back on track with a nice easy eight mile run. It was a struggle and I don't really enjoy running through Alton Baker Park alone after dark, but I made it. Hopefully I'm back to 100% by Saturday for my twelve miler. I'll keep you all up to date on my progress over the next few months.

My Final Thought on the Super Bowl
In the two days since the Super Bowl it seems like all I have heard on TV and Radio is how poor the officiating was. I'll admit the officiating was bad at times, but to say it cost the Seahawks the game is ridiculous. Great teams find ways to overcome poor officiating as the Steelers did in Indianapolis earlier in the playoffs. The officials had nothing to do with Jerramy Stevens dropping three passes, Josh Brown missing two field goals or Matt Hasselbeck throwing an interception in the red zone. Now I don't want to offend my readers who are loyal Seahawk fans but to all those Seahawk fans still whining about the game on Sunday get over it. The Steelers are the champs, they are the NFL's best team.

A Miserable Super Bowl Sunday
I want begin by telling all my readers that I lied, I cheered for the Steelers yesterday. All that stuff I said about the Seahawks being the pride of the great northwest was a load of crap. I hate the Seahawks! Now a few obersavtions from the Super Bowl before I get to the real point of this blog. First the National Anthem was horrible! Aaron Neville and Aretha Franklin absolutely butchered one the greatest songs ever written. Frances Scott Key must be rolling over in his grave right now. Second the commercials were a dissapointment, other than the Bud and Bud Light ads and a couple Ameriquest mortgage ads the commercials were crap. Third I think it's time that the Rolling Stones hang it up, their time has passed and why were they doing the halftime show anyways? Afterall Detroit is Motown. Finally the game itself, it was a bad game made worse by horrible officiating, it seems to me for the Super Bowl they could have found some better officials.

Now the real reason why yesterday was such a miserable day. About halfway through the second quater I started feeling nauseous. I made it until halftime and then I quietly checked out to the Bathroom, where I bowed before the Porcelain throne. Feeling much better I returned to my chair just in time for the Rolling Stones. I think seeing 62 year old Mick Jagger trying to dance wearing extremley tight fittting clothes and a shirt that showed his midriff made me nauseous again. A few minutes into the third quarter I decided it was time for me to go. As I was making my short walk from my friends apartment to my apartment, I found a nice little bush where I proceeded to throw up yet again. I'm sure if anyone saw me they probably thought I was drunk, but I wasn't I only had one drink at the party. I made it home and crashed on my bed and watched the rest of the game on a 13 inch television. During the fourth quarter I bowed before the porcelin throne one more time. After I made my final bow to the throne, I got to sit on the throne an estimated fifteen to twenty times through the night. To make matters worse, I could not call in sick for work. I had to be at the courthouse at 8:30 for a small claims case against one of our members. At 6:30 I climbed out of bed, still feeling miserable and got ready for work. I stumbled into my office at 7:30 got all the paperwork I needed and made the two block walk to Lane County Circuit Court. Being extremely dehydrated from my whole ordeal the night before I barely made it to the courthouse. After going through security, I stumbled up the stairs found the nearest drinking fountain and started the process of rehydration. Before the hearing I used the bathroom one more time and I actually prayed to God that my stomach would hold up through the hearing, it would have been awfully embarrassing to go sprinting out of the court room during the middle of the hearing to use the bathroom. I made it through the hearing, the defendant didn't even show up so the judge ruled in our favor. I made back to work packed my stuff up and told my boss that I was going home. So I'm at home feeling a lot better now, I'm still tired and weak so I don't think that I'm going on my six mile run tonight.

I almost forgot to mention that I dropped 10 pounds through this whole thing. I'm sure it will probably all go right back on but right now I can say that I'm the lighest that Ive been since my Junior year of High School.

My Super Bowl Prediction
All week you've read about coaches with mustaches, bald quarterbacks, colleges and coaches names now it's time to get down to whats really important the game itself. As all you know I am a huge Seahawks homer, after all they are the pride of the Northwest. But I'm going to be totally objective here with this pick. So here's the breakdown.

The Cities
The two cities are total oppisites, Pittsburgh is the blue collar working man's city, Seattle is home to the wussie book reading latte sippers. I tend associate football with the blue collar worker more than the Latte sipper.

Pittsburgh 7 Seattle 0


The Owners
The Steelers have been owned by the Rooney family since 1933, they one of the few family owned proffessional sports franchises still around. The Seahawks are owned by Billionare Paul Allen. This is a hard one to pick here, history versus money but in the end money talks so I'll give a field goal to Seahawks.

Pittsburgh 7 Seattle 3

The Cheerleaders
















The pictures speak for themselves.

Seattle 17 Pittsburgh 7


Fan Tradition
Pittsburgh has the terrible towels and Seattle has the twelth man. Since the twelth man is lame and unoriginal, the advantage goes to the Steelers.

Seattle 17 Pittsburgh14

History
The Steelers have four Super Bowl championships and names likeTerry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, Lynn Swann and Mean Joe Green. The Seahwaks have no titles and names like Dave Kreig, Curt warner (not the Quaterback), Rufus Porter and Brian Bosworth. Advantage Steelers.

Pittsburgh 21 Seattle 17

The Coaches
Mike Holmgren is 1-1 (the loss came to my real favorite team) in Super Bowls and Bill Cowher is 0-1 but you can't really blame Cowher for that loss it was really Neil O'Donnell's fault. Bill Cowher has that chin that sticks out and he likes to spit, Mike Holmgren looks like a young Wilfred Brimley. The fond childhood memories of Wilfred Brimley in the Quaker Oats commercials gives the edge to Holmgren.

Final Score
Seattle 24 Pittsburgh 21

Super Bowl XL Champions
The pride of the Pacific Northwest, your Seattle Seahawks!!!

Random Facts About Super Bowl Coaches
This year's head coaches, Mike Holmgren and Bill Cowher have the two most common first names for a Super Bowl head coach. Five different coaches named Bill (Walsh, Belichick, Parcells, Callahan and Cowher) have coached in the Super bowl, their combined record is 9-3. There are four different coaches named Mike (Martz, Ditka, Shannahan and Holmgren) who have coached in the Super Bowl, their combined record is 4-2. This game will mark the third time in super Bowl history that a coach named Mike will face off against a coach named Bill. The others are XXXVI Bill Belichick vs Mike Martz and XXXI Bill Parcells vs Mike Holmgren.

Seattle coach Mike Holmgren coached in the only Super Bowl involving two head coaches with the same first name. In perhaps the greatest Super Bowl ever Mike Shanahan's Denver Broncos defeated Mike Holmgren's Green Bay Packers 31-24 in Super Bowl XXXII. It's also worth noting that Bill Cowher coached in the only other Super Bowl matching coaches who's names start with the same letter of the alphabet. Cowher's Steelers lost to Barry Switzer's Cowboys in Super Bowl XXX.

One other random fact about Super Bowl coaches that I discovered is that there has never been a coach in the Super Bowl who's last name starts with a vowel. Last year Philadelphia coach Andy Reid became the first coach who's first name starts with a vowel to coach in a Super Bowl.

More Useless Information on Super XL
There are a total of sixty eight different colleges represented in this year's Super Bowl. There are seven players between the two teams that went to Florida State, next is Georgia with five followed by BYU with four and several with three or less. The most represented conference is the SEC with eighteen players followed by the ACC with fifteen and the Big Ten with fourteen. There are two players from the Ivy league in the game which I believe if you have an Ivy League education you should be doing something more useful than playing professional football. I must also mention there are three schools represented which I've never heard of Tusculum, Tiffin and Carson Newman.