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well, i’m sure everyone was jonesin for an update on the fantasy baseball draft update. i know it’s like a monkey on my back.

well, we were very excited that our draft angel was still there this year and had not indeed been killed by the fans of the Dominican team last year. as you can see below, when she is near, all other girls (and one dude in a red shirt) just fade into the background.

here i gauge chris carpenter’s fastball, point out a possible flaw in his mechanics and predict his season’s impending end.

here the Braves ground crew executes the “chain of water”. Masterfully done, guys.

this guy is a huge napoleon dynamite fan (i can only surmise).

and this guy with the woeful batting average didn’t get drafted at all. not even by missle mike. i’m not even sure he got his name on a jersey.

here missle mike gives his evaluation of smoltz’s draft potential.

this kid was “protect[ing] the house.” there is no excuse for allowing your kid to wear this shirt. none! it is never hot enough that he needs that much “wickability” and he’s never doing anything where muscle fatigue is that much of a potential problem.

speaking of things you should never let your kid do…..

if you’re ever on an operating table and you look up and see the face of a doctor that looks anything like that kid flee. flee very veeeery quickly.

we still haven’t set up the oft-referenced and much anticipated brad v todd sprint showdown but we did find someone who could likely pace the two racers.

the draft itself featured all the pageantry and spectacle that you one would expect. here we offer up a 5 car bomb salute as missle mike makes his first pick of the draft and begins his annual string 17 rounds of misinformed and unadvisable decisions.

as we are a very cultured group, we decided to learn more about other cultures during the draft and winged on over to china.

what we discovered was SHOCKING!!! china is actually tiny. i tower over even the tallest buildings and “not the legend” even comes up to 3rd floor windows. i think we should use this newfound knowledge to force the chinese to allow the yuan to float freely on the currency market. if they refuse, we send not the legend over to “negotiate.”

here larry climbs the “oh-so-famous” mount nipple. i’m not sure of of the historical significance of the natural feature, but larry felt it worth scaling.

that’s about it for coverage of this year’s draft. for some reason i did very little photographing and filming this year. i promise to do better next year – yeah, like you care.

soooo, i decided to wing on up to DC to check out the WHO at Verizon Center with my friends Jeff and Todd and my brother Jeremy. We had a pretty fun weekend there, highlighted by either the girl who claimed she had political asylum, or the one whose belt was “Hermes” (as i was instructed). my response “that’s french, right?”

anyway, i got some jeans to replace my favorite pair (which i had presciently predicted would suffer a hole in the knee on there very next wash cycle) and the concert was great as well. it was a treat to see how fired up Todd gets for the WHO (even moreseo than i would imagine he does for “Baseball Tonight).

so, here is a picture from the concert

and here is a video from the show, just b/c i thought their stage videos were cool. i apologize for the sound quality. i am not a professional – i’m not even proficient. oh, and that video may also include footage of todd debating jimmy carter’s merits with someone in a bar.

one last photo, this one from the 3D sharks movie at IMAX. if you are considering seeing this – DON’T!!!! i can’t emphasize this strongly enough. these are the wussiest sharks of all time. they kill NOTHING!! i knew we were in trouble when the very opening scene remarked how sharks are misuderstood and people are the real predators. i figured it would be tough for them to follow that up with great whites leaping out of the water to crush seals in 3D. now, THAT would be worth $8. anyway, this is a picture of jeff and i before we all took naps in the IMAX theater.

oh, yeah, forgot one other thing we did. we went to the air and space museum with todd. holy cow! that’s like going to a peanut exhibit with jimmy carter or going to a “pot” museum with ricky williams. seriously – impressive knowledge and appreciation of airplanes with that dude.

all apologies for my lateness in getting this post out. the lesson here? i’m a slackass. a special note, going forward, all blog pictures will be clickable. clicking them won’t make you smarter, but it will increase the size of the photo. this service i supply to you free of charge.

sooooo, stephen, jason and myself were planning on taking a trip out to breck, and thanks to suzanne we were also graced by sue, carrie and matt. we had a sweet pad right on the slopes in breck and matt had the sweet hookups at “eric’s”. also, matt is the inventor of two of the greatest drinks of all time. the matt dark, and the matty lite. this is either a dark or regular hoegarten mixed 4 parts to 1 with frambois lambic. i LOVE this beer. seriously. i mean it.

anyway, the video will be posted here when i can finish my edits, but until then, i’ll include some photos.

here we’re just starting out, with joy in our hearts (in spite of the 5 degree temperatures and poor visibility on day 1) and stephen gives a “hang ten” for frosty’s access.

here stephen is just about to plunge over the lip on one of the steep blacks there.

and here we are all circling up for one of our last runs. note how it seems like it would be completely impossible to see someone 30 feet in front of you. that’s about accurate.

that night we all warmed up while having some cold beers with dinner

the next day was pretty similar in terms of weather, but it was just warm enough that we were able to board all day long. then that night we headed out to an O2 bar. let me tell you, you haven’t lived until you’ve kicked some O2. for those of you not down with the “light element” scene, that’s oxygen (squared). here suzanne and esteban get their O2 on.

stephen had probably taken it all the way to O3 by the time this picture was taken.

here, jason checks the guest book. someone named cory likes bears and cheese. um, i hope cory’s mom isn’t reading this, but he’s probably not gonna get into the college of his choice.

here’s a team photo of all of us after we had finished getting our O2 on. now’s as good a time as any to mention our O2 was “flavored”. i chose “serenity” while jason (pictured here with his arm around me) picked “joy”. he and i were sharing a room, so that made me a little uneasy, and so i had a little more “serenity” to chill out.

the next day the sun came out, the temps warmed up and we had a gorgeous day on the mountain.

and then we hit the hot tub. “so hot in the hot tub! will it make me hot? will it make me sweat?” heck yes!

here i take one last ride up the chairlift on our final day there (another BEAUTIFUL day in which stephen and i charged up and down the mountain about 12 times in 4 hours).

As you might expect by the end of the trip, we were pretty wiped. Jason was prone to night terrors so we felt it best if he slept in full protective head gear.

anyway, thanks to all of you for being a part of the trip and for helping to make it a great time. also, special thanks to the guy who invented the hand and toe warmers without which i might not still have my 18 remaining digits. rock on!