Da Bearsss

So today Chris Leak was signed by Da Bearsss. He'll join Rex Grossman, the qb he replaced here at Florida. Earl Everett was signed by the Bengals. Seven other Gators were signed as free agents: Billy Latsko (Carolina Panthers), Steve Rissler (Dallas Cowboys), Jemalle Cornelius (Buffalo Bills), Reggie Lewis (Bufflao Bills), Steve Harris (Denver Broncos), Brian Crum (Kansas City Chiefs), and Eric Wilbur (Houston Texans). Good luck!

BRADY! BRADY! BRADY! BRADY!

So you know how I was all upset (and still am) that the Dolphins passed on Brady Quinn. My yelling reaction was shared by Dolphins fans at the team draft party. I'm so glad I'm not Cam Cameron right now. Video

Pandora

Have you heard of Pandora? It's one of my new favorite websites. It's a kind of twist on Internet radio. Here's how it works. You go to the website and type in the name of one of your favorite artists or songs. Pandora then does its superfast research and finds songs that have similar qualities to that artist or song. It's really cool. It introduces you to music you may not have found before. It's part of the Music Genome Project that breaks down and classifies characteristics of songs and artists. Check it out! :-)

I Hate Finance

The finance final sucked. That is all.

Finance and Draft Final

On the eve of my Finance final, I'm feeling a lil scurred. I only have to get a 66 in order to get a B in the class, but I'm still worried about even getting that score. I think I may be working myself up too much and I should just relax. I'll feel better (maybe) once the test is done and I'm watching Maury. :-)

In other news...

Even more Gators got drafted today. The first to go was Marcus Thomas, who was picked by the Denver Broncos in the 4th round. As you may recall, Marcus Thomas was kicked off the team last season for...ahem..."smokin' that Urban Meyer," as my supervisor so eloquently put it. Looks like the Broncos were willing to give him a second chance. Next up was Joe Cohen to the 49ers. In the 6th round Ryan Smith, who's an interception just waiting to happen, was drafted by the Tennessee Titans. In the 7th round Dallas Baker went to the Steelers, Brandon Siler to the Chargers (with one of my favorites, LT!), and Deshawn Wynn to the Packers (where he will freeze). Unfortunately, Chris Leak and Earl Everett went undrafted. Earl Everett provided quite possibly the most memorable image from the BCS Championship Game. We'll see if they get picked up as free agents.

With Andre Caldwell being the only player remaining who came in with me and the rest of the 2003 freshman class, it's the end of an era in Gator football. It hasn't always been easy to be a Gator fan these past four years, but it definitely ended with a bang! :-)

Why, Dolphins? Why??

Ok, sooo...

I don't know why I love the NFL draft so much, but every year I find myself watching for hours on end for two days straight. Unfortunately, this year I had to study for my finance final, so I couldn't go to Gator's Dockside to watch it as originally planned. Two things I was looking forward to were seeing where Paul Posluszny got drafted and seeing if the Dolphins would actually have a chance at getting Brady Quinn. And, it goes without saying that I wanted to see where the Gators got drafted. Paul Posluszny is one of my three favorite football players because of plays like this. (My other two favorite players are Reggie Bush and Ladainian Tomlinson, but you already knew that.)

So the draft got started and Brady Quinn is still available when the Dolphins are on the clock. Now I'm getting all excited. The Dolphins haven't had a solid, steady quarterback since Marino retired and every year it seems like they mess up in trying to find a good one. I was happy that this was the year they'd turn it around. I wasn't the only one. All the talking-heads on ESPN were praising the Dolphins for finally getting the quarterback they needed and talking about Brady Quinn's meetings with the team. So, time is up and Roger Goodell goes up to the podium to announce the good news.

"With the ninth pick in the 2007 NFL draft, the Miami Dolphins select...Tedd Ginn, Jr. from Ohio State."

WHHAAAAATTTTTT????!!!???!!!

I couldn't believe it!!! I was in my apartment by myself yelling at my tv for about five minutes. How could the Dolphins mess this up again?? I just kept looking at the tv and seeing that Brady Quinn was just sitting there and the Dolphins didn't take him. This vile reaction wasn't relegated to just me. Everyone on ESPN was utterly confused about the Dolphins' selection. They may not have been as livid as I was, but they were ripping the Dolphins apart for passing on Brady Quinn. Mel Kiper, Jr. put it best when he said, "If you're the Dolphins and you have the opportunity to get Brady Quinn, you don't go for the fifteenth best person in the draft. You take Brady Quinn!" After the shock from the Dolphins, Mr. Quinn had a long wait ahead of him. He was picked 22nd by the Cleveland Browns. Once all the dust settled I started thinking that maybe this was for the best. Maybe Brady Quinn is just overhyped and won't pan out as a good NFL quarterback and the Dolphins knew what they were doing. Maybe John Beck (the qb the Fins took in the 2nd round) will turn out to be even better than Brady Quinn. We'll see.

It was a good first round for the Gators. Jarvis Moss was taken 17th by the Denver Broncos, and Reggie Nelson was taken 21st by the Jacksonville Jaguars. (This video of Jarvis Moss's blocked field goal still gives me chills.) It's been a few years since the Gators have had a first round pick, so this was good to see. Poz got picked up by the Buffalo Bills in the 2nd round. The only reason I used to watch the Bills was because Willis McGahee was there, but I guess I'll keep watching even though he was traded. Ray McDonald, of the Gators, was taken in the 3rd round by the 49ers. Also in the 3rd round the Dolphins picked Lorenzo Booker, who happens to be the Seminole I can't stand the most. I can't believe he's going to be a Dolphin.


Brady Quinn


Poz


Jarvis Moss


Reggie Nelson


I wasn't kidding about not liking Lorenzo Booker

You Are NOT the Father

Ok, sooo...

After about a month and a half of waiting, my Maury episode is finally going to air!! Just to clarify, I'm not actually one of the people on the show...I'm featured in the audience.

Many of you may know about my deep love for Maury paternity tests. So when I went to New York for spring break I had to make sure I saw a taping of the Maury Show. Allysha and I decided that we had to do whatever it took to make sure we got to see the show. Since we were staying with her sister in the Bronx, this meant waking up before the sun to get down to Manhattan and get in line early for the taping.

The Maury Show has to be the most low-budget operation in television. It's filmed in the Hotel Pennsylvania across from Madison Square Garden. The only way you'd know it's filmed there is by the sign they put out on the sidewalk in the side entrance of the hotel. Contrary to popular belief, you don't even need tickets to go see the Maury Show. You just show up and get in line. They pass around a sign-in sheet and then give you a wristband. The same people who do security for the show pulling baby mamas off of each other are the ones who control the line and hand out wristbands. They then take you upstairs and through a metal detector and bag check. Apparently, this isn't standard protocol for show tapings, but I guess Maury has to take extra precautions. You're then led into this "waiting room" which actually just looks like a big break room. So we waited there for a while and admired the "decorations" in the waiting room: a single 8x10 of Maury, an autographed Maury t-shirt, and letters from little kids.

Then came the moment I'd been waiting for. They started calling out numbers to be let into the studio. Since we got there pretty early, our wristbands were numbers 22 and 23. We got led down the hallway (yes, the very same hall where you see the baby mamas run after the man they were 1,000% sure was the father actually isn't) and into the studio. The guy in charge of seating scattered people around and, amazingly, we were put in 2nd row center!

While waiting for the show to start I recognized a man who has become a Maury Show legend. I said to Allysha, "Isn't that the man who keeps coming back with the same woman even though he's not the father?" Sure enough, it was him. The producer told us we were in for a great show because it featured women who had been on multiple times and still can't find the father of their children. He told us we needed to have BIG reactions to everything that happened, and I can safely say, mission accomplished.

So, they're playing music (Lil Jon, Fergie, T.I.) while waiting for the show to start, when all of a sudden we hear a recording of Maury's voice saying, "You are NOT the father!" Then Maury comes dancing out to this rap song about Maury and baby mama drama. Everyone's screaming and clapping and dancing along with him. Maury's on stage dancing, twisting up his fingers to make an M, and then threw up the Roc-A-Fella sign. I couldn't stop laughing.

I don't want to ruin any part of the show by telling you what happened, but it was a lot of fun. Be sure to watch "I'm Testing the 17th Man...Will This Be the Father?" on Monday, April 30.

The Continuing Raccoon Saga

So...

I set my alarm this morning specifically so I could call animal control soon after they opened. I figured that if I called early I could be one of the first cases they handled today. I still didn't want to leave my apartment until I knew that the raccoon was gone and wouldn't come hissing around me again. So I get on the phone with the woman at animal control and she tells me that I can rent a trap with a $25 deposit and a $7 weekly fee. Weekly?! I wanted this taken care of today. She asked me if I had seen the raccoon today, and I told her that I hadn't been outside yet. She said that since I live in an apartment complex I should talk to the management about having them pay to have the trap set up. So I asked her if there was any way to get this all taken care of today. She said that I could rent the trap and come pick it up on my own and set it up myself. Excuse me, but what do I know about setting up wild animal traps?? I told her that I didn't want to have to deal with this raccoon anymore than I already had. So she told me to call them back if I see the raccoon again. When I called them yesterday they were closed. Raccoons are nocturnal. If I see this little creature any time after 5, animal control can't do anything.

I went over to the office to talk to them about paying for the trap. The guy in the office said they already had traps set up in Phase 1 and they were rotating them around. Apparently, there had been a big raccoon problem in one section already. He said he would have the maintenance people put the trap by my building, although no one on staff is trained to tackle raccoons.

I hope this all gets taken care of quickly. I don't want to have another run-in with the monster when I get back home later today. I also don't want to be anywhere near the trap when he (or she) runs in.

Raccooooon!

So...

Today I'm coming home from a TA review for my finance final on Monday and I was really looking forward to getting in my room and relaxing. I get out of the car and walk toward the stairs when I see a raccoon foraging around the trash cans on the first floor near the stairs. I got a little nervous because bats and raccoons up here tend to have rabies. The on-campus channel used to run warnings about that kind of thing all the time. So I decided I would quickly walk past the raccoon and head upstairs. Well, that definitely didn't happen because before I moved two steps the raccoon walked up the steps ahead of me. It walked all the way up to the third floor! I had never seen a raccoon walk up stairs, let alone three flights. At this point I definitely wasn't going to go up the stairs. My apartment is on the third floor and I didn't want to be up there with the raccoon and either have it feel threatened and jump on me, or have it run in the door behind me. So I waited downstairs. And waited. And waited. I don't know what that raccoon was doing up there, but I still hadn't seen it come down the front or back stairs.

After a few minutes I saw it walk down the stairs and go back to the trash cans. I knew that this would be my chance to quickly get upstairs and into my apartment.

MISTAKE!!!

As I'm putting my key in the door thinking I'm safe I hear a noise that sounds like a cross between a hiss and a growl. I look down and see the raccoon standing right behind me! The stance it was in looked just like the raccon in the picture above. I yelled and jumped and was just plain scared. I tried to get away from it by walking down the back staircase. I didn't want to run so that I wouldn't agitate it, so I just tried to walk fast. But as I was going down the stairs I realized that this little beast was following me! So I quickly picked up the pace and went back to my car. I decided to drive over to Phase 1 where the office is and see if someone there could get someone to handle this raccoon. But, the office closes at 8pm and I got there at 8:05 and everyone was gone. I just stood over there for a while trying to figure out what to do because I did not want to go back to my apartment. When I called my dad he suggested I drive back to my building to see if I could still see the raccoon and see if there were other people going up and down the stairs.

So I drove back and sat in my car for a little bit. I saw someone run up to the second floor, so I figured that the raccoon was at least not on the first or second floor. But what if it was on the 3rd floor where my apartment is? I was still scared to take the chance. I called my one of my roommates who's in vet school to see if she could give me any advice, but she wasn't home. I looked in my trunk for something to use as protection, although I'd be too scared to swing anything at the raccoon for fear of retaliation.

Then I saw a guy come out of the apartment underneath mine to take out his trash. So I ran over to him and asked him to walk me up to my apartment. I'd never met him before, so I think his confused reaction was understandable. I explained the story about being followed by the raccoon, but he still looked kinda weirded out. Oh well, at least I didn't have to face the raccoon again.

My roommate called back a little later and I gave her the series of events. She said I needed to call animal control because it sounded like a rabid raccoon. Well that's just great! I called animal control to leave a message for them, but there was no option for that, so I'll have to call first thing in the morning. I'm too scared of the raccoon to leave my apartment until they come. On a side note, I was moving stuff around in my trunk while looking for a weapon and pulled out a 12-pack of Zephyrhills that I didn't even realize was in there. But I think I left it outside of my car in the parking lot when I ran after the guy to escort me.