Top 10 Happenings in New Orleans 2011 Adventure

10. New Orleans Streets and Sidewalks:  Bumbling and stumbling through the seemingly war stricken streets of New Orleans was interesting.  The 6-inch tall cracks and random crater potholes did me in more than a few times on my daily walks through the city.  I did pretty well though for a blind guy.  Only stumbled like 10 times. 

 

9.  The next America’s Got Talent Superstar: This tuba player thinks he is really good but his tooting was not most rhythmic of tunes.  He would be great for one of those audition blunders in America’s Got Talent.

 8.  Daily Runs on St. Charles St:   The St. Charles trolley tracks and the dirt next to them are probably the greatest place to run NOLA.  The trick to running this route is dodging the oncoming trolley.  Safety is not a high priority in NOLA as it is totally acceptable for small children to ride their cruiser bikes and play on these tracks.  Only in NOLA J

7.  MSU Beads:  On my search for beads to throw out to the crowd during the race I discovered Sparty beads and of course had to buy them.  I then proceeded to wear them during the race and kissed the Sparty whenever I needed a little pick me up.  Sparty got kissed 5-6 times during the race.  It was a GREAT day to be a SPARTAN!

6.  First Trip to the Daiquiri Store:  Never before have I been to a daiquiri store with tons of frozen daiquiri machines lining the walls.  So many flavors to choose from it was so hard to decide.  Tommy kept trying to get me to go with the 190 Anti-Freeze but I knew his motives for selecting that flavor.  I went with the Mudslide and it was so tasty J  Right after the Ironman 70.3 race of course. 

5.  Coffee??? What’s That?:  My daily walks involved attempting to find a coffee shop .  The key word is attempt.  Coffee in New Orleans is like non-existent.  At one point I found a street called Magazine St. and thought I was sure to hit jackpot.  With a name like Magazine St. there should only be coffee shops, bookstores and magazine stands allowed.  I did find a coffee shop on Magazine St but it wasn’t easy and it was cash only.  Hmmmm??

4.  NOLA 70.3:  The actual race and reason I was in NOLA was awesome but didn’t make the top 3 happenings.  The swim got canceled because of rough waters in “The Pontchartrain”.  The race became a bike-run event.  I brought out my handcuff sunglasses and tons of beads for the run and passed them out along the course.  I nearly passed out by mile 11 as I bonked pretty hard.  I regrouped at the final turn on Decatur St. in the French Quarter and riled up the crowd as Brad and I finished in Jackson Square.  I then went to the med tent for a few IV’s.  Fun Times (haha) 

3.  Pirate Week is Back:  On Thursday we were pleasantly surprised to discover it was pirate week again just like 2 years prior at this race.  We quickly were corrected by our new dirty friend Victoria that it was not Pirate Week, it was Shore Leave.  Victoria so kindly offered us some rum that she stored at cleavage temperature.  Although tempting, we declined the cleavage run and instead decided to meet some of Victoria’s other pirate friends. 

2.  Acme Oyster Shucker:  We made a trip to the famous Acme Oyster House and got a lovely seat at the oyster bar where we got to know the oyster shucker.  This guy was probably 6ft 5in and 250lbs.  When we told him that we would be swimming in Lake Pontchartrain he responded.

                 “Ya’ll swimm’ in the PONTCHARTRAIN (emphasized)?  No way, I gotta see this.  There are things in there that will                 eat you alive.  Go over to the fishing area and they pull out catfish longer than this bar.  I remember back in 85’ when     it was clean and we used to swim there but no one swim in the PONTCHARTRAIN now.  What time you start? I gotta     see this.  I’m gonna ride my electric blue bike (motorcycle) out there and see this. “ 

  This guy was absolutely hilarious.  Also, I asked if they had any Sweet Tea on their menu.  His response,

                “We in LUsiana, this ain’t Alabama. None of that here.”

We never saw the guy on the morning of the race but then again we never swam in the PONTCHARTRAIN!

1.  Dirty Victoria Whips Tom:  Quite possibly one of the funniest things I have seen in years occurred when our dirty pirate friend Victoria decided she would pull out her Kangaroo Tail whip and demonstrate her skills on Tommy.  In her own words Victoria explained “a kangaroo lost its life so I could tear the s### out of you.”  She then ordered, “Tom, get over there!”, and began snapping her whip on Tom’s behind.  This was all caught on video and the best way to explain this event is to watch it.  Find this video on my personal Facebook page.

Aaron’s Bracketology 2011: Final Four to Title

Well, the road to the Final Four has been paved and it was a bumpy one for the favorites.  Instead of having a bunch of #1 seeds that seem to face each other every year, we have an interesting four left.  Before I breakdown the games and pick my winner let’s take a quick look at each of the teams. 

The VCU Commonwealths as I like to call them have been more than a Cinderella this year.  People were angry that they were selected in the tourney when the brackets came out.  Those people have a dirty sock in their mouth now because the Commonwealths have bulldozed over the likes of Kansas, Purdue, Georgetown, Florida State and USC.  Their coach is a genius; in fact his last name is “Smart”.  Shocka Smart is a tiny man but he sure knows how to slay giants.  VCU has been shooting the lights out from 3-pt land with their two star point scorers Jamie Skeen and Bradford Burgess playing out of their mind.  A key component to their success has been the speedy and sneaky Joey Rodriguez.  VCU had a mediocre regular season going 12-6 in a Colonial Conference that is not known for Final Four appearances.  As they always say though, “it’s not how you start but how you finish!” 

 

The Butler Bulldogs have just transformed themselves into a dominate basketball program.  If I had to pick a coach to go win one for me in the last five minutes of the game I would pick Brad Stevens.  Butler doesn’t blow people out too often but they always win the close one.  How he has gotten them to a second straight Final Four after losing star Gordon Hayward to the NBA I don’t know.  Well, I kind of know.  Basically, Sheldon Mack has carried the team scoring nearly 30pts per game and playing “whatever you can do I can do better,” with their opponents.  Matt Howard has helped out Mack a bit and the “no names” have also done more than their part.  People at Butler better be bowing down to Brad Stevens and praying for his return because there is no question that he is going to get some big time offers soon.  When I say soon, I mean either in the post game press conference on Saturday or on Monday. 

 

Kentucky is back at the Final Four.  I am not surprised that Kentucky is in the Final Four but I am surprised how they got there.  I never would have guessed UK to take out Ohio State but that’s why they call it March Madness.  UK Coach John Calipari has a bloodline of superstars lined up at the door of Rupp Arena just waiting for a few guys to walk out the door.  Last year they basically lost their starting five to the NBA but somehow they reloaded with four more all stars and a giant in the center.  Brandon Knight is inconsistent but I guess that’s ok if he at least hits the clutch game winner in the last second.  Doron Lamb and DeAndre Liggins have been amazing in filling in for the inconsistency of Knight.  Terrence Jones is going to be a freak in the coming years if he is smart and stays in school.  Lastly, UK has the big ugly giant Josh Harrelson in the middle.  He seems to block everything and people probably don’t want to go near him because he is smelly and ugly.  UK has one senior and three juniors (2 of which don’t play) on their team but they have been playing much older than they are of late.  

 

As long as it’s called a Tournament, UCONN(KEMBA)  will be in the hunt for the win.  This year they have won every tournament they have been in.  First it was the Maui Tourney and recently it was The Big East Tourney.  Now KEMBA is back at it again and going for the whole shebang in the NCAA Tourney.  Kemba Walker is so disgustingly clutch that it’s hard to even believe it’s true.  Put another way, Kemba has been the horse pulling the wagon that his teammates are sitting in.  To his teammates (Jeremy Lamb, Shabazz Napier and Alex Oriakhi) credit, they have stepped it up big time since the beginning of the year but Kemba should get some of the credit on that as well.  Jim Calhoun is still a sketchball coach that must have to wear an “NCAA Watch” ankle bracelet because he always has some sort of violation or scandal going on.  The Big East was touted as the best conference by leaps and bounds.  Now it’s time for UCONN (KEMBA) to prove that!

MY PICKS

 VCU vs. Butler

This is a hard decision.  Sometimes it comes down to who has a tougher mascot.  This battle puts The Rams vs. The Bulldogs.  Bulldogs are pretty fierce but they only come up to the knees of the Ram.  If the Ram doesn’t step on the Bulldog and crush it, it at least sits on the Bulldog and suffocates it.  As much as I think Butler may win in the last few seconds as they seem to always to, I have to go with the VCU Rams (Commonwealths).  This will be a close fought battle.  Sheldon Mack and Joey Rodriguez will have a showdown at guard but Bradford Burgess and Jamie Skeen will be too much for the Bulldogs.  Brad Stevens will get big time coaching offers in the press conference following the game.  VCU moves on!

Kentucky vs. UCONN

Another tough pick.  I don’t think the mascot battle will work on this one.  These two teams have met earlier in the Maui Tourney and UCONN won.  One may think this is an easy pick.  “Well UCONN won before so they probably will win this time.”  Well, as Lee Corso of ESPN GameDay says, “Not so fast my friend.”  When looking at rematches of same teams playing multiple times in the same year it is very common for the losing team to win the rematch.  Kentucky is young and can be inconsistent.   UCONN is proven to be “money” in tournaments and have an older team.  I really struggle to pick against KEMBA but I am going to say the Wildcats of Kentucky will move on.  Kemba Walker will score nearly 30pts and the game will go down to the buzzer but Kentucky will prevail in the rematch. 

THE CHAMPIONSHIP

VCU vs. Kentucky

Who would have ever thought?  If anyone in this world has VCU winning their bracket and they do not currently or did not go to VCU please speak up because I need to see it to believe it.  This matchup is a good ole battle of Southern Pride.  Kentucky is known for the Adolf Rupp team of all whites that went on to face the all black Texas Western team in the classic that books are written about.  Richmond, VA was the capital of the South during time of the Civil War.  Granted, we are in an entirely different era than these events but both teams will be playing with PRIDE.  I think that VCU will be “star struck” and Kentucky will get out of the gates early as VCU marvels at the flash bulbs going off in all directions.  VCU will fight back and make it a game but will never fully recover.  The Kentucky Wildcats will win the NCAA Championship.  After the game, the entire starting lineup of UK will announce they are entering the draft.  Even Josh Harrelson the big ogre will decide he is good enough for the NBA.  John Calipari will go back to Rupp Arena and open the door for a few new phenoms to walk in. 

That’s all for Aaron’s Bracketology 2011.  Now we will just have to let the games play out and see how close Aaron is to passing Bracketology class.  Until next year, so long to Bracketology.